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Thanks to Colin for his
memory of the
Assam Earthquake
The Assam Earthquake -
August 15th 1950
August 15th
1950, the
anniversary of India's Independence - I had arrived on Nya Gogra Tea Estate, the
most easterly garden in Darrang District Assam, fresh from the UK a few weeks
earlier on about 9th June.
I was sharing a bungalow with
another assistant named John de Jonghe, we had had our baths and were sitting
pyjama clad and dressing-gowned in the sitting room awaiting dinner. At the time
I had not really taken note, but all the crickets, jackals etc had gone
completely silent, and John was sitting watching a bell. The bell was one with a
central striker, and he had loosened the bell so that it was loose and rocking,
occasionally hitting the striker and so sounding the bell. I don't know how long
he had been watching this, but he obviously knew something which I didn't.
When the earthquake struck, the
bungalow was rocking so badly that it was not possible to stand. The axis of the
bungalow seemed to be at right angles to the direction from which the tremors
were coming, and as the bungalow's central wall tilted away from us we rushed to
lean against it as the wall tilted back. As the wall tilted away again we moved
as fast as we could towards the doorway onto the verandah, leaning against the
wall as it tilted back. As the wall tilted away so we made further rushes until
we got down the bungalow steps into the compound.
It
was not possible to stand, and crouching/ squatting on the grass we saw the
plinth bungalow, all lit up, rocking rather like a boat as it rocks in the wash
as a speed boat drives past creating waves which the ground was making.
I don't think that the actual shock
lasted for all that long a time, although it seemed an eternity. Shortly after
that shock was over a Land Rover drove up with the East Boroi area doctor,
Doctor Summers aboard, and he said that as he drove it was as if the steering on
the vehicle had gone , and he had stopped to find that he was in an earthquake..
On checking it was found that
nobody had suffered any harm beyond the fright, and there was no damage to
buildings - offices, bungalows, factory, withering houses, hospital and so on
beyond the odd cracks.
Shocks continued through the night
reducing in duration and intensity, though minor shocks continued over the next
ten days or so. I was intrigued one day to see water slopping about in a ditch
although there was no apparent shock, even when I leaned against a shade tree -
everything was quite still with not a breath of wind.
What
was frightening was the power of the quake, I believe 8 on the Richter scale,
the forces so much greater than any man-made explosion of that time.
We
were some 40 miles from the epicentre where Kingdon Ward, the plant-hunter was
encamped. On Seajulie T.E. in North Lakhimpore, Bill and Marjorie Christie had a
terrifying time where the ground opened and the ground rose on one side while it
fell away on the other. Bill and Marjorie stood one on each side of the crack
passing their baby daughter to the one who was rising, and back as the one sank
and the other rose. Ultimately with the `quake over they were all three safe.
Some
steamers on the Brahmaputra river were stranded on islands which formed under
them, and all river channels had to be re-surveyed.
With
regard to the minimal damage experienced, I thought about possible reasons for
that, and came to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly that; the water table was
high at that time, if you dug a hole you would be into water only 18" below
the ground surface, in effect the Assam Valley was floating on water.
After
the `quake, when we finally went into dinner, I recall saying that "this
was not in my contract", and I was off !
Colin S Jackson
1 May 2006
Followed by page written October 16th
Earthquake
1950 - page 2
Since writing the above memory, I
made reference to a small book
"Thirty Years in Assam"
Extracts from the diary of a Chaplain
author:
Padre Wyld
Publisher
Rev F Wyld
Printed by
Sri GC Ray at Navana Printing Works Private Ltd
47 Ganesh
Chunder Avenue, Calcutta-13
Published 1957
1 give below the relevant extracts
from this book about the 1950 earthquake
"the 15'h of August 1950,
saw perhaps the worst earthquake Assam had experienced since 1897.
The epicentre was in the north-east, in the mountains beyond Sadiya.
North Lakhimpur suffered terribly and the tea estates of Pathalipam and Boredam
were lost. The Manager of Seajuli just got out of his bungalow in time with his
family; then standing in the compound the earth opened, and they threw the
children to the assistant who was on the other side of the fissure; all were
saved.
At the Subansiri rapids it must have been terrifying. The
river dried up showing that tons of water were somewhere held up by landslides.
Some fishermen thinking to get a fine harvest free of work, collected the fish
from the mud flats; they were warned off by the Manager before it was too late -
the waters came down in a wall some 12' high, sweeping everything before them.
Most of the buildings in North
Lakhimpur were destroyed or damaged, fields sunk many feet below level, portions
of road disappeared, and communications for two years were exceedingly
difficult. The famous explorer Kingdon Ward to whose work reference has already
been made, was caught at the very epicentre far up on the Frontier. The
experiences of his wife and himself are recorded in the book, "My Hill So
Strong". The lower slopes of the Himalayas presented an amazing sight, all
scarred from landslides great and small, but jungle grows so fast in Assam that
a few years will serve to heal these wounds. The river was full from side to
side of millions of logs, many of which got stranded on the sand flats,
providing marvellous windfalls of firewood for the towns. The smell of rotting
vegetation remained powerful for at least a week after the event. The steamer
services kept valiantly to their task amid great risks and dangers, supplying
the needs of thousands when both rail and road communications were badly
affected. Contributions liberally flowed in to the Governor's Fund, the Assam
Christian Council, the various Dioceses of India, the S.P.G. and so on. With this,
immediate needs were met, and for long after many `displaced persons'
were eventually settled in new homes and fields."
As I understood it, Kingdon Ward was an
explorer
looking for new plants and varieties of plants.
Colin S Jackson 16 October 2006
Leisure Times
November 2002
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LEISURE TIMES
Tea districts on Assam's North Bank could be well away from towns, and
during the rains would often be cut off by road from the next district.
The rains swelled the rivers flowing south from the Himalayas to the
Brahmaputra and they flowed so fast that cold weather bridges of bamboo
and thatch would be swept away. This left only country boats for crossing.
So there could be a number of estates with managerial staff cut off by
road for some five months of the year. At one such district there was a
ghat with a steamer flat (a paddle steamer with engines and paddles
removed and fitted out as a floating warehouse) at Gamiri Ghat to
hold tea consignments for outward despatch and to receive
incoming tea garden stores. There you could load your car onto a
paddle steamer and then unload at another ghat in another district.
Social life consisted of entertaining one another to dinner, but the
district mainly revolved around the club which would be based on one of
the estates. In all cases, new assistants and managers would attend the
club until their names came before the club committee for consideration.
In the district in theory it would be possible for someone to be not voted
in, but in practice of course this did not happen.
In some areas there were would be a club in the nearest town, which
welcomed government officials, local professional people and planters.
Names of applicants would be put into a book which was displayed in front
of a box with a funnel on top. Members would be asked to vote by putting a
ball into the top of a box, a white ball
as a yes, or a black ball as a no. One black ball was enough to turn down
your application. There were advantages in being a member of a town club,
such as using the club stores; however, someone refused as a member, that
is black-balled could still visit the club as a visitor from another club
to use the bar only.
Within a club there were certain activities which were available to
members as part of the membership. Most clubs catered for tennis, snooker
and cards, and some had facilities for polo, or golf, squash, football and
rugger, and in some cases a stage for amateur dramatics.
There was one club day each week, when all took part in their selected
sport or sports, and one member would provide sandwiches, cakes and tea.
After tennis, people would retire to changing rooms to shower and prepare
for the evening.
Most planters, while drinking beer usually of a lager type after taking
part in sport, would switch to whisky for the rest of the evening. These
would be taken as chota or burra pegs (a small or large
shot) and the glass would then be topped up with either soda or plain
water with ice. I was told that the simple matchbox could be considered to
be the universal peg measure - the box on its flat giving the
measure for assistants, when turned onto its long edge it became the
measure for managers, and when turned onto its short edge, this was the
measure for superintendents! Those who so chose would play cards or
snooker, or just socialise and talk. Some evenings there would be a film
show with a 16 mm projector and feature films flown up from Calcutta.
Topics of conversation at the bar covered a wide range of subjects,
usually excluding 'shop', and you could always tell those wishing their
lives away. These latter would always be talking about their 'home' leave
- the last one if they had recently returned, or once they reached the
half-way point between leaves then the subject became what they would be
doing on their next leave.
On return after a club evening, the cook would have prepared a cold meal
which the night watchman or chowkidar would serve if he was still
awake. A favourite was aloo chops which consisted of minced meat
cooked in a potato casing then served cold. It was said that cooks were
able to stamp these out so to speak, pressing them under their armpits
which were ideally shaped for that purpose!
I was a member of the easternmost club in the Dooars for a short time.
Jainti Club had the smallest membership of all the Dooars Clubs, but
during the war when whisky rations were allocated on based on the pre-war
consumption, this club had the highest allocation of all, and enjoyed lots
of visitors.
I recall one evening as I was having a drink in Tezpur Club with a
particular friend, that an assistant with quite a large American car set
off homeward bound. He had had several drinks where his speech was
somewhat slurred, and as he left he called out his farewells to everyone.
Some moments later we heard the roar of the engine as his car was started
and then moved, but suddenly the engine sound cut out leaving quiet and
peace. The owner of the car walked back into the club muttering that he
couldn't find his ignition keys, and he persisted in this despite our
asking if he couldn't find his keys how had he started his car.
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When visiting the Club in Tezpur, I was able to visit the local motor
factor for spares needed for my car 1948 Ford Prefect from time to time.
Besides holding the franchise for Fords, the factor also held the local
franchise for Hindusthan cars, and it was on one such visit that he asked
why on earth I didn't do myself a favour and buy a new Hindusthan
Landmaster (the model before the Ambassador). On asking the prices of such
cars I was told that the list price was Rupees sixteen thousand five
hundred, but for me sixteen thousand. I laughed saying that I could not
afford such a price, even when reduced, and drove off to the club. The
factor's shop faced onto a small square tank with a road on all sides, and
on the next weekend I drove around the square to his shop and called out
asking the price that week. I was beckoned to come into his office where I
was plied with Cokes and cigarettes and we discussed many things including
cars. Finally I was told that week's special price to me would be fifteen
thousand. Each week I stopped by, and each week the price came down. When
the price reached ten thousand, I then pleaded poverty and offered nine
thousand, we closed on nine and a half thousand.
Having bought the car I then had the problem of registering it. I could
not insure the car until I had a registration number, and the car could
not be registered until it had insurance cover. Finally the office told me
the next registration number, I nipped down the road and took out seven
days' insurance and that certificate of insurance then got the car
registered.
I had attended a party with a friend, and we then moved on to visit the
C.O. of the local Indian Army
unit. When we left in my narrow Ford Prefect car I was already feeling
sleepy, but managed to keep awake and drop off my friend. I continued the
journey managing to keep awake - just. I turned off the main road, across
a bridge and up the hill to the factory compound where the road turned
right and then passed through the tea and along an embankment bending left
to the next section of tea. I woke up driving along the side of the
embankment, and found that it was impossible to get back onto the road due
to the slope. The car finally tipped over into a ditch, roof down and the
car fitted the ditch so well that it was not possible to open any of the
doors. Luckily I found one of the floor boards loose and climbed out,
setting off to walk back to my bungalow. The next morning my car had been
recovered from the ditch, oil and petrol topped up, and I drove off in
clouds of blue smoke.
Another time in my Landmaster car, I was returning from the club when I
had either burnt out valve, or a bad spark plug. The car was okay on the
flat, but as soon as I had crossed that bridge the car lost power on the
slope. I backed down to rush the hill, but that didn't work. So as the
alternative route was miles out, I turned the car around and then reversed
up the hill, turning around at the top to complete the journey on the
level.
Where clubs had amateur dramatics, I would take part. In the first play
'Dear Charles' I played the part of a teenage boy. In 'Castle in the Air'
a Civil Servant in the Coal Board, then the part of the husband in a play
called 'Odd Man In', a play with a cast of only three, and 'Fools Rush
In'. An extra rewarding part was that having performed in our local club,
the first play was taken to and performed in the oil town of Digboi at the
head of the Assam Valley, and to the Club in Shillong, the then State
capital of Assam. We also took 'Odd Man In' down to Calcutta (I was on my
way on leave after this, and had someone come up to me while in the Taj
Hotel in Bombay to say how much they had enjoyed the performance).
In my last club I played rugger for the Dooars area, attending practice
in different clubs on Sundays during the rains when the ground was soft!
On different occasions we would use different modes of transport,
sometimes driving up to a river through the jungle, then crossing in a
boat to be collected on the other side and driven to the club, where we
played a game before changing for the evening. One night in particular, on
return to the river we climbed into the boat, only to be told by the
boatmen that there had been rain in the hills and the increased flow of
the river meant that they could only take half of us at a time. An
argument broke out as to who should get out and wait for the second
crossing. I remember saying that as I was the most senior, then I would
not be getting out. Finally three of our group stepped out of the boat,
over the side over which they had climbed in, but they had not noticed
that the boat had turned while they were talking and so stepped straight
into water right up to their chests. A rude and sobering shock but nobody
was harmed.
Another time because of the weather we had decided to travel by train.
The journey was only some forty miles, but took over an hour due to a not
so-permanent permanent way. By the time of our return that night I had
acquired a bottle of brandy, which three planters and two gurkha soldiers
demolished before we reached Mal Junction.
At the same time as playing rugger, I also played soccer with the club
team in order to keep fit. I still have the silver tankard given to
members of the winning team in the area football cup competition.
At another club there was a range where we carried out target shooting
with .22 rifles. Competitions were held once a month and I have the odd
silver spoon so won. I developed quite a skill in shooting cigarette tins
(cigarettes then came in round tins each of fifty) when hurled into the
air, people would aim and fire to hit the tin - the secret was to wait
until the tin reached its highest point, and then aim and fire before it
started to fall back.
I have another spoon won at the Mal Flower Show in western Dooars. There
was a regular flower show with planters and towns people bringing flowers,
fruit and vegetables. I do not remember what items I had entered from the
bungalow garden, but I won the class for beetroot. The mali was
over the moon, and I pressed money into his hands just before he
disappeared down the bazar to celebrate.
While on the subject of malis - one day a friend returned to his
bungalow at midday to find a pick-up truck from the Excise Deparment
parked and a whole lot of Excisemen routing around in his vegetable patch.
This was during the rains, and he duly sailed in saying that they would be
welcome to return in September to prepare the garden for sowing seeds. The
Chief Excise Officer looked somewhat sourly at my friend and then inclined
his head to the right. My friend turned his head and then saw his mali
sitting there manacled. He then looked more closely to see what the excise
men were up to, and realised that they were uprooting and gathering a
certain plant for burning - Indian Hemp! He was lucky that the excise
people were satisfied with the mali.
In some areas there were units of the Indian Army Frontier Rifles, with
whom we may good friends. Invitations to attend the annual raising day
celebration were always enjoyable. One Assam Rifles regiment, made up then
mainly of Gurkha soldiers held its Raising Day in the Cold Weather. They
had sent out jawans (soldiers) armed with service rifles (I think)
to hunt and bring back deer. These would be turning on spits over vast
fires, and everyone would be seated, glass in hand enjoying the warmth
while the meal was cooking. Mess orderlies circulated keeping glasses
topped-up, and the question was Gin or Rum. Having made ones choice, the
glass would be filled with the chosen drink almost to the rim, and then
topped with a splash of orange squash.
I do not know who had instilled into me during my youth the thought
"drink what you will, but never drink to the stage where you are not
in control of yourself"! There was an engineer unit commanded by a
major of Engineers, which was celebrating its Raising Day, also in the
Cold Weather. The drive to get there was quite long as the unit was
located in the foothills. For the celebrations the unit, and all sections
platoons etc were sacrificing animals of different sizes, this being
followed by dances put on by young Gurkha jawans dressed as girls.
Before adjourning to the major's bungalow for lunch, he suggested that we
circulate and visit some of the N.C.O.'s tea stalls, which we did. While
talking with a havildar or sergeant and drinking a cup of tea, he
asked whether I would like a glass of dharu (a Nepalese spirit
distilled from rice beer). I agreed and tried a glass, and I then vaguely
remember walking to the major's bungalow. This must have been at somewhere
around 1 p.m., but I remember nothing until I woke up in my car on my own
and some 40 miles away at 8 p.m. at a ferry site on the way back to an
earlier district. This gap was of particular worry to me, as on coming
around I noticed that my trousers were inside out. It alarmed me that I
had lost control of myself, and it quite put me off alcohol for a full 48
hours.
During the cold weather the P.W.D. (Public Works Department) would put up
bamboo and thatch cold weather bridges and we could then drive out and
visit other districts and clubs. The P.W.D. in maintaining shingle and mud
roads would keep very cautiously to their budget. With the approach of the
end of the financial year at the end of March, finding spare cash in the
coffers, they would go mad flinging up earth and building up the roads.
You could say that was great, but shortly after this the small rains
arrived and the roads turned to quagmires.
At the same time estates in each district would get together and make up
the roads and bridges to some place up the river, private and with a nice
beach where we could go and picnic. At one such place there was quite a
run of rapids with quiet pools at top and bottom. Most accepted the
challenge to shoot the rapids sitting in car or lorry inner tubes. One
such time I saw a cobra swim the river.
It was in the cold weather that the inter-club tennis, golf and other
competitions would be played off. My first club was the one which
traditionally held the New Year party, for which the club would be
decorated out on some theme. One year while the club was being rebuilt, a
temporary thatched barn was added to the old building, the edges of a
tarpaulin were buried to provide a dance floor, a country cart was pushed
into one corner of the barn with its rear facing the dance floor and with
hoops and a tarpaulin it looked like a cowboy wagon. Everyone was invited
to attend a square dance evening. We would work up cabaret acts in order
to entertain our guests - one time a fashion show with young assistants as
the models dressed in all sorts of peculiar clothes. One such was a very
tall planter dressed in a Chinese sort of coat reaching almost to the
ground where the outfit hid more than it revealed and was entitled 'From
here to Maternity', one planter putting on a jacket of gold to do the
commentary which was worked up by all of us.
At one tennis do, we retired to have a lie-back at somebody's bungalow.
After a reasonable rest but while still feeling dozy, a servant came in
bearing a tray with tea. He was told to put the tray down, which he did
and left the room. After a few minutes we looked for the tea, looking on
table tops, chairs and all the obvious places like the dressing table.
Finally after looking high, we looked low and there was the tray, the Koya
servant had put the tray on the floor under a bed.
Each year between long leaves to England (or Scotland) there would be two
weeks 'local' leave in India. I went a couple of times to Puri on the Bay
of Bengal in Orissa. The journey meant flying down to Calcutta and then
taking the overnight train from Howrah Station to Puri. The train arrived
in Puri at about 6 a.m. when everything was still beautifully cool, it was
then a short ride in a cycle-rickshaw to the hotel. This was the B.N.R.
Hotel (Bengal Nagpur Railway) which was a long single-storied building
facing onto the road, and across the road was the beach and the sea. I
checked in and settled into my room which had high ceilings, and then
attended breakfast. I then took another rickshaw into the centre of town
where there was the vast temple of Jaganath. From the temple there was
quite a wide road leading to a smaller temple, and on this road stood a
wooden carriage or 'car' with fixed wheels. This was the 'Jaganath Car',
and apparently once a year the god would be loaded onto the car which was
then pushed by devotees down the road to the other temple where he would
remain while the temple was undergoing its spring clean. Now the car was
heavy even when unladen, and any steering had to be done by leaning on the
car to effect a change of direction and there were of course no brakes.
Hence the expression of being run over by the Jaganath Car in recognition
of various devotees who slipped and fell in the path of the car.
To bathe in the sea, after changing in the hotel room you grabbed a towel
and sauntered out, crossing the road and down to the sea. There were quite
strong breakers though the distance between forming and breaking was not
too great. Surfboards consisting of three boards held together by two
wooden bars across top and bottom were available to hire along with an
attendant to look after one. The beach rules did not allow of independent
action. So grasping the board you fought out diving through the waves then
turning to catch a wave back in. Most invigorating and appetite building.
Lunches and dinners were a treat as there was plenty of fish to grace the
menu, although on expatriate there moaned that the hotel should be named
Pomfret Hotel in recognition of the one fish which featured on the menu
most days. Something which was really delicious were the prawn curries
served at different meals. The Rajpramukh of Parrakhud was also staying
there. Now Puri was a dry area where no alcohol was available, and he was
reputed to send his driver and car some thirty miles each day to bring
back sustenance.
There was a possibility of an excursion which I took advantage of, and
this entailed in being driven to the State Capital of Bhubaneswar and
visiting a museum before continuing to Konarak. At this last-named place
on the sea shore there was the abandoned Temple of the Sun or Black
Pagoda. The last naming was given by sea captains who used the distinctive
temples as landmarks. There was another temple which was predominately
white while this one was of dark stone.
The main block of the temple was laid out as though it was a carriage
with wheels carved on two sides, and a line of horses stretching away on
one other side as though they were towing the carriage. But the whole of
the building was covered in carvings which portrayed couples in the nude
practising all the possible positions according to the 'Kama Sutra' with a
few extra thrown in. Local legend suggested that at a time when the
population was low, perhaps due to epidemic, the carvings were made to
encourage people to get to it and re-populate the area. I believe they
have succeeded all to well.
Returning to Puri I was then better able to understand the notice board
which was extolling Orissa and tourism, the last line of which admonished
the reader to 'visit Orissa, the land of Hoary Antiquity'.
Leaves in Assam nearer to 'home' would be taken in Shillong in the Khasi
and Jainti Hills at some 4,000 feet above sea level. At that time the
choices of accommodation were the Shillong Club and the Pinewood Hotel.
Between these two buildings there was a public park with an area of water
called Ward Lake with a Chinese style bridge over. In the Lake itself
there were a lot of large fish, presumably carp.
Shillong itself had a cinema, a race course, a 9-hole golf course almost
on the side of a hill, a highly reputed Hospital established by a Welsh
Mission, a swimming pool and bar with its own cascade called Crinoline
Falls, and there were plenty of places to visit on excursions. There was
Elephant Falls; a visit to Cherrapunji which at that time held the record
for the world's highest rainfall and nearby were waterfalls which dropped
over the edge of the escarpment down to the plains way below. Shillong was
also a garrison town where the Assam Regiment was based in an area called
Happy Valley.
There were odd words in the local language, Khasi which were very similar
to English words but of a completely different meaning. The Khasi word for
hot was shit, and in my mind's eye I can just see a Sergeant
yelling at his squad saying 'I suppose you think yourselves shit-hot'.
Another such word was the Khasi word for clever - bastud, and again
the sergeant shouting 'you think yourselves clever bastards'.
An ex-planter Captain Hunt married to a Khasi girl was established in one
village in a tribal area and hence not subject to Federal Law and taxes.
He maintained a bar with drinks produced by himself. There were gin, rum,
whisky and so on, which could also be purchased and taken away for
consumption at leisure. For that purpose people would arrive with well
cleaned out kerosine tins which would be filled according to choice and
then soldered closed. My own choice of container was stoneware acid jars.
In filling the containers the difference in elevation of the filling zone
against Shillong had to be remembered and space left for the contents to
expand once they reached Shillong. One person returned to his car in
Shillong to find that with the jar filled right to its top, the liquor had
expanded, cracking the jar and filling the car with whisky which by then
remained only as fumes.
In the Dooars we were not too far from Darjeeling and Kalimpong. The
drives up to both these places were quite spectacular as the roads climbed
steeply, in one section of the road to Kalimpong there was a fairly tight
spiral in the road in order to gain height. In Kalimpong were hotels, Dr
Graham's Homes organised and run for children born of temporary
relationships between Europeans and Indians, a Catholic Institution run by
Swiss brothers where they made cheeses which were to be seen covering rack
upon rack as they matured.
In Kalimpong it was possible to buy and drink
tumba which made by part filling a special wooden beaker with a lid
which had a hole to allow the insertion of a wooden 'straw' with slits at
the non-drinking end. A seed much like millet was put into this beaker and
hot water was poured over. This brew was then drunk through the straw, and
more hot water could be added. The drink was mildly intoxicating.
The road up to Darjeeling was quite exciting as it climbed from the
plains to over 7,000 feet and back a little to Darjeeling in some 45
miles. The road ran close to the railway most of the way up. There was the
odd section where the train ran back up the hill over a 'Z' in order to
gain height and then away again. Nearer Darjeeling the track completed a
spiral where the locomotive would be crossing a bridge with the tail of
the train under that same bridge. The road ran up through Tindharia (the
railway workshops town) crossing and re-crossing the railway, there were
no gates and of course the trains had priority. It was possible to race
the train in an endeavour to overtake, when suddenly the track and train
would cross the road cutting off any incautious driver. What helped keep
the adrenaline going was that often the trains and road would be shrouded
in mist or low-lying cloud.
In Darjeeling I always stayed at the Planters Club, although there were
hotels - the Everest and Windermere. Next door to the Planters Club was
the Darjeeling Nursing Home where my eldest son was born. Just down the
road was a milk and steak house called Keventers. Keventers ran farms
raising pigs and so on, where you could buy the produce to take back, or
eat juicy steaks on the premises. Something noticeable in Darjeeling was
the Cinema music which pounded out seemingly all day.
As a bachelor a friend and I used to drive up to Darjeeling at weekends
to stay at the Club and play billiards all evening and the next morning.
Whatever the time of year, the coolness due to the elevation meant that
fires were needed every evening. We played billiards all evening, having a
Club Sandwich with bacon and Egg in them. We would have lunch at the club
before setting off back on the Sunday. Sometimes my friend's car would
lose its brakes, this was due to the thinner air at altitude, the heat of
the day with the heat from braking causing the brake fluid to vaporise for
a short time. On this road up-going traffic had priority which seemed a
little crazy as it is easier to stop a car climbing rather than one
descending.
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Labour of Love
October 2002
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The
work force of a tea plantation was made
up originally of workers recruited usually as a family unit in their own 'country',
a region where population was high and work
opportunity low. A company called Begg Dunlop had established recruiting
stations in such areas, and would carry out the necessary vetting of likely
recruits. In some cases, with
agreement from the management, workers would write to their friends (rather send
messages through the letter writer in the bazar) telling them to come, or go
back to their country to recruit family
and friends.
A family perhaps of young
husband and wife with children would arrive on the plantation along with other
'recruits' on a three year contract. They would be allocated housing in one of the 'lines' according to their tribal origins and then checked again by
medical staff for health and fitness.
They would be interviewed, issued with the necessary tools for work and then
allocated to a work squad. Each line had a panchayat consisting of five
elders of that tribe who acted as a management committee looking after that
line. The children would also be checked for health and well-being, and when their
parents went to work then they would
either attend one of the estate's schools or if too young then accompany their
mother to work where informal creches would be established. Workers would be
allocated a plot of land on which to grow some of their paddy (rice)
requirements.
On arrival the family would
often speak only their own tribal language, and they then had to learn Hindi,
the language spoken throughout all tea plantations, although there would be some
different words in different areas. All people working on an estate from the
management down had to learn and speak
this same language.
Should a worker become sick,
then there was an estate hospital complete with doctor, a dispenser or 'compounder'
to make up medicines, and a hospital with nurses for those needing further care.
A visiting dentist would come once a month to attend workers and children.
At the end of the contract
workers would be repatriated to their countries. Before departure they would
come to the office and hand over a mass of coin which they had saved during
their stay on the estate. This money would be counted and a receipt given to the
worker, and they would set off homewards. A list of names together with amounts
collected would be sent urgently to the recruiting station, and on arrival there
then the money would be paid out.
However this continuing change
of an estate's work force was stopped when the Government of the day decided
that workers should remain where they were. This meant of course that it was no
longer necessary to train up one third of the work force each year, but a
population surplus to an estate's needs grew up in areas where in effect they
were 'foreigners', and they would be
in
competition with local people for jobs outside the plantations.
A
lot of television programmes have made out that tea plantation workers were very
badly treated and exploited, from the medical, housing and physical aspects.
However this did not happen on estates which I knew. Labour had to be treated
with all humanity, as it is easy to understand that:
unhealthy workers cost an
estate even if just from loss of their work a worker housed in poor housing
would not be a fit management of perhaps 2 to 3 persons would be extremely
vulnerable should they mistreat a workforce of some 1,500 workers (half of them
men) plus as many or more dependents.
Within
the lines, there would be inter-family fights from time to time, and these would
be brought to the office usually for the assistant manager to resolve. I recall
one case over which I had to adjudicate fairly soon after learning enough Hindi.
The dispute was between two families, neighbours in the same lines, and they
turned up each with a crowd of supporters. I got both groups to sit down,
separate from each other, and asked them to nominate one spokesman each. Then
within earshot of everyone the first aggrieved family spokesman was asked to
tell his tale of events - anybody trying to intervene being told to hold their
peace. Then the spokesman for the other family was asked to tell his tale. The
terrible thing was that at the end of this you had heard two tales which seemed
to have nothing in common. Then it was necessary to put questions in turn to
each family from which gradually a 'picture' began to form. This allowed more
direct questioning to really add form to the 'picture', and once this had been
achieved then a stop was called. Then they were told what the true course of
events was considered to be together with a judgement and decision as to
punishment of the guilty parties. This could be where the guilty family had to
produce a sum of money as a 'bond' of good behaviour, this bond to be held by
the line panchayat or committee for a
given period.
There
was a genuine recognition of children reaching certain stages in their lives.
One such was when a family - husband, wife, children and relatives came onto the
office verandah asking for a day's leave to have a party. On asking the reason
for the celebration, they pushed forward their young daughter who looked both
coy and fulfilled as they announced that the party was to be in celebration of
their daughter's first menses, 'she is a woman now!'
Another
assistant had some items of clothing and other belongings stolen, and he traced
these to his personal bearer. Having recovered the items in question, the
culprit was made to wear the scarves, watch and other items while the whole
workforce passed at the weekly 'pay parade'.
After my first leave I
returned to another estate as second garden
assistant; on an estate with a manager, two garden assistants and a factory
assistant. One day shortly after my
arrival,
there was a number of
male workers sitting at the road
side rather than working plucking. This was some one and a half hours
before weighment and the end of the day's work. I said that they should return
to work which they ultimately did, only to refuse to come out of work when the
factory gong sounded to announce the end of work for the day. The rest of the
workers also refused to come out, and finally I cycled off to see the manager
and report the problem. He took with him the senior assistant, saying that I
should remain at the factory for weighment. While I wished to accompany them,
this was refused. After a while the manager and assistant returned followed by
the workers. I could tell that I was in trouble as the men workers hung back
looking hopeful, while the women surrounded me trying to hit me with their
umbrellas. I knew instinctively that any serious reaction would provide the men
with the excuse to let loose, and I managed to keep my cool. At last the women
gave up and all were weighed up. It transpired that the manager had told the
work force that I was only young and did not know what I was doing; and the
manager told me to just ride my bicycle around, which
I did for six months until he went on leave.
The acting manager backed me, and now in charge of
both garden divisions I tightened up the standard of work and discipline. The
Company Superintendent visiting with his Deputy Manager commented that he had
thought his estate was clean. From this I learned that a subordinate must be
able to rely on the support of his superior at all times, support which I had
always had on my first estate and which I would extend to my own assistant in
due time. Okay, afterwards one could expect any appropriate dressing-down, but
support was essential.
One day at the midday weighment at the factory, one
woman was found to have dropped only part of her leaf in the withering house and
was in the process of starting the afternoon with her basket already part full
of leaf. I pondered what to do, and finally emptied the leaf from her basket
onto the concrete floor behind the assistant
weighing up. She was then stood in the basket behind the leaf while her fellow
workers were weighed up. At the end she was told to take the leaf into the
withering loft and not do it again. That afternoon I saw her hiding in a ditch
and was told with a laugh that it was the woman who was taking back her leaf to
weigh in a second time.
Another time a mystery presented itself when each
morning human faeces were found deposited at the top of the steps to the
manager's office. The chowkidar or
watchman had not seen anyone do this, perhaps because he was sleeping as most chowkidars
did. However after a shake up, a few days later the culprit was caught. As
punishment the woman responsible for this act was paid day's wage to sit with a
fan keeping the flies away.
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The
same office was surrounded by a wire fence fixed to angle iron posts with
gateways in. These posts were suffering severe corrosion because of the local
dogs' habit of peeing against
them.
As a cure-all, the fence was connected to the estate's 110 volt DC electric
supply and switched on. It only took a couple of dogs for the rest to get the
message and that problem was short-circuited. They received a shock but there
was no permanent harm done to the dogs.
The
assistant responsible for checking the rain gauge, recording rainfall and
temperatures one day
during the dry season recorded rain in the gauge. He measured this and made the
entry into the weather book, not realising until later that someone on the way
back from a club night must have nipped over the fence and peed into the rain
gauge.
Tea
Plantation Standing orders had been agreed between the Government, Tea
Plantations and the Trades Unions. Should a worker break any of the agreed
breaches of discipline in these orders, then it was necessary to issue the
worker with a Charge Sheet, to be followed by what was to all intents a Court of
Enquiry recording all the
questions and answers. At the end a judgement had to
be made and then a Warning Notice had to be made out and given to the guilty
worker. But he knew that he could be sacked only if was found guilty of a second
misdemeanour within six months of his warning notice, and in any case it was not
possible
to also sack his wife.
At
one stage all estates had received a notice adding a further misdemeanour to
Standing orders, but this was different as instant dismissal and exile could be
carried out if a worker was found guilty of 'moral turpitude'.
On
the out division of one estate there was a water carrier or pani-wallah
who was employed to brew and carry tea to refresh the workers. He was a
member of the sweeper class and the trades union secretary. While the Government
had in theory abolished the caste system, this in fact persisted especially
amongst the older people. I had reason to speak to the pani-wallah at length as it had come to my notice that he was
entering into a relationship with a girl from a different and higher caste from
his own. I said to him that this could lead to problems, to which he replied
that the government had abolished caste. I agreed that indeed they had, but alas
a lot of the older generation
took a different view and this could lead to trouble both in his relationship
and should
it break up. I made a point that I only spoke in front of the clerk
in charge of garden work, but noticed that the other clerk was in the
background, and I knew that he had leanings towards the trades unions. Having
spoken about this I knew that I could do nothing except warn him of possible
consequences. Just before I was due to go on leave to the U.K. I learned that he
had abandoned his 'wife' and run off with another girl from yet another caste.
The
wronged girl's family had to
pay out for a feast for other caste members so that she could regain her caste.
I made out a charge sheet against the man for 'moral turpitude' but then had to
go on leave, leaving this charge sheet and my notes to await the return of the
sinner.
On
return 7 months later to collect my belongings and before proceeding to my next
posting I learned that the party had not returned to the estate, but instead was
languishing in jail at government expense. Apparently after our talk, he had
taken the girl into the nearest town and then married her in a civil wedding (in
effect saying "yah" to me). And of course, when he ran off with the
other girl he was then arrested and tried for committing bigamy. I never
succeeded in charging anyone with 'moral turpitude'.
On
one estate where we had both permanent workers living on the plantation, we also
had casual workers from local villages or bustee
worker. The bustee worker in question was also a
very busty young lady who was reputed to have gone through seven relationships.
She was quite a feast for sore eyes on rainy days, and she had her eyes on the
husband of one of the permanent workers. The wife did not approve of this, and
one morning on her way to work, the bustee girl was caught by the wronged wife
and her friends. She then suffered
having green chilies rubbed into her nostrils
and five other orifices before being released. I learnt that she spent the rest
of the day sitting in a river which passed through the estate. This must have
been quite an experience as the river at that place had just emerged from the
Himalayas and consisted mainly of water from snow melt. I really missed her
presence when it rained.
One
assistant had a dog which kept on frightening workers' children and workers too,
and despite warnings to him he would control the dog and then gradually ease off
again. This behaviour reflected the opinion
of the dog's owner where he
considered the workers to be ignorant people, and of course the workers could
sense this. One day at the end of the work day the work force refused come out
of work and weigh up. This brought back memories, but backing the assistant
saying that he was only carrying out orders, ultimately they came out and
weighed up. However, after weighment a group of twenty or so men gathered under
a tree opposite the office. I told the assistant to remain in his office, sent a
message to my deputy manager to send my other assistant with a lorry to the
nearest bungalow warning the 'riot police' on the way there, and for himself to
join us at the office. The men remained under the tree and I sent over the chowkidar
saying that if they had anything to say I was in the office ready to hear
any complaints. They replied that I should go to them, to which I replied that
they seemed to be the ones with a problem. This carried
on until about 8 pm, at which time
the heavens opened and it poured with rain. The men dispersed having
passed some two and a half hours there.
I
told the cause of the problem to return to his bungalow and wait there, the
deputy and other assistant to send the lorry back to the garage and themselves
proceed to my bungalow and break out the beer. I took my LandRover and drove
down to the bazar and Police Station, where I thanked the Inspector for having
stood the riot police ready, but fortunately they would no longer be required.
At this stage the local Trades Union Secretary broke in saying that they wished
to lodge a complaint against my assistant.
I then returned to see my assistant and give him the what for
what
for, before then taking him to join the others in a beer session. That was
the end of that affair.
Sex
or lack of opportunity was always a problem, as although there would be a large
number of healthy young ladies in the labour force and the families of clerical
staff, these had to considered taboo, and usually estates were in remote parts.,
All workers had to be treated fairly and equally, and in cases of dispute people
whom I tended to favour would come off worse that somebody whom I didn't
particularly like. Workers required fair and even-handed justice.
In another district
there was the tale of a certain young local lady, obviously full of initiative
who took it upon herself to make herself available to the bachelors by visiting
them in turn in their bungalows. Now during the Great War there had been a
well-known German Commerce Raider, and after the girl's round of visits, her
tour was talked about as 'the cruise of the Emden' in recognition of the trail
of disaster or rather cases of Venereal Disease left behind.
One
day, a sex-starved bachelor was approached by his cook who discreetly advised
that a certain young lady was agreeable to making herself available. Now the
young lady in question was the nursemaid or
ayah
to the engineer assistant's children, and therefore not a member of
the work force. Interest was confirmed and an evening arranged which was duly
consummated. Soon after a posting took the bachelor away to another estate some
15 miles or so away, and not long after that the Bearer of the manager of the
first estate presented himself advising that he had married the fore mentioned
young lady and that she was pregnant. The bearer departed with a cash prize for
the expected child. It was some few months later that the same Bearer presented
himself again reporting that his wife now had a bouncing baby born just the
other day. A quick count showed that the child would have had
to have been born
at seven months, so in relief the Bearer departed with a gift of cash for the
child. It was only some months later that the perfidy of the Bearer and ayah was revealed when it
was discovered that the trick had been worked on the whole managerial and
clerical staff of that estate.
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-June 2002
My Passage to India
I was born in Tanganyika in East Africa, and although brought to Britain
at about 9 months of age, tales of Africa and of India from parents uncles and
aunts together with photographs of these places fired my imagination where i
wanted to work in the "Empire". This was no run down music hall
or cinema, but what we the British had built and ran throughout the world.
My initial ambition was to join one of the colonial police forces in
Africa - Gold Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, to name a few. The
police idea probably stemmed from the fact that one uncle, Uncle Jack had served
in the police in India reaching the rank of Superintendent, and that one great
grandfather and his brother had both reached the rank of Head Constable in the
police.
However fate was against me . Although there was still an empire to be
policed at the beginning of the 1950's, I failed the medical due to short-sightedness
in days when there were a minima height and eyesight requirements. Feeling lost,
I happened to meet an old school friend, who told me that his tea-planter father
was on leave from Darjeeling in India. I duly met and talked with the father and
then applied to different companies.
Being rewarded with success, I duly gave up my job, made purchases which
were limited to the extent that virtually everything was still rationed from
food through, clothing (and even furniture). Then I set off on a trail visiting
uncles and aunts, and my paternal grandparents (my other grandparents had
already passed away) to arrive at Liverpool Docks on a day to embark on M.V.
Cilicia of the Anchor line for the voyage to Bombay and India.
Once shown to my cabin and having arranged my things , I met my cabin mate
who was also travelling out to join the same company. His name was Chris Fahey
and he had been in India serving in the army during the war. I then set off
around the ship to find out where everything was - the purser's office, dining
room, bars, washing rooms and so on. The ship was so steady moored to the
dockside that I even started to look for the billiard room. Fortunately I
realised that it would not be practical to play billiards in a storm or even a
bit of a swell, and so abandoned this search.
The time came to sail, streamers linked the ship to the shore, and the
loudspeakers system played nostalgic tunes such as "we'll meet again, don't
know.......'etc and the ship was nudged out and away to sea. Soon we were
engaged in boat drill finding out lifeboat stations, booking table seating for
meals and generally finding out what it was all about
I learnt that although I had bought a dinner suit, these were not worn the
first night (nor the last night) so at the appropriate time went with my
cabin mate to dinner dressed in lounge suits. This meal was a revelation as
while in England food was in short supply and rationed, here there were full
five course meals, and you could have as much as you wanted. In short, we ate
well.
During the days there were deck games to be played such as shuffleboard,
deck tennis with rope quoits, deck golf, a swimming pool and of course -- the
bar. Each evening there were different entertainments -- 'housey',
quizzes, dances ( a Fancy Dress dance too), 'horse racing' and cinema where a
screen was rigged against the after mast (at each change of reel there was ample
time to recharge glasses). On later voyages there would be cinema
shows for children in the afternoons, and I used to borrow a couple so that I
could watch the cartoons.
The ship sailed south, crossing the Bay of Biscay which to everyone's
relief was calm, then down the coast of Portugal and round into the
Mediterranean Sea past Gibraltar. Days were getting warmer and we saw lots
of sun. There was a laundry service, but it was easier on the pocket to do
one's own washing. The washing room had racks to spread and dry your
clothes after washing, but in practice this was a sure fire way of losing your
clothes, so the answer was to take the clothes back to your own cabin and spread
them on the painted steel walls. Clothes dried perfectly and if correctly
spread on the wall required no ironing when dry and peeled off.
Passage To India
The first port of visit was Port Said in Egypt at the head of the Suez
Canal. While awaiting the convoy to form, a 'gilli-gilli' man came aboard
who gave a magic show making chicks appear and throwing a passenger's watch
overboard, but all came well. We went ashore, crossing a 'pontoon' joining
the ship to shore, and visited various shops including 'Simon Artz' which was a
large general shop selling virtually everything (no rationing). It was
understood that as long as there was a passenger liner in port, then Simon Artz
remained open. A visit was also made to see the statue of de Lesseps, the
French engineer who dug the canal.
Back on board and we set sail down the Canal. There was a speed
limit to avoid washing the banks away, and all traffic was in one direction to
lakes in the middle of the Canal where ships anchored to allow the convoy from
the south to pass. Alongside the canal ran a small canal known as the
Sweet Water Canal which the water certainly did not look. Then out into
the Red Sea, next stop Aden.
At Aden the ship moored to a buoy, and passengers boarded launches to go
ashore. From Steamer Point right through to the Crescent Hotel ( a
colonial style hotel) and the Rock Hotel ( a modern hotel) there were lots of
small shops selling portable radios, cameras and other goods at reasonable
prices, though of course you had to bargain. A taxi ride would then take
you to Crater Town where there was an even wider range of shops. The town
was literally in a volcanic crater, and cars drove through a cutting in the
crater wall.
Sailing again, this time for Karachi in then newly independent Pakistan,
and here we visited the town and shops.
Sailing that night for Bombay, the last leg, we ran into the first rough
weather of the journey. This was the approach to the Indian sub-continent
of the South East monsoon. The ship was sailing almost due south with the
monsoon blowing from the SE. The ship was really rolling and pitching, and to
move about, it was necessary to hold onto rails. Here I learned that I was
not liable to sea-sickness, rather I found an increased appetite which I was
able to indulge in a virtually empty dining room.
On arrival at Bombay (Mumbai), immigration officers came aboard together
with representatives of different travel companies. Here we learned that
we had reservations for the Calcutta Mail train leaving Victoria Terminus the
next evening at about 6 p.m., and we were booked overnight into a small hotel
lodging house on Marine Drive. That evening we hit town finishing up in a
quite magnificent air-conditioned cinema. The weather was stormy with the
approach of the monsoon. The next day we looked around town getting to the
railway station in good time with bottles of soda water in buckets of ice
The compartment was a twin berth, where during the day the upper berth was
folded up and the lower berth used as a seat. At night the upper berth was
folded down and both beds made up. In the windows there were three sashes
--- one with fine netting to keep the mosquitoes out, one with glass, and the
final with bars, and there was a small bathroom with toilet, stainless steel
wash basin and shower.
One station which the train passed through soon after leaving Bombay on
its journey to Calcutta via Nagpur was named Deolali. During the war the
army maintained a transit camp near this station, and when troops were due to be
posted back to Britain or further east they were sent here to await the arrival
of the next troopship. Now nobody knew how many places there were
available until the next troopship arrived in Bombay, and there was therefore a
certain lottery as to which ship you got onto and when you left. This was
known as 'doolaly tap'.
Waiters, who were dressed in white uniforms with cummerbund and turban
came around the train in one station taking orders for the next meal. Once
the train had left, the orders were telegraphed up the line so that the meals
were ready at the next station when the train pulled in. Meals were
quickly served and the train pulled out, and it was at the next stop that the
trays and payments were collected, the trays to be used for the next westbound
train. At each station there were stalls selling books, fruit, and so on.
Thirty six hours after leaving Bombay the train was pulling into Calcutta
Howrah Station at 6 a.m. Here we were met by company cars and taken to the
Grand Hotel on Chowringhee. After a bath, the water having quite a high
iron content looked quite red even before you got into the bath, and then
breakfast; the cars then returned to take us to the company offices.
Here we learnt where we were being posted to, and details of the onwards
flights. I was booked to fly to Tezpur on the north bank of the
Brahmaputra river in Assam, to proceed from there to Nya Gogra Tea Estates,
wherever that was in some five days time. In the meantime I was advised to
buy and take two sets of curlery, crockery and so on, a mackintosh because of
the heavy rains to be expected (in practice it was too hot to wear, like moving
around in your very own Turkish Bath!).
The day arrived and I engaged a taxi to take me and my plates out to Dum
Dum Airport, and checked in with Bharat Airways (Bharat being an old Hindi word
for India). When the flight was called, we walked out and boarded a Dakota
aircraft, and off we went. Something quite reassuring about this aircraft
was that the wings always seemed to be flexing up and down as though it was
doing its best to fly despite the two fans. The plane landed at Agartala
in the State of Tripura, and then took off to fly over the Khasi and Jainti
Hills height some 5,000 feet to then drop towards Tezpur. However with the
monsoon starting, it was not possible to find Tezpur and we returned to Calcutta
and the Grand Hotel. The next day back to Dum Dum and this time Tezpur was
found.
Tezpur airport was a war-time airfield, and on the base of a now
demolished barrack-room floor some three feet above ground level was a senior
looking man with a group of other men around him. I immediately thought
that this was some welcoming party, only to be disabused by a young man, Bob
Forbes who introduced himself as being there to meet and collect me. The
senior man was the Superintendent of the company that I had joined, and the
other people were senior managers of the same company seeing him off on the
flight's return to Calcutta.
We left the airfield driving to my new friend's bungalow on Addabarie Tea
Estate, not too far from the airfield. Here I was introduced to a small
Indian who had been sent down from Nya Gogra to meet and journey back with
me. He had no English and I had no Hindi. We were to go the next day
to the steamer flat on the Brahmaputra River to await the steamer. A
steamer flat was an old steamer with its cabins and dining room intact on the
upper level with cook and staff, and the lower part with engines removed acting
as a warehouse for goods for onward dispatch by the next steamer. As the
river changed in levels and course with the seasons, so the 'flat' was moved up
and down the river bank.
In the meantime, there was a club evening to be attended that evening, and
it was late the next afternoon when my guide and I were deposited at the steamer
flat. The following day there was no sigh of my steamer which I leaned was
delayed due to the rains causing the river to rise and of course increase the
rate of flow. During the day a side paddle steamer kept coming in,
unloading vehicles and people who passed through the lower deck of the flat
before the steamer loaded and sailed as ferry to Nowgong on the opposite bank of
the river some miles away. I was intrigued to note that some three years
after independence of India, the steamer still sported a Royal Mail Steamer
burgee, which in hindsight would be correct as it was to be a year or two before
India declared herself as a Republic. Through the steamer staff I learned
that there was doubt as to when my steamer would arrive, and my guide
disappeared towards Tezpur. On his return I was told through an
interpreter that it was possible to take a bus if I was in agreement to this
mode of transport.
The following morning after breakfast, we journeyed into Tezpur and
boarded a bus. This was a Ford lorry chassis complete with V8 engine and a
wooden body mounted thereon which was most colourfully painted with scenes and
picture of flowers. We set off, myself in the one first class seat next to
the driver, with a row of second class seats behind with little knee room, and
behind that the third or ordinary class. Luggage went onto racks on
the roof and were sheeted over. We travelled as far as a major river
flowing south from the Himalayas down to the Brahmaputra. Here all
passengers got down and the bus then lurched down a sandy bank onto a sandy
track over part of the river bed and then onto a 'ferry', we walked behind and
then stood on the ferry deck. The ferry was actually two wooden country
boats some thirty foot long which were decked across the beams to allow the
carriage of two cars or a bus together with foot passengers. There were
ramps at each end of the deck which were lowered for the vehicles to drive up
onto the deck. There was a small deck between the two boats lower than the
deck on which a Ford V8 engine stood and drove a propeller. This was not
powerful enough to drive across the river, to the technique was to motor up the
river in the comparatively still waters by the bank, and to then angle the bows
slightly towards the other bank and motor like hell. The ferry would be
carried downstream backwards, but was at the same time angling across the
torrent of the main stream until the ferry reached the still water at the other
bank. Here the ferry motored to the landing spot, and we followed the bus
until it reached the top of the bank and then continued our journey.
We drove on, passing through paddy fields which were now a bright
indescribable green from the young paddy or rice plants recently transplanted
into the still flooded fields. We also passed by and through tea plantations
with its fantastic green from the new growth. Away to the north the
foothills of the Himalayas could be seen. We arrived at another river, and
this time there was no chance of the bus crossing due to the volume of water
racing down. We embarked on boats which were poled upstream and then
angled to cross the current, disembarking and walking to join another bus parked
and waiting for us.
The bus drove on until we had travelled a total of some 90 miles from
Tezpur when we reached Gohpur and we left the bus. Here there was a
rectangular pond or tank, on the banks of which there were houses, a Post Office
and Police Station. Here my trunk and cases were stacked at the road side,
and my guide signed that I should stay there while he went to fetch
transport. He had just set off when a tractor was heard which appeared
from a side road. It was a David Brown red tractor, and the sweaty looking
individual wearing short-sleeved shirt, shorts and a khaki pith helmet was the
acting manager under whom I was to serve for some five months before the
permanent manager returned from leave. Coincidentally, the acting manager
had taken the tractor to visit an out division of the estate which was not
accessible by car. The guide rushed back, and after discussion, he was
left guarding my luggage while I climbed onto the back of the tractor. We
continued for about 100 yards up the road to a large sign on which NYA GOGRA T.E.
HALEM TEA CO. was painted together with an arrow pointing to the left. We
turned up this road and after about one mile reached the edge of the tea,
driving through the tea and then up to the manager's bungalow where I met the
wife and young daughter. I was entertained to lunch before being taken
over to the assistant's bungalow which I was to share with another assistant
until he went on leave in some seven months time.
I don't really know what I had expected to find, maybe I thought we would
be using tea chests as chairs and tables, but the bungalow was adequately
furnished. The bungalow was built on a brick plinth with fairly deep
verandah round to shade the walls from direct sunlight. The roof was of
corrugated iron with thatch laid over, the thatch acting as a layer of
insulation of of course reducing the hammering to be otherwise expected from
heavy rainfall. Ceilings were fairly high with overhead fans. The ceilings
were hessian cloth mounted and battened onto frames and then whitewashed
over which gave a good rigid surface. Electric wiring to fans and lights
were mounted on wooden boards cut for the purpose, looking to all intents and purposes like railway tracks.
The rooms in the bungalow comprised - a dining room accessed from the
verandah with another door to a small room for washing up with access to the
outside; entering the main bungalow you came into a sitting room with a fairly
top heavy fireplace; this led in turn into a dressing room and then the main
bedroom with bathroom off; the second bedroom was reached either through the
main bedroom or along the verandah. To the rear of the bungalow there was a
cookhouse with cooking range and water supply, to one side there was a pen for
keeping chickens alive until needed for dinner - a good buy would produce eggs
until called for duty; and behind the cookhouse was a house in which the cook
and his family lived. The whole stood in a compound in one corner of which stood
a bamboo and thatched garage in which the car lived invariably parked in
the manner of a fire engine with it's nose facing out. The hedge all round was
of hibiscus and looked a rare sight when in flower. In order to keep the
bungalow functioning there was a number of servants - cook, bearer who
served at table and kept the bungalow and clothes, a hot water carrier who
besides washing the crocks also carried the hot water in to fill the baths, a
sweeper to sweep up floors, a nightwatchman who invariably slept the nights
away, and a mali or gardener
My passage to India was complete
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A Tea Garden
May 2002
While the above title may conjure up visions of a
blistering summer with a countryside oasis with umbrellas serving cream teas, a
tea plantation was often called a garden, presumably because of the
back-breaking work to keep it tidy!
Tea originated in China, and legend has it
that a certain Emperor stopped during his travels in the shade of a tea tree (Camellia
Sinensis) with a bowl of water by his side. He snoozed off, and while he was
resting a leaf or two fell off the tree into the water. On waking up, the
Emperor drank his water noticing the refreshing flavour, which he discovered to
have come from the tealeaf. At any rate, the cultivation and production of tea
began. In due course the traders came to China to discover Tea, which they then
began to purchase for the markets of Britain and Europe.
Those who settled to trade initially in
Portuguese Macao took up the habit of drinking tea, which proved to be most
healthy as water was boiled and thereby purified to a degree. Now, the trade all
took place through what used to be Canton (Kwangshao today) and traders would be
permitted in during two parts of the year which continues today with the
Kwangshao Trade Fair. At that time,
the Emperor considered that China had all it needed and would not trade, instead
shipments of tea had to be paid for in silver bullion. And of course it is from
the monopoly in tea held by China that the phrase ‘not for all the tea in
China’ came. Once the tea clippers were loaded then it was a race to reach
England first with their cargoes. So faster and faster clippers were designed
and built.
Now the traders saw all this silver bullion
disappearing into China with no opportunity to trade. They thought about what
could be traded in quantity in exchange for tea, and noticing a habit to smoke
opium pipes and go onto a high, the cultivation and production of opium was set
in hand. One of the best area was reputed to be around Patna, which was
recognised to produce the highest quality opium. With this product, ships sailed
into Calcutta where they loaded with balls of Opium for China. On arrival these
were then traded for tea. The Chinese Emperor did not want this trade to
continue and this led to the Opium Wars from which various concessions were
wrested from the Chinese including the lease of Hong Kong.
The colonial secretaries and so on had pondered the
possibility of acquiring tea seed to ship discreetly to India, to start tea
planting in India. Boxes of seeds were duly obtained and shipped to India. These
were then sent up into Assam where pioneer tea estates were established. One of
the first plantations was set up by a Captain Bruce, and for a time I was
stationed on this original plantations called Bindukuri near Tezpur. There was
the original bungalow built mainly in wood up on stilts in which I lived for a
while - though there had been several improvements since those early days. (The
production of rubber had been a monopoly of the Portuguese in Brazil, and this
was broken when
seed was acquired and
shipped to what is now Malaysia).
With settlement in the Assam Valley which up
until then had been mainly jungle, exploration discovered tea trees native to
Assam and these were also used as seed sources for planting different tea
strains.
In general a tea plantation of my time had a
total acreage of 900 acres and upwards under tea with a similar area for roads,
bridges, housing, factories, garages and spare land for tea nurseries etc.
Most estates had their factories for the
processing of fresh green leaf into black tea located at one edge of the estate,
and the office and stores (godown) would be sited close by. Dispensaries, hospitals, schools would be
also in this main ‘administrative’ area. Housing for clerical staff
would be fairly close to the factory and offices, while that for workers and
their families would be in ' lines' around the perimeter of the tea
areas. Bungalows for managerial staff would usually be sited within the tea
areas.
The clerical and factory supervisors were
generally from the people indigenous to that area, while workers had originally
been recruited from impoverished rural areas in other parts of India.
At first workers would come on a three year contract, so every year one
third of the work force would be repatriated to their 'country/; but government
then decided that labour should remain on their
estates so
leading to
growth of
non-indigenous populations in the tea areas where it was not possible for
the estates to employ the ever expanding populations - nor could the region.
The labour force consisted of people from
different tribes, with different religions and languages, and they would be
housed in ' lines' according to their group identity.
Work squads would be made up of men, women according to their tribe and
would be allocated work so that the distance from homes to places of work was as
short as possible. Children once they reached 16 years of age were checked by
medical staff for health and fitness before starting work in a children's squad
where they were given lighter work. There was a further squad of 'pensioners'
who were given very light work to keep them 'off the streets'!
During the plucking season the women's squads
would be engaged in plucking leaf, maintaining level plucking tables throughout,
and at times of heavy flushes or growth then the children and men's squads would
also be brought in. While the tea was growing, so too would the weeds, and
normally the men's and children's squads would be engaged in hoeing throughout
the tea. The cleaner the tea
was kept of weeds then the tea had less competition
for soil nutrients, and of course it was easier for the workers to pick the tea.
According to the tea area and growth pattern, so an
estate would maintain a plucking programme. The desirable growth of leaf from
when last plucked was ‘2 leaves and a bud’. That is that since l | |
