![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The Treaty of Yandabo (1826) marked the colonial conquest of the Brahmaputra valley. Following two decades witnessed calculations and speculations about the prospect of the region as a part of the British colonial empire. Discovery of tea plants and the existence of tradable commodities such as cotton, silks and salt made the region look promising for the East India Company. The early-colonial rulers introduced policy changes in the1820 s and the 1830 s. Existing historiography on wasteland rules has clarified that these regulations were aimed at making land available for tea plantations. At the same time monetization of the region with one uniform currency was undertaken. This paper argues that in the face of these developments, commerce remained an important part of the economy, as before. Creation of a land market by wasteland regulations and uniform coinage facilitated the Empire’s trade and made the region a part of the colonial commerce.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to my Ph.D. supervisor Dr. David Zou for looking through several drafts of this paper and pointing out flaws for making it better. My gratitude to Dr. Sanghamitra Misra for her comments and suggestions on a previous draft of this paper. I am grateful to the reviewers of the Asian Ethnicity for their comments and suggestions to improve this paper. I am grateful to the reviewers of the Asian Ethnicity for their comments and suggestions to improve this paper. I am thankful to the editor of the Asian Ethnicity, Julie Chen for her kind correspondences through these months of review and revisions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Sharma, Empire’s Garden Assam and the Making of India, 34.
2. Guha, Planter Raj to Swaraj Freedom struggle and electoral politics in Assam 1826–1947, 12.
3. Misra, Becoming a Borderland, 96–7.
4. Hilaly, “Imagining Colonial Assam,” 55–62.
5. Dey, Tea Environments and Plantation Culture, 137–41.
6. Coins of the Company minted in Farrukhabad in northern India. Besides, there were coins issued from Banaras mint.
7. Guha, “Colonisation of Assam,” 125–40.
8. Ibid., 126–7.
9. Doar, dwar or duar is a geographical feature in the Eastern Himalayas. These are fertile plains between mountains equivalent to the duns of the Himalayas. These duar regions were buffer territories between the Brahmaputra plain and Bhutan.
10. Report on Bhutan by General Boyle.
11. Guha, “Colonisation of Assam,” 127.
12. Paik system was the backbone of the Ahom economy. Every adult male aged between 16 and 60 had to serve as paik for some duration in a year instead of paying taxes. It did not prevent the paiks from engaging in barter.
13. See Aitchison edited A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads: Relating to India and Neighbouring Countries. Vol. XII, 230–3.
14. Banerjee, “The New Regime, 1826–1831,” 1.
15. Guha, Planter Raj to Swara, 9.
16. Kar, “Nomadic capital and speculative tribes,” 41–67.
17. Banerjee, “The New Regime, 1826–1831,” 7.
18. Ibid., 14.
19. Ibid., 15.
20. Ibid., 28–32.
21. Sharma, Empire’s Garden Assam and the making of India, 120, Sharma has cited P.J. Marshall’s theory of the accidental expansion of the East India Company to describe the expansion in Assam.
22. Pemberton, Report on The Eastern Frontier of British India, 84.
23. Hat, Haat or Haut was the periodical markets where traders would come and sell their products.
24. “Letter to Francis Jenkins from Broodie.”
25. “Captain Jenkin’s Report on Upper Assam.”
26. “Northeastern Frontier Agent’s report,” 272.
27. A rupee issued in Bengal before 1836 weighing more than the rupee of the British East India Company.
28. “Major Jenkin’s Report on Upper Assam.”
29. M’Cosh, Topography of Assam, 142.
30. Ibid., 146.
31. Pemberton, Report on The Eastern Frontier of British India, 80.
32. Hannay, “A Short Account of the Moa Morah sect,” 669–79.
33. Robinson, A Descriptive Account of Assam, 308.
34. Ibid., 412.
35. Ibid., 241.
36. “Captain Jenkins Report on Upper Assam,” 147–9.
37. Robinson, A Descriptive Account of Assam, 234.
38. Ibid., 135–6.
39. “Captain Jenkins Report on Upper Assam,” 147.
40. “North East Frontier Agent’s proposal for the development of commercial resources.”
41. In upper Assam, after the removal of the tributary Ahom king, several Mauzas were created. A Marwari trader Haribilas Agarwal was appointed as the first mauzadar of Tezpur.
42. White, A Memoir of the Late David Scott, 5.
43. Barpujari, Appendix B, 41.
44. Goswami, The History of Assam from Yandabo to Partition 1826−1947, 54.
45. Ibid., 60.
46. “Letter to George Swington, Chief Secretary to the Government from H. J. Prinsep, Secretary to the Government.”
47. Verities of land grants to religious institutions or priests.
48. “Letter from D. J. McNeile to the Secretary to the Government of Bengal.”
49. Konwar, “Ahom Sabha and Assamese Renaissance,” 6.
50. Handbook to the old Records, Chapter 1, 5.
51. The Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 11.
52. Hunter, Statistical Account of Assam Volume I, 51.
53. Ibid.
54. Locke, Two Treatises of Government, 209.
55. Ibid., 208–30.
56. Common is something which is given to everyone; here I think it means something in the state of nature where human labour has not been used.
57. Locke, Two Treatises of Government, 214.
58. Whitehead, “John Locke and the Governance of India’s Landscape,” 83.
59. Ibid., 85.
60. Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 33–46.
61. Whitehead, “John Locke and the Governance of India’s Landscape,” 84.
62. See note 54 above.
63. Bowen, “Bullion for Trade, War and Debt,” 445–75.
64. Gupta, Coins, 214.
65. Bhuyan, Asam Buranji, 70.
66. National Museum, Kolkata, West Bengal.
67. “Letter from Morley to Macnaghten.”
68. “Letter from Jenkins to C. E. Trevelyan.”
69. See note 64 above.
70. See note 67 above.
71. “Letter from Boyle to Captain Jenkins.”
72. “Letter from G. E. Weshmacott to Jenkins.”
73. Guha, “Colonisation of Assam,” 130.
74. M’Cosh, Topography of Assam, 12.
75. Ibid., 58.
76. Goswami, The History of Assam from Yandabo to Partition 1826−1947, 67.
77. “Major Jenkins report on Upper Assam.”
78. “Letters communicated between A. White, Political Agent and H. J. Prinsep, Secretary to the Government of India.”
79. Goswami, The History of Assam from Yandabo to Partition 1826−1947, 69–72.
80. “Report on the settlement made for the town of Gowahutty.”
81. “Letter from A White to J. L. Robertson,” 460.
82. Khadria, “Traditional Crafts and Occupation Structure of the Assamese Rural Society in the 19th Century.”
83. “Correspondence between H. J. Prinsep, Secretary to the Government of India and Major Jenkins.”
84. Robinson, A Descriptive Account of Assam, 131.
85. Ibid., 136.
86. Ibid., 144.
87. “Levy of duty on caoutchouc.”
88. Pemberton, Report on The Eastern Frontier of British India, 74.
89. “A letter from H. J. Prinsep to Francis Jenkins,” 125.
90. “A letter from Jenkins to H. J. Prinsep.”
91. M’Cosh, Topography of Assam, 63.
92. “Captain Jenkins report on Upper Assam.”
93. Ibid., 147–9.
94. Robinson, A Descriptive Account of Assam, 313.
95. “Letter from J. Hagun to Lieutenant Rutherford,” 164.
96. Ibid. See also Jenkin’s survey report, 323.
97. “Letter from A. White to J. L. Robertson.”
98. Pemberton, Report on The Eastern Frontier of British India, 176.
99. “Rutherford’s report on Revenue matters.”
100. “Letter from Jenkins to L. E. Trevelyan.”
101. “Report on the settlement made for the town of Gowhutty.”
102. Ibid.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nabanita Sharma
Nabanita Sharma is a doctoral candidate in the history department of Delhi University. Her research interests include history of colonial and post-colonial Assam, history of Northeastern India and economic history.