Neel-darpan
The image of a peasant revolt in a liberal mirror1
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2158393 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ranajit Guha (University of Sussex, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1974 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-46 |
| Publication date | 1974-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Peasant Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0306-6150 • E-ISSN: 1743-9361 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03066157408437914 |
| OpenAlex | W2057759370 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 22 |
| References cited | 2 |
The indigo plant, the original source of the dye used for bluing cotton textiles, formed the basis of a flourishing sector of commercial agriculture in Bengal by the beginning of the nineteenth century. From the very outset, however, the ryots, that is, the tenant cultivators were made to grow indigo under much coercion, for the surplus appropriated by the planters, mostly Europeans, and the methods they used, made this crop most uneconomic for the producers. A slump in the London prices of indigo between 1839 and 1847, the fall of the Union Bank of Calcutta, a consequent credit squeeze and the takeover of smaller concerns by larger 'indigo seignories' increased the pressure on the ryot and his misery still further. By 1860 the regional grievances and localized acts of resistance among the peasantry snowballed into a general uprising in nine Bengal districts. Later on that year Dinabandhu Mitra published a play, Neel-darpan, with the planters' atrocities as its theme. Translated into English, the play soon became the focus of a legal and political contest between the Calcutta liberals and European planters. For over a century this play has enjoyed the reputation of a radical text. How radical was it? In an exegesis undertaken in answer to this question an attempt has been made in this essay to document the response of Indian liberalism to one of the mightiest peasant revolts in the sub-continent. A glossary of Indian terms has been inserted at the end of the essay
CONTEST · Economic history · Peasant · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theme (computing · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · History · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts
The Newspaper and the Periodical Press in Colonial India
Reading subaltern studies
Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital
From Peasant Studies to Agrarian Change
Who, or What, is Victorian
Textualizing the agrarian
Scientific commodities, imperial dreams
Provincializing Europe, Twenty-five Years On
Indian Nationalism and the'National Question
What if the subaltern speaks? Traditional knowledge policies in Brazil and India
Ethnography and law
Recovering the Dalit Public Sphere
Nomadism of colour
Scottish peasants and their song∗
Unmasking the subaltern, or salamis without themistocles
Law, State and Agrarian Society in Colonial India
Literary Surveillance in the British Raj
Rewriting the Utilitarian Market
Redeeming Indigo
The intersection of race, class, and ethnicity in agrarian inequalities, identities, and the social resistance of peasants in Colombia
Indian peasant historiography
Passageways of Cooperation
| Unique citing works | 22 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 1976 - 2026 (51) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 22 |