CAPITALISING AGKICULTUBE 177 



expenditure. There can be no doubt that the indigo 

 industry received a great stimulus from the English 

 capital and enterprise that were attracted to it. But 

 the system had its drawbacks. Disputes were com- 

 mon between the European factories on the one 

 hand, and the neighbouring zemindars and the 

 labourers, on the other hand. These disputes caused 

 difficulties to the administration in many cases, and 

 in the Nadiya district in 1860 they culminated in 

 serious riots which greatly crippled the indigo business. 

 Government were at the time severely criticised for 

 not vigorously supporting these European zemindars 

 in the interests of the economic development of the 

 country. Still on general principles it was certainly a 

 sound policy on the part of the early British adminis- 

 trators in India to sacrifice a short cut to economic 

 progress, which could hardly have given a sound 

 foundation to normal development, would probably 

 have created serious administrative difficulties, and 

 would certainly have caused permanent dissatisfaction 

 to some classes of the Indian community. The 

 question of equity in connection with a general policy 

 of this nature has not been mentioned, but it may be 

 of interest to quote the opinion * of a professor of 

 the Yale University expressed in a very impartial 

 comparison of the land policy adopted by the Dutch 

 in Java and by the British in India, respectively : 

 'There is," he says, "this essential difference that 



* (« 



The Dutch in Java," by Clive Day (Macmillan, 1904). 



12 



