The document discusses the history of indigo cultivation in India under the British. It notes that indigo was an important crop for dyeing cloth in Europe. The British encouraged indigo cultivation in India through two systems - nij cultivation where planters directly controlled land, and forcing local ryots to grow indigo in exchange for loans. However, ryots faced exploitation and refused to cultivate indigo in the 1859 "Blue Rebellion". The rebellion ended the indigo system in Bengal and shifted production to Bihar, until resistance by Gandhi ended tinkathia cultivation there in 1917.

1. RULINGT
H
ECOUNT
R
YSIDE
Chapter 3
Class 8
MODULE2

2. GRANT OF DIWANI
AND FINANCIAL
POWER'S
•The East India company was
made the diwan of bengal on 12
august 1765; by then the mugal
emperor shah alam II. Thus,the
company became of the chief
financial administator of the
territory of Bengal.|

3. REVENUE
FOR THE
COMPANY
Revenue for the Company
The Company’s aim was to increase the
revenue to buy fine cotton and silk cloth as
cheaply as possible. Within a span of five
years, the value of goods bought by the
Company in Bengal doubled. The Company,
before 1865, purchased goods in India by
importing gold and silver from Britain. Now it
was financed by the revenue collected in
Bengal. Artisanal production was in decline,
and agricultural cultivation showed signs of
collapse. Then in 1770, a terrible famine killed
ten million people in Bengal

4. MAH
AL
W
ARI SYSTEM
MAHAL
WAR
I SYSTEMwas introduced by Holt Mackenzie in 1882.
It was introduced in the North Western Provinces of the Bengal
Presidency.
Under his directions, collectors went fromvillage to village, inspecting
the land, measuring the fields, and recording the customers and rights
of different groups.
The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to
calculate the revenue that each village(MAHAL) had to pay.
This demand was to be revised periodically, not permanently fixed.
The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the company was
given to the village headman, not Zamindars.

5. MAH
AL
W
ARI SYSTEM
(CONTD.)
This demand was to be
revised periodically not
permanently fixed
The charge of collecting the
revenue and paying it to the
Company was given to the
village headman, not Zamindars.

6. R
YOTW
ARISET
T
LEMEN
T
R
YOTWARI SETTLEMENTwas introduced by
Thomas Munro and extended all over in South
India
Under the ryotwari settlement, the settlement was
made directly with the cultivators(ryots) who had
filled the land for generations
Their fields had to be carefully and separately
surveyed before the revenue assessmentwas made

7. C
H
AN
G
IN
G
SIT
U
A
T
ION
S
By the first decade of the nineteenth century the
situation changed.
The price in the market rose and cultivation slowly
expanded
It was beneficial for the Zamindars but not for the
company.
ZAMINDARS also lost interest in improving the land.

8. PR
OBLEMSFOR
PEASANTS
In the villages, the cultivator
found the system extremely
oppressive.
The rent he paid to the
zamindar was high and his right
on the land was insecure.
When he failed to pay the rent
he was evicted from the land he
had cultivated for generations.

9. ALLW
ASN
O
T
W
E
L
L
Driven by the desire to increase the income from land,
revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demand.
Peasants were unable to pay, ryots filed the
countryside, and villages became deserted in many
regions.

10. C
R
OPSFOR E
U
ROPE
TheBritish also realized that the countryside could not only yield revenue, it could
also grow the cropsthat Europe required.
By the late eighteenth century the Company was trying its best to expand the
cultivation of opiumand indigo.
TheBritish persuaded or forced cultivators in various parts of India to produce
other crops:Jutein Bengal, tea in Assam,sugarcaneinthe United Provinces(now
Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and Punjab, rice in
Madras.
DEMAND FORINDIAN INDIGO
TheIndigo plants grows in the tropics and in our country the climate
is hot hence it isclassified asa tropical region . so it was
favourable to grow indigo .
Bythe13 century Indian Indigo wasbeing usedby cloth
manufacturersin Italy , France and Britain to dye cloth

12. DEMAN
DFOR IN
DIAN
IN
DIG
O
India was the biggest supplier of
indigo in the world at that
time.
The indigo plant grows primarily in the tropics.
By the thirteenthcentury Indian indigo was being
used by cloth manufacturers in Italy,
France and Britain to dye cloth.Only small amounts
of Indian indigo reached the Europeanmarket and
its price was very high.
European cloth manufacturers therefore had to
depend onanother plant called woad to make
violet and blue dyes.
WOAD is a plant of the temperature zones.

13. DEMAN
DFOR INDIAN
IN
DIG
O(C
ON
T
D
.)
Cloth dyes, however, preferred indigo as a dye.
Indigo produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye from
woad was pale and dull.
The French began cultivating indigo in St Domingue in the
Caribbean islands, the Portuguese in Brazil, the English in
Jamaica, and the Spanish in Venezuela.
Indigo plantations also came up in many parts of North
America.
From the last decades of the 18th century, indigo cultivation
in Bengal expanded rapidly and Bengal indigo came to
dominate the world market.
Attracted by the prospect of high profits, numerous Scotsmen
and Englishmen came to India and became planters.

14. INDIAN INDIGO PLANT

16. NIJ
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. The planters
found it difficult to expand the area under nij
cultivation.

18. The problem
of nij
cultivation
The Problem with Nij Cultivation:
1. This cultivation needed fertile and big lands
and it was difficult to get big areas as they
were already highly
populated. for this, they had to evict
population which led to conflicts.
2. Nij cultivation on a large scale required
many ploughs and bullocks, investing on
purchase and maintenance of
ploughs was a big problem. At the same time
of its cultivation, the cultivation of rice also
took place, that is why
ploughs were not available on rent too.
3. Availability of labour was also a problem as
peasants were engaged in rice cultivation at
the same time.

19. INDIGO ON
THE LAND
OF RYOTS
Indigo on the Land of Ryots:
1. In Ryoti system, the planters forced the
ryots to sign a contract an agreement (satta).
2. Those who signed the contract got cash
advances from planters at low rates of interest
to produce indigo.
3. The peasants got very low price for the
indigo they produced and the cycle of loans
never ended.
4. After an indigo harvest, the land could not
be sown with rice which the peasants
preferred as Indigo production
reduced the fertility of soil.

20. The "BLUE
REBELLION"
and after
The ‘Blue Rebellion’ and after:
1. In March 1859 thousands of ryots in Bengal refused
to grow indigo.
2. As the rebellion spread, ryots refused to pay rents to
the planters and attacked indigo factories.
3. Ryots swore they would no longer take advances to
sow indigo nor be bullied by the planters’ lathiyals.
4. The government set up the indigo commission to
enquire into the system of indigo production.
5. It declared that indigo cultivation was not profitable
for ryots. Hence they could refuse to produce indigo in
future.
6. After the revolt, indigo production collapsed in
Bengal. The planters now shifted their operations to
Bihar.
7. In Bihar, the Champaran movement led by Gandhi ji
in 1917, ended the Indigo production through tinkathia
system

21. THANK YOU
Reporter's: *Hari,Sanjay,Devaraj,Kishant,Sai.
....................sanjay
Helper's: *Najeeb,Naren
Date: 11/9/2022