Assam

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Assam is a region of north-east India in the Brahmaputra valley, annexed by the East India Company after the First Anglo-Burmese War and the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826. Tea grew there natively and was already being processed and drunk by Singpho communities before any British involvement: Robert Bruce was shown the plant in 1823 by the Singpho chief Bessa Gam, with the local noble Maniram Dewan acting as intermediary. British commercial cultivation followed from 1834 under a government Tea Committee, and expanded through a plantation system built on land alienation and indentured labour recruited from outside the region, with high mortality on the gardens. Assam remains one of the largest single tea-producing regions in the world.