"Whether writing about the natives, coolies, birds, insects, or tea gardens, he is alike entertaining."-Mark Lane Express, 1886
"Cheery, well-written little book."-Graphic, 1886
"Really worth our attention." -Saturday Review 1884
In the 1880s, India's Assam province was not the Garden of Eden, nor anywhere near it. As to Assam's tea planters, it is clear that they were as badly off as men accustomed to civilised society could well be, as we learn from George M. Barker in his 1883 book " A Tea Planter's Life in Assam."
The author found, when he was about to go to Assam to start a tea plantation, that in spite of its commercial importance, little or nothing had been written about it from which he could learn what lay before him. He determined to wipe away this reproach, and has supplied us with a entertaining as well as useful book on one of India's principal industries in the 1890s, namely, Tea—its planting, growth and manufacture; the strange surroundings, human and animal, of the European resident; the trying climate, and the daily life of the Planter who toils in the jungle far from civilization to provide the civilized with their cheering beverage.
As one English publication reviewing this book noted, the Assam tea-planter of this era deserves praise, as he did so much to turn into a wealthy province an out-of-the way corner in the Indian Empire "of no use to anybody," and to provide employment for the ever growing poorer population of Bengal. Tea planters dotted certain spots in each district with their bungalows, ready to denounce abuses, to repress crime, to forward local works, and to serve as centres of loyal action in times of famine, discontent, or "aggression on the part of border savage tribes."
The processes of cultivating and preparing tea are clearly explained, and he has sensible remarks on coolie questions, brokers' charges, and the like. As to tea-growing, it seems that the limited capitalist must get his own bit of ground and plant it, and then wait four years for some return, a tedious and anxious work. The chief difficulties with which the plant has to contend are blight, red spiders, bad drainage, and excessive drought or moisture, as the case may be.
Beyond stating that "coolies" must be closely watched and moderately chastised if they shirk or scamp their work, there is nothing of the slavedriver in his phrases:
"Ah me! what a host of past troubles that one little word 'coolie' conjures up! The climate is not all that one could desire, the insects are infamous; the coolie is worse than either, and makes the two former feeble by comparison with his own powers of inflicting torture. The secret of success in a planter's life, after starting a good garden, is to have a temper that nothing can ruffle."
"Tigers there are also in quantities in most districts of Assam," notes the author. "To be suddenly aroused in the middle of the night by squeals issuing from the direction of the stables, followed by a sudden irruption into your bedchamber of the chowkeydar and his black satellites, green with fear, and yelling in chorus, 'Barg, barg' (tiger), is not the most pleasant awakening. There is not a moment to be lost if the horses are to be saved. A light is secured, rifles, together with all the odd firearms that can be speedily collected together, are distributed, and the procession starts for the stables."
In his conclusion, the author advises, "Under no circumstances, leave England if you can earn any kind of living in it—and least of all go to Assam."
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