Appendix VI.—Indigo Labour in Behar
ment Officer, South Bihar. Mr. Tanner, it may be stated, was the Sub-Divisional Officer of Bettiah, when indigo riots broke out in that sub-division in 1908.
The committee's duty will also be to examine the evidence on those subjects already available, supplementing it by such further enquiry, local and otherwise, as they may consider desirable, and to report their conclusions to the Government, stating the measures they recommend in order to remove any abuse or grievances, which they may find to exist. The Lieut-Governor in Council has left a free hand to the Committee as to the procedure they will adopt in arriving at the facts. The committee will assemble about the 15th July, and will, it is hoped, complete their labours within three months.
Government Resolution
The resolution, appointing this Committee, says:—On various occasions during the past fifty years, the relations of landlords and tenants and the circumstances, attending the growing of indigo in the Champaran District, have been the cause of considerable anxiety. The conditions under which indigo was cultivated when the industry was flourishing, required readjustment when it declined simultaneously, with a general rise in the prices of food grains, and it was partly on this account and partly owing to other local causes that disturbances broke out in certain
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