Tinkaihia has bound the raiyat like the coil of a serpent from which whether it be legal or not the raiyats have ever striven to get free and from which the Government had hitherto made unsuccessful attempts to free them. The raiyats were not so much opposed to the cultivation of indigo as to the system under which it was cultivated .The oppressive system of indigo cultivation formed the subject of the ryots ,chief complaint from the very beginning. Sir John Peter Grant, in his brilliant Minute,1 recorded on the Indigo Commission Report of 1861 states that even the early indigo planters were in the habit of "obliging the raiyats who reside in the vicinity of their respective factories to receive advances, and of adopting other illicit and improper means to compel them to cultivate indigo".2 Whoever touched even for once the indigo planters-advance became a slave forever, for ryots' debt to the planter descends from generation to generation.3 The system under which indigo was grown had always been attended with a very large amount of human suffering. And yet the ryots submitted peacefully because the indigo plant brought them more money than food grains, for the export of which there were far more smaller facilities in those day than they existed in later times.4
Keywords: Tinkathia , raiyat, indigo, zamindar, Zerait, Khushki, Kurtauli, Assamiwar.
Introduction: The main systems of indigo cultivation as practised in the northern districts of Bihar were :
1. Zerait or Niz system.
2. Khushki system.
3. Kurtauli or Shikmi system.
4. Assamiwar or Ryoti system.
Under the Zerait or Niz system, the planter cultivates the plant on his own lands, of which he is either the zamindar or which he has taken on lease from a zamindar. The common use of the term Zerait is not confined to its legal significance. "Any land in direct occupation held by a proprietor or superior tenure-holder which is not raiyati is called Zerait."5 The factory owners under this system used to cultivate the land in their possession with the help of their own ploughs and bullocks. The entire burden of cultivation used to be on the factory.
Under the Khushki system the ryots voluntarily undertook to grow indigo without any agreement. The ryots have usually no connection with the factory, nor do they receive necessarily any advance.6 The factory supplies the seed, but all the cultivation is done by the ryots, who select their own lands, and when the crop is cut, are paid at a privileged rate. The ryots who agree to grow indigo under this system are generally cultivators holding lands in other estates.
Under the Kurtauli or Shikmi system the factory becomes a sub-tenant of a ryot and grows indigo with its own labour.7 The factory is in short a more under- ryot. The Kurtuali leases are seldom found in Champaran and appear to be more common in the Motihari area of the district than anywhere else.8
The most irksome and dreaded system of indigo planting was Assamiwar or Ryoti system which was popularly known as 'Tinkathia system in North Bihar.” The raiyati system is the fruitful mother of innumerable evils."9 Under this system the factory got indigo grown by the tenants. This used to be carried out in several ways, but the most prevalent method was that known as Tinkaihia. Under the hated tinkathia system the ryots were bound to cultivate indigo for their European landlord on the three-twentieths of their holdings. This was arranged between planter and ryot by means of Satta.10 So under this system a portion of the tenant's holding was reserved for the cultivation of indigo. The portion of a tenant's holding so reserved had varied from time to time. Before the indigo difficulties of 1867 the portion demanded by the planters was larger, amounting to five or six kathas.11 In about 1867 following the agitation of ryots the area was reduced from five kattha to three kattas 12. Since then the system came to be called as Tinkatihia or the system of three kathas. Although the area was further reduced, after the indigo uprising of 1907-1908, from three to two kathas in 1909 but the name Tinkathia remained unchanged. To be accurate and veracious the system should have been termed as Panch-kathia before 1867, Tinkathia after 1867 and from 1909 onwards as Du-kathia. The cultivation of indigo was more extensive in Champaran than in any other district of Bihar. During the survey of 1892-97, indigo used to be grown on 95,970 acres, that is 6.63 per cent of the land under cultivation. 13Out of this one-fourth was cultivated under the Zerait system and the remaining three-fourths was grown under the Assamiwar or the Tinkathia system.14
