<P> James Long believed that the British mercantile community and even the Government unjustly and oppressively treated the Indigo cultivators . His view concurred with Dinabandhu Mitra who expressed his sentiments in a play entitled Nil Darpan ( the original Bengali play was written by him ) and published anonymously from Dhaka in 1860 . Mitra sent Long a copy of the play as early as 1861 . Long brought it to the notice of W. S Seton - Karr , Secretary to the Governor of Bengal and ex-President of the Indigo Commission . Seton - Karr , sensing its importance , mentioned Nil Durpan in conversation with the Lieutenant Governor , Grant. Grant expressed a wish to see a translation of it and print a few copies to be circulated privately amongst friends . After the discussion , Seton - Karr asked Long to arrange for a translation of the play in English . Michael Madhusudan Dutta translated it under the supervision of Long . Long as the editor cut out some coarse passages and wrote a short prefatory note for the play . When the translation was complete , Seton - Karr ordered printing of five hundred copies in lieu of Grant 's wish of a few copies . Then Long sent the translated manuscripts to Clement Henry Manuel , the proprietor of the Calcutta Printing and Publishing Press to print five hundred copies and the cost came to around Rs. 300 . It was published in April or May 1861 . Unknown to the Lieutenant Governor , Long began sending out the copies in official Government envelopes that had the heading : `` on her Majesty 's Service '' . The translation revealed the nature of the oppression against the indigo planters . It naturally offended the establishment of the play so much that a razing propaganda was started by the Anglo - Indian Press against the publisher and the translator . One of the leading newspapers named The Englishmen and some indigo planters instituted a libel suit against Long and the printer - C.H. Manuel . The words mentioned in Long 's Introduction to the play stated that what was presented in it was `` plain but true '' . This was subsequently used by the planters in their prosecution of Long for publishing defamatory statements . </P>
who translated the play neel darpan into english
Michael Madhusudan Dutta