Betrayal under Colonial Oppression: Human Nature and Psychological Conflict through Xunzi and Freud in Dinabandhu Mitra’s Nil Durpan or the Indigo Planting Mirror

Abstract

In the light of Dinabandhu Mitra’s Nil Durpan or the Indigo Planting Mirror, this article explores human behaviour under colonial oppression, exclusively focusing on betrayal within the oppressed community. It holds an interdisciplinary approach combining Xunzi’s philosophy of human nature as inherently evil with Freudian psychoanalysis. This combination examines how self-interested human tendencies are expressed through desire, moral conflict, fear, guilt, and self-preservation. Both these perspectives together are used to examine the actions of the native characters, the Amin, the Dewan, Podi Moyrani, and the native newspaper editors. Xunzi’s philosophy explains the characters’ pursuit of profit, status, and personal advantage as manifestations of humanity’s natural tendencies, while Freud’s psychoanalysis shows the psychological conflicts through which these tendencies are expressed, rationalized, suppressed, or repeated. The article argues that Nil Durpan or the Indigo Planting Morrir does not merely critique the exploitative colonial system but also reveals the psychological and moral conflicts that arise when personal desires for profit, security, and advancement come into conflict with ethical and communal responsibilities. Ultimately, the study shows how colonial oppression strengthens existing human tendencies and exploits individual psychological weaknesses, turnining the members of the oppressed community into active participants in their own community’s oppression.