Nil Darpan
Also called: The Indigo Mirror · Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 4 "The Colonial Era in India"
Meaning
Nil Darpan ("The Indigo Mirror") is a Bengali play by Dinabandhu Mitra, published in 1860. It showed how European indigo planters in Bengal treated peasants cruelly, making them grow indigo, beating them and ruining them with debt. It came out during the Indigo Revolt of 1859–62. The play matters because it shows that educated Bengalis and the Bengali press supported the peasants' cause.
Example
An English translation of Nil Darpan was published by Reverend James Long in 1861. The planters took him to court and he was punished. The case drew even wider attention to how indigo peasants were suffering.
Don't confuse with
- Anandamath: a novel of 1882 by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, inspired by the Sannyasi-Fakir rebellion. It contains "Vande Mataram". It has nothing to do with indigo.