Europeans exploited the local peasants by forcing them to grow indigo on their lands instead of the more paying crops like rice.
The planters intimidated the peasants through kidnappings, attacks on women and children, seizure of cattle, burning and demolition of houses and destruction of crops.
The revolt was led by Digambar Biswas and Bishnu Biswas.
The ryots replied by going on a rent strike by refusing to pay the enhanced rents and by physically resisting the attempts to evict them.
Gradually, they learned to use the legal machinery and initiated legal action supported by fund collection.
The Bengali intelligentsia played a significant role by supporting the peasants’ cause. For Instance newspaper campaigns by the editor Harish Chandra Mukerjee in the newspaper Hindoo Patriot.
The Government appointed an indigo commission to inquire into the problem of indigo cultivation. Based on its recommendations, the Government issued a notification in November 1860 that the ryots could not be compelled to grow indigo.
Nil Darpan or The Indigo Planting Mirror was a Bengali play written by Dinabandhu Mitra in 1858-’59 is a drama which was written in the context of social agitation in Bengal famously known as the Indigo Revolt.
