: Maniram Dewan: India’s First Tea Planter a Freedom Fighter During the 1857 War #IndiaNEWS #History With 1,400 kilos of tea leaves grown every year, India is the undisputed nation of chai lovers.

Maniram Dewan: India’s First Tea Planter a Freedom Fighter During the 1857 War #IndiaNEWS #History
With 1,400 kilos of tea leaves grown every year, India is the undisputed nation of chai lovers. The ubiquitous cup of chai is an unofficial and underappreciated symbol of bonding.
Don’t believe me? Walk over to any tea stall in the bylanes of India and you will find two strangers bonding endlessly over the piping hot cup of tea.
Chai is probably the most common beverage offered every time a guest comes over. It also makes for a handy antidote to all our problems — from sleepiness, headaches to stress.
Being a chai lover myself, I can go on and on about this humble drink and its different preparation processes in different parts of India.
India is a tapestry of diverse teas like masala, green, lemon, ginger, elaichi, etc. But do you know about the immense contributions of legendary figures who pioneered the tea plantations in India?
The credit for popularising the tea surely goes to the British East India Company but one man that deserves credit for introducing tea to the British, who were till then relying on China, is Maniram Datta Barua, aka Maniram Dewan.
The First Tea Planter
Born in 1806 in Assam’s Jorhat district, Maniram introduced the tea produced by the Singhpo tribe to British officer Robert Bruce. Robert was an agent of Ahom king, Purandar Singha, who was looking for an alternative to Chinese tea in the 1820s.
Maniram became India’s first tea planter and later turned against the colonists upon releasing their malicious plans to exploit and torture the tea growers of Assam. He resigned from the post of Dewan and set up two estates in Senglung and Cinnamara in the 1840s.
He was eventually hanged by the British on grounds of treason on 26 February, 1858 in Jorhat.
It is fascinating to note how a man who introduced a cash crop to his loyal invaders did not hesitate to use the same crop as a weapon to cripple their financial revenues.
“Assam produced in Dewan a martyr to the cause of freedom of the country whose exploits are perhaps not yet well-known throughout India as they should be,??? former Assam Chief Minister Bishnuram Medhi wrote in the introductory section of K N Dutt’s book ‘Landmarks of the Freedom Struggle in Assam’.
A Tea Martyr
Maniram’s family migrated to Assam in the 16th century from Kannauj. His family members held significant posts in the Ahom kingdom. However, between 1817 and 1826, the family took asylum in Bengal during the Burmese invasion.
Ahom kingdom, which later went to the Burmese rulers, was captured by the British at the end of the Anglo-Burmese war. During this period, Maniram and his family became close confidantes of the British.