INDIGO IN COLONIAL PERIOD

INDIGO CULTIVATION IN INDIA IN COLONIAL PERIOD

During the colonial period, India was one of the major countries for the production of indigo .Indigo was mainly grown in India in  the state of BIHAR AND BENGAL during the colonial period.

In the colonial period, indigo was cultivated mainly by two system-

1.Nij System   2.Ryoti System

. In the Nij system people grew indigo on their own land or they purchased land from zamindars to grow indigo. They keep labours for the cultivation of  indigo but by this system a lot of investment on the labours ,lands ,and machinery.

. In the Ryoti system, Britishers told people to sign the contract and forced them to grow indigo at least 25% of their own land. This was most common in Bihar and Bengal and they had to sell these crops to British planters and for this they were paid  very low prices  due to which  they faced the problem of poverty and  also they were trapped in debt.

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/social-science/indigo-revolt-and-ryoti-system/

Gilon, C. (2020, December 13). Indigo: The story of India’s ‘blue gold.’ Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/13/indigo-and-the-story-of-indias-b

THE TINKATHIA SYSTEM

In the Tinkathia system, peasants were forced to grow indigo 3/20th (3 kathas per bigha)of their land. This system is mainly dominant in Champaran district of Bihar. To avoid losses ,planters began to cancel the agreements of the peasants. To free peasants from their duty, they began to charge Rs.100 per bigha on the peasants. And if they were not able to pay the cash then they were getting 12% interest per annum.

ROLE OF ZAMINDARS

Zamindars were the landowners. Peasants purchased land from the zamindars to grow indigo. The work of the zamindars to  collect money from the peasants and they paid some  fixed amount of money to the Britishers government. This zamindari system was introduced by the British named Lord Cornwallis in 1793 as they think that zamindars were more efficient to collect revenue from the peasant than us. He also believed that they use their wealth to improve the lives of the peasants. But zamindars take advantage of this and start to take more revenue from the peasants. This led to increase in poverty and dissatisfaction among the peasants. They led to promote to the British economy.

IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE

Britishers told peasants to grow cash crops like cotton, indigo ,tea ,jute and opium .And this crop was not grown for the purpose of home use but these are grown for the exportation in Britain or other parts of British colony. This impacts too much on agriculture as there was decrease in the production of staple foods due to which famine was increased and people were suffering from food shortage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GeeksforGeeks. (2025, July 23). Indigo cultivation and ryotes. GeeksforGeeks. 

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/social-science/indigo-revolt-and-ryoti-system

https://indianculture.gov.in/stories/gandhis-satyagraha-champaran#

https://www.newsbharati.com/Encyc/2023/5/12/Zamindari-System.html

ScientiaTutorials.In. (2024, September 24). The Colonial Legacy: Impact on Indian agriculture and economy. Home Tuition in Guwahati. https://scientiatutorials.in/the-colonial-legacy-impact-on-indian-agriculture-and-economy/