Small Tea Plantation and Its Impact on the Rural Landscape of Contemporary Assam. (October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sharma, Chandan Kumar; Barua, Prarthana
• Is Part Of: International journal of rural management. Volume 13:Number 2(2017:Dec.)
• Page Start: 140
• Page End: 161
• Publication Date: 2017-10
• Subjects: BLF -- government -- STP -- peasant -- small growers; Rural development -- Management -- Periodicals; Rural development projects -- Periodicals; 307.1412
• DOI: 10.1177/0973005217725454
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0973-0052

Abstract

The tea plantations in the Northeast Indian state of Assam, launched by the British colonial regime in the mid-nineteenth century, had considerably transformed the socio-economic profile of the state. Its impact on the state's peasant economy, however, was enervating. Controlled by the British companies, the plantation sector saw few local planters, although a section of the Assamese peasants traditionally engaged in tea cultivation in their homestead on a small scale. After India's independence, many Indian entrepreneurs entered the plantation sector largely because of the departure of the British planters. The Assamese entrepreneurs found it difficult to emulate this due to lack of capital. Since the 1970s, however, a significant section of the local small and middle peasants, as a part of a conscious drive, took to small tea plantation (STP). The last two decades have witnessed a dramatic growth in the number of such small planters, which has brought about a major change in the rural social landscape of Assam.