Our beloved English teacher once dramatically pronounced a line that forever changed how I viewed tea: “What would the world do without tea!” He even introduced us to the 18th-century British writer Sydney Smith, who penned a chapter filled with reflective sentences like, “Thank God for tea!” and “I am glad I was not born before tea!”
Growing up in Kamrup, Assam, my knowledge of tea was limited. I only knew about one way to prepare it (with milk and sugar), and tea gardens existed solely in the pages of books, novels, and Assamese movies. For many in western Assam, tea remained a world waiting to be explored.
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Through various reporting assignments, I visited tea plantations in eastern Assam. Yet, a fantasy lingered: to live on a vast tea estate for days, completely disconnected from the outside world. This fascination with tea stories drew me to a unique table calendar published by AMTRON (Assam Electronics Development Corporation Ltd).
This bilingual calendar, published for the Gregorian year 2024, celebrates the 200-year legacy of Assam Tea. It beautifully combines informative text with splendid paintings, detailing the history of tea and its immense contribution to Assamese society. The brainchild of senior officer Basanta Kumar Barthakur, this calendar is part of a decade-long initiative by AMTRON. The team behind this year’s edition includes writer and researcher Samudra Gupta Kashyap and illustrator Naba Pratim Das. Previous calendars explored intriguing themes like Assam’s illustrious sons (from Srimanta Sankardev to Bhupen Hazarika) and Vaishnavite monasteries.
Assam is a powerhouse of tea production, generating nearly 700 million kg annually – roughly half of India’s total output. Beyond revenue, tea has significantly impacted Assam’s social fabric. It spurred the development of railways to transport tea to ports for export, which led to the discovery of petroleum.
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The calendar also sheds light on the human story behind Assam’s tea industry. The Kacharis and other indigenous communities were the first tea estate laborers. Later, thousands came from Bengal, the Chotanagpur plateau, and other parts of India. Over ten lakh people from these communities have become an integral part of Assamese society, even facing hardships like uprooting and exploitation during the colonial era. Mungri or Malati Orang, the text poignantly highlights, was the first woman martyr from Assam in the freedom struggle.
From traditional bamboo filters to present-day technology, tea production has come a long way. However, global warming presents a new challenge. Studies suggest a potential decrease in tea production for many nations by 2075. The calendar offers a glimmer of hope: Assam’s native tea varieties possess a natural resilience to drier and warmer climates, suggesting they will endure for centuries to come, albeit with potential production adjustments. This optimistic message brings a sense of comfort to the hundreds of thousands of tea growers, big and small, who call Assam home.