Indigo Rebellion

Title: Indigo Rebellion

Author: Ananda Bhattacharya

Publisher: Dey’s Publishing, Kolkata, 2012 (First)

ISBN: 9788129517043

Pages: 221

The 1857 rebellion was a turning point in Indian history, both for the Indians and the occupying British. For the Indians, it was an assertion that the moral will of the country has not gone bankrupt even after being under the yoke of foreign powers for nearly eight centuries. The British, on the other hand, was rudely woken up out of their complacent slumber in the firm belief that India would forever be a slave to their business and political interests. Many parts of North India were striven by frenzied battles between the two sides. Bengal was largely calm during this period, which helped the Europeans to safely use it as a base for arrival and organization of specialist troops from Europe. Eventually, the mutiny was crushed and things went back to normal, but not in the way it used to be. Something snapped between the master and the servant. The British were thereafter forever alert to hostile reverberations among the natives. Within a year of crushing the revolt, the Bengal government had another rebellion in their hands. A bright blue dye extracted from the indigo plant had become very popular in the eighteenth century. Large tracts of agricultural land in the newly conquered Bengal were earmarked for indigo cultivation. European settlers built up factories for manufacturing the dye and entered into contracts with the zamindars and peasants for producing the raw material upon payment of an advance amount. This system ran well for a few decades when indigo fetched a decent profit. With the advent of synthetic aniline dyes in the nineteenth century, the price of indigo fell steeply. Cultivated indigo became so worthless that many peasants refused to plant it and diversified to sowing rice. The planters opposed this, often with physical force. A great deal of atrocities and criminal acts had been done towards the poor peasants that they rose up in revolt in 1859. This was brutally crushed two years later. This book tries to tell this story.

The above details I have collected from Wikipedia, as this book is a total failure in conveying any intelligible information. ‘Indigo Rebellion – A Selections’ (sic) is written by Ananda Bhattacharya, which is a huge collection of readers’ letters addressed to the leading newspapers of Kolkata during the years in which the rebellion raged. The author is said to be an archivist and the Assistant Director of the West Bengal State Archives. He is also claimed to have earned name and fame for his command over source material related to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has authored a few books too. However, this book has neither a structure nor any content.

It seems that the book is not subjected to proof-reading or copy editing. Or, if there was indeed a proof reader, chances are high that he was ignorant of the language. Spelling is pathetic, many of the sentences are not even grammatically correct and at least five to ten mistakes can be pointed out in every page. Stop indicators crop up unexpectedly in the middle of a sentence, ruining all pleasure of reading. The structure of the book is laughable. There is an introductory chapter running through 40 pages, which is crammed with so many details that it looks almost like an index without page numbers. The second chapter is an enormous collection of newspaper cuttings that span 148 pages. The last chapter is also a collection of journals, which goes through 18 pages. This anthology is compiled in a very haphazard and irresponsible manner, without the compiler even looking at the content. A news item on the annexation of the Nagpur principality has also been accidentally included, which has no relevance to the topic of discussion.

Several times I was gripped by a desire to toss the book away, but I persevered to write a review to warn others to stay clear of this trash. The price of the book is pegged at Rs. 350, which can most probably be reimbursed with added compensation if a buyer approaches the consumer protection forums. The book does not even include a glossary, but casually uses such terms as lathiyal, be-ilaka ryots and such.

This book is a pure waste of time and not recommended.

Rating: 1 Star