Idyllic life-style of tea estates slowly fades away in India

It was the ultimate relic of the Raj. Sprawling bungalows attended by an army of well-trained servants: vegetable gardens to supply the kitchen with an uninterrupted supply of fresh greens: the clubhouse a short drive away for the evening "snifter" at the bar - or a game of tennis or golf: weekends at the nearest hill station or out in the jungles for organised shikar-cum-fishing trips.

Governing this idyllic life-style were two leaves and a bud, the ubiquitous symbol of Indian tea. Whether in the rolling plains of Assam and the Dooars in West Bengal or in the mist-shrouded hills of Darjeeling and the Nilgiris, life on the tea gardens seemed suspended in time: an extended legacy of the hard-living, hard-drinking Scotsmen who first planted and cultivated the stunted green shrubs that made Indian tea literally a household name everywhere.

Up till the late '60s, life on the tea gardens remained rooted in the Raj. Tea garden labourers treated managers and assistant managers like minor gods whose every word was a divine command - labourers referred to managers asmai-bap. Salaries and perks for tea planters were far more attractive than comparative appointments in private sector companies. In the '60s, starting salaries were between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,500 along with virtually everything else - fully furnished houses, servants, transport, petrol-paid for.

Though social life revolved around the clubs, there was something for everybody. Games included billiards, golf, tennis, squash, football and cricket. There were movie shows and regular dances with live bands organised by the wives. In most estates, regular weekly charter flights arrived from Calcutta loaded with foodstuffs and anything else planters wanted to order.

But it was an anachronism, an era that had to end. Even so, the change in the tea planter's life-style is so dramatic and all-embracing that even 1970 seems like a century ago. In Shillong, Thomas Richmond, 76, nostalgically remembers his 25 years as a tea planter: a life "as good as in rural England". He can talk for hours of the "splendid times" he had but dreads going back to the gardens now. "It will break my heart," he says.Before Independence, tea companies were almost wholly owned by the British and young men were brought in to look after the estates all the way from England. Remembers Anil Sokey, 64, who spent over four decades as a planter. "Hardly any planter would miss an evening at the club. Even Indian planters made it a point to participate because British bosses ensured that their assistants were active at work, on the playground and in the clubs." Dancing, drinking and generally living it up were images synonymous with planters.

Today, for an old planter, the sight at the Dibrugarh District Planters' Club on a Saturday evening would indeed be heartbreaking. There are normally hardly a dozen planters at the bar and even less playing any kind of game. But that is symbolic of the dramatic change that has overtaken tea garden life. By the early '70s, with even the most die-hard British planter having left, life on the tea gardens became, almost overnight, a case of paradise lost.

The change was hastened when British-owned companies sold out to Indian owners, mainly hard-headed, profit-oriented Marwari businessmen. With the change in management - and the sudden competition in international markets that Indian tea faced - the old life-style of the tea planter was doomed.

"There is little time for recreation now," says Rajiv Wazirchand, 40, an Assam planter: "There is too much paper work." In the mid-'40s, there were nine golf courses maintained by tea clubs in Cachar district alone. Now, tall grass and weeds have claimed them. Interestingly, even the traditional afternoon "lie back" has become a memory.

A job on the estates today is a high-pressure one. Points out Hemendra Prasad Barooah, owner of nine tea estates in Assam: "When the Britishers were in charge, working as a planter was a way of life. Now, it is just another job. Employers annually spend around Rs 2.50 lakh on a manager in a tea garden. Naturally, they want results."

"When the Britishers were in charge, working as a planter was a way of life. Now it is just another job." Hemendra Prasad Barooah tea estate owner