Tea-garden community
The Tea-garden community is a term for a multiethnic, multicultural group of tea garden workers and their descendants in Northeast India (formerly the Assam province).
They are primarily concentrated in the modern state of Assam, where they have been notified as Other Backward Classes (OBC) and are loosely referred to as Tea Tribes.
[1][2][3] They are the descendants of peoples from multiple tribal and caste groups brought by the British colonial planters as indentured labourers from the regions of present-day Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh into colonial Assam during the 1860-90s in multiple phases to the newly established tea gardens.
They speak multiple languages, including Sora, Odia, Assam Sadri, Sambalpuri, Kurmali, Santali, Kurukh, Kharia, Kui, Chhattisgarhi, Gondi and Mundari.
During the 1840s, tribal people throughout the Chota Nagpur Division were revolting against expanding British control, and the scarcity of cheap labour to work in the expanding tea industry of Assam led the British authorities to recruit primarily Tribals and some backward-class Hindus as indentured labourers to work in Assam's tea gardens.
Thousands of people recruited as labourers died of diseases during the journey to Assam, and hundreds who tried to flee were killed by the British authorities as punishment for breaching their contracts.
Inertia, refusal to work and desertion were likewise punishable offenses for which the workers could be flogged, subjected to physical torture and imprisoned under the provisions of this act.
A tea garden manager in Darrang district caught a boy in an attempt at burglary, and he was beaten to death.
A report published by a European DPI in 1917–18 stated that as many as 2 lakh children of school-going age were in the tea gardens of Assam, but not even 2% turned up for primary education.
Therefore Narayan Ghatowar, a prominent intellectual of the community, advocated that Assamese be imparted in the schools only by teachers who knew Sadri.
Noted historian Amalendu Guha remarks, "Illiterate, ignorant, unorganised and isolated from their homes as they were, the plantation workers were weak and powerless against the planters."
The community dominates the districts of a significant portion of Upper Assam, including Sonitpur, due to the high density of tea gardens and plantations in this region.
According to the 1921 census, total population of tea garden community was 1,220,808, among whom the prominent groups were Munda (149,851), Pan (92,353), Santal (78,736), Gond (50,960), and Oraon (39,739).
[18][19] Apart from those prominent tribal groups, other notable communities were Bhuiya (83,383), Bhumij (72,003), Kamar (67,902), Bauri (62,430), Ahir (53,294), Chamar (51,733), Dom (39,037), Ghasi (32,703), Kurmi (31,794), Khadiyal (31,324), Napit (18,350), Odia (16,835), Telinga (15,927), Rajwar (15,213), Jalandha (13,535), Mahli (13,506), Kharwar (13,476), Musahar (13,317), Bhogta (12,058), Dosadh (11,703), Kahar (10,666), Bagdi (10,664), and Gowala (10,255).
[20] They are people of various ethno-linguistic origins from different regions of eastern India composed of dozens of tribes and castes with varying population demographics.
According to the 2011 census, the prominent languages spoken by the tea garden community are Sadani/Sadri, Santali, Odia, Kurukh/Oraon, and Munda.
[6][29] However, with a steady rise in literacy levels, newer generations of those multilingual ethnic groups are becoming fluent in standard Hindi, Assamese, and English.
The Tea garden communities of Assam are undergoing a language shift due to different socio-cultural and linguistic environments compared to their native states.
Various groups within the tea garden community are shifting to a lingua franca language, Sadri, while others are transitioning to Bengali and Assamese to varying degrees.
Among the tribal groups, languages such as Ho, Gondi, Kui, Bhumij, and Korwa are experiencing significant decreases in the number of speakers from 1931 to 2011, with percentage changes ranging from -65.4% to -95.4%.
The ancient tribal religion Sarnaism is also deeply rooted among a sizeable section of tea garden workers.
Their music is usually collectively performed for a variety of occasions like weddings, festivals, the arrival of seasons, ushering-in of new life, and harvests.
Through the folk music and dance, they try to convey their perspective on social issues and define their daily lifestyles and their history.
Usually, the traditional dress of red-bordered white saris is adorned by female dancers along with jewellery and ornaments before performing the dance.
[35][36][37] The Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha has been instrumental in improving the lives of tea garden labourers.
Poor standard of living and lack of education and health facilities are the main problems of tea labourers.
[50] Numerous agitations and movements have been organised and are ongoing demanding ST status,[51] and the most infamous of them was the Beltola incident of Guwahati on 24 November 2007, where public rape and killings occurred in the daylight.
Southern states of India have been successful in increasing the daily wages of tea garden workers while maintaining the industry profitable.
It is estimated that 10 lakhs (1 million) labourers, including casual workers working in over 850 tea gardens, are deprived of their right of minimum wages in Assam.
The wages of tea garden labourers are revised every few years through agreements between the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA) and the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS).
