The Making of Indigo: Cultivation and Manufacture

chapter 1 The Making of Indigo: Cultivation and Manufacture

[N]either the variety of the plant, nor the locality where it grows, influ- ences the quality of the dye offered in the market. The excellency or infe- riority of the indigo depends solely on the care and intelligence exercised in its manufacture. f.e.c. linde, Indigo: A short sketch of the Cultivation, Manufacture & Trade of Indigo, 1882, p. 8

A primary factor in the success of an indigo commodity chain was the ability to produce large quantities of indigo of a relatively good quality and to put it on the market at competitive prices. This in turn depended on advantages in terms of natural and human resources that a producing region was endowed with in relation to potential competitors. The presence of suitable land, wa- ter, and climate in some parts of India gave it an advantage over other indigo producing regions of the world. India also had the advantage of being com- mercially well-connected with Europe, the Mediterranean world, and West Asia through both overland and maritime routes. Most important, however, was the availability of skilled manufacturers and cheap labour, which contributed to Indian indigo’s competitiveness in the market. These factors, to- gether with the capital coming from merchants, peasants, and producers, played an important role in making India a major producer and supplier of indigo. Such advantages were, however, relative, and other regions could produce indigo of better quality and secure European consumers’ preference over Indian indigo. There were two other significant factors, namely the dis- tribution costs (distance and transportation) and political intervention in the market, both of which played an important role in the success or failure of an indigo chain. Under certain political and economic circumstances, as during the mid-seventeenth and late eighteenth centuries, these factors could offset the relative advantages that India had over its competitors and that had contributed to its success in the world market during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and would again in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, commercial indigo was produced in various parts of India. Of all places, the Bayana and Sarkhej tracts (in Rajasthan and Gujarat, respectively) were known for producing

The Making of Indigo 13 the best-quality indigo on a large scale.1 Indigo was also produced at various places on the Coromandel Coast, mainly in the villages around Masulipatnam, Nagapatnam, and Pulicat.2 Some villages in the province of Sind were also known for producing good indigo on a modest scale. Indigo of an ordinary sort was also produced at some other places, such as Khurja, Mewat, Jalali, Hindaun, Basawar, and many other villages in the doab region (tracts of land between the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers), and Dholka, Jambusar, Broach, Cam- bay, and Nadiad in Gujarat (Map 1.1).3 European and Asian merchants knew very well that Bayana and Sarkhej produced the best indigo and strove to pro- cure these varieties. They bought other varieties only when supplies of these indigo were insufficient. Indigo from places other than Bayana and Sarkhej was mainly for local consumption, although some of it was exported to West Asia and, occasionally, Europe. While some of these places continued to produce indigo in the colonial period, a major shift certainly occurred in the location of the industry.4 In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, some districts of Bengal, Bihar, Banaras, Awadh, Agra, and parts of the Madras Presidency produced indigo on a much larger scale than in previous centuries (Map 1.1). In the nineteenth century, Bengal indigo reigned supreme in the world market. The rapid growth of European demand for the blue dye triggered by the rapid expansion in textile production in Europe led to a major restructuring in global indigo production and trade. Certain political developments, such as British colonial conquests

1 It transpires from European records that the best indigo in India was produced in the Bayana tract (Bayana and villages around it are located at an aerial distance of about 45 miles southwest of Agra). Pelsaert has listed the villages in the Bayana tract that produced indigo. Francisco Pelsaert, De Geschriften van Francisco Pelsaert over Mughal Indië, 1627: Kroniek en Remonstrantie [The writings of Francisco Pelsaert about Mughal India: chronicle and remon- strance], (eds.), D.H.A. Kolff and H.W. van Santen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979), 259–60. The second best variety came from Sarkhej (a village near Ahmadabad, capital of the Mughal province of Gujarat) and areas adjacent to it. 2 Pieter Van Dam, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, vol. 2 part 2 (ed.), F.W. Stapel (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1932), pp. 192–205. Generale Missiven, vol. i, 1610–1638, p. 204. 3 Contemporary authors have mentioned these places as producing indigo of an inferior quality. bl, East India Company Correspondence with the East, 1602–1753 (E/3) 1, Original Cor- respondence with India, 1609, doc. no. 11; Pieter van den Broecke, Pieter van den Broecke in Azië, ed., W. Ph. Coolhaas, vol. ii (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhof, 1963), 380–2. 4 Sind, for example, continued to produce indigo in the colonial period. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, a good proportion of indigo exported from Bombay came from this region. msa, Returns and Statements: External and Internal Commerce, 1801–02 to 1826–27, vols. 3, 4/5, 5/6, 8–16, 20–6.