Visit to tea plantations in Guwahati

In April 2016, Crispin Bates gave a keynote speech on Colonial Indian Labour Migration at a conference in Guwahati. Whilst there he witnessed (and participated) in a traditional Assamese bihu dance. He also visited tea plantations close to Guwahati. Several workers encountered claimed to be the direct descendants of migrants who first came to Assam in the late nineteenth century. These workers lived in family lines dating back to the early twentieth century, often lacking in a potable water supply. Several though were recent arrivals and were given a plot of land on which to construct their own houses.