Why british encouraged the cultivation of indigo

This excess cultivation of indigo not only reduced the soil fertility but also made the food grains less available. Moreover, the commercial farming did not help the farmers to earn high profits. The poor farmers were unable to return the loans that were provided to them to begin the indigo farming. To pay back the loans, the peasants borrowed money from the money lenders and got trapped in the debt cycle.

Above all the British authorities had given the plantation owners the free hand to oppress the farmers to secure the maximum production. Thus, the exploited peasants rose in revolt. Send Your Questions to Experts. Invalid OTP! Resend OTP? Due to this demand the price of Indian indigo rose in the European market and mediated the British to grow more indigo in the Indian soil.

Indigo planting in Bengal dated back to when Louis Bonnaud, a Frenchman introduced it to the Indians. He was the first indigo planter of Bengal. He started cultivation at Taldanga and Goalpara near Chandannagar Hooghly. Gradually the indigo separated out in flakes, a muddy sediment settled at the bottom of the vat and a clear liquid rose to the surface. Due to this the farmers were having less food to eat and thier state revnew was also going down.

The peasants were compelled to plant Indigo rather than the food Crops. The loan made the people indebted and resulted in a rebellion. The farmers were forced to produce indigo on their most fertile lands in which they were growing rice. Indigo production ruined the fertility of the soil. It was a double loss for the peasants.

The policy of commercialization of agriculture by the British encouraged market oriented production of cash crops such as opium, tea, coffee, sugar, jute and indigo. The growth of minimum of subsistence crops led to the deterioration and impoverishment of the Indian agriculture and the cultivators.

Britishers demanded revenue in cash which made farmers to grow cash crop like indigo, cotton so area under food crop declined. As a result india saw many famines and many people died of starvation. As tax on canal irrigation was high so mostly it was used to grew cash crop. During the British rule also the Indian economy remained agrarian. Though, unlike the pre-colonial India, the feature of self-sufficiency vanished in the colonial state.

Low Level of Agricultural Productivity: During the colonial rule Indian agricultural sector was used by the British to suit to their own interest. Consequently, Indian agricultural sector experienced stagnancy, low level of productivity, lack of investment, poor condition of landless farmers and peasants.

The Jute industry was most severely affected due to partition. Thus, Indian agriculture became backward, stagnant and non-vibrant under the British rule. Name some modern industries which were in operation in our country at the time of independence. The British Raj, or the British colonial rule in India took place from to This means that the people of India were subject to the British administration during this period.

This is the reason why the British period in India is referred to as colonial. Historian scholars generally agree that the Harappan cities evolved from these early villages.

Woad was grown in northern Italy, southern France and in parts of Germany and Britain. The woad producers in Europe were worried by the competition from indigo and hence pressurized their governments to ban the import of indigo. But indigo was preferred by the cloth dyers. While indigo produced a rich blue colour, woad produced pale and dull blue.

By the seventeenth century, European cloth producers pressurized their governments to relax the ban on indigo import. Indigo cultivation was started by the French in St Dominique in the Caribbean islands. Indigo plantations were also started in many parts of North America. By the end of the eighteenth century, industrialization began in Britain and cotton production expanded manifold. This created an enormous demand for cloth dyes.

The existing supplies of indigo from the West Indies and America collapsed due to various reasons. The indigo production in the world fell by half between and This meant that there was increasing demand for Indian indigo. The Company looked for ways to expand the area under indigo cultivation in India.