Question

Grower of wood in Europe saw ------ as a crop which would provide competition to their earnings?
a. Cotton
b. Tobacco
c. Chilli
d. Indigo

Answer 1

Hint:
 By the thirteenth century, Indian indigo was being used by cloth manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to make cloth. However, only a small amount of Indian Indigo reached the European market and was highly-priced. Therefore, European cloth manufacturers had to depend on another plant called woad to make violet and blue dyes. Being a plant of temperate regions, woad was more readily available in Europe. It was grown in northern Italy, southern France and parts of Germany and Britain. Concerned with competition from indigo, wood producers in Europe pressured their governments to ban the import of indigo.


Complete solution:
 Indigo, as a natural dye for textiles, emerged as one of the most important cash crops for British traders in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The resulting greed of British plantation which depended on plantations in Bengal for its supply and the subsequent exploitation of the colonial state gave rise to the causes of the Indigo Rebellion.

Features of indigo cultivation system

- In the ryot system of the indigo plantation, farmers were forced to cultivate indigo on 4 major parts of their fields.

- Riots were made to enter into contracts for compulsory indigo cultivation, which were then bought at rates much lower than market rates.

- Plantation owners also (mostly) worked hand-in-hand with European magistrates, reducing the possibility of any legal relief from fraudulent and exploitative contracts through legal methods.

- Hesitant or discontented peasants were subjected to various forms of torture and extra-legal force until they committed inside.

In this rebellion, the ryots adopted the following course of action:

- He assured Indigo their rights not to develop under Duress and resisted the physical pressure of the planters by their united and collective efforts.

- The farmers refused to take the advance (called Daddon) which were given by the gardeners at high-interest rates to force the farmers on contracts.

- With resistance spreading, Indigo factories were attacked and aggressive defences were organized to meet the challenges of the use of force by planters and police.

- The ryots also refused to pay rent to the zamindars and physically resisted efforts to evict them.

- Joint funds were raised to fight court cases and to take legal action in courts.

- The social boycott strategy was used to force plantation servants and assistants to leave them.


Hence, the correct answer is option D.

Note:
Therefore, the above-identified role played by riots and intellectuals coupled with unity between Hindu and Muslim peasants, well-off riots and even leadership by some landlords, resulted in the overall social basis of the Indigo Rebellion to the colonial government. Commission compelled to appoint an Indigo. It notified him of the success of the movement against the exploitative practices prevalent in indigo-plantations.