Indigo cultivation in India declined by the beginning of the 20th century because of
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) its unprofitability in the world market because of new inventions
Indigo lost its market because synthetic (man-made) dyes were discovered in the late nineteenth century, which made the plant dye unprofitable in world trade. Peasant revolt and political protest hurt the planters earlier, but the final decline was economic.
- ✗ (a) The peasants' Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 collapsed indigo production in Bengal, but the planters simply shifted their operations to Bihar. Resistance did not end the crop.
- ✓ (b) The discovery of synthetic dyes in the late nineteenth century severely hit the planters' business, since man-made dye competed with the plant-based indigo on the world market.
- ✗ (c) Gandhi's Champaran visit of 1917 was about the cultivators' plight under the planters, not a national campaign against growing indigo, and it came after synthetic dyes had already hurt the trade.
- ✗ (d) Nothing in this history shows the government's control over planters ending the crop; the fall came from the market once synthetic dyes arrived.
Remember · Natural indigo collapsed because synthetic dyes arrived in the late 1800s. The 1859-60 revolt only pushed planters from Bengal to Bihar.
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·