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Born in Gopalnagar in 1830, playwright Dinabandhu Mitra’s ‘Nil Darpan’ had a major impact on the Indigo Revolt of 1859 as it narrated a heart-rending portrayal of the Indigo farmers of Bengal. It stunned both, the Bengali readers and the colonial masters in equal measure.

Mitra’s job at the Postal department provided him with ample opportunity to travel to different parts of the country and study human life closely. This helped him gain a unique sense of Realism in his works. The play depicting the intimidation, exploitation and dehumanization of the indigo farmers and lack of redressal through the judicial system, was performed in Calcutta with great success, and caught the attention of both the victims and the pro-planter rulers. It soon became a talking point in Europe and was translated into several other languages, thus gaining the playwright large-scale popularity, and landing the British government in trouble.