Tracing the Dark Side of the Indigo Story

Kolkata, India — Natural indigo has been coveted all over the world for centuries and has been in use for more than 4000 years. However, its connection with India is particularly strong—the term indigo comes from the Roman word Indicum, which means a product from India. 

Indigo plantations in India date back to 1777 when Louis Bonnard, a Frenchman, introduced it to Bengal in eastern India. He started cultivation at Taldanga in Bankura district and Goalpara in Hooghly district. 

In the early 19th century, the British developed more plantations, as indigo was a highly profitable crop — there was a lot of demand for the blue dye in Europe with a status similar to exotic commodities like tea, coffee, silk, and gold. 

Even today, natural indigo is highly prized, especially in the fashion industry. 

“Synthetic indigo has taken over much of the fashion industry, however, people who understand the art and effort that goes into creating the natural indigo pigment still prefer wearing authentic indigo-dyed clothes,” says fashion designer Priyadarshini Rao.

“The traditional method of indigo dyeing is still done in several parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan in western India where block printers use it to create a pattern called ‘Ajrakh’.” 

The process of creating natural indigo is very complex and requires immense skill. The leaves are first fermented with a very precise chemical process to obtain the blue shade. Unlike other textile dyeing processes, the fabric does not turn blue in the dye pot. It is exposed to the air, which slowly turns the drying piece of dyed fabric from yellow to green, and eventually into deep dark blue.

Today, indigo is mostly cultivated in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, and Rajasthan. Most of them are small farmers or traditional growers who have been in the business for generations.

“There has been a revival of indigo cultivation in India in the past few years due to an increased interest in natural indigo,” said Rashmi Bharti, co-founder of Avani, a non-profit organization that focuses on capacity building in rural communities. Their primary focus is on sustainably harvested and produced tints, dyes, textiles, and garments. 

However, many of these farmers are finding it tough to compete with the cheaper synthetic indigo from China that has flooded the markets, said Bharti. 

“Indigo is a 75-to-90-day crop and is quite expensive,” said Bharti. “The actual cost of production of natural indigo is INR 4545 ($61.31) per pound. Synthetic indigo is much cheaper and costs around INR 600 ($8.09) with taxes. Around 900 tons of synthetic indigo is imported from China every month.”

“Farmers do not get a fair price for their natural indigo due to the high price differential,” said Bharti. “This leads to adulteration and a loss of confidence in a centuries-old production and extraction system. To ensure that it is a regenerative crop in all ways, the farmer needs to be the focus.”

Exploited and Oppressed

Farmers and peasants working in the indigo industry have always got a raw deal. And the history of Indigo cultivation in India has a dark and complicated history. 

About 175 years ago, Indigo symbolized colonial oppression in several parts of the world and today’s hipsters flaunting their indigo-dyed denims are unlikely to be aware of the atrocities faced by the farmers in India during the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Harish Chandra Mukherjee, an Indian journalist, and patriot who fought for indigo cultivators and forced the government to bring about changes described the extreme hardships faced by the farmers in his newspaper, The Hindu Patriot. Similarly, Dinabandhu Mitra, a Bengali dramatist, depicted the situation of indigo farmers in his iconic play ‘Nil Darpan’, , written in 1858-59 and created a huge controversy as it was meant to voice the elite intellectuals of Kolkata so that the farmers revolt would be integrated with the urban thinkers. 

“Peasants were persuaded by the British planters to grow indigo instead of food crops. They forcefully imposed a loan to every farmer called ‘dadon’ at very high interest rates. Such loans kept the farmer in debt for his whole life until he passed it to his successor. Only 2.5 percent of the market price was paid back to the farmers,” said Blair Kling in his book named “The Blue Mutiny: The Indigo Disturbances in Bengal.”

The farmers barely managed to make any profits and the planters resorted to violence and mortgages if they were unwilling to obey them. 

Ananda Bhattacharya, assistant director of West Bengal State Archives claimed that under such extreme tyranny, the farmers turned to revolt.

“The Indigo Revolt against the planters in Bengal started in 1859 at a village in Nadia district, led by Bishnucharan Biswas and Digambar Biswas. Gradually, it spread like a wildfire in the eastern part of undivided India,” he said. “Indigo depots were burned down and several planters were given a public trial and executed.”

“Peasants of all sects and religions were involved in the revolt,” Bhattacharya said. “The object of the revolt was economic freedom and had deep consequences for the later movements of Bengal, like Chittagong Uprising, United Bengal, Bengali Language Movement, Bangladesh Liberation War.”

A Closer Look, Inside the Indigo Plantation

Last month, I went to explore one such abandoned indigo plantation and processing unit, which still stands in ruins, at the farthest corner of a small town called Sonamukhi in Bankura district of Bengal. 

Tales from my grandfather made me explore the ruins, which is situated approximately 155 miles from Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. Walking through an aisle in the midst of paddy fields, after the road came to a dead-end, I reached the shattered building, which was covered in thick tall grasses and moss. Creepers and climbers have engulfed the structure, while roots of very old trees have captured the roof and walls.

A three-storey building, completely demolished from the inside, just had broken stairs that led to the upper floors. The walls crumbled at my touch.

A shirtless tribal boy who had followed me since I started my journey through the paddy fields, guided me to the owner and demanded Rs5 ($7 cents) for being my helper and guide. 

The owner, I discover, now owns a small medicine shop and claims that is extremely difficult to maintain such an old building. Tapas Naik, a 55-year-old gentleman still visits the plantation once a month for maintenance and walks with pride to own such a heritage sight in the state.

He tells me that around 200 years ago, the land on which the ruin stands was bought by a Briton John Cheap, at a meager price from the Naik Zamindars (autonomous rulers on good terms with the British). 

Sonamukhi, is the first village in India that received a municipality from the British government in 1886. Centrally located in West Bengal, the town is one of the oldest in India, bordered by a river on one side and a forest on another. 

Mihir Mukhopadhyay, a former chairman for the welfare of the indigo plantation, a government employee who once used to look after the plantation, claimed that it was becoming more and more difficult to preserve the heritage site with every passing year.

“I heard about the ill-treatment of indigo farmers from my grandfather,” he said. “Many of them committed suicide unable to bear the torture and hence it is considered haunted today. Even the wife of the indigo planter died here, and there is a small tomb in her memory just behind the plantation.”

While the plantation is now in shambles, once there were majestic pillars and a gate that led into it. “There were huge holes dug in the earth for indigo dyeing, and the adjacent ponds were all ruined due to its cultivation,” said Mukhopadhyay. 

The British owners sold the Indigo unit back to the erstwhile Indian owners when leaving India. 

(Edited by Sid Roy and Anindita Ghosh)