INDIGO - WHAT IS IT REALLY?
Historically, the color blue has been difficult to make. Natural indigo was born through the extraction of leaves which goes through a series of labor-intensive steps in order to produce the paste, which would then be turned into cakes and eventually into powder in order to dye clothes with the distinctive bluish hues.
Indigo-dyed garments have been discovered in stone-age caves in France and in a grave in Thebes, Egypt that date about 2,500 years BC. The color that proved to be the most dependable in terms of colorfastness was one derived from the leaves of plants. This dye is now known as indigo.
The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word indicum, meaning "Indian", as the dye was originally exported to Europe from India through the extraction of leaves.
In the 19th century, however, a synthetic blue color was developed using chemicals and the blue dye extracted from plants. Soon pure indigo was replaced and most garments were dyed with the synthesized indigo. Today it is the chemical dye that dominates in the garments industry. There are pockets of pure indigo production in various parts of the world though the market is very small.
INDIGO IN COLONIAL BENGAL
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ORIGIN
The oldest known fabric dyed indigo, dated to 6,000 years ago, was discovered in Huaca Prieta, Peru. Many Asian countries, such as India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations have used indigo as a dye (particularly for silk) for centuries. The dye was also known to ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Britain, Mesoamerica, Peru, Iran, and West Africa.
The name indigo derives from where the plant was chiefly grown, the Indian subcontinent and from the Roman word ‘indicum’ meaning product of India. It is more commonly known as 'neel' (from the Arabic term 'al-nil' meaning 'blue') in the Bengal delta.
The history of indigo plantation in colonial Bengal is an example of how forces outside British control affected the lives and fortunes of hundreds.
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The history of indigo plantation in colonial Bengal is an example of how forces outside British control affected the lives and fortunes of hundreds of Britons and Indians. In the 16th century, India had been a major supplier of indigo to England via the Portugese and via Aleppo
The indigo plant, being a natural fertilizer, was already a very popular cash crop for the farmers of Bengal long before the British invaded Bengal and decided to make the region the biggest supplier of pure indigo dye. Soon enough, indigo became the most popular item to be exported from Bengal alongside tobacco and coffee. Deriving from the plant indigo tinctoria, it gained a lot of attention during the 18th and 19th centuries among the British and European circles, who made it an elitist item, only exclusive to royalty and aristocracy. Thus began the indigo trade in this region.
Indigenous to Bengal, this locally produced indigo used to be sent to Europe by merchants long before the arrival of European planters in India. In 1608, the East India Company’s Indian trade gave overwhelming primacy to indigo for at least a decade.
Indigo planation was introduced in many areas in Bengal including Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum and Jessore to meet the increased demand for indigo in Europe. As indigo flourished in the West, it became a brutal product of trade in the East. The British colonizers convinced the farmers to plant indigo instead of growing food crops like rice, by providing them with a loan termed ‘dadon’ a colossal unfair debt that they had to pay off throughout their entire lives and sometimes even pass onto the next generation. The dye would then be bought by the British East India Company at unethically low prices. While the British Empire thrived off the trade of indigo, the conditions of the farmers worsened. Meagre prices and zero profits were given to the farmers. In addition to that, indigo cultivation required large plots of land which were beyond the affordability of the poor farmers.
INDIGO REVOLT
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Before Bengal and Bihar revolted against the planters in 1859, there were several other revolts going on in the world over the same issue of exploitation and slavery. Between 1791 and 1804 the Saint-Domingue revolution in the West Indies led to the abolition of slavery in the former French colony and the establishment of Haiti, the second independent republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first Western nation governed by persons of African descent. The insurrection forced thousands of refugees, including many free people of color and white planters, to immigrate to Louisiana in the 1790s and early 1800s. Among the immigrants were planters and workers experienced in growing and refining sugar, an industry just emerging as a significant crop in Louisiana, as well as artisans skilled in a wide range of trades and crafts.
Many of the early planters established hugely successful coffee, indigo, and sugar plantations. From the mid-eighteenth century until the French Revolution (1789–1799), Saint-Domingue prospered, becoming the richest colonial possession in the world and the basis for French colonial wealth in the West. Its success, however, was built on enslaved African labor, and by the late 1750s the slave population of around five hundred thousand far outnumbered the white population of around thirty-two thousand. Fearing a revolution, the French created a rigid caste system dominated by grand blancs, white planters born in the colony (known as Creoles) and French-born bureaucrats and landowners. Poor whites, or petit blancs, formed an underclass, while people of mixed ancestry and free men, known as affranchise, came next in the social hierarchy. At the bottom were enslaved Africans
The 1521 Santo Domingo Slave Revolt occurred in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola during that year’s Christmas festivities. It is the earliest recorded slave revolt in the Americas. Just days after the revolt occurred, a new set of laws were created to prevent future rebellions. These are believed to be the earliest laws created to control enslaved Africans in the New World.
The revolution that began in Saint-Domingue in the West Indies in 1791 and ended in 1804 was the only successful slave rebellion in history.
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The indigo revolt began as a conflict between European capitalists who traded the product and the Bengali cultivators who were exploited for their labor and behind all the production that went into making the famous indigo dye. The revolt was not a spontaneous one. It was built up over years of oppression and suffering of the farmers at the hands of the planters and the government. A revolt started to form between the farmers as a protest against the cruel oppression they were subject to. Public trials, executions and even mass slaughter of the rebellious farmers were carried out by large police and military forces to ruthlessly suppress the movement.
In response to the revolt, the government appointed the Indigo Commission in 1860. In the report, a statement read, ‘not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood.’ A notification was also issued which stated that farmers could not be forced to grow indigo. By the end of 1860, indigo cultivation was literally washed away from Bengal since the planters closed their factories and left for good. This led to the revolt taking center stage in the political consciousness of Bengal and impacted many later movements in Bengal.
Interestingly, the government's response was ambiguously quite lenient to the rebellion. As the first step, it formed an indigo commission to inquire into the problem of indigo cultivation. Finally, in November 1860, the government issued a notification that the 'raiyats' or peasants could not be compelled to grow indigo and that all disputes were settled by legal means. In the meantime, all indigo factories were already being shut down and its cultivation was virtually wiped out from Bengal by the end of 1860.
During colonial times, many Indian farmers were strong-armed by the British Raj into growing indigo instead of food crops, the dye was then bought by the Raj at unfairly low prices. Today, indigo is celebrated in Kongarappatu and neighboring villages for putting them on the map, a far cry from its wretched colonial past.
Eventually, the government agreed that farmers could not be compelled to grow indigo and that all disputes were settled by legal means. In the meantime, all indigo factories were already being shut down and its cultivation was virtually wiped out from Bengal by the end of 1860. (Faruque, 2018)
Today, thanks to a few dedicated individuals the indigo dye is back in the hands of Bangladeshi growers and has become part of the movement to revive natural dyes and handloom products that are exported to foreign lands at competitive prices with the farmers getting fair prices and growing the crop willingly alongside other food crops, without the burden of tyranny and deprivation on their shoulders.
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