Chai as a Colonial Creation: The British Empire’s Cultivation of Tea as a Popular Taste and Habit Among South Asians

Abstract

For Indians, chai, or spiced black tea, is a sign of hospitality, served within families, workplaces, and at train stations. While most Indians now perceive chai to be an essential and unquestionable part of daily life, this was not the case until the early twentieth century. While today, masala tea (or masala chai) is seen as a traditional South Asian custom, my findings suggest that the habit of drinking tea was actually thrust upon Indians through a colonial apparatus of the British Raj that utilized indentured labor, plantations, and exploitative trade practices. In this research, I deconstruct the misunderstanding that tea is native to India by gathering records of the first tea plantations and advertisements designed to popularize tea in India. I also present evidence of British establishment of tea and sugar plantations, which preceded the mass production and distribution of chai for export and internal use. Lastly, I analyze advertisements that were used in the British campaign to popularize chai in India. The tea trade exemplifies the short and long-term inequalities that resulted from British occupation in South Asia, as it was a key factor in motivating and funding colonial expansion and in solidifying colonial control. Beyond colonizing land and bodies through tea, the British succeeded in colonizing Indians’ aesthetics and taste.