From the Hills to the Plains: The Bengali Entrepreneurs and the transformation of North Bengal's Tea Industry (1879 - 1947)

The book explores the emergence of Bengali entrepreneurship in the tea industry of colonial Bengal. Despite the ‘Divide and Rule Policy’ of the British Government, it shows how the rising tide of nationalism united them and ushered in the Indianisation of the trade. It also resulted in the formation of various tea associations established by Bengali entrepreneurs like the Indian Tea Planters’ Association (ITPA) and Terai Indian Planters’ Association (TIPA). The book highlights their role in the freedom struggle as well as their lifestyle, culture and leisure. The work also offers an account of how the ownership of tea gardens changed hands from Bengalis to other Indians, mainly Marwaris and delves into reasons behind this shift. The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian studies, the economic history of India, the tea industry, the Indian freedom movement and cultural studies.

About the Author

Supam Biswas is, at present, Head of the Department of History, Baneswar Sarathibala Mahavidyalaya, Coochbehar, West Bengal, India. He is the author of Tea World of North Bengal (2016), Partition Trauma, Migration and Divided Ethnicities in North Bengal (2022), The Empire Wrote Future: The British in North Bengal (2024), Social Changes and Transformation: A Study on the Tea Industry of North Bengal (2025), Bengal Renaissance and Cultural Awakening in North Bengal (2026). His main area of research interest is the history of Bengal with a special emphasis on North Bengal.