The Millions Who Built India's Tea

Millions of tea workers in Assam are descendants of forced laborers brought by the British. They form a massive, unique community that speaks over a dozen distinct languages while creating a shared culture in the gardens.

During the late 1800s, colonial planters moved thousands of tribal people from across India to work on remote estates. Despite their diverse origins, they developed a unique common language called Assam Sadri to communicate across these linguistic barriers. Today, these seven million people live in hundreds of isolated tea estates, maintaining a distinct identity within the state of Assam. Their presence serves as a living legacy of the massive migrations driven by the global tea trade.