Dissecting A “Radical” Literature : A Critical Study of the play “Neel Darpan”

Abstract

The Revolt of 1857 saw the congregation of the peasants and the rural landowners in order to
display a collective consciousness against colonial power. This coming together of the binaries
was not only limited to that event but could be witnessed again in the context of Bengal. The
atrocious acts of the Indigo planters on the peasantry compelled the rural landlords to support
the cause of peasants, leading to an Indigo rebellion in 1859. The rebellion caught the attention
of many writers, however what overshadowed all literature on the Indigo rebellion was the
play, Neel Darpan written by Dinabandhu Mitra, depicting the plight of peasants of rural
Bengal who were forced to cultivate indigo against food crops. Through this essay, I attempt to
study and incorporate new possibilities of understanding, questioning, reviving and writing of
the ‘subaltern past.’ The essay will primarily deal with understanding the nature of the play,
away from the nationalist approach and dissect important themes embedded in the play.
Employing the methodology of reading the play “along the grain” and “against the grain”, I aim
to bring forth certain new questions which might contribute to re-think the play from a new
perspective.