Altered Terrain: Colonial Encroachment and Environmental Changes in Cachar, Assam (original) (raw)
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The tea plantations of Assam, which constitute the country’s 53.97 per cent tea area, 49 per cent tea worker population, and 52.04 per cent tea production, occupy an important place in the economy, culture and polity of the state. The onset of tea plantations during British colonial rule has not only changed the landscape of the upper Brahmaputra valley through green tea bushes being nourished by tea tribes from east-central India, but also evolved a distinct tea culture. Although formation of small tea growers has added a new dimension to the growth of tea industry of Assam in recent times, the culture that emerged due to the long continued interaction of British planters, tea worker tribes and indigenous Assamese is well reflected in the language, way of life, work culture, food habits and many other socio-cultural practices in most of the large tea estates in the state. In fact, the impact of tea culture is so penetrative that it has been able to bring about development in the fo...
British Colonial Legacy IN Assamese Tea Gardens: UNVEILING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
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The research paper titled "Documentational Study of the British Colonial Legacy: Unravelling the Built Environment of Assamese Tea Gardens" offers a captivating exploration of the profound historical significance of the British colonial era in the tea gardens of Assam. Through meticulous research and documentation, this study unveils the architecture of the bungalows, characterized by the harmonious fusion of British and Assamese design elements, highlighting a compelling narrative of cultural exchange and colonial influence. As one delves into the tea estates and their architectural heritage, it becomes evident that the British colonial era has left an indelible imprint on the landscape of Assam. The magnificence of the bungalows and the lush tea gardens stand as poignant reminders of a bygone era, testifying to the region's vibrant cultural heritage. By documenting and celebrating this legacy, its appreciation and safeguarding for future generations can be ensured.
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Bodoland, located in western Assam, has been a theatre for insurgencies since the mid 1980s. Too often, migration has been the paradigmatic framework to analyse not only this, but most conflicts, raging in Assam. In this article we argue that migration in itself is insufficient to understand the problems in Bodoland. Instead, we focus on forestry and tea estates, and contend that they, forming important restrictive structures, caused tribal entrapment, finally leading to violence. Moreover, we claim that during the conflict a shift in control over these structures occurred, changing the livelihood arithmetic of the involved communities. Finally, we discuss both the restraints and opportunities of the BTC/BTAD (Bodoland Territorial Council/Bodoland Territorial Administrative District)—the result of the peace process—and warn that the escape from entrapment for the Bodo could lead to the entrapment of other communities in the area.
Empire's Garden: Assam and the Making of India
Description In the mid-nineteenth century, the British created a region of tea plantations in the northeastern Indian region of Assam. The tea industry filled the imperial coffers and offered the colonial state a chance to transform a jungle-laden frontier into a cultivated system of plantations. Claiming that local peasants were indolent, the British soon began importing indentured labor from Central India. In the twentieth century, these migrants were joined by others who came voluntarily to seek their livelihoods. In Empire’s Garden, Jayeeta Sharma explains how the settlement of more than one million migrants in Assam irrevocably changed the region’s social landscape. She argues that the racialized construction of the tea laborer catalyzed a process in which Assam’s gentry sought to insert their homeland into an imagined Indo-Aryan community and a modern Indian political space. Various linguistic and racial claims allowed these elites to defend their own modernity while pushing the burden of primitiveness onto “non-Aryan” indigenous tribals or migrant laborers. As vernacular print arenas emerged in Assam, so did competing claims to history, nationalism, and progress that continue to reverberate in the present.
The tea plantations of Assam, which constitute the country’s 53.97 per cent tea area, 49 per cent tea worker population, and 52.04 per cent tea production, occupy an important place in the economy, culture and polity of the state. The onset of tea plantations during British colonial rule has not only changed the landscape of the upper Brahmaputra valley through green tea bushes being nourished by tea tribes from east-central India, but also evolved a distinct tea culture. Although formation of small tea growers has added a new dimension to the growth of tea industry of Assam in recent times, the culture that emerged due to the long continued interaction of British planters, tea worker tribes and indigenous Assamese is well reflected in the language, way of life, work culture, food habits and many other socio-cultural practices in most of the large tea estates in the state. In fact, the impact of tea culture is so penetrative that it has been able to bring about development in the form of tea festival, tea tourism, tea folk songs and dances, etc. in the state. An attempt is made in this paper to explore the role of tea plantation and the people associated with it to the socio-cultural transformation of Assam based on both secondary data and primary data through field study. The primary data have been collected from selected tea estates, tea garden worker colonies, tea-tribe villages and urban dwellers.