Journey to the Garden: History of Tea, Labour and Recruitment Policies in Colonial Assam

Abstract

Tea is one of the popular beverages in the world. It was the British government which took the initiative to propagate the use of tea as a beverage and its commercialisation. In this article, an attempt is made to trace the discovery of the tea plant in Assam and describe the process of securing labour supply, mode of labour recruitment and subsequent treatment of labour in the tea gardens of Assam.