Question

Notice the sentences in the text which are in ‘direct speech’.

Why does the author use quotations in his narration?

Answer 1

Below are some sentences in the text which are in ‘direct speech’:

“I will tell you how it happened that I decided to urge the departure of the British. It was in 1917.”

‘I am Rajkumar Shukla. I am from Champaran, and I want you to come to my district’!’’

“Speak to Gandhi.”

“Fix a date,”

‘‘I have to be in Calcutta on such-and-such a date. Come and meet me and take me from there.”

‘‘It was an extraordinary thing ... for a government professor to harbour a man like me”.

­­‘‘The commissioner ... to bully me and advised me forthwith to leave Tirhut.’’

“conflict of duties”

“humanitarian and national service”

“not for want of respect for lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience”

“But how much must we pay?”

‘‘Look, there is no box or cupboard here for clothes. The sari I am wearing is the only one I have.”

‘‘What I did,” he explained, “was a very ordinary thing. I declared that the British could not order me about in my own country.”

‘‘He had read our minds correctly,’’ Rajendra Prasad comments, “and we had no reply… Gandhi in this way taught us a lesson in self-reliance’’.

The author uses quotations to indicate the actual words of a speaker. Usually a quotation is used when a particular passage or sentence is well-written or memorable or is especially relevant in the context under discussion. In ‘Indigo,’ the author uses quotations when he mentions important commentary or observation, or any pertinent utterance by Gandhi, or for that matter, by any other character.