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History of tea in India
India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, although over 70 percent of its tea is consumed within India itself. A number of renowned teas, such as Assam and Darjeeling, also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has grown to own many global tea brands and has evolved into one of the most technologically equipped tea industries in the world. Tea production, certification, exportation and all facets of the tea trade in India are controlled by the Tea Board of India. From its legendary origins to modern processing techniques, tea production in India delicately weaves together cultural heritage, economic prowess, and technological advancement.
The British East India Company began large-scale production of tea in Assam in the early 1820s. The first tea crops grown there were of a variety traditionally brewed by the Singpho people. In 1826, the East India Company took over control of the region in the Treaty of Yandabo. In 1837, the first British tea garden was established at Chabua in Upper Assam; in 1840, the Assam Tea Company was established, and it began the commercial production of tea in the region. Beginning in the 1850s, the tea industry rapidly expanded, consuming vast tracts of land for tea plantations. By the turn of the century, Assam became the leading tea-producing region in the world. Tea became widely grown in India as both a cash crop and monocrop; academic Nayantara Arora argued that the emergence of the tea industry in India as a result of British rule led to the transformation of Indian subsistence farmers into industrial agriculturalists whose economic self-suffiency was reduced in favor of market dependence.
In India, the semi-medicinal use of tea brew was noted in 1662 by Mendelslo:
At our ordinary meetings every day we took only thay, which is commonly used all over the Indies, not only among those of the country, but also among the Dutch and the English, who take it as a drug that cleanses the stomach, and digests the superfluous humours, by a temperate heat particular thereto. — Indian Food A Historical Companion by Achaya KT.
In 1689, John Ovington similarly observed that tea (grown in China) was taken by the Banias in Surat (and indeed "all the Inhabitants of India") with hot spices and either sugar-candy or conserved lemons and that this tea was used against headache, gravel and griping in the guts. In pre-colonial times in the Indian subcontinent, tea was used for medicinal purposes and would grow wild; the practice of drinking tea daily and having it be an aspect of social status in Indian culture was entirely a result of British colonial influences.
While experimenting to introduce tea in India, the British noticed that tea plants with thicker leaves also grew in Assam, and these, when planted in India, responded very well. The same plants had long been cultivated by the Singpho people, and chests of tea were supplied by the tribal ruler Ningroola to the British. The Assamese and Chinese varieties have been regarded in the past as different related species, but are now usually classified by botanists as the same species, Camellia sinensis.
The introduction of Chinese tea plants to India is commonly credited to Robert Fortune, who spent about two and a half years, from 1848 to 1851, in China working on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society of London. Fortune employed many different means to steal tea plants and seedlings, which were regarded as the property of the Chinese empire. He also used Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward's portable Wardian cases to sustain the plants. Using these small greenhouses, Fortune introduced 20,000 tea plants and seedlings to the Darjeeling region of India, on steep slopes in the foothills of the Himalayas, with the acid soil liked by Camellia plants. He also brought a group of trained Chinese tea workers who would facilitate the production of tea leaves. Except for a few plants that survived in established Indian gardens, most of the Chinese tea plants Fortune introduced to India perished. The technology and knowledge that was brought over from China was instrumental in the later flourishing of the Indian tea industry using Chinese varieties, especially Darjeeling tea, which continues to use Chinese strains.
The tea industry in British India mostly employed indentured laborers, often referred to as "coolies", to work on large plantations. Although these were in theory willing recruits, in practise many laborers were coerced or tricked by recruiters to come and work on the plantations. The majority of indentured laborers on Indian tea plantations were women, as tea cutting was seen as "women’s work", though they received less pay than male laborers despite often being coerced into producing more. Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand described the tea industry in colonial India as "The hunger, the sweat and the despair of a million Indians!"
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History of tea in India
India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, although over 70 percent of its tea is consumed within India itself. A number of renowned teas, such as Assam and Darjeeling, also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has grown to own many global tea brands and has evolved into one of the most technologically equipped tea industries in the world. Tea production, certification, exportation and all facets of the tea trade in India are controlled by the Tea Board of India. From its legendary origins to modern processing techniques, tea production in India delicately weaves together cultural heritage, economic prowess, and technological advancement.
The British East India Company began large-scale production of tea in Assam in the early 1820s. The first tea crops grown there were of a variety traditionally brewed by the Singpho people. In 1826, the East India Company took over control of the region in the Treaty of Yandabo. In 1837, the first British tea garden was established at Chabua in Upper Assam; in 1840, the Assam Tea Company was established, and it began the commercial production of tea in the region. Beginning in the 1850s, the tea industry rapidly expanded, consuming vast tracts of land for tea plantations. By the turn of the century, Assam became the leading tea-producing region in the world. Tea became widely grown in India as both a cash crop and monocrop; academic Nayantara Arora argued that the emergence of the tea industry in India as a result of British rule led to the transformation of Indian subsistence farmers into industrial agriculturalists whose economic self-suffiency was reduced in favor of market dependence.
In India, the semi-medicinal use of tea brew was noted in 1662 by Mendelslo:
At our ordinary meetings every day we took only thay, which is commonly used all over the Indies, not only among those of the country, but also among the Dutch and the English, who take it as a drug that cleanses the stomach, and digests the superfluous humours, by a temperate heat particular thereto. — Indian Food A Historical Companion by Achaya KT.
In 1689, John Ovington similarly observed that tea (grown in China) was taken by the Banias in Surat (and indeed "all the Inhabitants of India") with hot spices and either sugar-candy or conserved lemons and that this tea was used against headache, gravel and griping in the guts. In pre-colonial times in the Indian subcontinent, tea was used for medicinal purposes and would grow wild; the practice of drinking tea daily and having it be an aspect of social status in Indian culture was entirely a result of British colonial influences.
While experimenting to introduce tea in India, the British noticed that tea plants with thicker leaves also grew in Assam, and these, when planted in India, responded very well. The same plants had long been cultivated by the Singpho people, and chests of tea were supplied by the tribal ruler Ningroola to the British. The Assamese and Chinese varieties have been regarded in the past as different related species, but are now usually classified by botanists as the same species, Camellia sinensis.
The introduction of Chinese tea plants to India is commonly credited to Robert Fortune, who spent about two and a half years, from 1848 to 1851, in China working on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society of London. Fortune employed many different means to steal tea plants and seedlings, which were regarded as the property of the Chinese empire. He also used Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward's portable Wardian cases to sustain the plants. Using these small greenhouses, Fortune introduced 20,000 tea plants and seedlings to the Darjeeling region of India, on steep slopes in the foothills of the Himalayas, with the acid soil liked by Camellia plants. He also brought a group of trained Chinese tea workers who would facilitate the production of tea leaves. Except for a few plants that survived in established Indian gardens, most of the Chinese tea plants Fortune introduced to India perished. The technology and knowledge that was brought over from China was instrumental in the later flourishing of the Indian tea industry using Chinese varieties, especially Darjeeling tea, which continues to use Chinese strains.
The tea industry in British India mostly employed indentured laborers, often referred to as "coolies", to work on large plantations. Although these were in theory willing recruits, in practise many laborers were coerced or tricked by recruiters to come and work on the plantations. The majority of indentured laborers on Indian tea plantations were women, as tea cutting was seen as "women’s work", though they received less pay than male laborers despite often being coerced into producing more. Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand described the tea industry in colonial India as "The hunger, the sweat and the despair of a million Indians!"