Setting up of Tea Estates in Assam

In 1839, the Bengal Tea Association was set up in Calcutta. The establishment of the Tea Association had a motivating effect and a host of private companies came into being. In the same year, the first company for planting and manufacturing of tea in India was set up under the name Assam Tea Company with its headquarters in Nazira and Sibsagar. The Assam wasteland Rules of 1838 made it possible to lease large tracts of land to tea companies for cultivation. The first ten years of manufacturing tea were a difficult period. The expenses of cultivation were exorbitant. The production of tea could be stabilized only in 1847 -with improved methods of cultivation, better financial management and regular supply of labourers from different parts of the country. Slowly, cultivation and production of tea started all over the country. Tea cultivation spread to Sylhet, Tripura and Chittagong from the Cachar District-Commercial cultivation, of tea started in Darjeeling in 1852. In 1877 the British set up Dooars Tea Plantation Association in the foothills of Darjeeling.

The story of the pioneers of tea plantations is one of courage, entrepreneurship and determination. Sir Percival Griffiths, one of the most respected tea historians, commented that early entrepreneurs had to "hew their way through trackless jungles to cope with disease and the ravages of wild beasts, to recruit and maintain the morale of the workers from the distant provinces and last, but not least, to learn the technique of tea cultivation and manufacture."

The pioneers and local inhabitants played a major role in developing infrastructure like roads, bridges, railways and steamers for transportation of goods and human beings.

TEA AND HIMALAYAS

Contribution of Workmen

While the entrepreneurs did a marvellous job in flagging off the tea enterprise, the contribution of labourers in the development of the tea industry was no less important. When tea gardens were set up in Assam, the state was thinly populated. Most of the Assamese people had their own landed property and were not dependent on jobs. Initially they had a lot of reservations to work as daily wage earners in the tea gardens.

They thought it was below their dignity to work for someone else for a livelihood. The tea garden owners had to bring workers from different parts of the country through agents for setting up gardens and for manufacture of tea. Sometimes due to the high demand of labour the suppliers and agents used to employ various kinds of tricks, persuasion, force and appeasement, to get the labourers to work in the tea gardens. In the early years the plantation labourers were exploited. They were given shelter, food and clothing but the wage was minimal. They used to toil on the field and in the factory.

Any indiscipline was ruthlessly crushed. Labourers were mortally afraid of their boss. Today's concept of productive partners of progress was unknown then. Labourers coming from the different states of India developed a new culture of integration. Initially these workers were not acceptable to the local population. There was no intermixing between the native population and the newly created agro-industrial work force. But these colourful people evolved a new and fascinating culture with their songs and dance. Slowly, the children of the tea labour left behind their native heritage and developed a new one, from the melting pot they were born in. Over the years, they became a part of the local society. The tales of joy and sorrow of the early workers found expression in music and literature

History of Darjeeling

The History of Darjeeling covers the history of Darjeeling town and its adjoining hill areas belonging to Nepal (the birthplace of Gautam Buddha), but eventually part of British India so now in the Indian state of West Bengal, which is intertwined with the history of Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan, Bengal and Great Britain, i.e. the East India Company. Originally part of the state of Sikkim, Darjeeling became part of an important buffer state between Nepal and Bhutan. The British, using the area as a sanitarium, found that the climate provided excellent tea-cultivating conditions and soon began to grow tea on the hills of Darjeeling. Darjeeling tea stands as a famous export from Darjeeling until this day.

Archibald Campbell or Arthur Campbell (1805–1874) of the Bengal Medical Service (the Indian Medical Service according to some sources) was the first superintendent of the sanatorium of Darjeeling town in India. He is also referred to as the first superintendent of Darjeeling. He was transferred from Kathmandu to Darjeeling in 1839. In 1841, Dr Campbell brought tea seeds from the Kumaun region in China and started to grow tea near his residence at Beechwood, Darjeeling, on an experimental basis. His experiments were followed by similar efforts by several others, and soon, tea began to be cultivated in the area as Darjeeling tea. In 1849, Dr Campbell and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (a famous naturalist and explorer) were imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim when they were touring the Sikkim region towards the Chola pass in Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate with the king of Sikkim. However, they were released without any bloodshed. Dr Campbell wrote many papers on Himalayan geography and at least one paper on the Lepchas of Sikkim. The magnolia species, Magnolia campbellii, is named after him.

The Rajah of Darjeeling Organic Tea is about Makaibari - the first tea garden in the Himalayan Highlands. This book captures the magic of Makaibari and provides a rare glimpse of one of Darjeeling’s greatest characters - the Thunderbolt Rajah. He is a champion of the organic tea movement, a social activist for tea labourers and small organic farmers, an anthropologist who works tirelessly to preserve the cultural heritage of the Himalayan region and an environmentalist who fights to conserve its rich biodiversity.

Rajah Banerjee is a living legend in Darjeeling. As an environmental investigator, he has studied the huge and magnificent model, Makaibari, for years. He is a follower of Rudolf Steiner - the Austrian philosopher who founded the biodynamic agriculture movement, the predecessor to organic farming. Based on Steiner's biodynamic principles, Rajah converted Makaibari to an organic tea estate in 1988, abjuring the accepted practice of maximizing yields through artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Rajah moves on foot and horseback, interacting and learning from everyone who crosses his path - the lone traveller, the tea estate residents, social activists, visiting scholars and agronomists, to name a few.

The Rajah of Darjeeling Organic Tea chronicles the evolution of Makaibari, a homestead which, by merely addressing and redressing its problems on the ground and from the ground, has become an ideal, a panchavati, where the home and the forest are merged in identity. It is an outstanding archetype of human beings in nature, producing peace, not just tea leaves of extraordinary quality. Makaibari is a Vedic village of which Ayurvedic tea is a mere by-product, and not its singular

identity.

Included with this book is the award-winning hour-long documentary The Lord of Darjeeling (both in English and French) made by Xavier de Lauzanne, the renowned documentary filmmaker from France, which captures the true spirit of Makaibari, and is moving audiences at various festivals globally.

The Leaves are always Green, but for the makers it turns brown …

Production of tea has declined steeply in Assam and West Bengal. A spell of bad weather poor rainfall in February and March has left the tea leaves scorched on the bushes and denuded large chunks of plantations in both states. As a result, tea production in April and May has been lower by an estimated 30 million kg or 2.5 per cent of India's total tea production of 1,200 million kg in 2013. But it's premier tea country Assam and north Bengal—the scenic Dooars, Upper Assam, Lower Assam, Siliguri and Darjeeling—which account for most of the production fall.

To deliver them from this bad spell, the tea industry expects the govern¬ment to increase outlays to the Tea Board. If the government does not do so, then the teaholic will have to bear the additional cost!

So far, tea prices have remained 'firm'—the commodity opened 5-10 per cent higher in 2014 compared to 2013, and another hike cannot be ruled out.

The tea industry is not just about what it finally produces—tea. It's also about the backyard of tea; where it's grown, processed and manufac¬tured and how. A lot of hard work will have to be done to understand this as¬pect of tea, beyond just drinking it."