History of Indigo

The word indigo is derived from the Latin Indicum and the Greek Indikon meaning 'blue dye from India'.5000-6000 years ago ancient time the indio was extracted from plants and popularly known as blue dye. It reached Europe from the Indus valley and the other parts of India from Portuguese and other Europeans so it is named “Opium". It was commercially encouraged and traded by the British, firstly by the cultivation of indigo plant and production of the dye in South Carolina, USA in the mid 18th century, which was then a British colony. Indigo was most probably  exported from India. However, this stopped after the British colonies in the USA gained their freedom after the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). It was then that the British East India Company (BEIC) started its production in Bengal and part of the current Bihar states of India and continued it until the second decade of the 20th century. “The managers of BEIC forced the farmers to grow indigo in place of food crops by attracting them with loans on virtually non-repayable conditions”. This caused considerable torture of farmers and finally led to the 'Nīl Vidroha' (Nīl Revolt) of 1857. It is so costly in Europe. European exchange gold with indigo.  It was imported to the Mediterranean from India by Arab merchants. This was the oldest known fabric dye Indigo dated to 6000 years ago was discovered in Peru, Huaca Prieta and many Asian countries such as India, southeast Asian, Japan nations have used indigo as dye.

Image source: cultivation of indigo

The dye was also known in ancient civilization in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Britain, Mesoamerica, Peru, Iran and west Africa. In17th century indigo became an important item for international trade. In India the production of indigo is found in places like Gujarat, Sind, in the Deccan and along the east coast. But according to British colonial rule the product was intended for local consumption and exports. After industrialization of textiles of cloth indigo demand became so high so every ruler country grew indigo in his Collins. India became a famous Collin of Britain. During British times they used to trade Indigo from India to Britain to color the clothes. They didn’t want to do Indigo cultivation on their own land because it causes bad effects on the agricultural land. Actually it is very harmful to cultivate Indigo. It sucks all the nitrogen and fertility of soil. If we grow Indigo on land then it will become unproductive land and we can’t grow anything on that land.

          In India there was a “Indigo Revolt '' that happened in the 1914-1916 in Champaran and Kheda district of Bihar and Bihar. Later it was called “Satyagrah” (Silent revolt )which was launched by ‘Mahatma Gandhi’. This was about that time there was a trade of India with Europe by an East India company. It also depends on the cotton production. That time British indigo planters gave high loans to the  peasants to grow indigo. If a farmer took such a loan, he remained in debt for the whole of his life and not only this, it was passed on to his children. For this Mahatma Gandhi and other farmers revolted.

Source: Indian Journal of History of Science, 53.3 (2018) 296-301

Conclusion

Farmers in Bihar won the fight between farmers of Bihar and Britishers. Now they are free to do anything with their fields now farmers of India don’t have to cultivate what Britishers want they can make their own decisions. But still Indigo was important and trade was continuous.