Indigo Movement During British Rule In India (part:1)

Indigo Movement in India (Bengal)

The land o Bengal was very much appropriate and fertile for indigo cultivation, One French man name ‘Lui Bonno’ cultivated indigo in Nadia district in 1777, Seeing this the British Businessmen  stated indigo cultivation in Nadia, Jessor Dhaka, Pabna, Rangpur and in Faridpur district in 1788, Gradually they increased the cultivation areas troughout Bangladesh, At first the British took lease the land and cultivated indigo by the hired Bengalee laborers,

 Indigo Tree

The British businessmen made some houses, farms and factories for raw indigo buying, crashing, processing and packaging, those farms were called ‘Nil Kuthi’ the businessmen has some gunmen guards in the farms, Besides many hired people (Bengalee) was their permanent laborers who resided in factory areas in some tin sheds, Then become full-fledged factories,

The wage of the laborers was very poor according to their labor, so the laborers refused to give their labor in this field, Therefore the British took another technique to continue their indigo business, they gave money to the peasants earlier of cultivation in this condition that the peasants will sell their raw product to the British businessmen, There was a signed contract paper between the peasants and the British businessmen, The peasants could not understand the fraudulent intention of the British Businessmen earlier, According to the contract, the British Businessmen set the Value (rate) of the raw indigo and that was very less value than the market value, The peasants protested on the rate of Businessmen for their raw indigo, But the Businessmen shows them the condition written in contract paper, where they were bound to sell to them, Thus the peasants lost their actual value of indigo, Besides, most of the cases the businessmen used to take interest on their earlier paid money, This type of pre- paid cash called ‘Dadon Money’ , This Business was considered most profitable to the British Businessmen,

Most of the cases the Businessmen imposed fore to take  Dadon Money to the peasants, who were actually unwilling, The Businessmen chose the best ground for cultivating indigo, which also was a cause of anger to the indigo peasants, Moreover, The peasants were bound to bribe to the manager to get rest amount of the indigo price, If any peasant denied taking Dadon Money from the Businessmen, He was made bound by striking hunter (baton) and other punishment like jail or house burning, Besides, the female members of the peasants also were under various kinds of oppression and abusing, Some Eminent writers compared the condition of the indigo peasants of Bengal with the condition of the slaves in USA,

For smooth running of indigo business, The British Businessmen made some ‘Concern’ which was made as a society of some Khuties in a region, In all concern had an indigo manufacturing factory, where indigo processing and packeging machines were present, which were not found in all Khuties, That was a period, when England was famous for textile mills, where demand of indigo as growing fast, It is said that all demand of indigo of England could be fulfilled from Bangladesh,