Question

Indigo cultivation became common in Bengal during British Rule. Describe the methods of indigo cultivation along with their limitations for the British as well as Indian peasants

Answer 1

Answer:

8 History

Ruling the Countryside

High Demand of Indigo

The tropical climate is good for indigo plantation. By the thirteenth century, Indian indigo was being used in Italy, France and Britain. But the price of indigo was very high and hence a small amount of Indian indigo could reach the European market.

Woad is another plant which is used for making violet and blue dyes. Wood is a plant of temperate zones and hence was easily available in Europe. Woad was grown in northern Italy, southern France and in parts of Germany and Britain. The woad producers in Europe were worried by the competition from indigo and hence pressurized their governments to ban the import of indigo.

But indigo was preferred by the cloth dyers. While indigo produced a rich blue colour, woad produced pale and dull blue. By the seventeenth century, European cloth producers pressurized their governments to relax the ban on indigo import.

Indigo cultivation was started by the French in St Dominique in the Caribbean islands. Similarly, the Portuguese began indigo cultivation in Brazil, the British in Jamaica and the Spanish in Venezuela. Indigo plantations were also started in many parts of North America.

By the end of the eighteenth century, industrialization began in Britain and cotton production expanded manifold. This created an enormous demand for cloth dyes. The existing supplies of indigo from the West Indies and America collapsed due to various reasons. The indigo production in the world fell by half between 1783 and 1789. This meant that there was increasing demand for Indian indigo.

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Answer 2

Answer:

There were two main systems of indigo cultivation– Nij system of cultivation and Ryoti system of cultivation.

1) Nij system of cultivation -

• Within the system of nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly controlled.

• He either bought the land or rented it from other zamindars and produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers.

• Till the late nineteenth century, planters were reluctant to expand the area under nij cultivation because of various reasons.

• Less than 25 per cent of the land producing indigo was under this system.

2) Ryoti system of cultivation

• Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract, an agreement (satta).

• At times they pressurized the village headmen to sign the contract on behalf of the ryots.

• The planter provided the seed and the drill, while the cultivators prepared the soil, sowed the seed and looked after the crop.

• Those who signed the contract got cash advances from the planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo.

• But the loan committed the ryot to cultivating indigo on at least 25 per cent of the area under his holding.

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