Science, racism, and nature in India's upper Assam's British tea empire

Abstract

The indigenous tea plant in Upper Assam was subjected to multilayered experiments where the 19th century British quest for scientific superiority resulted in a severe and prolonged rejection of it. The article argues that the continuous comparison of the Assamese variety with that of the Chinese was not just the consequence of science but also of racism inherent in it. Even after the successful cultivation of the indigenous variety which emerged as the sole means of rescuing Britain from the “vice like control of China” over tea, negligence toward it was not completely vanished. The article argues this point by locating it within the context of “tropical – temperate” dichotomy that the colonial science invented.