Tea Plantation and Migration in Dooars : A Study of its Impact on Demographic Profile and Socio-economic Conditions

Abstract

In India, the tea plantation in India was started in the Brahmaputra valley in the year 1857 by the Colonial State Authority on a large scale. Later, plantations of Tea spread in different parts of the country. The Dooars region of West Bengal was one of them. In lieu of making huge profits, Britishers started cultivating tea in this region by clearing thick forests and undulating land surfaces. Dooars region of West Bengal became the largest producer of tea in West Bengal and the second largest producer of tea in India. Currently, it produces nearly 17 per cent of tea in India and provides direct employment to over 3.5 million people in the region. But the tea industry in this region was developed by the large-scale migration of Adivasi from the Chhotanagpur Santhal Parganana and Singhbhum regions. The British Government not only ruined the status and opportunities of local people but also uprooted them from their motherland. This creates an employment and settlement problem in this region and also dynamically changes the demographic profile of the region. This paper attempts to highlight the increasing trend of population growth during the plantation period and also focuses migration of people from other areas of the country that shaped the demographic profile of this region and also changed the socio-economic structure.