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Protest Movement, Key points: - Coggle Diagram
Protest Movement
The Indigo Uprising (1859)
There was a wide demand for Indian indigo as a dye for colouring cotton fabrics, making it a lucrative trade. The retired army officers of the Company started indigo plantation in Bengal and Bihar. They enjoyed profit as zamindars and forced peasants to cultivate indigo on land instead of wheat or paddy.
There were many problems with this: 1) the farmers were no longer farming food crops and hence suffered from a food shortage
2) Planting indigo deprived the soil of its fertility making the land unusable after a certain point
3) They knowingly measured the land wrong so as to force the peasants to farm more indigo
4) They forced peasants to sign contracts that forced them to sell their cultivation at the lowest possible rates
5) If peasants refused to farm indigo, they were physically tortured, confined and kept without food or water. Their houses were attacked and their women were sexually assaulted
The local officials did not protect the peasants and neither did the local law courts. The planters got away with their actions.
The peasants sent mass petitions to the company's government against the planters. These petitions were also ignored. This is when some zamindars like Digambar and Vishnu Charan Biswas gave leadership to the suffering peasants. They boycotted Indigo planting. The peasants continued non-violent protests and this protest movement spread.
A section of young educated Indian intellectuals stood for the peasants, including Harish Chandra Mukherjee - editor and journalist of the Hindu Patriot. He wrote articles against the tyranny of the planters. Meanwhile, Dinabandhu Mitra wrote a drama called
Nil Darpan
on the Indigo Uprising. This was also translated in English by poet Michael Madhu Sudan Dutta under the name of Bishop James Long.
Such agitation eventually drew the attention of the government. Governor Grant became alarmed and took measures immediately
He issued a proclamation that no peasant could be forced to sow indigo against their will
The Indigo Commission was appointed to record complaints of the affected parties. This was a sufficient corrective step.
The Blue Mutiny or the Indigo Uprising was a mass civil disobedience movement, one of the earliest organised movements in Indian history and it was secular in nature - Hindu and Muslim peasants were united in their efforts to bring an end to the tyranny of the Indigo planters.
The Munda Uprising (1900)
The Mundas were one of the ancient aboriginals of India. They lived in and about the Hazarribagh and Ranchi districts of Bihar. They believed that land was the gift of God and every person of a community had full right over the land. Their land system was called
Khunt-Kati
which means collective ownership of land.
They accepted Christianity with the belief that the German missionaries would set things right by checking the malpractices of the zamindars, forced labour, colonial land revenue system.
The expansion of the land revenue system in Ranchi and Hazarribagh caused discontent among the Mundas.
Resented that the rate of tax was very high
Were cheated and exploited by moneylenders
The Mundas fought their oppressors.
They claimed that Chhotanagpur belonged to them.
They set up their own kingdom at Doesa.
They were dissatisfied with the German missionaries and turned to Catholic mission
The colonial officers tried to suppress the movement. In retaliation, the Mundas started a movement against all Europeans.
Birsa Munda came forward to lead the movement. He was the son of a poor Munda peasant. He had some schooling from Christian missionaries but ultimately abandoned them when he felt they wanted to baptise him.
He declared that land belonged to all Mundas and they should fight to liberate their land from the British.
He was arrested and sent to prison. After his release he gave a call to destroy all who opposed the Mundas and hence their revolt started against their exploiters.
They attacked the officials with primitive weapons and resisted the British heroically.
He was arrested and died in jail. Many Mundas were hanged or sent to Andaman jail. The government agreed to pacify them by reintroducing Khunt-Kati.
Key points:
Names
Digambar
Vishnu Charan Biswas
Dinabandhu Mitra
Michael Dutta
Bishop James Long
Governor Grant
Harish Chandra Mukherjee
Names
Birsa Munda