Reading Nil Darpan as a Resistance Narrative

Dinabandhu Mitra’s Nil Darpan paves a way of talking about the political and discursive strategies of the colonized societies. Like a typical resistance narrative it unveiled the greed, tyranny, injustice and jingoism of the British usurpers, shaking conscience and spurring an urge for emancipation from arbitrarily imposed cultivation of indigo instead of food crops. The narrative subtly rebuffs western justification of their domination of indigenous people through racist, inhuman and illogical theories such as ‘white man’s burden’ to rule the indigenous people. The story of Sawrpur village expresses an urge freedom from the brutish oppression of the British colonial legacy. Nil Darpan translated as The Indigo Planting Mirror causes social awareness bringing to the fore the inhuman treatment meted out to the peasants of Bengal and sets the first step to the freedom of India through the indigo riot. The play revolves around an old landlord Galok Chandra Basu and his family and the peasant of lower Bengal through the scenes of physical torture, rape, murder, death by the indigo planters. Through the resistance voice of Nobin Madhav, and the Muslim peasant Torap, it depicts the liberal pathos among the people of different classes against the British oppression along with its ironical contrast.