what is the blue rebellion?

it was the revolt faught by the ryots with the indigo planters.

answer

The Indigo revolt was a peasant movement and subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against the indigo planters that arose in bengal in 1859. The back stage of the revolt goes back half a century when the indigo plantation act was established. After the courageous fight by the sepoy for independence in 1857 in February–March 1859 the farmers refused to sow a single seedling of indigo plant. The strength of the farmers' resolutions were dramatically stronger than anticipated from a community victimized by brutal treatment for about half a century. Most importantly it was a revolt of both the major religious groups of farmers in bengal, notably a farmer Haji Molla of Nischindipur said that he would "rather beg than sow indigo". The farmers were in no possession of any types of arms, it was totally a nonviolent resistance.this movement was known as blue rebellion.

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The “Blue Rebellion” and After

In March 1859 thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to

grow indigo. As the rebellion spread, ryots refused to

pay rents to the planters, and attacked indigo factories

armed with swords and spears, bows and arrows.

Women turned up to fight with pots, pans and kitchen

implements. Those who worked for the planters were

socially boycotted, and the gomasthas – agents of

planters – who came to collect rent were beaten up.

Ryots swore they would no longer take advances to sow

indigo nor be bullied by the planters’ lathiyals – the

lathi-wielding strongmen maintained by the planters.

Why did the indigo peasants decide that they would

no longer remain silent? What gave them the power

to rebel? Clearly, the indigo system was intensely

oppressive. But those who are oppressed do not always

rise up in rebellion. They do so only at times.

In 1859, the indigo ryots felt that they had the

support of the local zamindars and village headmen in

their rebellion against the planters. In many villages,

headmen who had been forced to sign indigo contracts,

mobilised the indigo peasants and fought pitched

battles with the lathiyals. In other places even the

zamindars went around villages urging the ryots to

resist the planters. These zamindars were unhappy with

the increasing power of the planters and angry at being

forced by the planters to give them land on long leases.

The indigo peasants also imagined that the British

government would support them in their struggle

against the planters. After the Revolt of 1857 the

British government was particularly worried about the

possibility of another popular rebellion. When the news spread of a simmering revolt in the indigo districts,the Lieutenant Governor toured the region in the winter

of 1859. The ryots saw the tour as a sign of government

sympathy for their plight. When in Barasat, the

magistrate Ashley Eden issued a notice stating that

ryots would not be compelled to accept indigo contracts,

word went around that Queen Victoria had declared

that indigo need not be sown. Eden was trying to placate

the peasants and control an explosive situation, but

his action was read as support for the rebellion.

As the rebellion spread, intellectuals from Calcutta

rushed to the indigo districts. They wrote of the misery

of the ryots, the tyranny of the planters, and the horrors

of the indigo system.

Worried by the rebellion, the government brought

in the military to protect the planters from assault,

and set up the Indigo Commission to enquire into the

system of indigo production. The Commission held the

planters guilty, and criticised them for the coercive

methods they used with indigo cultivators. It declared

that indigo production was not profitable for ryots. The

Commission asked the ryots to fulfil their existing

contracts but also told them that they could refuse to

produce indigo in future.