Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India [Hardcover]

Prakash Kumar documents the global history of agricultural indigo, exploring the effects of nineteenth-century globalisation on a colonial industry in South Asia.Prakash Kumar documents the history of agricultural indigo, exploring the effects of nineteenth-century globalization on a colonial industry in South Asia. Kumar shows how the colonial indigo on the Indian subcontinent in the nineteenth century was linked with prior Indian peasant traditions, the plantation system in the Caribbean, and with other parallel systems of indigo culture in India. Colonial India's indigo was consumed by dyers and printers throughout the world. The launch of synthetic indigo, which was purer and cheaper, threatened the production of the agricultural dye. European planters in India then sought to find ways to cheapen the cost of the agricultural dye and improve its purity.Prakash Kumar documents the history of agricultural indigo, exploring the effects of nineteenth-century globalization on a colonial industry in South Asia. Kumar shows how the colonial indigo on the Indian subcontinent in the nineteenth century was linked with prior Indian peasant traditions, the plantation system in the Caribbean, and with other parallel systems of indigo culture in India. Colonial India's indigo was consumed by dyers and printers throughout the world. The launch of synthetic indigo, which was purer and cheaper, threatened the production of the agricultural dye. European planters in India then sought to find ways to cheapen the cost of the agricultural dye and improve its purity.Prakash Kumar documents the history of agricultural indigo, exploring the effects of nineteenth-century globalization on a colonial industry in South Asia. Kumar discusses how the knowledge of indigo culture thrived among peasant traditions on the Indian subcontinent in the early modern period. Caribbean planters and French naturalists then developed and codified this knowledge into widely disseminated texts. European planl£7