![]() Under the changed political and economic circumstances European planters were permitted to purchase and hold landed estates under Act IV of 1837. But for political reasons they were not allowed to hold agricultural landed property until 1837. Indigo was almost entirely export oriented and the European planters mainly developed this export sector. Raiyats were required to pay land-rent in cash and hence a cash crop was a welcome addition to the existing cropping pattern. From the early nineteenth century indigo cultivation attracted raiyats because of its immense cash value. Its cultivation for commercial purpose appears to have begun in the eighteenth century. But then it was cultivated more for catering to domestic and ritual needs than to serve as a commercial commodity. Historical records suggest that indigo was produced in Bengal for use as a dye even in ancient times. It quickly spread in other indigo districts and continued through 1862, when government interfered in favour of the raiyats. The movement began in Jessore and Nadia in 1859. The consequent conflict between the raiyats and the planters led to open resistance by raiyats. ![]() Hence the peasants refused to grow indigo, but the planters, who had already sunk huge capital in its production processes and were not able to withdraw their capital so quickly, put pressure on the indigo-producing raiyats to continue its production. ![]() But it depressed in the 1840s and '50s and as a result the profit from indigo production became uneconomic at raiyat or peasant level. Indigo production and its export was a booming business in the early part of the nineteenth century. Indigo Resistance Movement (1859-62) peasant agitation against indigo planters who forced raiyats (cultivators) to produce indigo for the world market. ![]()
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