Colonial Globalization and Its Effects on South Asia: Eastern Bengal, Sylhet and Assam, 1874–1971

289 Pages·2022·2.049 MB·English

by  Ashfaque Hossain

Colonial Globalization and
Its Effects on South Asia
This book investigates the concept of colonial globalization to show how
knowledge, information, technology, capital and labour have the potential
to move freely across the world. It studies the experience of globalization
“from below”, rather than from the perspective of the British imperial centre.
F ocusing on the impact of colonial globalization on the people of Sylhet,
East Bengal and Assam, the volume seeks to analyse the “global” as a process
in constant negotiation with the “local”. It discusses various issues such
as the opening of the hills of Sylhet and Assam for tea plantation, the
involvement of local entrepreneurs with overseas planters in the global tea
industry, the phenomenon of regional labour migration into eastern India,
and Sylheti seamen and their involvement in the merchant marine. The
author also highlights the contribution of peasants, labourers and women in
the independence movement and the irreversible changes that they brought
about.
A unique contribution to the study of colonial globalization, this volume
will be indispensable for students and researchers of colonial history,
modern Indian history, Northeast India, border studies, globalization,
political economy, minority studies, globalization studies, Third World
studies, colonialism and post-colonialism, and South Asian studies.
Ashfaque Hossain is Professor in the Department of History, University of
Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Colonial Globalization and
Its Effects on South Asia
Eastern Bengal, Sylhet and Assam,
1874–1971
Ashfaque Hossain
F irst published 2023
b y Routledge
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a nd by Routledge
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© 2023 Ashfaque Hossain
T he right of Ashfaque Hossain to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-032-32561-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-32563-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-31565-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003315650
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For
Sadia Afroz Sunny

C ontents
List of Tables viii
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xiii
I ntroduction 1
1 Tea Capitalism, Three Districts of East Bengal and
the Making of Modern Assam, 1874–1947 24
2 Overseas and Local Entrepreneurs: A Century of
Transformation in the Tea Plantations 58
3 Labour and the Tea Plantations in Sylhet and Assam 86
4 Counter Flow of Globalization and the World of
Bengali Seamen in the Age of Empire 120
5 Communication, Local Government, Education and
Public Health 156
6 Concept of Nationalism and Political Mobilizations
From 1874 to 1971: Making, Unmaking and
Remaking of Assam-Bengal Borders 195
E pilogue 240
Appendix 1 248
Glossary 252
B ibliography 255
I ndex 269
Tables
1.1 “Yes” votes in Assam Legislative Council, August 1924,
on transfer of Sylhet to Bengal 32
1.2 “No” votes in Assam Legislative Council, August 1924,
on transfer of Sylhet 32
2.1 Picture of the investment and return in tea 59
2.2 Domination of European managing or agency houses 63
2 .3 Native agents and owners’ name with total acres of
lands in 1910 73
3 .1 Native and Europeans labour contractors, depots in
Calcutta in 1870s 95
3 .2 A picture of contractors’ activities in the year 1890 95
3 .3 Indentured and non-act emigration in Sylhet and Assam
(including children) 98
3.4 Migration of labour to Assam and Surma Valley plantations 99
3 .5 Proportion of emigrant child labourer to the tea districts
(including infants) 100
3.6 Death rate (per square mile) of tea labourers of
Surma Valley from 1885 to 1905 110
3.7 Birth place of tea labourers of Sylhet in 1905 111
3.8 Ancestor homes and present abodes of tea labourers 112
3.9 Languages spoken in Sylhet during the early 1900s 113
4.1 Occupation stated in the census report of 1872 in
some East Bengal districts 129
4.2 Seamen in British merchant marine 137
5.1 An outline of rail and river-borne trade in 1906 165
5.2 Roads under the Local Boards in 1904 (mileage) 167
5.3 Comparative statement illustrating the state of
the education in Sylhet, 1874 to 1901 174
5 .4 Deaths rate by malaria and other diseases during
1897–1902 182
Preface and Acknowledgements
This is a book about the amazing twists and turns of colonial globaliza-
tion within the matrix of long-term political, socio-economic and cultural
change that took place in Eastern Bengal, Sylhet and Assam. Focused on a
period between 1874 and 1971, it examines the conditions of colonial glo-
balization in the context of changing relationships of land, capital, people,
labour migration and political mobilization in the colonial and post-colonial
periods.
T he idea of writing a book on the impact of colonial globalization in
South Asia, particularly in Sylhet as a case study, first occurred to me in the
early 1990s, long before my PhD study which I undertook in 2004 at the
University of Nottingham. With that end in view, I began to collect materials
and interview people from 1994. My interest in the multifaceted history of
the region under study developed during 1994–1995, when I had finished
my master’s studies in history and began to contribute to newspapers in
Dhaka. It was also the period of my short-lived career in journalism. In
1999, I published a book on the resistant movements during the Liberation
War of Bangladesh that had taken place in Moulvibazar district, one of four
districts of Greater Sylhet. I took many interviews, including one of late
Major General C. R. Dutta, during that period. General Dutta is a war hero
who led the Bangladesh Liberation Force in the Sylhet sector in 1971. The
late Ambassador Kaiser Rashid Chowdhury, who was the son of a pioneer
native planter, politician and newspaper owner, Abdur Rashid Chowdhury
and a nephew of late Principal Dewan Mohammad Azrof, funded an oral
history project on the life history of Dewan Mohammad Azrof in 1996. Pro-
fessor Syed Manzoourul Islam of the University of Dhaka was the director
of the project while I was the principal investigator. Mr Abdul Gaffur, now
a banker, was also an investigator. We two undertook many interviews in
several months. These were later transcribed and composed but still await
publication. I have used my conversations with Mohammad Azrof in the
late 1990s in analysing the Sylhet referendum. My interpretations of events
may often be different from that of those who took part in the referendum;
however, I have done my best to set out their views with as much clarity and
accuracy as possible.