Tea Plantation

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Tea was originally a Chinese export first traded by the East India Company in 1685 from Canton (up river from Macao) and the trade was in 1750 a more valuable revenue stream than all of India. The trade was lost in 1833, and a year later native tea plants were found growing in Assam. Interest was reignited, the first export of tea from India was 12 tea chests in 1838. The Assam Tea Company took over the East India Company's tea plantations in 1839. By 1860, a million pounds (weight) of tea was being grown in:

Plucking tea

Contents

Fibis Resources

  • Tea Planters Cachar 1865-1875 on the FIBIS database, over 200 names listed.
  • FIBIS Journal Number 9, "Jokai Tea Estates" by Dick Barton. Includes a useful reading list.
  • FIBIS Journal Number 24, "Life with Tea in India: The Diaries of Samuel Cleland Davidson" by Wendy Pratt and Peter Bleakley
  • "Life with Tea and India: Diaries of Family Life in the Cachar Area". The first 10 minutes of a talk given by Wendy Pratt (FIBIS Member) and Peter Bleakley at the FIBIS Spring Lecture meeting 22 May 2010 is available to download or listen to on the podcast page. The full version is available for FIBIS members only in the FIBIS Social Network, previously known as the Members Area. Members can also access the accompanying visual presentation which displays impressive original material including photographs and equipment designs.
  • Tea Images Images relating to tea planters and tea production comprising some of the original material mentioned above - examples of which are on this page.

Records

 
Packing and weighing tea
  • From the end of the 19th century special sections covering tea plantations appear in Thacker's Indian Directories. FIBIS Fact File No 3 - Indian Directories by Richard Morgan states "The tea section lists within each area the names of the firms, their “tea gardens” (areas under cultivation), the trade mark or logo of the company as it was stamped on their tea chests , the postal address, acreage, proprietors, general managers and assistants, Indian agents and addresses, and London Agents and addresses”

An example is given of how a genealogical history can be obtained by using the annual directories in this context.

Some Thackers are available online, refer Directories online-Thacker's Indian Directory

  • Guide to James Finlay & Co Managers and Assistants Letterbooks University of Glasgow. .Finlay Muir & Co as the company became known began to diversify into tea estate management around 1882 and by 1901 was managing extensive tea estates in India and Sri Lanka. These letterbooks contain a wealth of information about the men recruited in Britain to manage the Finlay tea estate business overseas

Volunteer Regiments

Volunteer Regiments involving tea planters include

Related articles

Historical books

Taylor’s Maps of the following Tea Districts, Darjeeling, Terai, Jalpaiguri and Dooars, Darrang, Golaghat, Jorhat Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Cachar, Sylhet, with complete Index to all Tea Gardens, published 1910

Historical books online

  • Old times in Assam by T Kinney 1896 Archive.org A tea planter’s life in the early 1860’s. Reprints from columns in the Englishman and Indian Planters’ Gazette.
  • Forgotten Frontier by Geoffrey Tyson, first published 1945, may be downloaded as a pdf from the Koi-Hai website. This book is about the escape of refugees from Burma in 1942 and the help provided by the tea planters of Assam in assisting the refugees from North Burma into India.

Recommended Reading

A Brief History of Tea by Roy Moxham (2009). For Review see Other occupations reading list.

External links

  • Koi-Hai a site for those who lived and worked in North East India, particularly in the Tea industry. Includes articles, list of relevant books, photos, some grave inscriptions, tourism information
    • Includes a link to a Directory (34 pages pdf which may be downloaded) published by the India Tea Association Calcutta 1930, consisting of a Complete Index to Tea Gardens in India (28 pages) and maps of the North Eastern tea areas: Sibsagar (computer page 30); Cachar p31; Dibrugarh (p32) Lakimpur (p33) and Sylhet (p34)
  • Very interesting and detailed interviews of many aspects of the life and work of a tea planter. Travancore State, Calcutta, Darjeeling, N.W.F.P. Recorded by A.S. Robertson and his son, A.F. Robertson (1976 and 1979) from University of Cambridge - Centre of South Asian Studies. Listen to the interviews, or read the transcripts.
  • Assam Where? Growing up in the tea growing district of Cachar during the late 1940s and the 1950s from Shangrilajournals.com. (There are links at the bottom of the page)
  • Halycon [sic] days: a memoir of tea estate life by Duncan Allan The Statesman 25 April 2011
  • Cultivating an Industry: A Survey of the lives of British Tea Planters in Assam 1860-1936 (html version) by A.H. Spielman 13 May 2009 Original link minds.wisconsin.edu
  • Tea Planter in Bengal a posting from the rootsweb India mailing list archives giving advice and information on researching Tea Planters.
  • Business records relating to tea companies in the Guildhall Library, London. It seems likely these companies are ones registered in the U.K.
  • Old Indian Photos has pictures of Assam and tea.
  • The Story of India Tea 1917 British Pathe film clip
  • The Elephant Man is about the rescue of refugees fleeing Burma in 1942 by Gyles Mackrell, an Assam tea planter. He mounted an operation to save refugees who were trapped by flooded rivers at the border with India using the only means available to get them across - elephants. Includes YouTube film clip from the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.
  • Assam Company Ltd Background to the Assam Tea Company and its Tea Plantations
  • UPASI (The United Planters' Association of Southern India) is an apex body of planters of tea, coffee, rubber, pepper and cardamom in the Southern States of India viz. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka in existence since 1893. This India List post says they have records of all planters [for that area] and an extensive library going back nearly 100 years.
  • The Path to the Hills: History of the Plantations on Western Ghats. Tea Coffee and Rubber. html version, original pdf www.stayhomz.com
  • History of Ceylon Tea includes many online publications including Ferguson’s Ceylon Directories from 1871 to 1930 (Broken range). For Ferguson’s Directories, this India List post advises "In the index on the left hand side look for an entry marked (usually) General Directory (towards the bottom) and then click on a page to see the contents".
  • History of Ceylon Teaalmarteas.com
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