ctions were often made by them on the cultivators
on the occasions of domestic events, such as births, marriages,
deaths, and such like, in the families of the landowners. For years
these exactions or feudal payments by the ryot to the Zemindar have
been commuted by the factories into a lump sum in cash, when villages
have been taken in farm, and this sum has been paid to the Zemindar as
an enhanced rent. In the majority of cases it has not been levied from
the cultivators, but the whole expense has been borne by the factory.
In individual instances resort may have been had to unworthy tricks to
harass the ryots, the factory middle-men having often been oppressors
and tyrants; but as a body, the indigo planters of the present day
have sternly set their faces to put down these oppressions, and have
honestly striven to mete out even-handed justice to their tenants and
dependants. With the spread of education and intelligence, the
development of agricultural knowledge and practical science, and the
vastly improved communication by roads, bridges, and ferries, in
bringing about all of which the planting community themselves have
been largely instrumental, there can be little doubt that these old
fashioned charges against the planters as a body will cease, and
public opinion will be brought to bear on any one who may promote his
own interests by cruelty or rapacity, instead of doing his business on
an equitable commercial basis, giving every man his due, relying on
skill, energy, industry, and integrity, to promote the best interests
of his factory; gaining the esteem and affection of his people by
liberality, kindness, and strict justice.

It can never be expected that a ryot can grow indigo at a loss to
himself, or at a lower rate of profit than that which the cultivation
of his other ordinary crops would give him, without at least some
compensating advantages. With all his poverty and supposed stupidity,
he is keenly alive to his own interests, quite able to hold his own in
matters affecting his pocket. I have no hesitation in saying that the
steady efforts which have been made by all the best planters to treat
the ryot fairly, to give him justice, to encourage him with liberal
aid and sympathy, and to put their mutual relations on a fair business
footing, are now bearing fruit, and will result in the cultivation and
manufacture of indigo in Upper Bengal becoming, as it deserves to
become, one of the most firmly establish