Tea in Assam

Location of photo taken : ASSAM

 Historical Background of Tea in Assam

Assam is the biggest producer of quality tea in India, contributing about 55 per cent to country‘s total tea production. It is generally believed that the people of Bodo tribe brought tea into Assam (Indialine, 2008). But they produced for themselves and hardly took it outside Assam. As pointed out by Bhuyan (1974) the tea plant was discovered in 1823 by Robert Bruce, merchant and soldier of fortune, during his visit to Rongpur, where he was imprisoned by the Burmese. A Singpho chief furnished Bruce with some plants. In 1824 Robert Bruce gave some plants to his brother C. A. Bruce who handed them over to David Scott. Scott in turn gave a few specimens to the Botanical Garden, Calcutta. The discovery of tea plant in Assam enabled the East India Company to develop a trade, which China had hitherto monopolized. Bruce was appointed superintendent of the government tea forest, who in 1837 sent 46 boxes of Assam tea to the tea committee. When, in 1824, Dr. N. Wallich of Botanical Garden identified these specimens it was the beginning of the scientific study of tea in India. Dr. Wallich visited Assam in 1834 and submitted his report in 1835. The Assam Company was accordingly formed in England in 1839 with a capital of Rs. 5 lakh. The Assam Company with its headquarters in Nazira is the oldest commercial tea company of Assam which is still functioning. The second company was formed in 1859 as the Jorhat Tea Company and even today its central office is at Jorhat. The first consignment of 12 boxes of tea manufactured by the Singpho chiefs were shipped from Calcutta to London in 1835. The first auction of tea took place in London on May 26, 1841, which was conducted by Ms McKenzie Lyll & Company. 35 chests of tea made by the Singphos and 95 chests from the government plantation of Assam were offered (North East Enquirer, 2002). The biggest research centre of tea in the world, now situated in Jorhat, was started in Calcutta in 1900 by the India Tea Association. In 1904, a laboratory was started at Heelea-kah Tea Estate near Mariani. In 1912, the laboratory was shifted to Tocklai (Jorhat) and was renamed as Tocklai Experimental Station. In 1964, the experimental station became Tea Research Association (TRA). The first Indian to start planting of tea was an Assamese nobleman Maniram Dutta Barma, popularly known as Maniram Dewan. He was a Dewan of Assam Company until he resigned in 1841 to start his own tea estate. He had two gardens at Jorhat and near Sonari. But the British hanged him in 1858 for taking part in mutiny in 1857. After Maniram Dewan‘s pioneering efforts, many others, mostly Assamese, came forward to plant tea. Someswar Sharma became the first Indian superintendent of the tea industry of the Manband Tea Company. After independence things started changing. The British dominated industry changed hands. Although the Jalans, Saharias, Ahmeds, Kanois, Darshan Lalls and few others were already there, the reputed industrialists of India like the Birla, Poddar, Paul, Shetia, Rhuia and Tata amongst other became the biggest producers of Assam tea. From 1823, the tea industry in Assam valley came a long way. Today there are about six lakh tea garden workers engaged in 850 tea gardens (North East Enquirer, 2002).

The Tea History Timeline

2727 BC CHINA - The Emperor Shen Nung discovers tea one day while drinking hot water in his garden. 600's Chinese character c'ha, meaning tea, comes into use

 780 CHINA - The first tax on tea in China, due to its popularity. The first book on tea, the Ch'a Ching (The Classic of Tea), written by the poet Lu Yu is published. Tea drinking becomes very popular at court, inspiring the custom of "Tribute tea", whereby tea growers "donate" their very best tea to the Emperor and the Imperial court. Due to its popularity, tea is taxed for the first tax in China.

794 Japanese monks plant tea bushes in Kyoto's Imperial gardens.

900 Japan is again influenced by Chinese culture, when Japanese scholars return from a visit to China bearing tea.

1191 JAPAN - The Buddhist abbot Yeisei re-introduces tea to Japan after travels in China. He brings tea seeds and knowledge of Buddhist rituals involving a bowl of shared tea. He also writes the first Japanese book about tea.

1261 JAPAN - Buddhist monks travel across Japan, spreading the art of tea and the Zen doctrine

1400's Tea drinking becomes prevalent among the masses in Japan

1521-1591 JAPAN - Sen Rikyu, known as the "father of tea" in Japan, codifies the tea ceremony.

1618 RUSSIA - Tea is introduced to Russia, when the Chinese embassy visits Moscow, bringing a chest of tea as a gift for the Czar Alexis.

1635 EUROPE - The "tea heretics" (doctors and university authorities) of Holland argue over the positive and negative effects of tea, while the Dutch continue to enjoy their newfound beverage. 1650/1660 NORTH AMERICA - A Dutch trader introduces tea to the Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (a small settlement in North America). Later, when the English acquired this colony, they found that the inhabitants of New Amsterdam (or New York as they chose to re-name it) consumed more tea than all of England.

1652 EUROPE - Tea is introduced to England by the Dutch East India Company.

1660 England's first tax on tea, levied at 8 pence for every gallon of tea sold at the coffeehouses.

1664 Tea drinking becomes very fashionable among the aristocracy of England, although the debate continues as to its medicinal value or harm.

1670 The English begin to make and use silver teapots.

1675 EUROPE - In Holland, tea is widely available for purchase in common food shops.

1685 England begins to trade directly with China. Tea and the Chinese word t'e (Amoy dialect) is brought to England directly from the Amoy region.

1699 EUROPE - England imports an average of 40,000 pounds of tea.

1708 EUROPE - England imports an annual average 240,000 pounds of tea. People of all levels of society now drink tea in England.

1716 Tea is brought to Canada by the Hudson Bay Company.

1750 Black tea exceeds green tea in popularity in Europe.

1767 England imposes high taxes on tea and other items sent to the American colonists. The colonists, resenting the monopoly that England has over them, begins to smuggle tea in from Holland.

1773 EUROPE - The John Company and the East India Company merge, forming the New East India Company. This new company had a complete monopoly on all trade and commerce in India and China. Trade with China is expensive however, and England's solution to its financial problem is opium. They begin to trade opium, (which they could grow cheaply in India) with the Chinese for tea. The Chinese would become addicted to the supply of opium, ensuring a constant supply of cheap tea to the English. The famous Boston Tea Party occurs when American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians push 342 chests of tea overboard. This act would eventually lead to the American Declaration of Independence of 1776.

1784 The grandson of Thomas Twinning persuades the Prime Minister William Pitt to drop the high taxes on tea, not only eliminating smuggling, but making tea an affordable luxury to Brits of all walks of life. The Comte de la Rochefoucauld writes"Throughout the whole of England the drinking of tea is general. You have it twice a day and though the expense is considerable, the humblest peasant has his tea just like the rich man."

1800 Tea gardens become popular haunts for fashionable Londoners.

1818 The Temperance Movement is founded as a result of rampant alcoholism brought on by the Industrial Revolution. Members seek salvation for the drunken men with "tea and god on their side". This movement eventually inspired the word "teetotaling".

1823 The first Indian tea bushes are "discovered" growing wild in the Assam region of India by British Army Major Robert Bruce.

1826 The first packaged tea is made available for purchase in England by the Horniman Tea Company. 1834 The "Tea Committee", appointed by the Governor-General Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, reports that tea can be successfully grown in India. Experiments with tea planting are conducted in the Darjeeling region of India.

1838 The British seriously set about planting and cultivating tea in the Assam region of India.

1839 The first chests of Assam tea arrive at the London Tea auctions. The British are ecstatic as this means that they are now able to successfully grow their own tea.

1842 CHINA - The Opium Wars end with England winning "the right" to trade opium for tea.

1850's EUROPE - The world's nations competed with one another in global clipper races to lay claim to the fastest ships. The fast sailing ships would race all the way from China to England, and up the Thames river to the Tea Exchange in London, where they would present the year's first crop of tea to be auctioned. Steamships would replace these tall ships by 1871.

1851 Full of "tea pride" the British exhibit their own Assam-grown tea at the Great Exhibition.

1854 The British introduce tea to Morocco.

1867 Scotsman James Taylor, manager of a coffee plantation in Ceylon, experiments with growing tea, planting both the China and India seed. The Assam seed flourishes and becomes the first commercial tea from Ceylon.

1898 Tea is introduced to Iran.

1900 RUSSIA - The Trans-Siberian Railroad is completed, ending camel caravan trade between Russia and China. In Russia, tea has become the national beverage (besides Vodka). Tea is planted in the Botanical gardens at Entebbe, Uganda. In England, teashops become the popular place for the working class to take their afternoon tea. By this time Lyon's has over 250 teashops, and taking tea, as meal away from home becomes a pert of daily life. The proprietor of the Aerated Bread Company begins to serve tea in the back of her shop to her favorite customers. Her back room becomes such a popular place to take afternoon tea that the company decides to open an actual teashop, the first of a chain of shops that would come to be known as the ABC teashop.

1903 Tea is planted in Kenya at Limuru. 1904 NORTH AMERICA - The first "iced tea" was served at the St. Louis World's Fair. A certain tea merchant had planned to give away samples of his tea to the fairgoers, and when unable to think of anything else to do when a heat wave threatened his plans, he dumped ice into his hot tea.

1906 The Book of Tea is written by Okakura Kakuzo, thus introducing the west to the Japanese Tea Ceremony and its history.

1914 British workers are given tea breaks throughout the day as this is thought to improve their productivity. British soldiers are given tea as part of their rations.

1953 The paper teabag is developed by the Tetley tea Company, thus transforming teadrinking habits around the world.

Tea Garden Labourers in Assam:

Assam's tea industry is dependent on about two million labourers almost all of whom are the descendents of those who were brought to Assam as slaves first by the East India Company and later by the British rulers and entrepreneurs from 1830‘s through 1920‘s, mostly from the Santhal Parganas district of Bihar (now in Jharkhand state). The descendents of these slaves, are now called tea tribes (Chatterjee and Das Gupta, 1981; Verghese, 1996). The tea tribes form the backbone of the Assamese tea industry. The tea-tribes are found mainly in the districts of Darrang, Sonitpur, Nagaon, Jorhat, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Cachar, Hailakandi, Karimganj, Tinsukia and almost all the districts of Assam (Wikipedia). It may be mentioned here that Santhali speaker tea tribes are also found in parts of Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts. The population of Santhali speakers is about 135,900. People from the Singpho, Boro, Moran and Kachari tribes are also involved in growing, and harvesting of tea. According to Behal (2006) the tea industry, from the 1840‘s onwards the earliest commercial enterprise established by private British capital in the Assam Valley, had been the major employer of wage labour there during colonial rule. It grew spectacularly during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when tea production increased from 6,000,000 lb in 1872 to 75,000,000 lb in 1900 and the area under tea cultivation expanded from 27,000 acres to 204,000 acres. Employment of labour in the Assam Valley tea plantations increased from 107,847 in 1885 to 247,760 in 1900, and the industry continued to grow during the first half of the twentieth century. At the end of colonial rule the Assam Valley tea plantations employed nearly half a million labourers out of a labour population of more than three-quarters of a million, and more than 300,000 acres were under tea cultivation out of a total area of a million acres controlled by the tea companies. As described by the Wikipedia, the Teatribes of Assam are among the backward and most exploited tribes in India, though their newer generation is comparatively educated and now it has intellectuals and professionals in various fields. The Tea tribes, being basically labourers, live in villages, inside tea-estates (established by tea-planters). These estates are located in interior places and this contributes to the backwardness and exploitation of them by the tea-planters. The workers, in a way, have to live with the basic facilities provided by the tea-planters. The tea-planters, usually exploit the teatribes in every possible way. Violence and agitation of labours against the management is common, where the state machinery normally protects the teaplanters. Noneducation, poverty, addiction of males to country-beer, poor standard of living and health facilities are the problems in their life. There are instances when teaplanters do not even supply the life-saving drugs when workers are dying out of epidemics. The 'welfare officer' appointed in every tea-estate due to compulsion from Govt. of India, are mostly show-pieces than of any good.