[Reader-list] A Tasty Cup for Tea Lovers

[Amit Basu]

  A Tasty Cup for Tea Lovers
   
  Last month an interesting exhibition was held in Kolkata on the culture of tea drinking. Keeping in tune with the practice of culture in this city this was no doubt a unique and enriching exhibition. A book by the curator historian Gautam Bhadra (From an Imperial Product to a National Drink: The Culture of Tea Consumption in Modern India. Kolkata: Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta & Tea Board of India, 2005, Paperback, Pp. 52, Rs. 150.00) has been published that document this exhibition.
  For me, being an avowed addict of this stimulant for more than 35 years and a researcher on history of addiction, I could not resist my urge to share my experience of reading this tiny yet informative and insightful book.
  It is not that no one has written on tea in India. Rather forty-four dense notes and references speak more on that, which can be a handy resource for the fresh researcher.  What is engaging in this book is its strategy of representation of 56 prints of the original billboards, posters, calendars, cartoons, drawings, illustrations, photographs and lobby cards with narratives. By the arrangement of this visuals and writings Gautam Bhadra has made it possible to see the cultural history of tea drinking from the perspective of tea becoming a “national product”. His innovative interpretations of the visuals and reading of printed texts has made a convincing disposition of his arguments. He wrote:
  The focus of this exhibition is thus more on social practices and cultural nuances associated with the consumption of tea in India than on the oft-told narrative of political and economic struggles between labour and capital in tea production and trade (p.2).
  However, there are many issues related to addiction to this particular stimulant (after tobacco brought by the Portuguese) is not touched upon. For example, the processes that why addiction for this stimulant became so overwhelming remains unexplored. As far as the history of colonial medicine is concerned, we now know that the consenting process by the addicted population to a product promoted by the colonialist is complex. The colonized were not just victims of imperial operations and mixed reactions to this drink are not rare in nineteenth and twentieth century health periodicals in Bengali. Slowly tea also transforms into a health drink and today tea without milk or sugar is being preferred across the state.
  More than being a descriptive catalogue, this book provides drink for thought and opens up possibilities for new historical writings that engage with such diverse visual materials and blends it with well researched historical sources.
  I am sure that some of you in the Reader-List of Sarai will be curious to taste this fresh cup of stimulating book!
   
  Amit Basu/21.01.2006
   


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