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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteThe 1861 English edition of Nil Darpan turned a Bengali play about indigo cultivation and the suffering of Bengal’s ryots into a public controversy. Its introduction, written by the missionary James Long, presented the work’s accusations to English-speaking readers. Indigo planters and a pro-planter newspaper treated the publication as defamatory, and Long was prosecuted for libel in Calcutta. The case concerned publication and circulation of accusations against planters—not a general prohibition on translation.
What Nil Darpan was about
Nil Darpan, or The Indigo Planting Mirror, dramatized the hardships associated with indigo cultivation in Bengal and the vulnerable position of ryots—cultivators who could be pressured into growing indigo rather than crops for their own use. The introduction to the 1861 English edition described a ryot who, after taking advances, was driven away from his own cultivation into a crop that impoverished him. The play’s subject and its criticism of planters’ conduct made its claims politically contentious.
![Bishop Cotton's View on the Nil Darpan Question. [Reprinted from the Calcutta Christian Intelligencer of September, 1861, and edited by James Long.]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xRZhuvCyL._SL160_.jpg)
The date of the Bengali original is not consistent in the cited accounts. An academic chapter gives 1859, while an editorial note to a later edition gives 1860; “around 1859–60” is therefore the cautious description unless the Bengali imprint itself is checked. The academic discussion of Dinabandhu Mitra’s play and the later edition’s editorial note reflect that discrepancy.
What changed with the English edition
The Calcutta edition published in 1861 was titled Nil Darpan, or The Indigo Planting Mirror. Its title page says it was “translated from the Bengali by A Native” and names C. H. Manuel’s Calcutta Printing and Publishing Press. James Long supplied an editorial introduction that framed the drama for European readers as an account of the indigo system “as viewed by Natives at large.” In its own words, the introduction says the play “gives the ‘annals of the poor;’ pleads the cause of those who are the feeble.” Read the digitized 1861 English text for the title page and introduction.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThat framing helped carry the play’s allegations beyond its Bengali readership. Long’s association with the edition and its circulation made him a focus of the dispute. Contemporary bibliographic evidence records a state trial for publication of Nil Durpan, while historical accounts connect the prosecution to objections from indigo planters and the pro-planter press. The issue was not that translating a play was itself illegal: it was that Long’s publication and presentation of the accusations were alleged to libel the planters.
Why the translator’s identity is uncertain
The 1861 title page credits the translator only as “A Native.” Later tradition identifies the translator as Michael Madhusudan Dutt, but the academic account notes that the identity remains uncertain. It is more accurate to preserve the contemporary attribution than to present Dutt’s authorship of the translation as settled fact.
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What happened to James Long
The trial took place in Calcutta in July 1861. A modern historical account reports that Long was convicted and sentenced to one month in prison and a fine of 1,000 rupees. Those details are secondary reporting; the contemporary trial report by James Long is the relevant source for the proceedings and exact courtroom language.
The case thus linked a literary work about indigo cultivation with a legal dispute over the publication of accusations against planters. The surviving title-page credit also leaves an important distinction intact: Long’s role in introducing and circulating the English edition is documented, while the translator’s personal identity is not established by that edition.
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How to explore the text and trial record
- Read the play and its 1861 introduction: Project Gutenberg’s transcription of the English edition.
- Consult the trial report: Google Books’ record for Long’s 1861 report.
- Check a later edition’s catalogue record: the University of Calicut catalogue entry for a 1972 edition notes an edition that reproduces the 1861 title page and includes trial material in its appendices.
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