Indigo Revolt in Bengal

Introduction:
They say that the color of revolution is red. Not always. Sometimes, it’s blue. It
was the summer of 1859 in Bengal when thousands of ryots (peasants) refused to grow
indigo for the European planters (owners of land and indigo factories). It was a show of
rage and undying resolve. It became one of the most remarkable peasant movements of
Indian history. It came to be called the Neel Bidroha or the Indigo Revolt.

The beginning:
The tropical climate, riverine lands and lush soils were the most suitable
conditions for indigo plants to grow in this deltaic part of the world. In Bengal, indigo
farming began as early as the 18th century during the British colonial rule. Owing to the
Industrial Revolution in the west that kicked off around 1750, the demand for indigo
suddenly skyrocketed (especially due to the major popularity of the Levi Strauss blue
denim jeans then). At the same time, the British East India Company was determined to
develop a regular means of remittance that would provide payment for imports and
ensure growth of their wealth. Indigo, subsequently, became the obvious choice of cash
crop and thus began the historical indigo farming in this region.

Indigo was being cultivated in Bengal since the end of the 18th century. It was practiced
mainly in two forms, the Nij-abad and the Ryoti. In the Nij or ‘own’ system, the planter
produced indigo on lands that he directly controlled. In the Ryoti cultivation, the ryots
cultivated indigo on their own lands as part of a contract with the planters.
The planters gained land rights in a number of ways. They took waste or unoccupied
lands on temporary or permanent leases from the Zamindars. They also acquired
Zamindari and Taluqdari rights. At times, Indigo cultivation would also be carried out
on the lands of ryots who had died without an heir or who had abandoned their villages.

Ryoti was the predominant form of indigo cultivation in Bengal. The ryots sowed indigo
under a contract system. It extended to a period of either one, three to five or ten years.
At the inception of the contract, the planter made an advance payment to the ryot to
meet the expenses of cultivation. In return, the ryot agreed to cultivate indigo on his
land.
The advances were generally made in October or November at the rate of two rupees
per beegah. As per the contract, the land had to be sown with indigo, weeded and
delivered at the indigo factories owned by the European planters where the plant was
processed into a dye.
 Measuring the land for indigo cultivation. By French photographer Oscar Mallitte.
Source: Old Indian Photos.

At the close of the manufacturing season in August or September, the accounts used to
be drawn out. The debit included the cost of advance (generally at two rupees
per beegah), the cost of the stamp paper on which the contract was signed (two
annas) and the cost of four to five seers of seeds charged at four annas per beegah. The
credit included the value of indigo plant bundles delivered by the ryot to the factories at
4 to 8 bundles per rupee. The average return of a beegah was about 10 to 12 bundles.
Between the debit and credit amount, a balance was struck and payment was made
accordingly. If he had a ‘fazil’ or excess then he was paid. If not, then a debt was set
against him. Despite the debt, a fresh advance was given to him for the next season.
However, the debt was deducted from the full advance amount and the ryot received
only the remaining sum for the next agricultural season. In some cases, if the debt was
too high, the ryot did not receive any fresh advance and was trapped into sowing indigo
without it!
 An indigo Planter's bungalow. Photo by Mallitte.
Source: Old Indian Photos.

The Root of the Indigo Revolt (Neel Bidroho):

To meet the increased demand for indigo in Europe, indigo plantation was
introduced in many areas including Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum and Jessore. As indigo
became a part of a lifestyle product in the west, it ironically turned into a crucial, and
often cruel, livelihood product in this region.

The indigo planters' strategy was to convince the peasants to plant indigo instead of food
crops by giving them a loan termed 'dadon.' This loan placed a humongous debt on their
shoulders that they had to pay off throughout their entire lives, and sometimes even pass
on to their successors. While meagre prices and zero profits were some evident setbacks
of growing indigo, the government rules and zamindars also sided with the planters,
thus aggravating the conditions of the farmers. In addition, indigo farming required
multiple farmers, large plots of land and ploughing those plots with bullocks, all of
which were beyond the affordability of the poor farmers. Living and working under
such severe oppression, they henceforth resorted to revolt.
The Indigo Revolt or 'Neel Bidroho' began from the villages in Nadia district and spread
across notable areas such as Pabna, Khulna and Narail. Planters and zamindars were the
primary targets for the rebels but most of them managed to flee on time. Public trials,
executions and even mass slaughter of the rebellious farmers were carried out by large
police and military forces to ruthlessly suppress the movement. Among many,
Biswanath Sardar, Biswas brothers of Nadia, Kader Molla of Pabna and Rafique Mondal
of Malda were noteworthy rebel leaders.

Interestingly, the government's response was ambiguously quite lenient to the rebellion.
As the first step, it formed an indigo commission to inquire into the problem of indigo
cultivation. Finally, in November 1860, the government issued a notification that the
'raiyats' or peasants could not be compelled to grow indigo and that all disputes were
settled by legal means. In the meantime, all indigo factories were already being shut
down and its cultivation was virtually wiped out from Bengal by the end of 1860.

Despite the prominent differences in religion, class, beliefs and overall backgrounds,
the unanimity, unity, organization and discipline among the peasants remained
impenetrable till the last dregs of the revolt. As a matter of fact, these were the key
factors that led the Indigo Revolt to become a majorly successful agrarian movement in
the history of Bengal and the Indian subcontinent.

An indigo factory. Photo by Mallittte.

Source: Old Indian Photos.
Causes leading to revolt:
Indigo planting in Bengal dated back to 1777 when Louis Bonnard, a Frenchman
introduced it to the Indians. He was the first indigo planter of Bengal. He started
cultivation at Taldanga and Goalpara near Chandannagar (Hooghly).With the
Nawabs of Bengal under British power, indigo planting became more and more
commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe. It was
introduced in large parts of Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, and
Jessore (present Bangladesh). The indigo planters persuaded the peasants to plant
indigo instead of food crops. They provided loans, called dadon, at a very high interest.
Once a farmer took such loans he remained in debt for his whole life before passing it
to his successors. The price paid by the planters was meagre, only 2.5% of the market
price. The farmers could make no profit growing indigo. The farmers were totally
unprotected from the indigo planters, who resorted to mortgages or destruction of their
property if they were unwilling to obey them. Government rules favoured the planters.
By an act in 1833, the planters were granted a free hand in oppression. [citation needed]
Even the zamindars sided with the planters. Under this severe oppression, the farmers
resorted to revolt.

The Bengali middle class supported the peasants wholeheartedly. Bengali intellectual
Harish Chandra Mukherjee described the plight of the poor farmer in his newspaper
The Hindu Patriot. However the articles were overshadowed by Dinabandhu Mitra,
who depicted the situation in his play Nil Darpan. His play created a huge controversy
which was later banned by the East India Company to control the agitation among the
Indians.

 Causes in short:
 Indigo cultivation started in Bengal in 1777.
 Indigo was in high demand worldwide. Trade in indigo was lucrative due to the
demand for blue dye in Europe.
 European planters enjoyed a monopoly over indigo and they forced Indian farmers
to grow indigo by signing fraudulent deals with them.
 The cultivators were forced to grow indigo in place of food crops.
 They were advanced loans for this purpose. Once the farmers took loans, they could
never repay it due to the high rates of interest.
 The tax rates were also exorbitant.
 The farmers were brutally oppressed if they could not pay the rent or refused to do
as asked by the planters.
 They were forced to sell indigo at non-profitable rates so as to maximize the
European planters’ profits.
 If a farmer refused to grow indigo and planted paddy instead, the planters resorted
to illegal means to get the farmer to grow indigo such as looting and burning crops,
kidnapping the farmer’s family members, etc.
 The government always supported the planters who enjoyed many privileges and
judicial immunities.
The revolt:

The revolt started from the villages of - Gobindapur and Chaugacha in

Krishnanagar, Nadia district, where Bishnucharan Biswas and Digambar Biswas
first led the rebellion against the planters in Bengal ,1859. It spread rapidly in
Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, and Narail. Some indigo planters
were given a public trial and executed. The indigo depots were burned down. Many
planters fled to avoid being caught. The zamindars were also targets of the rebellious
peasants.

Mongolganj Indigo Kuthi in North 24 Parganas

The revolt was ruthlessly suppressed. Large forces of police and military, backed by the
British Government and the zamindars, mercilessly slaughtered a number of peasants.
British police mercilessly hanged great leader of indigo rebels Biswanath Sardar alias
Bishe Dakat in Assannagar, Nadia after a show trial. Some historians opined that he was
the first martyr of indigo revolt in undivided Bengal. In spite of this, the revolt was fairly
popular, involving almost the whole of Bengal. The Biswas brothers of Nadia, Kader
Molla of Pabna, and Rafique Mondal of Malda were popular leaders. Even some of the
zamindars supported the revolt, the most important of whom was Ramratan Mullick of
Narail.

The system of indigo cultivation was inherently exploitative. Emerging in 1859 in the
Nadia district, the Bidroha spread to in different districts of Bengal in the 1860s. The
peasants attacked indigo factories with spears and swords. Planters who demanded rent
were beaten. Even women participated by fighting with pots and pans. It was especially
powerful in the Pabna district where the ryots vehemently refused to sow indigo.

When J.P. Grant, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal was traveling along the Kumar
and Kaliganga rivers in Bengal, he witnessed that the riverbank was lined with
villagers praying for a Government order against the cultivation of indigo. Women also
collected in groups to stand for the cause. Grant felt a deep meaning in such a powerful
demonstration over so large an extent of the country.

It was in light of the general unrest surrounding indigo cultivation that a Commission
was set up in March 1860 to inquire into the ills of the system. The Indigo Commission,
as it came to be called was constituted of 5 members including: W.S. Seton Karr and R.
Temple who represented the British government, Rev. J. Sale represented the Christian
Missionaries, W. F. Ferguson represented the European planters and Chandra Mohan
Chatterjee represented the Zamindars.
English translation of a song sung by the ryots during the Neel Bidroha.
Source: NCERT book.

Ryots loading a vat with indigo plant. Photo by Mallitte

Source: Old Indian Photos.
After hearing the testimony of 134 people, including planters, Christian missionaries,
magistrates, Zamindars and ryots, the Commission finally submitted its report in
August 1860.
The Commission found that the indigo cultivation system was oppressive in nature
especially because of the system of advances. Some were willingly lured by it because
they had to pay rent and celebrate the annual festival of Durga Puja while others suffered
under it because their father or grandfather had taken the advance and now they were
captured in a cycle of debt. “The son sows because he believes that he is responsible for
his father’s debt.”

F.Schurr, a Christian Missionary who lived in Kapasdanga told the Commission that
he did not know about one ryot who had willingly accepted advance. They were
compelled to grow indigo and if they refused, they wouldn’t have been allowed to
cultivate anything else.

This compulsion also took the shape of strict supervision of the agricultural operation
by factory employees because they thought of the Bengali population as 'indolent,
procrastinating and faithless' in character. For the ryots it was rather ‘vexation and
harassment.’ They complained that time and again they were made to plough, to crush
the clods, to remove stalks, to smooth the ground, until neither their time nor their labor
could be called their own. They were subjected to perpetual indignities, so much so that
they began to hate the very name of indigo.
How does one come to hate a crop? It was found that indigo cultivation was not
profitable for the ryots at all. It was such an absolute truth that even the planters couldn’t
deny it. One of them confessed to the Commission that “the cultivation is not popular
because it’s not profitable and the ryot has to bear the whole brunt of the risk.”
Besides, ryots did not have any say in the choice of lands. The planter decided which
part of land will be sown with indigo. It was not even bid for. The planter chose it solely
according to his wish.

Thus, Ashley Eden, the magistrate of Barasat told the Commission that indigo
cultivators were not free agents. They were under compulsion. He said, ryots were
compelled to give consent to a system which was unprofitable and led to harassment
and violence against them.
The oppression wasn’t just economic in nature. What rendered the ryots utterly
powerless was the exercise of physical force on them by planters and their servants. A
ryot, Abadi Mundal recalled that one day when his cattle were grazing on the plain, 50
or 60 latthials (lathi wielding men employed by planters to terrorize ryots) came and
started taking his cattle away. When he tried to resist, he was mercilessly beaten up and
then kidnapped for eight days. “I was wounded on head and the thigh, of which I still
bear the marks,” he said.
Ryots beating indigo plant in the vat with hand at the factory. Photo by Mallitte.
Source: Old Indian Photos.
 Apparatus to beat indigo plant in the vat at the factory. Photo by Mallitte.
Source: Old Indian Photos.

F.Schurr recounted another incident when a factory assistant came to the rice field and
demanded that all ryots immediately go to the indigo field. One peasant requested the
assistant to let him complete his work and then he would do as instructed but he was
met with aggressive blows from the European assistant.
The indigo Commission found the existence of grave offences like kidnapping of men,
carrying away of cattle and uprooting plants to make way for indigo. It mattered little,
stated the Commission whether the ryot took his first advance willingly or reluctantly,
the result was the same, “he was never afterwards a free man.”
Ashley Eden stated that from 1839 to 1859, 49 cases of murder, homicide, riot, arson,
dacoit, plunder and kidnapping related to indigo cultivation were recorded in his
district. W.J. Herschel, the officiating magistrate of Nadia also submitted a report
recording numerous cases of the same nature in Nadia.

Because of the exploitative nature of the contract system, many ryots took advances and
then refused to perform as per their contracts. This especially escalated during the
protest movement. At the request of the Indigo Planters Association, Act XI of 1860 was
passed which criminalized ‘Breach of Contract’ by the ryots. The planters used this law
to further their control and oppression of the peasants. A huge number of suits were
filed against them.
In conclusion, the Commission declared that the relation between the planter and the
ryot was in ‘unsatisfactory’ condition. It mainly suggested the following reforms. First,
the ryot should sow indigo according to his wishes and terms. Second, the contract
should be simple in nature, extending not more than 12 months and there shouldn’t be
any renewal if the peasant failed to meet his engagements to avoid the accumulation of
debt. Third, factories should pay for the stamp paper, not the ryots. Fourth, the selection
of land for indigo should be negotiated equally by both the parties. Fifth, the expense of
delivering the plant by cart or boat to factories should be borne by the factories, not the
ryots.

The effect on the British rulers in India:

The historian Jogesh Chandra Bagal describes the revolt as a non-violent

revolution and gives this as a reason why the indigo revolt was a success compared to
the Sepoy Revolt. R.C. Majumdar in "History of Bengal" goes so far as to call it a
forerunner of the non-violent passive resistance later successfully adopted by Gandhi.
The revolt had a strong effect on the government, which immediately appointed the
"Indigo Commission" in 1860.[5] In the commission report, E. W. L. Tower noted that
"not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood".

Finally, the British government formed the Indigo Commissionin 1860 due to Nawab
Abdul Latif’s initiative with the goal of putting an end to the repressions of indigo
planters(by creating the Indigo Act 1862).

Cultural effects:

Dinabandhu Mitra's 1860 play Nil Darpan is based on the revolt (was published
from Dhaka) . It was translated into English by Michael Madhusudan Dutta and
published by Rev. James Long. It attracted much attention in England, where the people
were stunned at the savagery of their countrymen. The British Government sent Rev.
Long to a mock trial and punished him with imprisonment and fine. Kaliprasanna Sinha
paid the fine of Rs 1000 for him.

The play was the first play to be staged commercially in the National Theatre in Kolkata.
Cover of the English translation of Nil Darpan in 1861
A bidroha song about the death of Harish Chandra Mukherjee, the editor of Hindoo
Patriot and the arrest of Rev. James Long who was associated with the translation of
Nil Darpan

The Neel Bidroha inspired literature, music and films. Dinabandhu Mitra’s play Nil
Darpan or the ‘Mirror of Indigo’ remains a classic because it was written during the
movement in 1859. It narrated the sufferings, oppression and struggle of indigo
cultivators.
The ryots struggled through poverty, oppression, domination and indignities. But even
amidst this, they didn’t let their voices die. What remained constant throughout was
their resolve to not sow indigo. A statement of one of the ryots named Panjee Mulla
beautifully captures this feeling, “I would rather be killed with bullets than sow
indigo.”

Indigo in North America:

Until indigo dye was synthesized in Europe in 1882, a species of Asian Indigofera
was a huge cash crop wherever it could be grown.

"In the 1600s, Europeans colonized North America, and immediately started trying to
grow crops of economic importance," says Hardy. "Indigo is one of the first plants the
British attempted to grow when they got to North America. They tried growing it in
Jamestown, the Dutch tried it in New Amsterdam — present-day New York City. The
French had some success in Louisiana, but nobody had much luck until Eliza Lucas
came along."

In the 1730s, 16-year-old Eliza Lucas, whose father was lieutenant governor of Antigua
and who had an interest in botany, was put in charge of three of her father's South
Carolina plantations. She and her father had no idea what to grow there, but he sent her
seeds from Antigua, and indigo seemed to Eliza to have the most promise. She married
a man named Charles Pinkney who wrote down the instructions for how to grow and
process indigo, and after a while they made enough seed to hand out to the neighbors,
which started an indigo bonanza in the Southern colonies.

References:
 The Calcutta Review. University of Calcutta. 1861-01-01. p. 291.
 Chaudhuri, Kalyan (2016). Madhyamik History And Environment. 56,
Surya Sen Street, Kolkata-700009: Oriental Book Company Pvt. Ltd. p.
54.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/
 https://people.howstuffworks.com/