‘Bishram Sardaar-ka Mangri’ Story of the Indian Tea Worker

by Venk Shenoi
Venk Shenoi returns with an absorbing account of how workers reached the newly planted tea gardens of India in the early days.  
"The greatest unsung heroes of Indian 'Chay/Chai' are the workers, particularly women", he writes.  
"We need to take care not to judge history by today’s standards or redefining exploitation and victimhood.  Descendants of these early workers have established roots in their new homelands and many have prospered." 
Venk has also shared some beautiful photographs of tea workers which he took in the 1960s. Cheers to the spirit of Indian tea!

Phulo Munda the Queen of Nagrakata attracted attention wherever she went (Pix credit: Venk)

Early Beginnings
The greatest unsung heroes of Indian 'Chay/Chai' are the workers, particularly women. Long reports have been compiled about brothers Robert and Charles who obtained local tea varieties from the hill tribes and cultivated them, in time developing the Indian Tea industry. They highlight how British colonial expansion, the First Anglo Burmese War of 1824/26 and annexation of Assam and later in the Century, of the Dooars following the Anglo-Bhutan War (1864/65), and restrictions on local landowners opened up valuable land for growing tea.

The Chinese, who had known tea for over three millennia both as medicine and a beverage, were secretive about its cultivation and manufacture; interior China was off-limits to the West. The Emperor restricted trade to the Chinese and prohibited foreigners from travelling inland and acquiring knowledge of cultivation and manufacture.

For a time the early planters tried to use the peasantry in Assam but those with local connections failed to work hard and deliver the needed results. Some planters, including the Assam Company, tried to recruit Chinese labour with tea experience, paying them several times the going rates for local labour. Most were sent back in the early 1850’s.

The Chinese faced a massive addiction problem as the East India Co and other foreign entrepreneurs bartered Indian grown opium for the tea they imported into Britain. Subsequent curbs on opium imports led to the infamous Opium Wars (1839 – 60).

Chinese Opium Den

The EIC was investigating opportunities for growing tea on land that was now coming under its control in Assam following the Anglo Burmese War (1824/6). They were bent on using Chinese varieties, cultivation, and manufacturing method,s despite discovery of indigenous Assam varieties and success in growing them (the Bruce Brothers’ story).

The EIC commissioned Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter on a spying mission to gain Chinese know-how. Fortune travelled into the interior (1848/51) disguised as a local official and managed to gain insider knowledge of Chinese cultivation and manufacturing techniques.
Many Europeans previously working in opium cultivation in North India were induced to venture out to the new tea plantations opening up in Assam following the Indian Mutiny (1857/58) and chaos in the Opium growing regions of Oudh and Bengal. It was a hard life for the early planters, subject to disease and other dangers with many early deaths.

There is also much to read about the early Joint Venture Companies both in Britain and in India that promoted jungle clearance and tea planting in Assam and later in the Dooars and about tea being shipped to the London Auctions in the late 1830’s and formation of the Assam Company’ (1839). Sailing ships pre-steam took months to reach London from Calcutta around the Cape of Good Hope.
All this would not have been possible if adventurous Europeans and also Indian babus, and more importantly the needed workers, could not be recruited and induced to travel to a land infested by malaria, cholera and other tropical diseases and also dangerous animals and snakes.

Clearing Jungle - Early 1800’s, Assam

Cleaning up the 'melas, – Early 19th Century – note the wide gap between rows

Plucking Tea Mid 1800’s. Working long hours under the sun was no fun

Marketable tea took many years to grow and manufacturing systems had to be improvised hundreds of miles from the main industrial centres such as Calcutta. Transport was by land or river on slow craft until the advent of steam power in the mid-1800’s and Railways after the 1860’s. Many lives were lost in the process.

The Indentured Servant
British colonisation released land, and plantation industries expanded in the 1800’s. The concept of indentured servants existed from the early days of European colonisation of the New World. Half a million Europeans went as indentured servants to the Caribbean (primarily the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean) before 1840.

“The Indian indenture system was a form of debt bondage, by which 3.5 million Indians were transported to various colonies of European powers to provide labour for the (mainly sugar) plantations. It started from the end of slavery in 1833 and continued until 1920. This resulted in the development of large Indian diaspora, which spread from the Indian Ocean (i.e. Réunion and Mauritius) to Pacific Ocean (i.e. Fiji), as well as the growth of Indo-Caribbean and Indo-African populations.” Ref Wikipedia. The same Recruitment Agents and systems were used to induct Labour to the new plantations in Assam. Labour Agents were employed by the East India Co and also other commercial interests to obtain and sustain labour supply to the newly opened land growing tea in Assam.

Reeta Dutta Hazarika Asst. Professor, Dept. of History, Narangi Anchalik Mahavidyalaya, Guwahati, has set out a revealing essay on the subject. Summing up:

“The contractors or the arkatis did the recruitment of labourers in initial years of tea plantation in Assam. At the time there was no restriction upon the contractors. Therefore the arkatis, who were ex-convicts, burglars, thieves, dacoits etc. adopted typical methods of recruitment. The notorious Arkatis treated women recruits like animals and forcefully slept with them and this brought shame and disrespect into the lives of these unfortunate young girls. The journey to the garden was also not easy. The labourers were treated like animals and they had to go through various depots to reach their final destination. These people had no idea as to which garden they will go to. The story behind the cheap women labourers to Assam and their fearful misfortune can fill any human heart with pity."

The system initiated by individual plantation workers evolved into the Sirdari System where workers continued to be overseen by their Sirdars who also got a cut of their wages.

In time Estate Managers also evolved their systems to avoid Agents’ fees by paying trusted workers to travel to their tribal homelands and induce their families and friends to join them. Many did; many perished en route but their numbers grew. The system initiated by individual plantation workers evolved into the Sirdari System where workers continued to be overseen by their Sirdars who also got a cut of their wages.

The Tribal Lands
Santhals and Mundas were in large numbers in the Dooars where I worked in the early 1960’s, also Bhutias and Nepalese given that the Dooars was previously part of Bhutan.

Maps below show tribal lands being the sources of plantation labour in India.

We need to take care not to judge history by today’s standards or redefining exploitation and victimhood. The world is as it is today. Descendants of these early workers have established roots in their new homelands and many have prospered. Reportedly, many from the tea Estates are venturing out of their bonded system today into other occupations across India and further afield.

I am posting photos of workers and their young that I came across in the early 1960’s. They have their own stories to tell. I would not do justice by speculating on their behalf.

Mangri’s Sister on the Khet

Bishram Sirdar-ka Mangri on the Mela – always polite and smiling

Mangri doing her Kheti with her baby on board

Pretty Mahari – Clever little girl

The Munda Twins - Phulo and Manna

Kanchi 1

Little Kancha

Kanchi’s little sister holding a duck from the Haat.

Kanchi’s mum

No tea story will be complete without the giant spider to be found stretched across shade-trees over the Mela.

Editor's note:
All portraits of workers taken by the author, and all historical pictures sourced by him.
Sardaar - overseer/ supervisor in charge of a fixed number of workers 
Mela - tea plucking row. This is called 'Mela' in the Dooars and 'Padhi' in Assam


Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories!
Do you have a chai story of your own to share? Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com. My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull.
You will find yourself transported to another world! Happy reading!
Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 

 Meet the writer:

Over to Venk: 'Born in Chertala, Travancore (Kerala), grew up in Chertala, Calcutta and Bombay. Can read and write in Bengali (my best Indian language), Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi apart from English, smattering of spoken Czech, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and Konkani (my mother tongue, which I have forgotten for all practical purposes). 

Was a Dooars Tea Company Assistant Manager from 1962 – 65, posted at Nagrakata and Grassmore T.E.s.

Went round India on a Tata Nano in 2013. 

Member of the Conservative Party, and served two terms as an elected District Councillor in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire where I live. Apart from travel, visiting museums and archaeological sites, history, radio, photography, vintage fountain pens, concerned about world population explosion and resource limitation leading to extinction of man on earth soon.'

ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories  

Spring Chicken

by Indi Khanna
Please welcome Indi Khanna, who joins us with this entertaining account of his days as a newbie on the High Ranges in Munnar, Kerala .

Panniar: Trekking up to Ervikulum (all pix by the author)

In 1975 at a young 22 almost straight out of University, I found myself up on Panniar Estate (High Ranges) having been despatched there by the Malayalam Plantations Agents in Cochin. Born and with my entire formative years having been in Simla where the only agricultural produce was apples, planting as a career had never ever crossed my mind. Providence and a long story (for another day) of how I found myself down south. Having been sent for an extension interview to a rubber estate near Trishur (Mooply), the first Tea bush I ever really saw and touched was when I arrived at Panniar, never for a moment realising that this innocuous plant is what my entire life would revolve around so that 45 years later that love affair continues. And thankfully so!

The next morning, on my first day at work, my P.D*. Mr Abid Khan who over the two years I worked under him became a father figure for me, told me that for the first three/four months I was not to be given a motorcycle and that I should walk the estate with the conductor, following which words I was duly 'handed over' to Mr Balia. A most imposing figure replete with a pith helmet and a swagger stick, Mr Balia (never just Balia) could WALK! And so over the next four months after a very crisp 'good morning sah' and a tipping of the pith helmet, we walked and we walked and we walked and then we walked some more covering as much of the 320 hectares as we could.

Panniar being a good one and a half hour drive from Munnar and the High Range Club, I was totally dependent upon Abid and Shamim, who very kindly, every time they headed that way, would take me along for the evening. On other days, end of day, Abid would come past the muster on his bike and ask me (this was an almost daily ritual), 'what are you doing this evening?' Bereft of any kind of transport there was not much that I could do and so evening after evening, straight from the muster, we'd head up to Abid's bungalow where the three of us would play badminton till it got dark, after which it was Scrabble while listening to BBC plays on Abid's transistor.

Abid being a rather infrequent drinker, while a drink was offered to me every now and then, Shamim always made sure that I never went back to my bungalow hungry. We followed this lovely 'habit' for all of four months till, having worn away three pairs of 'Bata Hunter shoes' (all that was available back then) trudging along behind Mr Balia, I was finally made mobile with my Bullet.

Panniar: My first bike

 About three months into this routine in the Club, two of my senior colleagues from Surianalle Estate (the other Malalayalm's Estate in the High Ranges) casually asked me that in the absence of a bike, what was it that I did in the evenings. Sharing my routine with them, Raghu and Appu asked me when I was planning to reciprocate and have Abid and Shamim over for a meal. Which casual remark led to my getting down to buying a dinner set, courtesy the Company's soft furnishing allowance and our Group Doctor who was heading down to Cochin for a weekend. Finally the proud owner of a spanking new Hitkari dinner set adorned with tiny pink flowers, when Abid came past my morning muster it was my turn to ask 'Are you and Ma'am busy this evening?' and so my first grand dinner party.

While waiting for Shamim and Abid, I was thumbing through my weekly supply of newspapers when I felt a 'presence'....

Arranged for our local Kadai** to get me a bottle of brandy from Munnar and had my cook/bearer/gardener/man friday - Kaliappan - buy a chicken from the labour lines: the menu for the grand dinner being chicken curry, a vegetable, daal and rice, which incidentally, was the extent of Kaliappan's culinary skills. The arrangements having been made, I headed off for the 'Mr Balia march' of the day. Walking back from my evening muster, just below my bungalow, I kept hearing a strange repetitive sound of 'baak, baak, bakka…..' which appeared to be emanating from under the bushes.

Peering down through the bush frames I saw my friend Kaliappan sitting on his haunches with a palm full of rice and intently 'baaking'. Having been unceremoniously hauled out from under the bushes he very sheepishly and with all 32 teeth being flashed at me, informed me that just as he was about to knock off its head, our pièce de résistance had managed to wiggle out of his clutches and had disappeared through the pantry back door.

To say that I was upset would be an understatement. With no money to buy another chicken and with it being unlikely in any case that Kaliappan would be able to muster up a replacement late in the evening, I had to resign myself to that first dinner being a simple and fairly inedible veggie affair.

Crestfallen and having showered, waiting for Shamim and Abid, I was thumbing through my weekly supply of newspapers when I felt a 'presence'. Peering over the top of my newspaper I saw our dinner, likely drawn in by the bungalow light, very proudly strutting across the red oxide floor. In a stage whisper I called out to Kaliappan, who, peeping out from the dining room and seeing the fellow, was out like a flash of lightning and had grabbed him by his neck. Should anyone have seen that film, in his deft movement and sheer speed, Kaliappan was the embodiment of the Bushman in 'The Gods must be crazy'.

The next thing I heard was a squawk and by the time Shammim, Abid and I had done with our chit-chat, the poor escapee was in my new Hitkari serving dish on the centre of the dining table swimming in a curry!

*P.D. - Peria Durai, a Tamil term meaning 'Big Boss', like 'Burra Saab' in North India.
** Kadai - Tamil, a shop
Meet the writer:

Indi Khanna with Xerox

With an industry experience and a tea knowledge base of four and a half decades and counting, I literally live and breathe tea. 

Starting my career in 1975 as an Assistant Superintendent with Malayalam Plantations Ltd, rolling up my sleeves by 'dirtying' my hands at the grassroots level and having literally 'grown' in the business, my experiences have matured me into a ‘one of a kind’ unique entity in the industry.

My journey which literally starts from the tea nursery and stretches all the way up to the consumer shelf, is in many ways unique. Regularly roaming the tea world, delving into the most remote areas wherever tea is grown or consumed, constantly interacting with Tea folk, I have always been learning and innovating. The invaluable experiences along this very interesting route have culminated into a unique new venture, a one-of-a-kind specialty tea manufacturing facility unit in the Nilgiris - www.teastudio.info.

My life has been and continues to be blessed.

Thankfully this very interesting Tea journey continues as an ongoing learning experience.

Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories! 
You will meet many storytellers here at Indian Chai Stories, and they are almost all from the world of tea gardens: planters, memsaabs, baby and baba log. Each of our contributors has a really good story to tell - don't lose any time before you start reading them! 

Do you have a chai story of your own to share? Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com. My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!

 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories
 

Christmas Lunch

by Gumi Malhotra

Dear readers,
Please welcome Gumi Malhotra who brings us the first of  many stories that she's promised to share.
'Last night I dreamt I went to Damdim', reminisces Gumi, '...no Mrs Danvers, but our Jerome was a force to reckon with! So here’s a very tiny sliver of our times there.'

25th December. On a cold foggy morning I dragged myself out of bed showing all the ill effects of a Christmas Eve at the Western Dooars Club. I walked towards the kitchen ready to pluck at any available sleeve for the morning brew. From the corner of my eye I noticed a white plastic bag on a table in the pantry that did an occasional jig.

I ignored it as an apparition and cursed the second rum and coke.

Holding fort in the deserted kitchen was the smiling Jerome, reeking of country liquor, who whilst polishing floors to perfection apparently also introduced our older son to beedis.

Once the Christmas greeting and plea for tea was over I asked Jerome to disclose the contents of the white bag.

“Aapka Christmas hai” came the reply.

“Kya hai”

“Murgi hai”

“Oh my God Jerome usko kholo jaldi...mar jayegi”!!!

“Koi baat nahin, aapka lunch ke liye hai”

“No, usko nahin marenge”, I said horrified.

“Kyon” asked Jerome perplexed.

“Anda dega“, said I desperate to justify its existence.

“Nahin dega”

“Kyon”?

“Murga hai”, said Jerome with cheerful satisfaction.

Nevertheless we rescued a barely feathered, squawking chicken from the plastic bag and set it free near the mali bari. Our Christmas gift lived a long dignified life lording it over the kitchen garden and many a pretty hen. A more handsome rooster I have yet to see.

I wish I had a photograph of him!

Meet the writer: Gumi Malhotra

Gumi Malhotra

Hello chai people, here’s my first attempt to pen down one of the million memories I carry with me. We came away twelve years ago with our hearts full ( not so much the pocket) of such nuggets. We live in Bangalore now and what started as a hobby in the gardens has become my calling. I paint pet portraits. The happiest days spent in tea were in the Jali kamra with my paints, the boys occupied with make believe cars and a steady stream of tea flowing from the kitchen. Cheers!

Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories! 
You will meet many storytellers here at Indian Chai Stories, and they are almost all from the world of tea gardens: planters, memsaabs, baby and baba log. Each of our contributors has a really good story to tell - don't lose any time before you start reading them! 

Do you have a chai story of your own to share? Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com. My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!

 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories
 
 

A Strange Event At Powai Tea Estate

Happy to be back with a new story for all our readers. Alan Lane takes us back in time in his inimitable style.

by Alan Lane
During the cold weather of 1966/1967, I had been requested to overhaul the Crossley QVD 6 engine at Powai Tea Estate, Consolidated Tea & Lands Group, a James Finlay garden, located on the road between Digboi and Margherita. On arrival at the estate, which had the burra sahib as Sam Weller, and the factory assistant manager who was Mr Verghese, I was advised that I would be staying with Mr & Mrs Verghese at the Bungalow No.2 which is located on the other side of the main road from Digboi to Margherita.

At the end of the first day, I went to this bungalow for afternoon tea, and had a chat with the Verghese family. I was very pleased to make contact with them again, as when they had come to the UK, Mr Verghese attended a short training period of two weeks at the Crossley engine factory in Manchester, and as at that time I was nearing the completion of my apprenticeship, I was given the responsibility of helping him with any queries about the engines being built at the works. After our talks on the verandah of the Powai bungalow, the usual dustoor of going for our baths was observed, prior to having drinks and then dinner together, and then charpoy bashing.

In the morning, I was wakened by the bearer with palang-ka-chai, which was put beside my bed. I then went down the bedroom’s internal stairs to the gusl-kamra, for a spruce up and a shave. On soaping up my face, I heard the tea cup and spoon being moved, and so I came up the stairs to admonish the bearer as I had not yet drank my tea. On arriving at the top step, I noticed that there was a strange person sitting on my bed drinking my chai. I approached this person and asked him what he was doing, and looking at him I noticed that he was a hill tribe man. He ignored me completely, and so I went out to the verandah and called the bearer and chowkidar, who immediately then told Mrs Verghese (Mr Verghese was already at kamjari) who then phoned the factory.

Next thing was that two of the Ghurkha gate guards turned up and manhandled this tribesman down and out of the bungalow. The Digboi police duly arrived and took the stranger to their station for interrogation. I carried on having my shave (I was still all soaped up with shaving soap all this time – looking a bit like Father Christmas!) and then went to the factory engine room to carry out the overhaul of the engine.

Later on during the day, Mr Verghese was given a report by the Digboi police concerning this tribal man. The report stated, although I cannot swear to it being true, that the tribal person had come down from NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh) with the intention of kidnapping a child to take back to his district and used as a sacrifice to the spirits where a new bridge had been built over a river.
It seems that after having been admonished by the use of a lathi, the man was released and escorted back to the NEFA border from where he had come from. Nothing further was heard.

Pic courtesy Alan Lane

 Attached is a picture of No.2 bungalow at Powai Tea Estate that was copied from the excellent and highly recommended book, “Burra Bungalows and all that” published by INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) – Calcutta Regional Chapter.



Meet the writer:

Alan Lane, a 'cha ka baba', was born in Bombay. His contribution to Indian Chai Stories goes beyond the written word: he keeps a large number of people all over the world connected with their roots in India. In his own words, 'My wife and I still have lots of connections with India and we are, as you may well say, ‘Indophiles’.' Alan and Jackie Lane live in the UK; they left India fifty years ago. Read the story of this cha ka baba's return to the tea gardens of Assam as a Crossley engineer here: Indian Chai Histories. 

You will find more stories by Alan here. 

Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories! 
You will meet many storytellers here at Indian Chai Stories, and they are almost all from the world of tea gardens: planters, memsaabs, baby and baba log. Each of our contributors has a really good story to tell - don't lose any time before you start reading them! 

Do you have a chai story of your own to share? Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com. My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!

 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories