| Author: |
Asim Chaudhuri |
| ISBN: |
8170071992 |
| Edition: |
DEC 1995 |
| Multiple Book Set: |
No |
The present work seeks to document the underdevelopment bias of plantation agriculture by a study of the economy of Western Dooars in the Jalpaiguri district of Northern Bengal during the colonial period. This tract was annexed to British Bengal in 1864 after the Bhutan War. The tract with its pre-modern economy, sparse population and ample supply of culturable waste land attracted te attention of English tea-planters of Darjeeling i the third quarter of nineteenth century when land for further extension of tea-culture could no longer be obtained there. With the setting up of the first tea-garden in 1874 Western Dooars began receiving doses of capital investment by merchant capitalists which were very large for the time. Since that year till 1911 Western Dooars made very rapid progress in tea cultivation which served to transform this 'howling wilderness' into an important producer of a valuable export crop. This led to the 'opening up' of the natural economy of the Western Dooars to the rest of the wolrd and its gradual development int a commodity-- money economy.
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