(i) The European cloth manufacturers used indigo to dye the clothes.
(ii) It produced a rich blue colour which was used for the purpose of dyeing.
(iii) Indigo plant grows only in the tropical regions and it was impossible to grow indigo in temperate climate of Europe.

(i) In most of the regions of Bengal, some of the powerful ryots did not cultivate, but gave out their lands to under tenants.
(ii) They (the under tenants) were pressurized by an excessive rent in kinds and by usurious returns for cattle, seed, subsistence, advanced to them and they could never extricate themselves from debt.
(iii) They earn a scanty subsistence without the hope of bettering their situation.

Life in Tea plantations of Assam:
Estate owners and Workers
(a) Wages
(b) Habitation
(c) Facilities Problems

The ryots will grow indigo on the following Condition:
(i) They will pay revenue which is reasonable.
(ii) They will cultivate indigo as per their will and convenience.
(iii) They will not be forced in any manner.
(iv) They will sell their produce in open market which will bring profit to them.

After becoming the Diwan of Bengal in 1765, the Company realised that it had to move with some cautions which are as follows:
(i) Firstly, being an alien power, the company needed to pacify those who had ruled the countryside in the past and enjoyed prestige and power.
(ii) Secondly, those who enjoyed local power had to be controlled. But they could not be entirely eliminated as sometimes the Company might be dependent on them to solve local problems.

(i) Indigo Commission was formed to enquire into the system of Indigo production following the movement of the ryots of Bengal against the British Indigo planters in the late 1850s.
(ii) The Commission held the planters guilty and criticised them for the coercive methods they used for indigo cultivators.
(iii) The Indigo Commission held the planters guilty and revealed how the planters forced the ryots to receive loan and sign contracts for the indigo cultivation. The indigo planters deprived the ryots of just prices for their crop. The commission also confirmed that the magistrates sided with the British planters in their torturous pursuits of indigo cultivation..

The Permanent Settlement of Bengal was introduced by the company officials to ensure a regular flow of income into the company's treasury. It was also assumed that the zamindars would invest in the improvement of the land. However, the zamindars did not invest any money in the improvement of the land even after benefit from the increased production of the land. The revenue fixed was very high and some zamindars found it difficult to pay the revenue and lost their zamindari rights
Zamindaris were either sold or auctioned off by the company officials. Zamindars gave out land to tenants and extracted rent from them at any cost. Tenants were undoubtedly at the receiving end of the settlement.

(i) Charles Cornwallis is shown in the above picture.
(ii) He was the Governor-General of India.
(iii) Cornwallis was appointed the Governor-General of India in 1786.
His greatest achievement in India was the reorganisation of the land taxation, known as the Permanent Settlement of 1793. He granted legal ownership of their land to the zamindars. In return, they had to pay the government 90 per cent of the rent which they collected from the farmers. As per Permanent Settlement, rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars. The zamindars were supposed to collect the land revenue from the peasants.

(i) The Slave Revolt in St Domingue in August 1791 is shown in the above picture.
(ii) In the 18th century, French planters produced indigo and sugar in the French colony of St Domingue in the Caribbean islands.
(iii) The African slaves who worked on the plantations rose in rebellion in 1791. They killed 4000 Whites and burned and destroyed 180 sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations.
(iv) The other name of the Slave Revolt is Haitian Revolt.
(v) In 1792, France abolished slavery in the French colonies.
These events led to the collapse of the indigo plantations on the Caribbean islands. By 1792, slave rebels controlled one-third of the island. The success of this slave rebellion caused the newly elected Legislative Assembly in France to grant civil and political rights to free men in the colonies.

The demand for Indian indigo grew further with the industrialisation in Britain. The Company faced difficulties with the rising demand for indigo in Europe. Thus, it adopted some ways to expand the area under indigo cultivation, which are as follows:
(i) In 1788, only about 30 per cent of the indigo imported into Britain was from India. In the last decades of t 18th century, indigo cultivation in Bengal expanded rapidly. Thus, in 1810, the indigo exported from India had increased by 95 per cent.
(ii) As the indigo trade grew, commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in indigo production.
(iii) Attracted by the prospects of high profit, many Scotsmen and Englishmen came to India for indigo business.
(iv) The Company and different banks were giving loans to those, who had no money to start the indigo plantation.