August 3, 2017

  The following story by Dipankar Chatterjee is taken from the book "Office Chai, Planter's Brew" by S. Muthiah and Ranjitha Ashok and reprinted here with permission from the authors. See more under BOOKS. 

     

Luxmi Tea Company

"Bhadralok" in the Tea Gardens

Dipankar Chatterjee of Luxmi Tea comes from a bhadralok family that has been involved in the business of tea and tea gardens from the early 1920s. The involvement began with his grandfather, a well-established lawyer in Comilla, adjacent to Tripura, and now in Bangladesh. The lawyer may have had a busy practice, but he also took an interest in his investments, which were largely in tea companies in Tripura, then a princely state.

While Dipankar Chatterjee’s grandfather’s interests in tea were only through investments which did not require his active participation, his father, Paresh Chandra Chatterjee, wanted to purchase a tea garden in Dibrugarh (Assam), now known as the “Tea City”. However, his interest was discouraged by the British Deputy Commissioner. The message was that the Government preferred that tea gardens remained in British hands. Nevertheless, some Indians had tea gardens in Assam and Bengal at the time. In 1945, P.C. Chatterjee would finally succeed in buying a tea garden in Assam’s Cachar District from Balmer Lawrie, a premier managing agency with headquarters in Calcutta.

There is a story behind that purchase. At the end of World War II, a number of Americans who with the army were helping to put matters in order in the northeast of India. Many of them preferred to fraternise with the Indian bhadralok, one of whom was P C Chatterjee.

The Americans organised a meeting with Balmer Lawrie’s and, with the Americans directing the discussions, P C Chatterjee was able to purchase the tea garden of his choice. The British, however, continued to dominate Tea and Jute until G D Birla and others came forward to break their monopoly a decade or so later.

Luxmi Tea, when it bought the garden from Balmer Lawrie, continued to employ British personnel as planters. Colonel Bedow, who had been with the garden in Cachar, stayed with P C Chaterjee after he had acquired the garden. When Colonel Bedow retired after a year, he recommended a Scotsman, McGee, also from the armed forces. McGee stayed on until 1965 as Manager and was succeeded by his Assistant, Asoke Sen, who had learnt well from him.  The British Manager, and his family, and the Indian Assistant Manager and his, had got on well together. Also working with the Chatterjees was Jimmy Strang who had been born in Calcutta, returned to England as a child and come back from the Air Force to live and work as a tea planter in Assam. He wrote Damn Fool Career, reminiscences of his work in India, in three volumes.

The last British Manager on one of the Chatterjee tea gardens was D W Farnham at Shyamguri in Assam. Many a planter, like him, had been born in India and had stayed on until the 1970s. They had adjusted, marrying into Indian families. Farnham was one such. He was truly ‘Indianised’ when he left in the early 1970s. A B Anderson, a Canadian, who had also come from the Air Force, was another who had an Indian wife.

One of the first Indian tea planters was probably Viren Mullick, who moved from a sub-editorship of the Amrita Bazar Patrika to join the Chatterjee family’s tea gardens in Assam in the late 1940s.

Most expatriate British tea planters left in the 1960s and 1970s and there was a shortage of experienced tea planters on the gardens. The exodus began after the Chinese incursions in 1962 and was accelerated by the devaluation of the rupee. However, from the mid-1950s onwards, Indians had begun to be recruited and were ready to take over when the British left, though many of them had to do extra duty due to the shortage of Indian Assistants.

Even in the 1950s, the Indians recruited as planters were better qualified academically than their British counterparts. Indian graduates and graduate engineers became tea planters and tea tasters. Many were Indian ‘public school’ products and others came from eminent families. The British were largely ex-Army and Air Force officers. A few were diploma engineers, but most had only passed out of high school. India and the tea gardens drew them while they were still quite young.

Salaries were the same for the British and the Indians, though some allowances and special privileges were allowed to the British. For instance, there was the extended holiday to Britain, known as ‘furlough’. That was brought down from three months to one month by the 1960s and discontinued in the 1970s.

The British were known to be not only adventurous, but people who felt they could take on anything. They had this confidence that they could learn to adjust to the land and its people. “And there was very rarely one who didn’t”.

The first British tea planters had crossed the Brahmaputra on rafts and boats to clear the jungle and sow the seeds of tea gardens. Later planters were known to have tried to take the same route, but arrived on the wrong bank of the river. If they could not reach the right tea garden, they would still undertake the work they had come out to do. A garden or two is known to have been exchanged for another in the process. But that was long ago, when intentions were pure and the rules simple.

Dipankar Chatterjee’s father inherited and ran Indian Tea and Provisions (ITP) which owned tea gardens and which amalgamated with Luxmi Tea. At ITP, British managers would be apprenticed under Harold Marshal for two years. Marshal knew all that there was to know about tea planting and nurseries, seed gardens, crop distribution and quality. The Company’s main interest was in quality tea production. All would learn in an environment of good working relationships. Harold Marshal was another example of a British man who chose to go Indian. When he retired he went back to England with his Indian wife. His son joined the Royal Air Force, but his daughter stayed on in India, marrying John Barker, a tea planter.

The British planters were largely Scots and Irish, and many were remembered kindly. Tea estates covered vast areas and were apportioned into sections, some sections were sometimes named after Managers who had left. The Luxmi tea estate in Cachar has a section named after McGee.

The British planters would be extremely helpful to Indian recruits they thought had come from the right background. They would introduce them to ‘club’ life and the social norms associated with club culture. If the recruit was coming from Calcutta, he would be asked to bring sporting gear with him from well-known sports shops, for use in the local planters club. 

 The huge size of each garden and its remote location meant that planters lived rather isolated lives. They learnt to develop a lifestyle to cope with their work and isolation. Planter’s clubs were where they congregated for social exchanges.

But distances meant that the clubs could not be accessed every day by the planters. The transistor radio came into planter’s bungalows around 1969. If he wanted to speak to anyone outside the tea plantation – for instance to Head Office in Calcutta – he would have to go to the nearest town to book a trunk call. Dipankar Chatterjee remembers areas north of the Brahmaputra River, the area known as the North Bank, where on occasion he left the nearest town only at 2 or 3am after the all-important trunk call.

Homes, however, were very comfortable. Tea gardens bungalows were large and very well furnished, even as practical matters were considered in building the bungalows. Assam was prone to earthquakes, so the buildings were minimal. In Assam-type homes, the walls would be of bamboo with cement plater on both sides of the bamboo. The roof would preferably be made of thatch. It was reasonably cool and practical and made from materials obtained locally.

There was just one mode of transport for the planters – a ‘Jeep’. There were no proper roads and no telecommunications as we know it now. But some planters became a “Ham” radio expert, taking to radio as a hobby as well as a necessity.

The Manager, British or Indian, would take all local decisions relating to his garden and would have Power of Attorney to handle all matters concerned with the running of the estate. It was the Manager who was authorised to deal with the Government. Most importantly, the Manager was totally responsible for the welfare and well-being of all those on the tea garden. Tea estate workers were known to refer to Managers as “maibaap”, their guardian and parent.

All the rules to be followed on estates would be set down in black and white in the “Term Book”, so named because that was where the terms of employment had been set down. However, in the Chatterjee tea gardens, the managing family would set the terms of employment, but the Manager would be the one to establish all do’s and don’ts on the estate. For example, no one among the staff could leave the tea garden without informing the Manager.

 The British planters were undeniably formal when they had to deal with their Indian counterparts on official matters. But when it came to sport, they encouraged them to be as keen sportsmen as they were, not only at the club level but also at inter-club level too. Inter-club activities were organised by them from the very start, with each tea planting district, having its own club, many a century old, or even more. Besides sport, inter-club activities extended to flower shows and gardens. The “memsahibs” were greatly interested in good cooking and fine cuisine, and the clubs benefited accordingly.

Dipankar Chatterjee is the Managing Director and CEO of Luxmi  Tea Co., a family owned tea plantation company.

October 17, 2016

Alan has sent this interesting piece about the Darjeeling Railway

 A piece about the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and the possibility of major
restoration work:



http://capx.co/the-battered-charm-of-the-darjeeling-himalayan-railway/

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December 1 2015

Memories from Alan's late father who died last month aged 100

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The Managers of the Tarrapore Tea Company in 1947
Alan is the child at the front with the X braces to hold up his pants, his mother is the lady
turning her head and his father is on the back row, second from the right with jacket, cravat and open necked white shirt.

This  one shows my father’s car that he had at Thanai TE in 1939. He doesn’t say what make it was, excepting that there was a silver eagle on the radiator top. I suspect that it may have been of American manufacture.

The second photo shows the tea train at Greenwood TE in 1938. I understand that it was driven by a single cylinder Krupps diesel engine. Dad did say that the rail-line was often buckled by elephants walking on it and sometimes this derailed the loco

January 7 2015

Again we have to thenk Alan for finding this amusing story of yesterday and as it is today

     The Ghosts Of The Raj Were Never Anorexic Wraiths

We thank Alan Lane for giving us some education on Indian food for us all to learn --  

                                                    thanks Alan

 The Heartbreaking Truth About Indian Foods That Are Not  

           Indian       at All.....



1. Samosa

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That delicious samosa you always munch on as a tea-time snack or when sudden hunger-pangs hit is not Indian at all! The triangular potato/meat-filled savoury dish that is easily found on every street-corner actually has origins in the Middle East. Originally called 'sambosa', the Indian samosa was actually introduced to the country sometime between the 13th and 14th century by traders of the Middle East. But whatever, we're just happy we get to hog these yummy yummy snacks!

2. Gulab Jamuns

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Ooh. We're sure your mouth is already watering. The very thought of these calorie-filled dough balls, deep-fried and then soaked is enough to send anyone to food heaven. And what's more, this dish is so versatile that you can enjoy it hot, cold or simply at room temperature. But the favourite Indian dessert originated in the Mediterranean and Persia. Though the original form of the dessert is called luqmat al qadi and made of dough balls deep fried, soaked in honey syrup and sprinkled with sugar, once it reached India, the recipe was modified. How we wish it was lunch-time already!

3. Vindaloo

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The very sound takes you to the beaches of Goa and a relaxed family lunch. But the very spicy meat curry is not Goan at all! Vindaloo has it's roots in Portuguese cuisine and it has been adapted from the very famous carne de vinha d'alhos which is the Portuguese name for Vindaloo. Originally, Vindaloo was made of wine, pork and garlic and that is how it derived it's name (vin - wine, alhos - garlic) though Indians modified it by using palm vinegar, pork/beef/chicken and multiple spices. Though the original recipe does not use potatoes, Indians modified the recipe further by using potatoes as the word "aloo" in Vindaloo means potato in Hindi. Now you know where that sudden piece of potato popped up from between those meat chunks.

4. Shukto

Mix and Stir

This mouth-watering Bengali delicacy is another surprise which has it's origins in Portuguese cuisine. The Portuguese influence extended all the way from Goa to Eastern Bengal or Bangladesh and the influences are visible in Bengali food even today. Shukto is prepared from Karela or Bitter Gourd which is Indian in origin but was prepared by the Portuguese in olden days. Slowly, Indian influences like multiple other vegetables and a dash of milk/sweet to cut the spice were added to the dish. Just be happy you get to savour this amazing dish today!

5. Chai

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The unassuming comfort drink of almost every Indian is in no way true desi. Famous the world over as chai (Starbucks has a Chai Latte on their menu), tea has it's origins in China. While the Chinese used it as a medicinal drink, the Britains soon discovered it and loved it's versatile nature. Now, the British being British wanted to cut China's monopoly in the tea market. So, they brought the humble 'chai' to India (by teaching cultivation techniques to the tribals in North-East India plus offering incentives to Britons who wanted to cultivate in India). And it has been a part of India ever since! In fact, it was only in the 1950s that tea became so popular. Now, don't suddenly look down into that cup you're sipping from while reading this!

6. Dal Bhaat

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Dal Bhaat or Dal-rice is a comfort food all over India. There are even variations of this food like the Khichdi which are very popular among Indians. Though dal bhaat seems like a very simple, Indian dish, it is not Indian at all. Dal bhaat is actually of Nepali origin and it was through North Indian influences that the dish entered India and spread throughout the region. We're sure you're going to dream of the Himalayas the next time you're eating this simple food!

7. Rajma

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Rajma chawal has quickly spread from being a North Indian staple to being loved by most Indians. The dish which is as popular as the North Indian chole-bhature is a wholesome meal in itself. However, the preparation of Rajma or the kidney bean in Rajma chawal is not Indian. The bean was brought to India through Central Mexico and Guatemala. The initial preparation or soaking and boiling the beans and adding a few spices is adapted from Mexican recipes. Rajma is a staple in Mexican diet even today though it's Indian variants are quite different from the Mexican preparations. The bean and recipes prepared using Rajma are famous in North India and the locals often add Indian spices and vegetables like onions and tomatoes to make it tangy. Cool, isn't it?

8. Bandel Cheese

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This is another staple Bengali dish which has Portuguese influences. While the cheese was developed in India and has it's origins in Eastern India, it was created by the Portuguese using their own techniques for making cheese and breads. The cheese which has developed into a wide variety today was originally available in just one variety. Over time, people experimented and created the smoked flavor of Bandel cheese. It was the fermentation techniques of the Portuguese that helped developed this cheese and in the olden days, it was made by Burmese cooks under Portuguese supervision. 

9. Naan

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This is one dish that is loved all over the world. A type of leavened bread, Naan is a staple of North India and is available in almost all North Indian restaurants across the country. The Americans and Europeans have recently discovered the joys of this bread and love pairing it with their chicken tikka. However, naan is not Indian but was brought to India during the Mughal era. Naan has it's roots in Persian cuisine though the form of leavened bread is actually Iranian. The soft, melt-in-the-mouth bread is surely a favourite but trying different forms with rose-water, khus or stuffed naan might actually tingle your taste buds!

10. Jalebi

We even have an item number associated with this delicious sweet! How can it not be Indian? But it isn't. Jalebi is actually from the Middle East though different variations of the sweet were found across different Asian regions. Originally called zalabiya (Arabic)or the zalibiya (Persian), the dish was brought to India by Persian invaders. Today, the dessert Jalebi is famous all over the country in different forms. While North India loves their thin and crispy jalebis, the South Indian version consists of thicker and have a slightly different shape. Jaangiri and Imartee are variations of the Jalebi. Wow! So many variations of just one sweet. No wonder you thought it was Indian!

11. Filter Coffee

"What?", you say, "How can Filter coffee not be Indian? Well, filter coffee became popular in India pretty late, in the 1950s, around the same time Chai began to get traction. Coffee was not a part of India till the 16th century when it was smuggled into the country, by Baba Budan, on his pilgrimage to Mecca. On returning, he cultivated coffee and the drink soon became popular. Indians would drink coffee without milk or sugar in place of liqueur. Filter coffee was popularised by Coffee Cess Committee when they set up their first Coffee House in then Bombay in 1936. So much information! Time for a kaapi break?

May 18 2013

 

April 11 2013

 India deploys drones to save rhinos in Assam state

By Subir Bhaumik Calcutta

Officials say the drones will help them keep an eye on the remotest parts of Kaziranga

India has deployed aerial drones over Kaziranga National Park in Assam state in a bid to protect endangered one-horned rhinos from poachers.

Kaziranga chief NK Vasu said the maiden drone flight on Monday was a "milestone in wildlife protection".

The park is home to two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhino population and also has a large number of elephants, tigers and other wildlife.

In recent months, rhinos have been killed in large numbers by poachers.

Drones and other successful anti-poaching measures have also been used by the WWF in nearby Chitwan National Park in Nepal, where the hunting of one-horned rhinos has been drastically reduced.

Assam 'furore'

"The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was up in the sky for 15 minutes. It landed safely," Mr Vasu said. "We hope this technology will go a long way in effective surveillance of the park." Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain said this was the first time that drones had been used for wildlife protection anywhere in India.
"The UAVs will deter poachers who will now have to reckon with surveillance from air as well as on ground," Mr Hussain said.
The minister said it would now be possible to keep an eye on the remotest parts of the 480 sq km (185 sq miles) park.
The drones can fly a pre-programmed route at a maximum elevation of 200m (656ft) for up to 90 minutes, officials say.
They are light enough to be launched by hand and will be able to take images of the ground below with a still or video camera, they add.
Twenty-two one-horned rhinos were killed in Kaziranga by poachers last year. In the first three years of this month, 16 rhinos have been killed, triggering a furore in Assam where the animal is seen as a symbol of regional pride and is also valued for drawing tourists to the state. A rhino census in Kaziranga last month said that were about 2,300 of the animals in Kaziranga.
In September, the government ordered India's top federal investigation agency Central Bureau of Investigation to probe a series of attacks on rhinos by suspected poachers during last year's floods in the state.

January 7 2013

October 20 2012

 American Ice in Calcutta - 1833


Thanks to Alan Lane we have this copy from India-British-Raj Paper about Ice and as Alan says, "Aren't we lucky that nowadays our ice is so easily obtainable from our refrigerators!"
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                  American Ice in Calcutta - 1833


The following report appeared in the September issue of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol III, 1834, about the first shipment of Boston Ice to Calcutta.  The ice was shipped on the 6th and 7th of May, 1833, and discharged in Calcutta, on the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th September, making the voyage in four months and seven days.

Importation of Ice from Boston.

The arrival of the Tuscany, with a cargo of ice from America, forms an epoch n the history of Calcutta worthy of commemoration, as a facetious friend remarked, is a medal of frosted silver. In the month of May last, we received a present of some ice from Dr. Wise at Hugli, (whose efforts have so long been directed to the extension of its manufacture by the native process) as a proof that the precious luxury might be preserved by careful husbandry until the season when its coolness was moat grateful :- Little did we then contemplate being able to return the compliment with a solid lump of the clearest crystal ice, at the conclusion of the rains! nor that we should be finally indebted to American enterprise for the realization of a pleasure for which we have so long envied our more fortunate countrymen in the upper provinces; nay even the beggars of Bokhara, who, in a climate at time more sultry than ours, according to Lieut. Burns, "purchase ice for their water even while entreating the bounty of the passenger!" Professor LESLIE with his thousand glass exhausters, and his beautiful steam air-pump., tantalised us with the hopes of a costly treat, and ruined poor TAYLOR the bold adopter of his theory:- but science must in this new instance, as on so many former occasions, confess herself vanquished or forestalled by the simple practical discovery that a body of ice may be easily conveyed from one side of the globe to the other, crossing the line twice, with a very moderate loss from liquefaction.

We are indebted to Mr. J. J. DIXWELL, the agent for the proprietors, for the following Interesting particulars relative to the Tuscany's novel cargo, and the mode of shipping ice from America for foreign consumption.

The supplying of ice to the West Indies and to the Southern States of the Union, New Orleans, &c. has become within these few years, an extensive branch of trade, under the successful exertions of its originator FREDERICK TUDOR, Esq. of Boston, with whom S. AUSTIN, Esq. and Mr.W.C. ROGERS are associated in the present speculation.

The ponds from which the Boston ice is cut are situated within ten miles of the city. It is also procured from the Kennebee and Penobecot rivers in the State of Maine, where it is deposited in ice houses upon the banks, and shipped from thence to the Capital. A peculiar machine is used to cut it from the ponds in blocks of two feet square, and from one foot to eighteen inches thick, varying according to the intensity of the season. If the winter does not prove severe enough to freeze the water to a convenient thickness, the square slabs are laid again over the sheet ice, until consolidated, and so recut. The ice ¡s stored in ware-houses constructed for the purpose at Boston.

In shipping it to the West Indies, a voyage of 10 or 15 days, little precaution is used. The whole hold of the vessel is filled with it, having a lining of tan about four inches thick upon the bottom and sides of the bold, and the top Lifts covered with a layer of hay. The hatches are then closed, and are not allowed to be opened till the ice is ready to be discharged. It is usually measured for shipping, and cord reckoned at three tons: a cubic foot weighs 58 1/2 lbs.

For the voyage to India, a much longer one than had been hitherto attempted, some additional precautions were deemed necessary for the preservation of the ice.

The ice-hold was an insulated house extending from the after part of the forward hatch to the forward part of the after hatch, about 50 feet in length. It was constructed as follows:

A floor of one-Inch deal planks was first laid down upon the dunnage at the bottom of the vessel: over this was strewed a layer one foot thick of tan, that is, the refuse bark from the tanners' pits, thoroughly dried, which is found to be a very good and cheap non-conductor; over this was laid another deal planking, and the four sides of the ice-bold were built ap in exactly the same manner, insulated from the sides of the vessel. The pump, well, and main mast were boxed round in the same manner.

The cubes of ice were then packed or built together so close as to leave no space between them, and to make the whole one solid mass: about 180 tons were thus stowed. On the top was pressed down closely a foot of hay, and the whole was shut up from access of air, with a deal planking one inch thick, nailed upon the lower surface of the lower deck timbers; the space between the planks and the deck being stuffed with tan.

On the surface of the ice, at two places, was introduced a kind of float, having a guage rod passing through a stuffing box in the cover, the object of which was to note the gradual decrease of the ice as it melted and subsided bodily.

The ice was shipped on the 6th and 7th of May, 1833, and discharged in Calcutta, on the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th September, making the voyage in four months and seven days.

The amount of wastage could not be exactly ascertained from the sinking of the guages, because on opening the chamber it was found that the ice had melted between each block, and not from the exterior only in the manner of one solid mass as was anticipated. Calculating from the rods and from the diminished draught of the ship, Mr. DIXWELL estimated the loss on arrival at Diamond Harbour to be fifty-five tons. Six or eight tons more were lost during the passage up the river, and probably twenty in landing. About one hundred tons, say three thousand maunds, were finally deposited in the ice house on shore, a lower room in a house at Brightman's ghaut, rapidly floored and lined with planks for the occasion.

The sale has not, we believe, been so rapid as might have been expected, amounting to no more than ten maunds per diem, although Mr. ROGERS has fixed the price at the low rate of 4 annas per seer, one half the price estimated for the Hugli ice, which was still calculated to be somewhat cheaper in proportion than saltpetre. The public requires to be habituated to it, and to be satisfied of the economy of its substitution for the long established process of cooling. There may also be some doubts of the best mode of preserving so fleeting a commodity, but on this head we cannot but advise an imitation of the methods pursued on a large scale on board of the Tuscany. For the application of the ice to the purposes of cooling ample directions hare been given in the Gleanings of Science, vol. iii. p. 120. A box, or basket, or tin case, with several folds of blankets, or having a double case lined with paddy chaff or any non-conducting substance, will preserve the ice until wanted, and for cooling water or wine the most effectual method of all is to put a lump of the clear crystal into the liquid: the next best is to spread fragments upon the bottles laid horizontally, and leave them wrapped in flannel for a couple of hours.

So effectual was the non-conducting power of the ice-house on board, that a thermometer placed on it did not differ perceptibly from one in the cabin. From the temperature of the water pumped out, and that of the air in the run of the vessel, Mr. DIXWELL ascertained that the tetnperature of the hold was not sensibly affected by the ice. Upon leaving the tropic and running rapidly into the higher latitudes, it retained its heat for some time, but after being several weeks in high latitudes, and becoming cooled to the temperature of the external air and sea, it took more than ten days in the tropics before the bold was heated again to the tropical standard.

Mr. DIXWELL has favoured us with a sight of the daily register kept by himself on board, which we regret we have not space to insert at length :- The following extract however will serve to impart some of the useful information gleaned in this first experimental passage from Boston: we sincerely hope and believe that it will afford ample encouragement for a repetition of the speculation, and eventually for a regular consignment of this new staple produce of the northern continents!  A scheme is now in circulation for supplying ice all the year round at 2 annas per seer.>>
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November 24 2011

We are grateful to Alan for finding this very interesting story

by Age Correspondent  Indranil Banerjie

Burra Peg : Raj hangover on

Indian Drinking Habits

Every day as dusk settles over the subcontinent, an estimated 70 million Indians reach for the bottle to partake of their regular quota of a few burra pegs.
Many of them gather for the relaxing evening ritual in bars, clubs and restaurants dotted across virtually every small town and metropolis in the country.
One survey has suggested that as many as 30 to 35 per cent of adult men and five per cent of women in India are regular drinkers. Not surprisingly, India has emerged as one of the largest producers of liquor in the world.
This would have been unthinkable even a couple of centuries ago. Indians did not frequent bars or clubs, leave alone bring liquor home; alcohol was taboo for most middle-class Muslims and Hindus. The peasants and the aristocracy, however, had a long history of alcohol consumption and most historians today agree that the first form of alcohol (toddy) was an Indian invention.
An English seafarer, Captain W. Symson, travelling to India in the early 18th century, was intrigued by the variety of liquor produced and drunk in India. He observed that arrack could be distilled from palm toddy, from fermented rice or from fermented jaggery mixed with water in which the bark of the babool tree had been soaked.
The last kind, he claimed was known as "Jagre Arrack" and was as "hot as brandy and drunk in drams by Europeans." Toddy, he explained, was "the liquor that runs from the coconut tree without any other mixture" and "affects the head as much as English beer. In the morning it is laxative and in the evening astringent."
While some Indians clearly consumed liquor throughout the ages, there can be no denying that the drinking habit as Indians practice it today is a singular gift of the British Raj. The story of how the British introduced the European liquor to India can be gleaned from two not so well-known books published in the UK: Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer that Built the British Empire (2009) by Pete Brown and The Raj at Table (1994) by David Burton.
While their books are not focused on the history of liquor in India per se, many passages from their books are devoted to the subject.
Liquor for the European has traditionally not just been integral to their lifestyles but also to their diet.
In India, the need to drink was augmented by the intense loneliness of the Europeans, who first came as traders holed up in dreary, isolated posts with little hope of seeing their home country in the near future.
The East India Company not just encouraged drinking but also provided prodigious quantities of liquor for its employees stationed in India. This led to much intemperate behaviour.
"Thus in turbulent Bombay, we find John Lock being suspended from the Council in 1701 for striking Sir Nicholas Waite and refusing to apologise, and the absence of another member, Benjamin Morse, from the Council, was explained on the ground that his intellect was disordered by liquor and that he was ‘unfit for virtuous conversation.' Later this same reverend senior caused further scandal by getting drunk in another senior's room and finally breaking his head with a bottle."
Captain Symson remarked on the heavy drinking by a lot of Europeans, who "lose their lives by the immoderate use of these tempting liquors with which when once inflamed, they become so restless that no place is cool enough and therefore they lie down on the ground all night which occasions their being snatched away in a very short time. The best remedy after hard drinking is to keep a close and convenient covering."
William Hickey, a rake who penned his astounding memoirs, has left behind many an account of binge drinking in 18th century Calcutta.
"The dinners and balls were endless," writes Pete Brown. "People would drink in groups in each other's houses first, arriving late in loud, dishevelled groups, battered and bruised by their short journey, blaming potholes and bad lighting. Hickey once turned up at a ball with the skin scraped away from one side of his face, but still proceeded to be the life and soul of the party...When dessert had been served and a few loyal healths drunk, the ladies withdrew and the gentlemen sat down to the serious business of disposing of three bottles of claret each. It would have seemed oddly unsocial for a gentleman to drink less when, as a Mrs Fay wrote, ‘every lady (even your humble servant) drinks at least a bottle'. The men would demonstrate their drinking prowess by piling up empty bottles in front of them."
"Not even the clergy could be relied upon to set an example," writes Burton.
"The diarist William Hickey tells of the Army chaplain Blunt: This incomprehensible young man got abominably drunk and in that disgraceful condition exposed himself to both soldiers and sailors, talking all sorts of bawdy and ribaldry, and singing scraps of the most blackguard and indecent songs, so as to render himself a common laughing stock."
The Raj sobered as the 18th century wore on and the need to dilute liquor was increasingly appreciated. The world's first soda or carbonated water plant was opened in 1783 in Geneva by German-born naturalised Swiss watchmaker Johann Jacob Schweppe, who subsequently moved his business to London where soda quickly became hugely popular.
English merchants were shipping soda water in porcelain jars to Calcutta as early as in 1812 according to an account in Good Old Days of John Company. Soda water's popularity in the initial days was due to the belief that it was more salubrious than local water, which tended to be horribly contaminated. It was probably mixed with arrack to produce a more palatable, safer and perhaps cooler drink more suited to the Indian climate.
At around the same time, French brandy started gaining in popularity, especially among the Raj upper class. According to Burton, the "age of brandy succeeded that of beer, accounting for the introduction of soda water to India. First manufactured in Futtygurh about 1835, by the mid-1840s soda water was to be found in every British household. Servants knew it as billayati-pani or English water. Brandy and soda ruled supreme until the 1870s, when the devastation of France's vineyards by phylloxera resulted in a scarcity of brandy. This coincided with the mass-marketing of blended Scotch whiskies, and so whisky supplanted brandy as the favourite drink of the Raj. Contrary to the English practice of just adding a dash of soda to whisky, in India the whisky was well diluted."
Soda water's popularity has greatly declined in the UK but not in India where it is still the preferred additive to whisky and other drinks. Almost every grocery outlet in the country sells soda water along with other aerated drinks. Millions of bottles of all kinds of whiskies, ranging from those made from industrial alcohol to imported single malts, are annually bought by eager Indian imbibers.
Few of them would, however, know that all this would never have been possible but for the British determination to replicate their drinking habits to the furthest corners of the Raj.·                        

Age Correspondent  Indranil Banerjie·                      

·                         Copyright © 2011 The Asian Age

   Cricket Festival Shillong 1890's

Click here to view an Adobe Acrobat version of the picture. 
            You can zoom in there.

I have split the picture into 2 bits so you can see the people.

"Sir William Ward was in those days Chief Commissioner of Assam, and the Residencey was proverbial for its entertainments of every kind; no one, indeed could visit the place without receiving at the handsof Lady Ward (top right of stairs seated) some kindness in its best forms, and few ever left it without regret" (from Kabul to Kumassi - Sir James Willcoks). Captain J B Chatterton is famous for an ankle injury that required surgery in 1882. he was retired on half-pay and suffered some ignominity which resulted in questions asked in parliament. It is not clear that this is the man labelled in a note on the back of the photo, as seated on the left balustrade (to the right of Lady Ward) with the chaplainto our left (his right) in this photo.

The Cricket Pavillian in front of which this photo was taken was made of wood and survived the 1897 earthquake.

"I started off alone to try and find my father and mother, who were out driving.

As I went along everywhere it was the sameâ€"not a house standing and people rushing about, wives looking for their husbands, parents looking for their children, every one stricken with terror, no one knowingwhether those belonging to them were dead or alive. I then rushed on to the cricket ground, where I found a crowd of people collected. They had all been told to go there, because every one
expected another shock, and that was considered the safest place. There were some who had been ill in bed and had rushed out in their night gowns with bare feet, and some half-dressed, some crying and some in hysterics, "everything in the wildest state of confusion. And then the rain came and it poured. This seemed extraordinary, because before the earthquake there was not a cloud to be seen, and five minutes afterwards we were surrounded with cloud and mist . Then everyone started looking for shelter, and half of us went to the cricket pavilion which was built of wood and had stood, and half went to a row of thatched sheds which were usually used as a bazaar; they were also wood." an eyewitness account of the 1897 earthquake.

We are once again indebted to Alan who has found an amusing old paperback book by Maurice Hanley with some interesting tales and poems in it

The Preface of the book states:  

" In submitting these Tales and Songs from an Assam Tea Garden to the public, I do not lay any claim to their being literature of a high class. It is a subject as yet untouched on - little tales and episodes connected with Tea Planting life, the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows of us Planter folk - and as such may make interesting reading to Planters, for whom they were mainly written. If they should prove interesting reading to others as well, and help them to pass a pleasant hour or two in the company of this little book, it will be a great gratification to me. Being like our friend Mark Antony "a plain blunt man" the tales are simply and bluntly told, and with this information, I leave my reader, especially if he be a Tea Planter from the Assam Valley, to get on with the job and do the reading - Maurice P Hanley, Laojan Tea Estate, Assam 1928".

Below are several amusing poems and stories from the book -- 
please click on name to go there

"Telephones" - The engineering difficulties in establishing telephonic communications in a
country like Assam have been considerable. The long leads between gardens, through jungle,
must make somewhat precarious the maintenance of overhead lines, but the high water table
and other geographical difficulties, to say nothing of the cost, have made underground leads
impossible.

Proposals for telephones between gardens in certain small circles within the Province, and
one in the Jorhat district, connecting that town and gardens in the immediate neighbourhood,
were made by the Government Telephone Department in 1932.

On the grounds of costs for the service which such group communications would provide,
the sceme was not sanctioned.

There were two distinct lines of thought (no pun intended) as to the nature of the service
telephones would provide in a district like Assam. On the one hand it was thought that
telephones within the confines of a group of gardens would be utilised merely, whilst
Master was doing his kamjari round the garden, by his better half for the dissemination
of local scandal and the checking up of their delinquents' hours and condition of return
from the club. On the other, planters themselves had visions of being called off their
kamjari, or during the hour of their well earned 'lie-back', to answer searching questions
from the agents in Calcutta! This was a prospect which they did not relish, and one which
they thought perhaps outweighed the advantages of essential business calls and facilities
which they would reap from prompt news from the railway terminus or steamer ghats
about the arrival of stores and despatch of their teas.

Of course, these first thoughts on the subject have been disproved in practice, but it was
quite probable that they were responsible for the delay in the telephone lines being installed.
It was not until 1935 that a workable scheme through-out the the tea districts was approved,
and two years or so afterwards that this means of communication was a matter of daily use."

January 3 2009

Fi-Aou

It was mating time. Old Seyal got up, shook his shaggy coat and turning his head up to the sky
gave a call to the pack.

Something moved in the undergrowth near him. An angry hiss and a dart, and a huge gliding
monster shot straight at him. Old Seyal bared his fangs snarling, and sprang aside. It was a
narrow shave, for Wookho the Python was hungry, and had visions of a nice tit-bit in the way
of supper. As soon as he could, the gliding monster turned around to the attack again, but old
Seyal was gone. Quick as lightning he sped, giving vent to the call of fear - "Fi-aou".

From the distance he was answered by one of the pack, and soon forty throats were sending
their gruesome shrieking call on the still afternoon air.

Sanderson, as he was going around kamjari, heard it and wondered, for it was the first time
he had heard a Jackal call in this particular manner. The Sirdar who was standing near,
turned to him. "The Huzoor listens to the cry of the Jackal," he enquired. "Yes, Booda," Sanderson replied, "I have heard many jackals cry butnot in that peculiar manner. What was the cause of it?"

"There are several stories told about it Huzoor, and one does not know which to believe.
Some say it is their mating call, others that it is the call of the outcast Jackal which has
been driven out of the pack for madness. Another story is that the Jackal only calls in this
manner when he has been frightened by a tiger or leopard or some other wild beast. And
then I have even heard people say that it is not a Jackal at all, but a golden cat which cries
like this. We, in this kooti, believe Huzoor, that it is a Jackal which makes that noise, and
that when he does so in the daytime it is a precursor of evil. Before the graet sickness
came, for many days the same sort of cry was heard in the daytime all over the place. Then
this kooti got it and many people died." "In my country," he continued, "there is a legend
told about the Jackal, which if the Huzoor would like to hear, I will tell him."

"Yes," Sanderson said, getting interested, "I would like to hear it Booda, so go on."

"They say, Huzoor," Booda said, "that when the Gods first created the animals of the
Earth, they made the Jackal one of the fleetest. In those days the Jackal lived on the
flesh of deer and other animals, which he hunted in packs like the wild dog does now.
Soon the swiftest animals of the forest stood no chance against him, and would easily
fall a prey to him as a timid hare to to a fleet dog. Then the Devil, always looking for
mischief to do, got hold of the Jackal, turned his head, and so filled his heart with vanity
that he went around the jungle taunting and annoying all the other creatures in it. Meeting
an elephant he would say, "O hathijee, thou cumbersome son of a mountain, the flies do
not fear you for all of your size, for you are too slow to drive them away; and they laugh
at you, and tickle your great big nose, until you blow, and blow for pure helplessness, and
waste good air and breath. Now if you were like me, sleek and supple and agile, you could
run away from them and leave them many miles behind. Wake up you lazy ponderous creature"
- and darting in where the elephant would least expect it, he would give him a bite on the leg
and run away. Thus he would treat all his other companions in the forest until at last he
became the hated foe of all the jungle folk.

Booda continued, "Several times they set traps to catch him, but he was too cunning and always
ran away from any danger. At last it got so bad that all the animals of the earth appealed to the
Goddess Saraswati against him, and the Goddess ordered a council to be held in the jungle at
which she would judge between the Jackal and his accusers. For this purpose she summoned
him to answer the charges laid against him. Now the Devil once more got hold of the Seyal and
flattered him. 'Oh most beautiful of all living creatures,' he said, 'why do you fear Saraswati?
You are greater and nobler than she is, and being so fleet of foot you can defy her for she will
not be able to catch you.' The Jackal's heart was filled with more vanity than ever now, and he
decided to insult the Goddess at the Council meeting.

"The night appointed for the Council at last came, Huzoor. All the animals and birds of the jungle
came to the appointed place at the appointed hour, but the Jackal was nowhere to be seen.
Saraswati grew impatient and the other animals lost their tempers. At last, after they had been
waiting for about half-an-hour, the Jackal turned up. Saraswati rebuked him, and demanded an
explanation of his lateness. 'Oh,' he replied, 'I saw a rat on the road along here, and waited to kill
it, and anyway, it did not please me to come before'. The Goddess became very angry, 'You dare
to insult me, vermin, by not obeying my commands? I could turn you into dust this minute, but
in order that you should be fairly treated, I will hear the charges against you first, and then deal
with you.'

"The first witness was the deer. 'Even when he is not hungry he pursues us for fun, and tears our
flanks leaving us to die, O Goddess, simply to satisfy his vanity. I claim protection from you, O Mother'.
Then all the other animals one by one laid their charges against him, and told the Godess of the
wrongs the Jackal had done them. The Goddess, after hearing them all, turned to the Jackal, 'What have you to say, thing of evil, in your defence?' The Jackal put his tail between his legs and gradually sneaked nearer and nearer to the exit. 'All your powers you have received from me, and you have abused them by annoying your fellow creatures. I gave you fleetness.' 'You did not, for if you did, Saraswati, catch me now' and away he sped from the meeting like a flash of lightning before anyone could hold him.

Then Saraswati, flashing forth fire from her eyes, pursued him, and before he had gone very far, caught him, and brought him back to the Council. 'Now, creature of evil, who is the greater, you or I?' 'Mercy, O Goddess,' the Jackal cried, 'you are the Mother of all creation,' and he gave vent to his call of fear, 'Fi-aou,' for the first time.

'You beg mercy, you cur, but you will have non at my hands now. For your devilish deeds I curse you.  You will lose your fleetness so that the least of the fleet animals of the forest will be able to beat you in pursuit. Vermin and offal shall be your food instead of the princely food which you have enjoyed until now. You will haunt the dwelling places of human creatures as a scavenger, and be despised by all creation of man, bird and beast.' The Jackal groveled on the ground, 'Pardon, O Saraswati,' he pleaded, but the Goddess was adamant. Turning to the tiger, she said, 'Take your leper and cast him out of the assembly.' This the tiger did immediately, and bestowed many a buffeting on him on doing so.

"From that day, Huzoor, the Jackal became a despised creature, detested by both man and beast
alike, and lost all his power of fleetness, so that he has to rely on the cast-off food of others to fill
his stomach, and is ever a scavenger in the track of dead and decaying substances. Such is the
legend they tell about the Jackal in my country, Huzoor."

Old Seyal shook himself once more and pricked up his ears. From afar he could hear the sounds
of a ponderous creature crashing through the jungle. There was a thud and a cry, the dying cry
of a Sambhar buck as it lay in the death grip of a tiger. He turned up his nose to the sky once more, and gave the call to the pack. From all around he was answered, and one by one they came to him, their leader. Putting himself at their head, he trotted off, followed by the others, licking their lips in anticipation of the great feast before them.

"There they go, Huzoor," the old Sirdar said to Sanderson. "A tiger or leopard has killed
something at the jungle edge, and the scavengers are off to get their share of it. If the Huzoor
listens, in a little while he will hear the cry of fear and ill omen.

From across the distance it came - the call of a solitary Jackal, warning his mates of danger.

"Fi-aou! Fi-aou! Fi-aou!"
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