Indigo revolt

The Indigo riots were the first successful peasant movement against the exploitative methods of European planters during the British colonial rule in Bengal 1859-62. At the end of 1918 was the final abolition of exploitative cultivation of indigo obligation for tenant farmers after the Champaran campaign ( northeastern Bihar ) Mahatma Gandhi.

Basics

For the mid-19th century European capitalists ( " planters " ) had begun to acquire in the area of ​​permanent settlement, by the local landowners ( Zamindar ) cultivation rights by so-called Tinkathia lease contracts and the growing ends ( raiyat ) to commit 3/20stel their best land to cultivate with the indigo plant ( Indigofera tinctoria ).

The farmers had to accept for the purchase of seed interest-bearing advances through intermediaries, with fraudulent contracts and interest rates of 50-500 % were common. However, the tenant did not receive guaranteed price, but a set at harvest time, which was below the market value. The problem was that Indigo did not integrate into the regular rotation. The dye was further processed in a local factory.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the naturally derived indigo was increasingly displaced by manufactured from tar vat dye, mostly German production, from the market. When no longer profitable for the planters ( thikadari ) and their associates, the sale of indigo, they demanded from the peasants " release " ( tawan ) and lease charges ( sharahbeshi ).

Course

The farmers were in the 1850's intimidated by hired by the planters, armed thugs ( lathiyals ), is lively Direction resistance forcibly broken. The judges' decision was effectively closed, because the judge ( magistrate ) in the region mostly self planters (1857 appointed: 29 planter, 1 Indian).

First riots broke out in 1859, after the Deputy Magistrate Hem Chandra Kar misunderstood by an official letter. He let it be known that the police would not intervene in disputes with raiyats and that it will sow the peasants were free, what they wanted.

In the village in the district of Nadia Govindpur was denied in 1859 sowing. Planters sent on 13 September, a 100köpfige thugs in the place to which the farmers with the available simple weapons fought ( spears, clubs, pots ). In the following spring, such actions all over Bengal spread out. The planters, in their capacity as Zamindar, now trying to evict the farmers by eviction. It was then widely denied the lease payment, also middlemen were boycotted in the villages and set social contacts with them. By the end of 1860, the indigo cultivation in Bengal virtually came to a standstill.

A commission of inquiry revealed until November 1860 the worst abuses that have been mitigated in the following period. The growing requirement was formally abolished. Usurious interest rates, etc. excessive lease but retained. Then in the next few years it came across Bengal continues to riots because the tenants were denied by all sorts of fraudulent measures the ownership of the of them cultivated land that would have been entitled to under the provisions of Act X of 1859 (S 54ff ).

20th century

In the years 1905-08 there were in the area around Motihari and Bettiah to violent riots. The factory manager Bloomfield was killed. There were 277 convictions in 57 criminal cases. In the next few years, limited the protest, now supported by the lower middle class, to inputs and refused tax payments (S 156).

The last remnants of the Tinkathia were not abolished until 1917/18 after the Champaran campaign ( northeastern Bihar ) Mohandas Gandhi. Raj Kumar Shukla had in 1916 asked at the annual meeting of the Congress for support. Immediately after Gandhi's arrival in the district ordered the local commissioner to his expulsion. Gandhi refused to obey, he was allowed to grant then. Along with some helpers, among others Rajendra Prasad, Mahadev Desai and Parikh Nahari he examined the situation in the villages, with 8000 farmers were interviewed. At the same time, the government convened a commission of inquiry. On Gandhi's proposal to the farmers was a quarter of the detachment returned and abolished the Tinkathia system. Even the small partial amount was to make enough for the planter indigo cultivation final unattractive. Ten years later, all the planters had left the region (p. 178).