Agony of Indigo Cultivators

The video is a presentation on the dark history of indigo plantation in British India. In the 18th century the demand for the brilliant blue dye indigo obtained from the plant Indigofera tinctotria increased in Europe. The British introduced widespread indigo cultivation in large parts of Bengal like the districts of Nadia and Jessore. The British indigo planters or nilkor sahebs leased lands from the landowners or zamindars with sharecroppers and tenants and coaxed the land tillers to plant indigo in place of food crops. Indigo cultivation proved to be a disaster for the peasants as only two crops of indigo was possible in a year and the impossible demands put on them by the dye factory owners put immense strain on the peasants. The impoverished peasants pushed back with the Indigo Revolt of 1859 which became the subject of the play Nil Darpan by Dinabandhu Mitra.