Question

how did dinbandhu mitra narrate the misery of the lndigo cultivators and raised voice against the colonial rulers​

Answer 1

Explanation:

The indigo plant, the original source of the dye used for bluing cotton textiles, formed the basis of a flourishing sector of commercial agriculture in Bengal by the beginning of the nineteenth century. From the very outset, however, the ryots, that is, the tenant cultivators were made to grow indigo under much coercion, for the surplus appropriated by the planters, mostly Europeans, and the methods they used, made this crop most uneconomic for the producers. A slump in the London prices of indigo between 1839 and 1847, the fall of the Union Bank of Calcutta, a consequent credit squeeze and the takeover of smaller concerns by larger ‘indigo seignories’ increased the pressure on the ryot and his misery still further. By 1860 the regional grievances and localized acts of resistance among the peasantry snowballed into a general uprising in nine Bengal districts. Later on that year Dinabandhu Mitra published a play, Neel‐darpan, with the planters’ atrocities as its theme. Translated into English, the play soon became the focus of a legal and political contest between the Calcutta liberals and European planters. For over a century this play has enjoyed the reputation of a radical text. How radical was it? In an exegesis undertaken in answer to this question an attempt has been made in this essay to document the response of Indian liberalism to one of the mightiest peasant revolts in the sub‐continent. A glossary of Indian terms has been inserted at the end of the essay.