PEASANT UPSURGE IN CHAMPARAN 27 their private purses and filthy physical passions" unmindful of the human rights of the peasants12. The indigo concerns of north Bihar familiarly known as nil kothis came into existence in the eighteenth centry. In course of time the planters secured, on temporary and permanent leases, large tracts of land from the zamindars of the indigo districts particularly from the insolvent Maharaja ofBettiah who ran into heavy debt. The planters with their influence and status were soon able to get the indigo grown by the tenants of the villages on varying portions of their holdings largely 3/20th and later they regarded this cultivation as a matter of right under the Bengal Tenancy Act. This system of growing indigo came to be known as tinkathia. Soon like an octopus the tentacles of the indigo kothis had entwined into the body social of the cultivators of north Bihar. The planters obtained tinkathia sattas (contracts) from unwilling ryots through coercion, force, deception and dishonesty.18 In theory the indigo contract or satta was voluntary agreement entered into by the ryots with a factory to permit factory amiahs to select their lands, cultivate, prepare and sow the land selected by the amiah, weed the growing crop, cut the crop and cart it to the factory. In practice the system was much abused. The system of advances that ryots got at the time of the contracts had operated as a ^bait and snare."14. The sattas usually consisted merely of the signature or thumb impression of a ryot affixed to a blank stamped paper which the planter held as a threat over the ryots. Resistance to the System Vicious in theory and injurious in practice the system gave rise to a number of malpractices which aggravated the disaffection, caused widespread indebtedness, resulted in poverty and economic ruin of the ryots. When the industry began to suffer owing to the advent of artificial indigo, the planters devised means to transfer their losses on to the shoulders of the tenants. This they did by introducing sharabheshi,19 tawan,19 hunda,17^ harja13, and by realizing a number of abwabs despite their being declared illegal time and again. Some planters compelled their ryots to grow paddy instead of indigo. The ryots were now made to sign sharabheshi agreements by force and intimidation, and their position under the tinkathia system was one of tutelage, dependence and abject helplessness. It was only natural that a desperate peasantry would resort to violent demonstration. In 1867, the ryots of Pandoul indigo factory showed open disaffection. The general anxiety among the planters, the report of the district officials, the agitation of the native press and the number of petitions submitted showed the dangerous character of the outburst19. The trouble spread from Pandoul to Lalsaraiya factory and the District Magistrate of Champaran wrote that the spirit of quiet, determined opposition30 was growing among the ryots. They refused to sow indigo and committed acts of violence. In the next year, 1868, the