Leaves of Empire

Colonial Legacies and the Making of Assam Tea

Abstract

This paper explores the origin and development of the tea industry in Assam, with a particular focus on ecological factors such as the region’s humid climate, fertile soils, and abundant rainfall that facilitated the large-scale expansion of tea cultivation and its impact on the region’s landscape. While this paper primarily relies on secondary sources, it acknowledges that such sources are firmly rooted in archival records, providing foundational data and narratives that underpin secondary scholarship. Estate records, tea committee reports, and historical accounts preserved in archives have enabled scholars like Pradip Baruah and Harold H. Mann to construct detailed interpretations of Assam’s tea industry. For instance, the Assam State Archives which house colonial records dating from the 1770s onwards, contain extremely significant and rare primary documents pertaining to the tea plantations of Assam. These rare documents provide crucial insights into the environmental and social contexts of plantation economies. Ultimately, the idea is to demonstrate how secondary scholarship is produced with the aid of archival records through the reconstruction of the region’s rich tea heritage and history.