Indigo cultivation in colonial Madras

The natural blue dye – indigo –, originally used to colour the denim blue jeans, has links to Madras. The dye is obtained from a colourless, water-soluble compound indican, which originates from tryptophan, an amino acid. This dye is extracted from the leaves of Indigofera tinctoria, an Indian native, although ‘synthetic’ indigo has replaced natural indigo today.

Unsubstantiated stories claim that indigo, used for colouring cotton fabric, was exported from the ancient Tamizh land. By 1820s, indigo trade was booming, and in mid-19th century, indigo cultivation and extraction was prominent in the Madras province. In 1899, 420 chests of indigo were exported to France from the Coromandel.

Indigo ‘experiments’ were initiated by Bernard Coventry (1859–1929), director of Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa (PARI) in 1904–1916. Because the indigo grown in Madras was of inferior quality as compared to those of the Indo-Gangetic plains, Coventry sent seeds obtained from Madras to the Calcutta Botanic Gardens for growing and observations. Three regional varieties (the Madras, Northwest, Cawnpore) varieties were recognized. The Madras variety, a late growing type, had a greater intensity of colour than the other two, but was a deep-rooted species. Coventry’s interest in characterizing and assessing the dye’s ‘quality’ and plant performance, and in recognizing variations within regional populations is amazing.

Eugene C Schrottky, a German chemist and a successful planter in Bihar in the 19th century, clarified the chemistry of indigo. His science of indigo manufacture (1879) and indigo cultivation and manufacture (1907) are landmark notes on the cultivation of indigo in India. Indigo planters in Bihar considered the soil and climate conditions in Bihar were unsuitable for the Java variety (Indigofera arrecta), which was performing poorly. Schrottky experimented by raising seeds of Java variety in Godavari district in 1910. Schrottky’s proposal to shift the seed factory to southern India was endorsed by many indigo planters in Bihar, Orissa, and Bengal.

Frederick Richard Parnell (1886–1976), on his appointment as the Agricultural Chemist, Madras, enabled better productivity of indigo. This was of high significance because indigo production in Bihar had dropped. Before his appointment in Madras, Parnell studied indigo’s ‘quality’ improvement in the Sirsiah (now Gopalganj, Bihar) station of PARI.

Madras had a stake in the Bihar Planters’ Association (BPA) in indigo-plantation context; Moran & Company (an indigo trading company) and F Marsden (an expert in dyeing) from Madras were members of administrative board of BPA. By 1920s, the Madras Presidency included 3,44,300 acres under indigo cultivation.

A levy on indigo production to improve the indigo-production research was discussed among different governments. The levy was concurred upon, but the Madras government dissented. Madras government was concerned how the effects of the proposed levy would seep to small-scale indigo farmers, who employed archaic cultivation techniques compared with those in Bengal, where cultivation was a large-scale enterprise. Madras-government bureaucrats argued why they should pay when indigo farmers in Madras were not benefitting.

After considerable persuasion by the Central government, Madras agreed, on the proviso that the levy plan should take into consideration indigo growers’ conditions and problems in Madras. That a part of the funds generated out of the levy imposed went to employ agricultural chemist W A Davis, bacteriologist C M Hutchinson, and economic botanist A Howard at PARI in the 1920s is a different story.

The attraction for natural indigo for use in cotton industry has faded presently, with German chemists perfecting the technique of synthesizing the dye artificially in early 20th century.

(The author is a senior lecturer in Ecological

Agriculture at Charles Sturt University, Orange, New South Wales, Australia)