A History of Assam c24: Chapter XVIII. Growth of the Tea Industry

A History of Assam c24

Language: English

Chapter XVIII. Growth of the Tea Industry

DURING the century for which Assam has been under British rule and enjoyed the blessings of a settled Government, its material prosperity has increased rapidly. Its trade has grown, and its exports of mustard seed, potatoes (introduced in the Khāsi hills by David Scott), silk and other local produce have increased greatly, both in quantity and value. A large part of the lime used in Bengal is supplied from the quarries on the southern face of the Khāsi hills. Coal has been discovered and worked in various parts, especially in the neighbourhood of Mākum in the Lakhimpur district; and mineral oil has been found at Digboi in the same district, where wells have been sunk for its extraction. But by far the most important factor in the growing prosperity and commercial importance of the province has been the remarkable expansion of the tea industry. The discovery that the tea plant grows wild in the upper part of the Brahmaputra valley was made by Mr. Robert Bruce, who has already been mentioned as an agent, first of Purandar Singh, and afterwards of his rival Chandrakānt. He visited Garhgaon for trading purposes in 1823 and there learnt of its existence from a Singpho chief, who promised to obtain some specimens for him. In the following year, these were made over to his brother, Mr. C. A. Bruce, who had left England in 1809 as a midshipman on a ship belonging to the East India Company, and who, on the outbreak of the Burmese war, volunteered for service and was sent up to Sadiya in command of a division of gun boats. Some of the plants thus obtained were submitted to David Scott, by whom they were forwarded to the Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, for examination. They were pronounced to be of the same family, but not the same species, as the plant from which the Chinese manufacture their tea.

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Nothing further seems to have happened until 1832. In that year Captain Jenkins was deputed to report on the resources of Assam, and the existence of the tea plant was pressed upon his notice by Mr. C. A. Bruce. Its identity with the tea of commerce was still doubted by the Calcutta botanists, but its existence was believed to prove that the latter would thrive in India, and Government decided to take steps to introduce it. A Tea Committee consisting of seven civilians, three Calcutta merchants, two native gentlemen, and Dr. Wallich of the Botanical Gardens, was appointed to further this object, and its Secretary, a Mr. Gordon, was sent to China to procure plants, seeds and persons skilled in tea manufacture. Meanwhile fresh enquiries were instituted in Assam under the auspices of Captain Jenkins, and the reports submitted by him and Lieutenant Charlton at last convinced the botanists, the Tea Committee and the Government of the identity of the Assam plant with that of China.

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It has sometimes been said that Lieutenant Charlton, and not Mr. Bruce, is entitled to the honour of the discovery of tea in Assam, and in his *Memorandum on Tea Cultivation* written in 1873, the late Sir John Edgar referred to their rival claims as an open question. Lieutenant Charlton, however, did not go to Assam until after the first specimens of the indigenous plant had been sent to Calcutta. The most that he can lay claim to is the final proof that the plant found in Assam is identical with that cultivated in China, but this also is doubtful. Next to Mr. C. A. Bruce, Captain Jenkins seems to have the strongest claim, and he was presented with a gold medal in recognition of his services in this matter by the Agricultural Society of Calcutta.

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The brothers Bruce are given the credit for the discovery of tea in Robinson’s *Descriptive Account of Assam*, which was published in 1841; and, in a report submitted in 1835 by Dr. Wallich of the Tea Committee,* who was sent to

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Rival claimants to discovery.

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∗ This report is quoted in an anonymous pamphlet entitled *Assam: Sketch of its History, Soil and Productions*. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1839.

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Assam to investigate the question of tea cultivation, it is stated that "it was Mr. Bruce and his late brother Major Robert Bruce at Jorhat who originally brought the Assam tea to public notice many years ago when no one had the slightest idea of its existence." Lastly, there is the following note on the margin of a copy in the India Office Library of Mr. Cosh's Topography of Assam, published in 1837, which, I am informed, is in the handwriting of Captain Jenkins himself:—

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"The Tea Committee of Calcutta only became convinced about the end of 1835 that the tea of Assam was the true tea of commerce; previous to that date the specimens alluded to in the text were referred to Camelia by the botanists of Calcutta. The merit of the discovery rests solely with Mr. Bruce, who in 1836 manufactured some specimens which were sent home, but were unfit for use. The samples of 1837 were prepared by the Chinese manufacturers brought from China by Mr. Gordon. The samples of 1838, lately received, are also by the Chinese and by natives instructed by them."

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As a consequence of the discovery, Mr. C. A. Bruce was appointed "Superintendent of the Government Tea Forests," and he at once set himself to discover all the tracts in Lakhimpur where the tea plants were at all plentiful, and to arrange for the purchase of the leaf. This was plucked by the Singphos and other villagers, and brought at irregular intervals to the factory.

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But although it was now admitted that the Assam plant was undoubtedly a variety of the true tea plant of China, it was still thought that it had degenerated by neglect of cultivation, and that the proper course would be to introduce the cultivated plant from that country. Mr. Bruce was therefore supplied, not only with some skilled Chinese tea manufacturers, but also with a few of the plants brought to India by Mr. Gordon; and from this time forward there was a constant importation of Chinese tea seed. It was not till years later, when large tracts had been given up to the cultivation of China tea, that the Assam planters became convinced of the great local superiority of the indigenous variety, in respect both of quality and outturn, and found that for most soils the best plant of all is a hybrid in which the indigenous element largely preponderates. In 1837, Mr. Bruce packed forty-six boxes of tea, but, owing to defective packing, much of it had been damaged by damp before it reached Calcutta, and only a small portion was sent on to England. The report on this, however, was hopeful, and it was declared that Assam tea would be quite capable of competing with the Chinese product "when more care shall be taken in the selection of leaves from plants better pruned, and when greater experience shall have perfected the mode of preparation."

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The first Government tea plantation was located on a sandbank near the confluence of the Brahmaputra and the Kundil rivers. The poor and porous soil was quite unsuitable for the purpose, and the experiment proved a failure. The plants were therefore removed to Jaipur, where a new garden was opened. This was sold in 1840 to the Assam Company, which had been formed in the previous year with a capital of half a million sterling, and which established factories at Dibrugarh and at the junction of the Burhi Dihing and Tingri rivers. Plantations were made from China seed; but for some time the leaf brought in from the bushes growing wild in the forests continued to be the chief source of supply. In its earlier years the Company was far from prosperous, but about 1852 its prospects began to improve, and in 1859 it had 4,000 acres under cultivation and an outturn of over 760,000 pounds of tea. Its local expenditure exceeded a lakh of rupees a year in 1853, by which time nine other gardens had been started—all in Upper Assam. The existence of indigenous tea in Cachar and Sylhet was soon afterwards ascertained, and in 1855 the pioneer garden in the former district was opened.

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During the next few years the new industry made rapid strides. The conspicuous success of the Assam and Jorhat companies, the latter of which was formed in 1858 from the estates of the Messrs. Williamson, led to the most extravagant ideas regarding the prospects of tea cultivation, Fresh gardens were opened in all directions; and a period of wild excitement and speculation supervened. The mania extended even to Government officers; and three Deputy Commissioners, four assistant commissioners and several police officers threw up their appointments to engage in tea-planting. Clearances were made wholesale, often with the sole object of selling them to companies at a large profit; land was taken up irrespective of its suitability for the object in view, or of the supply of labour available, and was planted out with a wholly insufficient number of tea bushes. The result was a general collapse; many of the new companies, unable to meet their liabilities, were wound up, and those which were still carried on suffered a serious depreciation of their shares, through the ignorance of the shareholders who, as remarked by Sir John Edgar in a paper written at the time, "showed as much folly in their hurry to get out of tea as they had a few years before in their eagerness to undertake the speculation."

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The depression continued until 1869, when it was found that well-managed gardens were yielding a good profit, and that even those which had belonged to the defunct companies were, in many cases, turning out well under careful management. This gave a fresh impetus to the industry, and during the next thirty years there was a steady increase in the number of tea gardens, the area under cultivation, and the output of tea. In 1872 about 27,000 acres were actually planted with tea in the Brahmaputra valley, 23,000 in Cachar, and 1,000 in Sylhet; the outturn in these three tracts was respectively six million, five million, and a third of a million pounds. In 1878 the total production of tea was 28½ million pounds; in 1885 it was 53½ million, and in 1901 it was close on 134 million pounds. An output of 234 million pounds was reached in 1920. In 1922 owing to finer plucking it fell to 199 million pounds, but in the following year it was 237 million pounds, *viz.*, 160 million in the Brahmaputra, and 77 million in the Surma, valley. The area under cultivation in the year last mentioned was 412,000 acres, or about one-fourth of the total quantity of land taken up by the tea planters. The capital invested in Assam tea gardens in 1903 was estimated roughly at about fourteen million pounds sterling.*

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In 1866 no less than 96 per cent. of the tea imported into the United Kingdom came from China and only 4 per cent. from India, but in 1886 only 59 per cent. came from China, while India supplied 38 per cent., and a new rival, Ceylon, contributed 3 per cent. In 1903 the imports of China tea had fallen to 10 per cent., compared with 59 per cent. of Indian and 31 per cent of Ceylon tea.

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When the cultivation of tea was first commenced in Assam nothing was known of the habits of the tea bush, and it was only after many years of study and experimenting that the planters learnt what was the most suitable soil and climate, and what was the best way of planting out and spacing the bushes, of cultivating, pruning and plucking them, and of withering, rolling and firing the leaf. The procedure in these matters is far from uniform; it varies with the kind of plant grown, and with the local peculiarities of soil and rainfall. It would be tedious to descend to details, but it may be mentioned that one of the greatest improvements has been the introduction of machinery whereby the handling of the tea is reduced to a minimum. Formerly the freshly picked leaves were rolled by hand into lumps, each about the size of a loaf, and were then left to ferment, after which they were roasted on sieves over small charcoal fires. The leaf is now rolled, fired and sifted entirely by machinery, and is practically not handled at all. There are two main varieties of tea, black and green, the latter being produced in comparatively small quantities, chiefly for the American market.

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The modern system of manufacturing black tea has been described as follows†:—“As soon as the leaf is plucked, it is laid out thinly on trays or sheets in order that it may wither, in which process the rigidity of the leaf cells disappears and the leaf becomes soft and easily rolled. When this withering process is accomplished, which depends a good deal on the state of the weather, the leaf is taken into the factory and rolled by machinery, the object of this being to break up the already softened leaf cells, so that the sap then escapes and exudes. When these cells are broken up, the leaf is taken out of the roller and allowed to stand until fermentation, or rather oxidization, sets in; during this process the leaf changes colour, and when it assumes a bright coppery tint, fermentation is stopped by placing the leaf in the drier, and firing it at fairly high temperature; this fixes the fermentation and in the process the colour of the leaf has changed to nearly black. The tea is then sorted through different-sized sieves in order to make it suitable for the requirements of different markets. It is then packed into chests and sent to the market where it is to be sold."

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∗ The share list of 68 leading Indian tea companies showed that they had a capital of £9,654,732 and 231,547 acres under tea. † Paper read by Mr. Stanton, in 1904 before the Royal Society of Arts.

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Green, tea of which only about one million pounds is manufactured in Assam, is not withered, but is steamed, and then rolled and fired, without being allowed to ferment.

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Diminution in cost of production.

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In the early days of the industry the prices obtained for Assam tea were extraordinarily high. The crop of 1839 yielded eight shillings a pound; and when the price fell below two shillings it was said that tea could no longer pay. But the price has continued to fall steadily; it was 1s. 5d. in 1878, 1s. in 1882 and 9½d. in 1886, while in 1903 it was only 8½d. for tea produced in the Brahmaputra valley and 6½d. for that from the Surma valley, and yet, on the whole, there has generally been a fair margin of profit. Between 1893 and 1898, however, the extension of cultivation was so rapid that the supply of tea quite outstripped the demand, while the cost of placing it on the market was enhanced by the closing of the mints and the increased value thus given to the rupee, in which the coolies' wages were paid. These adverse conditions caused the prices obtained for the tea to fall below the cost of production, and, for a time, the industry entered once more on a period of depression. Every effort was made to reduce expenditure and to open new markets; and this, coupled with the practical stoppage of new extensions, placed the industry once more on a sound footing. There was a fresh set-back after the war, but this has been followed by a period of remarkable prosperity. For almost the first time in the history of the industry, prices have shown a marked upward tendency, and they are now as high as they were forty years ago. In 1923 the average price realized for tea from the Brahmaputra valley was 15 annas 10 pies and from the Surma valley 13 annas 11 pies per pound.

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Owing largely to the fall in price, the consumption of tea in Great Britain and Ireland rose from barely 100 million pounds, or three-and-a-half pounds per head of the population in 1866, to 255 million pounds, or six pounds per head, in 1903. In 1919 the consumption was eight-and-a-half pounds per head. The attempts made by the Indian and Ceylon planters to capture new markets have raised their sales of tea outside the United Kingdom from 39 million pounds in 1895 to 140 million in 1923.

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A variety of causes contributed to the reduction in the cost of placing tea upon the market. By improved cultivation the average yield per acre was increased from two to four hundredweights; the introduction of machinery cheapened the process of manufacture; the amalgamation of small gardens and the reduction of the European staff brought down the charges for supervision, both locally and in the offices of the Calcutta agents; and there was a great diminution in the outlay on machinery, stores, tea-boxes and freight, both local and ocean, all of which cost far less in 1914 than they did formerly. Since the war, however, the cost of all these items and also of labour has risen very considerably.

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In order to encourage the taking up of land for tea cultivation, very favourable terms have at different times been sanctioned by Government. The first rules were issued in 1838, when it was laid down that any tract of waste land, from 100 to 10,000 acres, might be taken up on a forty-five years' lease, with a rent-free period of from five to twenty years, according as the land was open, or under reeds or forest, and, after that, a progressive assessment on three-quarters of the area, rising to Re. 1-2 an acre. On the expiry of the lease, one-fourth of the area was to remain free from assessment in perpetuity and the rest was to be assessed, at the option of the grantee, at one-fourth the gross profits, or at the rate paid for rice lands in the neighbourhood. There was a clause providing that a quarter of the area must be cleared within five years, failing which the land was liable to resumption. In 1854 these rules were revised; the term of the lease was extended to 99 years, and the progressive assessments were greatly reduced, so that, during the last 74 years, the rent was fixed at only As. 6 per acre. In 1861 the system of fee simple grants was introduced, under which land was sold at rates ranging from Rs. 2-8 to Rs. 5 per acre. Leases under the previous rules were commutable to fee simple at twenty years' purchase of the rent payable at the time of commutation. A year later the grants were made auctionable, with an upset price of Rs. 2-8-0 per acre, which in 1874 was raised to Rs. 8. Lastly, in 1876, the sale of land outright was put a stop to, and a system of thirty years' leases was introduced; under this system the lease is sold at an upset price of Re. 1 per acre, and the area covered by it is liable, after a revenue-free term, to assessment at progressive rates, rising in the last period of the lease to Re. 1 per acre. The thirty-year lease rules are still in force, but land is no longer granted under them, except in certain tracts where there is still plenty of waste land. Under recent orders all leases expiring prior to 1932 may be renewed up to that year at rates varying from Re. 1-2-0 to Re. 1-4-0 per acre.

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The labour force. There are very few landless labourers in Assam, and people who have land naturally prefer the independence and ease of their position as cultivators to the discipline and regular labour of the tea gardens. It was thus found necessary, at a very early stage, to seek for tea garden coolies elsewhere, and in 1853 the Assam Company had already begun to import labourers from Bengal. This involved legislation; and from 1863 to 1901 a series of enactments were passed, with the two-fold object of ensuring to the employer the services of the labourers imported by him for a period sufficiently long to enable him to recoup the cost of recruiting and bringing them to the garden, on the one hand, and, on the other, of protecting the labourers against fraudulent recruitment, providing for them a proper and sanitary system of transport, and securing their good treatment and adequate remuneration during the term of their labour contracts. The last of these special Acts has been repealed, except in so far as it regulates recruitment, and the only labour contracts now enforceable, otherwise than in the civil courts, are those made under Act XIII of 1859 as amended in 1920. This Act was not originally intended to be used on tea gardens, and its repeal has more than once been under consideration. The most suitable coolies are the aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpur and the neighbourhood; but the supply of these is insufficient, and is eked out by plains people from the United Provinces and elsewhere, who require a long period of acclimatization, and, even then, are seldom quite satisfactory.

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The benefits which the tea industry has conferred on the Province have been many and great. The land most suitable for tea is not adapted to the cultivation of rice, and the greater part of it would still be hidden in dense jungle if it had not been cleared by the tea planters. The gardens gave employment in 1923 to 527,000 labourers. As already stated, most of these labourers have been imported from other parts of India, but this is merely because the local supply of labour is so small. The gardens provide an unfailing source of employment for local cultivators who, for any reason, may wish to work for hire. The literate classes have obtained numerous clerical and medical appointments on the gardens; and the demand for rice to feed the coolies has considerably augmented its price in Assam, and so enabled the cultivators to dispose of their produce at a greater profit than would have been possible had they been obliged to export it to Bengal. A great impetus has also been given to trade, and new markets have been opened in all parts of the province. The existence of the tea industry has been a potent factor in the improvement of communications by rail, river and road. Many of the persons who go to Assam to work on the tea gardens afterwards settle down there as cultivators, and so help to bring under the plough its vast areas of fertile waste land. In 1923 such persons held 263,000 acres of land direct from Government, in addition to large areas which they occupied as tenants of private land-holders. In the report on the Census of 1921 it was estimated that the total number of immigrants to tea gardens and their descendants numbered about a million and a third, or one-sixth of the total population of the province.

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(iii) *Approximate dates of the Koch Kings.*

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| | DATE OF |
| | Acces- sion. | Death. |
| *In whole Kingdom.* | | |
| Bisva Singh .. .. | 1515 | 1540 |
| Nar Nārāyan .. .. | 1540 | [1581] |
| *In Western Kingdom, or Koch Bihar.* | | |
| Nar Nārāyan .. .. | 1540 | 1584 |
| Lakshmi Nārāyan .. .. | 1584 | 1622 |
| Bir Nārāyan .. .. | 1622 | 1633 |
| Prān Nārāyan .. .. | 1633 | 1666 |

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[The dates of the subsequent Rajas of Koch Bihar will be found in Hunter's Statistical Account of that State. They have no bearing on the history of Assam.]

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| *In Eastern Kingdom, or Koch Hājo.* | | |
| Raghu Deb .. .. | 1581 | 1603 |
| Parikshit .. .. | 1603 | 1613 |
| Bali alias Dharma Nārāyan (in Darrang) | 1615 | 1637 |
| Mahendra Nārāyan .. .. | 1637 | 1643 |
| Chandra Nārāyan .. .. | 1643 | 1660 |
| Surya Nārāyan .. .. | 1660 | 1682 |
| Indra Nārāyan .. .. | 1682 | 1725 |

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[The independent rule of the Eastern branch of the Koch dynasty terminated with Bali Nārāyan's death in 1637, and the status of his successors was gradually reduced to that of zamindar. A branch of the family, descended from Bijit Nārāyan, son of Parikshit, was in possession of Bijni and another, founded by Gaj Nārāyan, Parikshit's brother, held the small estate of Beltola.]

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(iv) *Some names and dates of Kachāri Kings.*

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Khun Kara .. .. .. .. 1531 *d.* Detsung .. .. .. .. 1531 *a.* 1536 *d.* Jaso Nārāyan Deb .. .. .. 1583 *r.* Satrudaman alias Pratāp Nārāyan .. 1606 *r.* 1610 *r.* Nar Nārāyan .. .. .. .. .. 1637 *d.* Bhim Darpa or Bhimbal .. .. .. .. Indra Ballabh .. .. .. .. .. Bir Darpa .. .. .. 1644 *r.* 1671 *r.* 1681 *d.* Garurdhvaj .. .. .. .. 1681 *a.* 1695 *d.* Makardhvaj .. .. .. .. .. 1695 *a.* Udayāditya .. .. .. .. .. Tāmradhvaj .. .. .. .. 1706 *r.* 1708 *d.* Sura Darpa .. .. .. .. .. 1708 *a.* Haris Chandra Nārāyan .. .. .. 1721 *r.* Kirti Chandra Nārāyan .. .. .. 1736 *r.* Sandhikari .. .. .. .. .. 1765 *r.* Haris Chandra Nārāyan (Bhupati) .. .. 1771 *r.* Krishna Chandra .. .. .. 1790 *r.* 1813 *d.* Gobind Chandra .. .. .. 1813 *a.* 1830 *d.*

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NOTE.—(*a*) Means date of accession. (*d*) " " end of reign. (*r*) " " reign in progress.

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(v) *Tentative Chronology of Kings of Jaintia.*

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| | DATE OF | |
| | Acces-sion. | Death. | Years known to fall in the reign. |
| Parbat Rāy .. | 1500 | 1516 | . . . . |
| Mājha Gosāin .. | 1516 | 1532 | . . . . |
| Burhā Parbat Rāy .. | 1532 | 1548 | . . . . |
| Bar Gosāin .. | 1548 | 1564 | . . . . |
| Bijay Mānik .. | 1564 | 1580 | . . . . |
| Pratāp Rai .. | 1580 | 1596 | . . . . |
| Dhan Mānik .. | 1596 | 1605 | . . . . |
| Jasa Mānik .. | 1605 | 1625 | 1606, 1618 |
| Sundar Rāy .. | 1625 | 1636 | . . . . |
| Chota Parbat Rāy .. | 1636 | 1647 | . . . . |
| Jasamanta Rāy .. | 1647 | 1660 | 1647 |
| Bān Singh .. | 1660 | 1669 | 1662 |
| Pratāp Singh .. | 1669 | 1669 | . . . . |
| Lakshmi Nārāyan .. | 1669 | 1697 | 1678 |
| Rām Singh I .. | 1697 | 1708 | 1707 |
| Jay Nārāyan .. | 1708 | 1729 | . . . . |
| Bar Gosāin .. | 1729 | 1770* | 1731 |
| Chatra Singh .. | 1770 | 1781 | . . . . |
| Jātra Nārāyan .. | 1781 | 1786 | . . . . |
| Bijay Nārāyan .. | 1786 | 1789 | 1788 |
| Rām Singh II .. | 1789 | 1832 | 1790, 1813 |
| Rājendra Nārāyan .. | 1832 | 1835 | . . . . |

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∗ Abdicated.