Tea Plantation Workers of Assam and the Indian National Movement, 1921-1947 by Bikash Nath

Author:Bikash Nath [Nath, Bikash]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Primus Books
Published: 2016-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

NOTES

1.Bhikhu Parekh, The Marxist Discourse on Gandhi, in Business and Politics in India, ed. Dwijendra Tripathi, Delhi, 1991, p. 210.

2.R.P. Dutt, India Today, Calcutta, 1997, p. 386.

3.‘Chairman’s Speech at the Fortieth Annual General Meeting of the ITA’, held on 11 March 1921 (Royal Exchange Building, Calcutta) in Report for the Year 1920: ITA, Calcutta.

4.Ibid.

5.Census of India, 1921, vol. III/Assam, pt. I, p. 5.

6.Some tea estates even during the depression paid heavy dividends. For instance, the Pabhojan Tea Company paid a dividend of 35 per cent in 1918 and 1919 and 25 per cent in the disastrous year 1920. The Doom Dooma Company paid a dividend of 15 per cent in 1918 and 1919 and 10 per cent in 1920, ALEC Report, 1921–22, p. 7.

7.Ibid., pp. 7–8.

8.Ibid.

9.Ibid., p. 6.

10.Ibid., pp. 6–7.

11.Ibid., p. 7.

12.Ibid., p. 9.

13.Ibid., p. 110.

14.Statement given by Babu Lalit Mohan Chaudhuri before the ALEC Report, 1921–22, Evidence, p. 65.

15.ALEC Report, pp. 15–16.

16.ALEC, Evidence, p. 150.

17.Deveshwar Sharma, Herai Jowa Dinbor, Guwahati, 1980, p. 145.

18.Royal Commission on Labour in India, vol.VI, pt. I, London, 1930, p. 6.

19.Pande in his speech, also compared the tea garden managers to Satan and he further stated that the English nation had seized Indian by foul means and that now Swaraj could be attained through noncooperation. In his second meeting too, he reiterated the demands he had made at the first meeting and said that if their grievances were not redressed, they should cease work like the coolies of the Khoreal Tea Estate in Cachar. ALEC Report, 1921–22, p. 11.

20.The case was that a European planter wanted to live with a coolie girl and,on being refused shot her father with a revolver.The accused was acquitted by the Calcutta court on the verdict of a jury of nine of whom eight were Europeans. The Mussalman Calcutta, 5 March and 1 July 1921, cited in A. Guha, ‘Formation of a Working Class in Assam Plantations’, in The North Eastern Affairs, vol. 5, nos. 1 and 2, Annual 1976, Shillong.

21.Ibid., p. 13.

22.Quoted in ibid., p. 12.

23.Ibid.

24.ALEC 1921–22, Evidence, p. 224.

25.Evidence given by J.A. Milligan, Chairman, Assam Labour Board in ibid.

26.The report also observed that ‘in the valley (Surma Valley), recruiting in 1918–19 had been unusually heavy and the class of coolie imported in that year under famine conditions is a matter of notoriety’, ALEC Report, p. 12.

27.Ibid.

28.Ibid.

29.Ibid.

30.Ibid., p. 13.

31.‘An examination of the registers for August 1920 at Oliviacherra garden (Goombhira division) disclosed the fact that in the height of the plucking season, too gangs comprising inferior workers and new coolies were only earning on an average Rs.3–8 a month as against Rs.7–8 and over, earned by the best workers. In these two gangs, there were a large number of women earning 2 annas 3 pies a day, and many earning only one 6 pies.’ Ibid.

32.Evidence by Mukerjee in ALEC Report, 1921–22, Evidence, p. 61.

33.Quoted in ibid., p. 14.

34.Ibid., pp. 14–15.

35.A. Guha, Planter Raj to Swaraj, Delhi, 1991, p. 128.

36.Evidence given by W.R.P. Gunnery, Manager, Chargola Division before the members of the Assam Labour Enquiry Committee, 1921–2 in ALEC, Evidence, p.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.