ASSAM, INDIA'S TEA GROWING NORTHERN STATE

DIMITRA STASINOPOULOU
ASSAM
INDIA’S TEA GROWING NORTHERN STATE

ASSAM

ASSAM STATE
Assam is the biggest of the Seven Sister
States in the Northeastern part of India. It
is comprised mostly of the valleys of Brahmaputra
and Barak. Assam and the rest
of the States are connected to the rest of
the country via the Siliguri Corridor or
the Chicken’s Neck, a 22 km small strip of
land in West Bengal. Its other name is the
Gateway to the Northeast, as it is the main
connection to reach the other states in
the NE part of the country. The State also
shares an international border with Bhutan
and Bangladesh.
The Assamese landscape is a picturesque
golden-green vista of jigsaw-like rice fields
and tea estates, framed in the distance by
the blue mountains of Arunachal in the
north and the highlands of Meghalaya and
Nagaland to the south. Despite certain
linguistic and cultural overlaps with
people in neighboring West Bengal and
Orissa, Assam is proudly sovereign about
its identity. Despite numerous invasions,
mostly by the Muslim rulers, no western
power ruled Assam until the arrival of the
British. Though the Munghals made seventeen
attempts to invade, they were never
successful. The gamosa (a red-and-white
scarf worn around the neck by men) and
the mekhola sador (the traditional dress
for women) are visible proclamations of
regional costume and identity.
Shaped roughly like a Y laid on its side, is
a land of plains and river valleys. The State
has three principal physical regions: the
Brahmaputra River Valley in the north, the
Barak River valley in the south, and the
hilly region between Meghalaya to the
west, and Nagaland and Manipur to the
east, in the south-central part of the State.
Of those regions, the Brahmaputra River
valley is the largest.
The people of the plains of the Brahmaputra
and Barak valleys are mainly of Indo-
Iranian ancestry. By the time of their arrival
in the region, however, the local Aryan
peoples had become intermixed with
Asiatic peoples.
The Ahom people, who arrived in the region
from mainland Southeast Asia during the
13 th century, ultimately stem from Yunnan
province of southern China. A significant
minority of the population consists of
rural indigenous peoples who fall outside
the Indian caste system; as such, they are
officially designated as Scheduled Tribes.
The Boro constitute the largest of these
groups. Most of the Scheduled Tribes live
in the south-central hill region and are of
Asiatic descent.
Assamese, an Indo-Aryan language, is
the official and principal language of the
State, and an unbroken record of Assamese
literary history is traceable from the
14 th century. Tibeto-Burman languages
are spoken by most of the Scheduled
Tribes, although the Khasi people speak an
Austroasiatic tongue; some groups have
adopted Assamese as their first language.
The people in the Barak valley in southern
Assam mostly speak Bengali (also called
Bangla), which, like Assamese, is an Indo-
Aryan language.
About two-thirds of the Assamese are
Hindus, the majority of whom follow
Vaishnavism, which venerates the deity
Vishnu. Roughly one-fourth of the population
practices Islam, most Muslims being
settlers from Bangladesh or converts from
the lower strata of Hindu society. Although
many of the Scheduled Tribes have

converted to Christianity, some continue
to practice traditional local religions.
Cultural life
The cultural life of Assam is interwoven
with the activities of a number of cultural
institutions and religious centers, such as
the satra (seat of a religious head known as
the satradhikar) and namghar (prayer hall).
Satras in Assam have been looking after
the religious and social well-being of the
Hindu population since the 15 th century.
The Assamese people observe all the pan-
Indian religious festivals, but their most
important celebrations are the three Bihu
festivals. Originally agricultural festivals,
they are observed with great enthusiasm
irrespective of caste, creed, and religious
affinity.
Weaving is another important aspect of
the cultural life of the people of Assam,
particularly the women. Nearly every
Assamese household, irrespective of
caste, creed, and social status, has at least
one loom, and most women are expected
to be skilled in producing fine silk and
cotton cloths.
Legend and History of Assam
The State had different names before
becoming known as Assam. The oldest
name known is Pragjyotisha, it was found
from Sanskrit records and supposedly
covered the entire Brahmaputra Valley.
This name was also mentioned in the epics
of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
Later, the name Kamrupa came up, which
supposedly covered the Western part
of the state. This name was found in an
inscription of Samudra Gupta and from the
records of Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese pilgrim.
The name Assam was not even in use in
the region until the Ahoms came to it. The
Ahoms are a Shan tribe from Burma, they
crossed the Patkai Range and conquered
Assam. Other evidences state that the
name Assam has some relations to the Tai
and the Mongoloid people, mostly from
other countries in Southeast Asia. In fact,
the Thai and Siamese people are referred
to as Shan, a variation of Syam, but
pronounced with an n as Burmese words
ending in ‘m’ are pronounced with an ‘n’.
Syam was later changed to Asam, Ahom,
Aham, Ahomiya and Axomiya.
Historically, from the Ancient Era during
350 AD, when Assam was referred to as
Pragjyotisha and Kamrupa, it has been
conquered by different dynasties. Salasthamba
of the Mlechchha Dynasty ruled the
region from 655 AD to 990 AD.
In the Colonial Era, there was a surge of
tea plantations in Assam. However, this
was also the time when the first Anglo-
Burmese War ensued in 1824. The war
ended in 1826, after the Treaty of Yandabo
was established. The treaty lasted until
1838 until the British annexed Assam.
Assam was first separated from Bengal
during the year 1874. It was then known
as the Assam Chief Commissionership.
In 1905, it was established as a part of
the new province of Eastern Bengal and
Assam. It was only in 1912 that it became
the Assam Province. In the year 1970,
Assam was separated into several states to
fulfil the national aspirations of the tribal
people living in it.
Assam State symbol

DIBRUGARH
NORTHERN ASSAM

HISTORY OF THE TEA IN INDIA
“The tea cultivation in India begun in
the nineteenth century by the British, in
an attempt to break Chinese monopoly,
however, has accelerated to the point
that today India is listed as the world’s
leading producer, ahead of China and
the teas of Assam and Darjeeling are
world famous. However, because Indians
average half a cup daily on per capita
basis, fully 70 percent of India’s immense
crop is consumed locally. The British,
“using Chinese seeds, plus Chinese
planting and cultivating techniques,
launched a tea industry by offering land
in Assam to any European who agreed
to cultivate tea for export.”
In the early 1820s, the British East India
Company began large-scale production
of tea in Assam, India, of a tea variety
traditionally brewed by the Singpho
people. In 1826, the British East India
Company took over the region from
the Ahom. In 1837, the first English tea
garden was established in Upper Assam;
in 1840, the Assam Tea Company began
the commercial production of tea in
the region, run by indentured servitude
of the local inhabitants. 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 was
originally only consumed by Anglicized
Indians, and it was not until the 1920s
that tea grew widely popular in India.
Prior to the British, the plant was used
for medicinal purposes.
Research shows that tea is indigenous
to eastern and northern India, and was
cultivated and consumed there for thousands
of years. Consumption of tea in
India was first clearly documented in
the Ramayana (750-500 BCE). For the
next thousand years, documentation of
tea in India was lost in history. Records
re-emerge during the first century CE,
with stories of the Buddhist monks
Bodhidharma and Gan Lu, and their
involvement with tea.
Tea cultivation in India has somewhat
ambiguous origins. Though the extent of
the popularity of tea in Ancient India is
unknown, it is known that the tea plant
was a wild plant in India that was indeed
brewed by local inhabitants of different
regions. The Singpho tribe and the
Khamti tribe, inhabitants of the regions
where the Camellia sinensis plant grew
native, have been consuming tea since
the 12 th century. It is also possible that
tea may have been used under another
name, it was perhaps better known as
“Soma” in Indian mythology.
The practice of Ayurveda has resulted in
a long-standing tradition of herbal teas.
Traditional Indian kitchens have long
utilized the medicinal benefits offered by
various plants and spices and traditionally,
teas made with these plant leaves
or spices have been in use for centuries
for maladies ranging from the serious to
the trifling. Tea is also mixed with these
traditional herbs. The taste of chai (sweet
and milky) helps disguise the stronger
and more bitter flavors of some of the
medicinal additives, while other, more
pleasant flavors such as cardamom and
ginger add a pleasing flavor and aroma
to the tea along with health benefits.

MAJULI ISLAND
NORTHERN ASSAM

MĀJULI ISLAND
Mājuli is the biggest river island in the world,
formed by the Brahmaputra River in Assam
and also the 1 st island district of the country.
The island had a total area of 1,250 km 2 at the
beginning of the 20th century, but having lost
significantly to erosion it now has an area of
only 352 km 2 . However it is recognized by Guinness
Book of World Records as World’s Largest
River Island. Majuli is the nerve centre of neo-
Vaishnavite culture and has been included in
the World Heritage Sites of Unesco. Home to an
estimated 160,000 people of different ethnic
groups, the island is an assembly constituency
reserved for scheduled tribes.
Originally, the island was a long, narrow piece
of land called Majoli (land in the middle of
two parallel rivers) that had the Brahmaputra
flowing in the north and the Burhidihing
flowing in the south, till they met at Lakhu.
The dwellers of Mājuli are mostly of the Mising
tribes from Arunachal Pradesh who immigrated
here centuries ago. The island has 144
villages with a population of over 150,000. The
only mode of association to the outside world
is through a ferry service which operates six
times a day. The inhabitants are expert navigators
by boat; their expertise is most visible
during the monsoon season when they navigate
the turbulent waters of the Brahmaputra.
The main industry is agriculture, with paddy
being the chief crop. Mājuli has a rich and
diverse agricultural tradition, with as many as
100 varieties of rice grown, all without pesticides
or artificial fertilizers. Fishing, dairying,
pottery, handloom and boat-making are other
important economic activities. Handloom is a
major occupation among the distaff population
of the villages. Weaving is exquisite and
intricate with the use of a variety of colors and
textures of cotton and silk. The locals speak in
the Mising and Assamese languages.
Mājuli has been the cultural capital of Assamese
civilisation since the 16 th century; based
on written records describing the visit of Srimanta
Sankardeva - a 16 th century social reformer.
Sankardeva, a pioneer of the medieval-age
neo-Vaishnavite movement, preached a monotheist
form of Hinduism called Vaishnavism
and established monasteries and hermitages
known as satra on the islet. The island soon
became the leading center of Vaishavinism
with the establishment of these satras.
The satras set up preserve antiques like
weapons, utensils, jewellery and other items of
cultural significance. Pottery is made in Mājuli
from beaten clay and burnt in driftwood fired
kilns in the same mode carried out by the
peoples of the ancient Harrappan Civilisation.
Sociologists have stressed the preservation
of these unique peoples, whose culture and
dance forms are untouched by modernism.
Kamalabari Satra: The Kamalabari Satra,
founded by Bedulapadma Ata in 1595, is
a centre of art, cultural, literature and classical
studies on the island. Kamala means
orange and bari means garden, hence Kamalabri
means Orange Garden. Its branch the
Uttar Kamalabari Satra has performed cultural
programmes of the Satria Art all around the
country and abroad.
Auniati Satra: Founded by Niranjan Pathakdeva
in 1653, the satra is famous for the “Paalnaam”
and Apsara Dances and also its extensive
assortment of ancient Assamese artfacts,
utensils, jewellery and handicrafts. It also has
a hundred and twenty five disciples and over
seven hundred thousand followers worldwide.
Its name was derived from Auni Paan, a
kind of betel creeper plant found locally in the
town and Ati which means elevated place. The
presiding deity here is Lord Krishna, which is
referred to as Govinda.
Shamaguri Satra: The satra is famous for the
mask making in India.

KAMALABARI SATRA

SHAMAGURI SATRA

AUNIATI SATRA

JORHAT & SIVASAGAR
NORTHERN ASSAM

JORHAT - SIVASAGAR
Jorhat, famously known as the ‘Tea
capital of the world’ thanks to the innumerable
number of tea plantations
here, is located in Upper Assam and is
a major urban center of the State. It
also has historical significance as one
of the capitals of the Ahom dynasty,
which ruled Assam for close to six
centuries before the colonial era, and
home to many historical monuments
of Assamese culture. This town was a
flourishing and commercial metropolis
but was completely destroyed by
a series of Burmese invasions of Assam
between 1817 and the arrival of the
British force, in the year 1824.
The British Rule, though not free from
rebellions and revolutions, contributed
to the reemergence of this historical
town. In 1885, a narrow gauge railway,
Jorhat Provincial Railway, became
operational. In time, this contributed
to the rapid growth of the tea industry.
Although, the Civil Sub-division under
Sivasagar at Jorhat was formed in
1869, it was declared the administrative
headquarters of the undivided
Sivasagar district in 1911. Surrounded
by lush and verdant tea gardens and
numerous wetlands and rivers it acts
as a gateway to upper Assam and to
the state of Nagaland. In the north of
the district, the Brahmaputra River
forms the largest riverine island of the
world, the Majuli.
The cultural diversities which prevailed
in Jorhat nearly a century ago has
inspired the people to participate in
cultural activities through the decades
and as a result Jorhat has been able to
produce many creative writers, musician,
actors, historians and journalists,
terming Jorhat “The Cultural Capital of
Assam”.
Sivasagar, ”the Ocean of Lord Shiva”, is
a town in Upper Assam. It lies on the
Dikhu River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra
River, about 50 km northeast
of Jorhat and was the capital of the
Ahom Kingdom from 1699 to 1788.
The Tai-speaking Ahoms came to the
area from Yunnan province, China, in
the 13 th century. The Ahoms ruled
Assam for six centuries, until their
kingdom fell to the Burmese in 1819
and their ruling class was all but wiped
out. The province was liberated by the
British in 1825.
Assam, in fact, derives its name from
the Ahom dynasty which held such
undisputed way in the east that even
the Mughal rulers, who had extended
their dominance over most of the
northern parts of the subcontinent,
could not make inroads into Ahom
territory.
This town’s main feature is the water
body from which it takes its name. This
is a 1.04 km 2 tank, also known as the
Borpukhuri, which is at a higher elevation
than the rest of the town, with
three temples,”Dol”s in Assamese, built
in 1734, on its banks. Of these temples,
the most prominent is the Sivadol,
standing tall at 32m. The other temples
are the Vishnudol and Devidol.

KAZIRANGA PARK
NORTHERN ASSAM

KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK
NORTHERN ASSAM
Kaziranga National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is a national park in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts
of the state of Assam, India. Located on the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, the park
combines high species diversity and visibility. Kaziranga is a vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland,
and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests, criss-crossed by four major rivers, including the Brahmaputra.
The sanctuary, hosts two-thirds of the world’s great one-horned rhinoceroses. Listed as a vulnerable species,
the large mammal is primarily found in parts of north-eastern India and in protected areas in Nepal, where
populations are confined to the riverine grasslands in the foothills of the Himalayas. Weighing between
2260 kg and 3000 kg, it is the fourth largest land animal and has a single horn, which measures 20 cm to 57
cm in length. Today, about 3,000 Rhinos live in the wild, 2000 of which are found in Assam’s Kaziranga alone.
Kaziranga is also home to the highest density of tigers among protected in the world, and was declared a
Tiger Reserve in 2006 as well as large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, swamp deer
and is an important bird area.
The history of Kaziranga as a protected area can be traced back to 1904, when Baroness Mary Curzon, the
wife of the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, visited the area. After failing to see a single rhinoceros,
for which the area was renowned, she persuaded her husband to take urgent measures to protect the
dwindling species which he did by initiating planning for their protection. On 1 June 1905, the Kaziranga
Proposed Reserve Forest was created with an area of 232 km 2 and over the next years the park was extended
to a total of 430 km 2 . Although the etymology of the name Kaziranga is not certain, there exist a number of
possible explanations derived from local legends and records. According to one legend, a girl named Ranga,
from a nearby village, and a youth named Kazi, from Karbi Anglong, fell in love. This match was not acceptable
to their families, and the couple disappeared into the forest, never to be seen again, and the forest was
named after them. According to another legend, Srimanta Sankardeva, the sixteenth century Vaisnava saintscholar,
once blessed a childless couple, Kazi and Rangai, and asked them to dig a big pond in the region so
that their name would live on.
The park experiences three seasons: summer, monsoon, and winter. The rainy monsoon season lasts from
June to September, and is responsible for most of Kaziranga’s annual rainfall of 2,220 mm. During the peak
months of July and August, three-fourths of the western region of the park is submerged, due to the rising
water level of the Brahmaputra. The flooding causes most animals to migrate to elevated and forested regions
outside the southern border of the park, such as the Karbi Hills.

KAZIRANGA VILLAGES
NORTHERN ASSAM

BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER
NORTHERN ASSAM

BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER - The only male river of India
The Brahmaputra River (named as the
Son of the Creator of the Cosmos, in
Hindu mythology) is one of the holiest
rivers of the World and possibly, the only
river which is considered holy by four
religions : Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and
Bonpas.
Not only is it a fabled holy river, but it is
also one of the last mysteries solved by
the Royal Geographical Society, when
the origin of this river was traced from
the glacial waters of the Mansarovar Lake
(called a lake formed from the minds of
the Gods), but whose ending was not
known and was confused to be draining
into the Irrawaddy River in Burma or,
the ending was seen in Bengal, but the
origin was not known, for three centuries
of explorations.
The lake is located at the foot of Mount
Kailash, which has been the mythical
home of the Gods and was one of the
most hidden mountains of the world,
protected to the North by the deserts
of Gobi and Taklamakhan, while, to the
South by the highest of the Himalayan
Ranges. It was discovered that from this
lake emerged four great rivers, with the
Indus flowing to the North, the Sutluj
to the West, the Karnali flowing as one
off the main tributaries into the Holy
Ganges and finally, to the east was the
Brahmaputra.
Draining nearly 40% of the snow melt of
the great water towers of the Himalayas,
this is a mighty river which in Western
Tibet is called the Horse River, in Central
Tibet is called the Tsangpo or, simply the
river. In the plains of the valley of Assam,
its great spread is seen in all its glory, as
the Brahmaputra. Its narrow part is 3 km
while its widest 40, and when it floods
it rises by over 8 meters and spreads
another 20 km.
The environment of the Brahmaputra
floodplains in Assam have been
described as the Brahmaputra Valley
semi-evergreen forests ecoregion.
The Ganges-Brahmaputra system has
the third greatest average discharge of
the world’s rivers —roughly 30,770m 3
per second; approximately 19,800 cubic
meters per second of the total is supplied
by the Brahmaputra alone.
Another important feature of the river
is its tendency to flood. The quantity
of water carried by the Brahmaputra in
India and Bangladesh is enormous. The
river valley in Assam is enclosed by hill
ranges on the north, east, and south and
receives more than 2,540 mm of rainfall
annually.
Extensive flooding is virtually an annual
occurrence in the Brahmaputra valley
during the summer monsoon. In addition,
tidal surges accompanying tropical
cyclones sweeping inland from the
Bay of Bengal periodically bring great
destruction to the delta region. One
such storm—the Ganges-Brahmaputra
delta cyclone of November 1970—
caused an estimated 300,000 to 500,000
deaths and inundated a vast area. In
the 21 st century the delta has also been
affected by rising sea levels as a result of
global warming.

INDIA - ASSAM, DECEMBER 2016