নীলদর্পণের অনুবাদ....পড়ে দেখা যেতে পারে - এইখানে

http://archive.org/stream/nildarpanorindig00mitriala/nildarpanorindig00mitriala_djvu.txt

এই লিংক টি কপি করে আড্রেস বার-এ পেস্ট করে মূল অনুবাদ দেখা যাবে।

(এই লিংক থেকে কপি করা)

NIL DARPAN, 



THE INDIGO PLANTING MIRROR, 



Brama, 



TRANSLATED FROM THE BENGALI 



A NATIVE. 



CAL CUTTA .- 

C. H. MANUEL, CALCUTTA PRINTING AND PUBLISHING PRESS, No. 10, 
WESTON'S LANE, COSSITOLLAJI. 



1861. 



INTBODUCTION. 



THE original Bengali of this Drama the NIL DARPAN, OR 
INDIGO PLANTING MIRROR having excited considerable in- 
terest, a wish was expressed by various Europeans to see a 
translation of it. This has been madefy a Native ; both the 
original and translation are bond fide Native productions and 
depiclthe Indigo Plan ting System as viewed by Natives at large. 

The Drama is the favourite mode with the Hindus for 
describing certain states of society, manners, customs. Since 
the days of Sir W. Jones, by scholars at Paris, St. Peters- 
burgh, and London, the Sanskrit Drama has, in this point of 
view, been highly appreciated. The Bengali Prama imitates 
in this respect its Sanskrit parent. The evils of Kulin 
Brahminism, widow marriage prohibition, quackery, fanaticism, 
have been depicted by it with great effect. 

Nor has the system of Indigo planting escaped 
notice : hence the origin of this work, the NIL DARPANT, 
which, though exhibiting no marvellous or very tragic 
scenes, yet, in simple homely language, gives the " annals 
of the poor ;" pleads the cause of those who are the 
feeble ; it describes a respectable ryot, a peasant proprietor, 
happy with his family in the enjoyment of his land till the 
Indigo System compelled him to take advances, to neglect his 
own land, to cultivate crops which beggared him, reducing him 
to the condition of a serf and a vagabond ; the effect of this 
on his home, children, and relatives are pointed out in language, 
plain but true ; it shows how arbitrary power debases the lord 
as well as the peasant ; reference is also made to the partiality 
of various Magistrates in favor of Planters and to the Act of 
last year penally enforcing Indigo contracts. 



2021470 



Attention has of late years been directed by Christian 
Philanthropists to the condition of the ryots of Bengal, their 
teachers, and the oppression which they suffer, and the con- 
clusion arrived at is, that therels little prospect or possibility 
of ameliorating the mental, moral, or spiritual condition of the 
ryot without giving him security of landed-tenure. If the 
Bengal ryot is to be treated as a serf, or a mere squatter or 
day-labourer, the missionary, the school-master, even the 
Developer of the resources of India, will find their work like 
that of Sisyphus vain and useless. 

Statistics have proved that in France, Switzerland, Hg"land, 
Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Saxony, the education of the 
peasant, along with the security of tenure he enjoys on his 
small farms, has encouraged industrious, temperate, virtuous, 
and cleanly habits, fostered a respect for property, increased 
social comforts, cherished a spirit of healthy and active 
independence, improved the cultivation of the land, lessened 
pauperism, and has rendered the people averse to revolu- 
tion, and friends of order. Even Russia is carrying out a 
grand scheme of serf-emancipation in this spirit. 

It is the earnest wish of the writer of these lines that 
harmony may be speedily established Jbetween the Planter 
and the Ryot, that mutual interests may bind the two 
classes together, and that the European may be in the 
Mofussil the protecting ^Egis of the peasants, who may be 
able " to sit eaph man under his mango and tamarind tree, 
none daring to make him afraid/'