They provided loans, called dadon, at a very high interest. The indigo planters forced the peasants to plant indigo instead of food crops on their own lands. It was introduced in large parts of Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, Nadia Jessore and Pabna, and by 1830 there were more than a thousand indigo factories throughout Bengal. With the Nawabs of Bengal under Company rule, indigo planting became more and more commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe. He became the first indigo planter in Bengal, starting to cultivate the crop at Taldanga and Goalpara near Hooghly. Indigo planting in Bengal dates back to 1777, when Louis Bonnaud, a Frenchman, introduced it to the Indian subcontinent. The revolt ended after the formation of Indigo commission in 1860 which offered reforms of the system, which was inherently exploitative. Emerging in the Nadia district, the revolt spread to in the different districts of Bengal in the 1860s and indigo factories and planters faced violent attacks in many places. In the summer of 1859 in Bengal when thousands of ryots (peasants) refused to grow indigo for the European planters with a show of rage and undying resolve, it became one of the most remarkable peasant movements in Indian history. Sometimes disgruntled former employees of European planters - 'gomashta' or 'diwan' of the Indigo factories, took the lead to mobilise the peasants against the Indigo planters. The village headmen (Mandals) and substantial ryots were the most active and numerous groups who led the peasants. The Indigo revolt (or Nil bidroha Bengali: নীল বিদ্রোহ) was a peasant movement and subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against the indigo planters, that arose in Bengal in 1859, and continued for over a year.
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