Introduction

Peasant Movements were part of social movements against British atrocities during the British Colonial Period in the 18th and 19th centuries. These movements existed solely to restore earlier forms of rule and social relations.

• The impoverishment of the Indian peasantry was a direct result of the transformation of the agrarian structure as a result of colonial economic policies, the ruin of handicrafts leading to overcrowding of land, the new land revenue system, and the colonial administrative and judicial system.
• Peasants in zamindari areas faced high rents, illegal levies, arbitrary evictions, and unpaid labour. The government levied heavy land taxes in Ryotwari areas.
• Fearing the loss of his only source of income, the overburdened farmer frequently approached the local moneylender, who took full advantage of the former’s difficulties by extracting high interest rates on the money lent.
• Often, the farmer was forced to mortgage his land and cattle. The mortgaged items were sometimes seized by the moneylender. Over large areas, actual cultivators were gradually reduced to the status of tenants-at-will, sharecroppers, and landless labourers.
• Peasants frequently resisted exploitation, and they soon realised that their true adversary was the colonial state.
• In some cases, desperate peasants turned to crime to escape intolerable conditions. These crimes included robbery, dacoity, and social banditry.

Indigo Revolt (1859 – 1860)

The Indigo revolt was a peasant movement and subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against indigo planters that erupted in 1859 in Chaugacha village of Nadia, Bengal. The most militant and widespread of the peasant movements was the Indigo Revolt of 1859-60. The tenants were forced to grow indigo, which was processed in factories set up by indigo planters, almost all of whom were Europeans, in rural areas. From the beginning, indigo was grown under an extremely oppressive system, resulting in significant losses for the cultivators. 

Background

• Indigo cultivation in Bengal dates back to 1777, when a Frenchman named Louis Bonnaud introduced it to the Indian subcontinent. He was the first indigo planter in Bengal, growing the crop in Taldanga and Goalpara near Hooghly.
• With the Nawabs of Bengal under Company control, indigo planting became increasingly commercially profitable due to Europe’s demand for blue dye. It was made available in large parts of Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, and Jessore (part of present-day Bangladesh).
• Indigo planters persuaded peasants to plant indigo rather than food crops on their own lands. They offered loans, known as dadon, at exorbitant interest rates.
• Once a farmer took out such loans, he was in debt for the rest of his life before passing it on to his heirs.
• The planters paid a pittance, only 2.5 percent of the market price. Growing indigo was not profitable for the farmers.
• The farmers were completely unprotected from the indigo planters, who threatened them with mortgages or property destruction if they refused to obey them. The planters benefited from government policies that favoured them.
• The planters were given a free hand in dealing with the peasants by an act passed in 1833. The zamindars, who stood to benefit from indigo cultivation as well, supported the planters. Farmers revolted in response to these conditions.

Features

• Bengal began cultivating indigo in 1777
• Indigo was extremely popular all over the world. Because of Europe’s demand for blue dye, indigo trade was profitable.
• Indigo was forced to be grown instead of food crops by the cultivators.
• If a farmer refused to grow indigo and instead planted paddy, the planters resorted to illegal means such as looting and burning crops, kidnapping the farmer’s family members, and so on to persuade the farmer to grow indigo.
• The Indigo Revolt was a peasant movement and subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against indigo planters that erupted in 1859 in Chaugacha village of Nadia, Bengal.

Causes

• Indigo planters persuaded peasants to plant indigo rather than food crops. They offered loans, known as dadon, at exorbitant interest rates.
• Once a farmer took out such loans, he was in debt for the rest of his life before passing it on to his heirs.
• The planters paid a pittance, only 2.5 percent of the market price. Growing indigo was not profitable for the farmers.
• The farmers were completely unprotected from the indigo planters, who threatened them with mortgages or property destruction if they refused to obey them.
• The planters benefited from government policies that favoured them. The planters were given a free hand in oppression by an act passed in 1833. Even the zamindars supported the planters.

Spread of the Revolt

• The revolt began in the villages of Gobindapur and Chanugacha in Krishnanagar, Nadia district, where Bishnucharan Biswas and Digambar Biswas led the first rebellion against the planters in Bengal in 1859.
• It quickly spread through Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, and Narail. A public trial was held for some indigo planters, and they were executed.
• The indigo depots were destroyed by fire. Many planters fled to avoid being apprehended. The rebellious peasants also targeted the zamindars.

Significance

• The incredible cooperation, organisation, and discipline of the ryots was a major reason for the Indigo Revolt’s success.
• Another notable feature was the complete unity of Hindu and Muslim peasants. Leadership for the movement was provided not only by ryots, but also by petty zamindars, moneylenders, and ex-planter employees in some cases.
• The role of Bengal’s intelligentsia in organising a powerful campaign in support of the rebellious peasantry was a significant feature of the Indigo Revolt.
• It ran newspaper campaigns, held mass meetings, drafted memoranda on peasants’ grievances, and assisted them in legal battles.
• Another group that actively supported the indigo ryots in their struggle were missionaries.
• The government’s reaction to the Revolt was more measured and not as harsh as it had been in the case of civil rebellions and tribal uprisings.

Outcome

• The methods of resistance used by peasants differed from place to place. Bishnucharan and Digamber’s revolt in Chaugacha and Gobindapur was an armed conflict against the planters.
• However, it varied according to time and place and was mostly passive and non-violent.
• According to historian Jogesh Chandra Bagal, the revolt was a nonviolent revolution, which is why the Indigo Revolt was more successful than the Sepoy Revolt. In his book “History of Bengal,” R.C. Majumdar goes so far as to call it a forerunner of Gandhi’s nonviolent passive resistance.
• The revolt had a significant impact on the government, which immediately established the “Indigo Commission” in 1860.
• E. W. L. Tower testified in the commission report that “not a chest of Indigo arrived in England without being stained with human blood.”
• Bengal was rapidly declining in the Indigo industry. But many British planters moved to Bihar, where indigo was still framed.
• The demand for natural indigenous teint began to collapse worldwide towards the end of the 19th century, with man-made blue teint.
• Due to Nawab Abdul Latif’s initiative, the British colonial authorities established the Indigo Commission in 1860 with the goal of putting an end to the repressions of indigo planters (by passing the Indigo Act 1862).
• Furthermore, revolt against the tyranny of British Indigo planters were seen in 1917 in the form of nonviolent resistance effort called ‘Champaran Satyagraha’ in Bihar.