The exploitation of british colonialism was borne by the Indian peasants adversely. However the peasants fought against the Britishers at every single step. There was a change in the resistance behaviour of the peasant`s cause they started fighting for their demands and the unjust done to them.

This behaviour came in more action after 1858. One of the most popular event of peasant revolt was the indigo cultivation in Bengal in 1859-60 where the peasants were forced to cultivate indigo and sell them at cheaper rates to the Britishers. The cultivation of indigo would make their lands infertile and bare forever. If the peasants refused to cultivate indigo they would be beaten illegally, ruthlessly and brutally so as to compel them to cultivate indigo. This oppression was portrayed very well by famous Bengali writer Dinbandu Mitra in his play Neel Darpan in 1860. After this, the peasants got frustrated and burst out into anger and refrained from cultivating indigo. The intelligentsia of Bengal rose and organized a powerful campaign for the support of peasants. The government was compelled to appoint a commission for investigation and mitigation of the system. But still the battle could not be solved and the oppression of Britishers and resistance of peasants continued. The indigo peasants of Bihar revolted in large scale in Darbhanga and Champaran in 1866-68. Once again unrest broke out amidst peasants in 1870`s in East Bengal. The powerful and cunning zamindars were infamous for their notorious acts for oppression of the tenants. . They freely took recourse to ejection, harassment, illegal seizure of property, including crops and chattels and extortions, and large-scale use of force to increase rents and to prevent the peasants from acquiring occupancy rights. The Bengal peasants also had a long tradition of resistance stretching back to 1782, when the peasants of North Bengal had rebelled against the East India Company`s revenue farmer, Debi Singh. From 1872 to 1876 the peasants came together unitedly in the form of No-rent union and fought against the zamindars and their agents. It was stopped only when the government suppressed the peasants acts of violence. This created a situation of uneasiness and unrest amongst the peasants and it ended when the government promised to take some action on the zamindari oppression. But this time again large sections of the new intelligentsia gave support to the peasants` cause.

A major agrarian unrest took place in Poona and Ahmednagar -districts of Maharashtra in 1875. In Maharashtra the british government had directly settled the revenue with the peasants. At the same time ,it increased the rates of revenue so high that it was impossible to pay the revenue and they had no option left other than borrowing the money from the moneylenders who charged high interest rates. More and more land got mortgaged and sold out to the moneylenders who tried their level best to achieve the land at legal and illegal terms. Peasant patience got exhausted by the end of the year1875 and huge agrarian riots took place. Police failed in meeting the fury of peasant`s resistance which was suppressed only when the whole military force at Poona took the field against them. Once again the modern intelligentsia of Maharashtra supported the peasant`s demands. But it pointed out that the source of misery of peasants was high revenue rates and government`s incapabilities to provide loan at cheaper rates.

Peasant unrest also broke out in several other parts of country such as North Kerala and Assam. The situation provoked in Assam because of high land revenue assessment. The peasants refused to pay enhanced revenue demands to the landlords and fought against the land revenue collectors to seize their lands. The situation worsened and Police had to mobilize their network to suppress the peasants. Many peasants were killed ruthlessly and brutally in the riots. The barbarous behaviour of the police is till today remembered by the people of Assam.

These movements or riots of peasants at any time did not create any threat to the british rule but proved that the Indian peasants reactions were instant and spontaneous to every situation. Every time they were tortured so adversely that they had to rebel. But the Peasants always resisted the britishers efforts to get control and power in the name of maintaining law and order. Thus, in practical the illiterate and ignorant people performed acts of appreciation against the menace of the increasing british colonialism that even the higher class and literates could not perform. But at the same time their acts were doomed to failure. Their faith, their courage and heroism, their willingness to make immense sacrifices were no match against the imperialist power armed with the latest weapons and the resources of a world-wide empire. The popular movements and rebellions of the 19th century did, however, reveal the immense sources of resistance to imperialism that lay dormant among the Indian people.