Indigo cultivation in India declined by the beginning of the 20th century because of

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Indigo, the blue dye, was extracted from plants in ancient times, some 5000-6000 years ago (3000-4000 BCE), both in the Old (Asia, Africa and Europe) and New (Americas) Worlds. It got its name Indigo, because it reached Europe from Indus Valley, India and later from other parts of India by the Portuguese and other European sailors.It was commercially encouraged and traded by the British, firstly by the cultivation of indigo plant and production of the dye in South Carolina, USA in mid 18th century, which was then a British colony. However, this stopped after the British colonies in USA gained their freedom after American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).It was then that British East India Company (BEIC) started its production in Bengal and part of the current Bihar states of India and continued it until the second decade of 20th century. The Company looked for ways to expand the area under indigo cultivation in India. From the last decades of the eighteenth century, indigo cultivation in Bengal rapidly expanded. Only about 30% of indigo imported to Britain in 1788 was from India. This figure went up to 95% by 1810.Commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in indigo production to increase their profit. Many Company officials even left their jobs to look after their indigo business. Many people from Scotland and England came to India and became planters; to grab the opportunity. The Company and banks were giving loans for indigo cultivation at that time. Thus, indigo crop has been associated with and created quite a bit of history.Faced by high prices charged by the British traders for indigo dye, German chemists had already started their search for making synthetic indigo and Adolf Baeyer succeeded in synthesizing it in 1882. This was followed by research by other German chemists, namely, Johannes Pfleger and Karl Heumann in the first decade of 20th century. The synthetic dye was much cheaper and blew the final blow to the natural plant produced indigo dye and indigo crop became a part of history. Now most of the indigo dye used world-over is made synthetically.Source Citation:Our Past III, NCERT: Class 8, Chapter: Ruling the CountrysideFrom Plassey to Partition by Sekhar BandyopadhyayaBipin Chandra: Gandhiji's Early Career and Activism