Indigo revolt

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The Indigo revolt (or Nil bidroha; Bengali: নীল বিদ্রোহ) was a peasant movement and subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against the indigo planters, that arose in Bengal in 1859, and continued for over a year. The village headmen (Mandals) and substantial ryots were the most active and numerous groups who led the peasants. Sometimes disgruntled former employees of European planters - 'gomashta' or 'diwan' of the Indigo factories, took the lead to mobilise the peasants against the Indigo planters.^[1]

In the summer of 1859 in Bengal when thousands of ryots refused to grow indigo for the European planters with a show of rage and undying resolve, it became one of the most remarkable peasant movements in Indian history. Emerging in the Nadia district, the revolt spread to in the different districts of Bengal in the 1860s and indigo factories and planters faced violent attacks in many places. The revolt ended after the formation of Indigo commission in 1860 which offered reforms of the system, which was inherently exploitative.^[2]

Background

Indigo planting in

The Bengali middle class were unanimous in their support of the peasants. 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 Company authorities to control the agitation among the Indians.^{[citation needed]}

Revolt

The revolt started in Chougacha village^[5] near 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 Jessore. In Kalna, Burdwan Shyamal Mondal led the revolt. Mondal published a magazine named "Mrittika" and wrote about oppressions of the Indigo planters and plights of the peasants.^[4] Gopal Mandal, a peasant leader, with his resolute band of a hundred and fifty peasants attacked and beat back the lathials whom the planter Larmour had sent down to intimidate peasants into accepting advances for cultivating indigo.^[5] 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.

In response, the planters employed groups of mercenaries and engaged in continual clashes with the rebelling peasants. Historians have noted that unlike the Indian Rebellion of 1857, members of the revolt did not direct their hostility towards the British colonial authorities but instead focused their attention towards European planters and merchants; historian Subhas Bhattacharya noted in The Indigo Revolt of Bengal (1977) that the "movement began and ended as a struggle against the planters." The revolt was eventually suppressed by the mercenary forces of the indigo planters, though not before it put a temporarily halt to large areas of indigo production along the Bengal and Kathgara regions. The planters sued hundreds of peasants for breaking their indigo contracts, with over seventeen thousand rupees being spent defending these lawsuits.^[6]

Aftermath

The peasants' techniques of resistance were not the same everywhere. The revolt that started in Chaugacha and Gobindapur by Bishnucharan and Digamber was armed conflict against the planters. But It varied with time and place and was mostly passive and non-violent.

In 1860, the British colonial authorities formed the Indigo Commission in response to pressure from Nawab Abdul Latif, who aimed to put an end to the repressions of indigo planters; the Indigo Commission's activities led to the passage of the 1862 Indigo Act.

In popular culture

• Champaran Satyagraha
• Indian Rebellion of 1857
• History of Bengal
• Indigofera

References