The root of the whole question behind the Indigo Revolt “is the struggle to make the raiyats grow indigo plants without paying them the price of it”. Analyse.

Answer:

The Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 in Bengal arose from the exploitative system through which European planters forced raiyats to grow indigo on terms that were economically ruinous. The statement correctly identifies the central issue: coercive cultivation without fair payment.

Exploitative Indigo System

• Planters gave advances to peasants and compelled them to grow indigo under the tinkathia-like contract system in Bengal.
• Indigo exhausted the soil and reduced land available for food crops.
• The price paid to raiyats was extremely low and did not cover the real cost of cultivation.
• Planters used intimidation, physical violence, illegal cesses and court influence to enforce contracts.

Raiyat Resistance

• Peasants refused to sow indigo and organised collective resistance.
• The movement received support from sections of Bengali intelligentsia and the press.
• Dinabandhu Mitra’s Neel Darpan exposed planter oppression.
• The Indigo Commission recognised the coercive nature of the system.

Therefore, the revolt was not merely against a crop but against an unjust colonial plantation economy. Its core was the raiyat’s struggle for freedom from forced indigo cultivation and denial of a fair price. It became an important example of peasant assertion under colonial rule.