In the History NCERT BOOK-I, the Ch 3, Chapter Test 1 had a question asking the main problem of nij cultivation. I did the 'conflict' option, but it shows that the correct answer was 'land was sparsely populated'. Sparse means rare, then how could sparsely populated land be a reason for the failure of the system?

The answer should have been the land was densely populated. The reason for the failure of nij cultivation was that all the fertile land mostly around indigo factories were densely populated or under rice cultivation. The peasants were forcible evicted to make way for indigo growers. This resulted in conflict and tension. Less than 25 % of the indigo grown was grown under the nij system. In this way, the dense population in fertile areas was one of the reasons for the failure of nij cultivation.