How Britain's Tea Culture Evolved Into India's Chai Heritage

While the courtesy of offering a cup of tea to anyone who might be paying a visit to our homes is a customary practice associated with having great traditional values and a sense of hospitability, the case would be considered otherwise eight or ten decades ago. During the Colonial rule in India, before the country became one of the world’s largest producers of tea, a formal introduction to the beverage was made by the British – who imported tea from China in silk caravans. Once the British found Indian soil and climate to be suitable for tea cultivation – coupled with their determination to break China’s monopoly over tea exports to Europe, developments were underway to create a tea garden in India with the help of the English botanist, Sir Joseph Banks in 1776.

Following this, under the supervision of the English army officer Robert Kyd, experiments were conducted for tea cultivation with seeds from a recent consignment that had arrived from China. When a certain Mr. Robert Bruce discovered tea plants growing in the wild on the upper side of the Brahmaputra Valley many decades later, authentic Indian tea was exported to England for consumption. As the process of wide cultivation for tea began in the 1840’s, tests were conducted to first grow the crop along the slopes in Assam, followed by Darjeeling and Kangra valley.

Trickle Down History

The concept of serving freshly made chai with biscuits, rusk or pakodas have been an activity that most of us might be familiar with – if not participate in. The cupboard housing delicate tea sets which have been passed down over generations has been an intrinsic cultural treasure that remains cherished and valued for the sentiments the cups have held through the ages. As the hold of Colonial elements weakened during the freedom struggle in India, the quest for tea to become one with Indian culture only unfolded eventually during the 20^th century. For British tea – a custom that was mainly associated with high society, to transform into Indian ‘chai’ – a combination of factors which transcended socio-economic boundaries came into play.

Image Credits: Priya Paul Collection

From urbanisation, consciously planned marketing campaigns, advertisements and better transportation leading to wider distribution – tea needed a desperate push for Indians to truly feel like it was something they had always known to be one of their own. As India’s citizens still recovered from the brutal exploitation of labourers by the Colonial rulers in the process of cultivating the prized crop, wounds remained fresh despite the country being the leading supplier of tea to England. What was perceived to be a rather ‘snobbish’ indulgence initially – courtesy of Calcutta’s ‘office babus’ and Bhadralok – elite Bengali residents who emerged during the regime, were also in fact the first generation of Indian tea drinkers who preferred to consume their beverage in similar fashion to the British; with the addition of milk and sugar, served in Chinaware.

For the first three decades of the 20^th century, 90% of the cultivated crop was exported to the West, while the remaining was sold to any remaining British inside India as well as the Anglophone classes who were happy to emulate the customs of the rulers. The little advertising that did exist around this time, portrayed tea as a natural product which was introduced to Indians by their civilised Colonial rulers. As the Great Depression struck in the 1930’s avenues were being searched by the tea planters on domestic ground to push their product, allowing the failed attempts by the Tea Cess Committee to resume in full steam (pun intended) with a boost from the state.

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High Tea Traditions: Origins & History Of The British Custom

Repositioning themselves as the ‘Indian Tea Market Expansion Board’ (ITMEB) which was sanctioned a large budget for marketing the beverage, was considered to be one of the grandest advertising campaigns in Indian history. ‘Tea propogandists’ as they were best known, descended upon the citizens driving around in vans and offering free samples and pice packets to millions, followed by a team of demonstrators who infiltered festivals and public gatherings offering to teach onlookers the ‘right’ way of preparing a cup of tea. For homes that observed the purdah, all-female groups paid them a visit armed with British tea, in a bid to make it more approachable.

Image Credits: Priya Paul Collection

In addition to this, the concept of ‘tea breaks’ were introduced to workplaces as a way of associating the idea of one with increased productivity and a refreshed focus. Attractive visual campaigns which were at the centre of the advertisements around the time, encouraged Indians to prepare and drink tea the right way (which was considered the British way), with displays erected in railway stations and bazaars. As is the case with most social campaigns, the ‘tea propagandists’ pushed the ideology that drinking tea would give Indians an opportunity to imbibe the ways of the Brits and allow them to adapt character traits like alertness, punctuality and energised.

Integrating social discourses surrounding women empowerment and a sense of unity among communities in their advertisement campaigns, imageries of sari-clad women in an elevated westernised setting, sipping on chai were vividly portrayed. The ITMEB’s attempt to establish the narrative that strayed away from tea’s imperialist origins steered in the direction of showcasing what was essentially a conservative society aspiring for a modernity. A hiccup in the form of the Second World War in 1939 put a speed-break on the ITMEB’s efforts to make tea an intrinsic part of Indian households, while 70% of Indian tea crops continued to be exported.

Preference for other traditional beverages like lassi, sherbet, badam doodh were higher amongst India’s citizens which were also doubled down by nationalist efforts from leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, who strongly preached a swadesi lifestyle – which countered the propaganda that the ITMEB had adopted. Polarising debates, which became a tussle between the nationalist movement and the British gave varying opinions about tea consumption. While the former insisted that drinking tea was a product of Colonial exploitation and equated it to the blood of the peasants in Assam, the latter attached themselves to considering the beverage as a refreshing option.

Images Credit: Gautam Bhadra [From An Imperial Product to a National Drink] (L); Hindustan Times (R)

As the hold of the British colonisers over the Indian tea market weakened with time, the aggressive marketing tactics demonstrated by the ITMEB was taken forward by emerging brands like Brooke Bond, Tosh and Lipton in the succeeding decades. Pioneering strategies like single-use packets and free samples not only became a leaf that was taken out of the ITMEB’s books by tea brands but also other food products which eventually found their way into Indian markets. Once the British took leave, tea estates were transferred from foreign hands to Indian owners, kickstarting a dramatic increase in tea drinking across the country.

Interventions from the government, which reorganised the ITMEB into the Tea Board of India in 1953, took a rather ironic stance which allowed them to propagate the act of tea drinking as one that united the masses and as an act of nationalism. Using the sentiments attached to state-building and pan-Indian unity, advertisements received a rather 180-degree makeover – which now portrayed tea as Swadeshi, since it was touted to be cultivated on Indian soil. The rejuvenating properties of the drink were said to be the choice for citizens who were actively involved in building the nation.

Once the reigns of advertising were handed over to private advertising firms, they decided to expand and invest their efforts in the direction of accessing remote villages with the help of cyclist promoters who offered rural dwellers free samples of the product. That aside, the abundant availability of affordable tea in India in the post-Independence era accelerated its widespread popularity. While loose leaf varieties were associated with consumption by the upper classes, the grainy or daanedar variety which were processed using CTC machines, producing a robust fragrance and flavour that the Indians preferred over the leaf variety.

Images Credit: Brooke Bond Tea [1960-70](L); Actress KR Vijaya in a catalogue of calendar images [1950-60](R)

When new and improved versions of the CTC machines came about during the 1960’s and 1970’s, affordable teas like Brooke Bond Red Label and Lipton’s Yellow Label were readily available for consumers to purchase. The high demand allowed tea retailers and chaiwallahs to expand across the length and breadth of the country, while also finding its way into the homes of avid chai drinkers. Soon enough, chai became synonymous with a leisurely time and social interaction – forming the centrepiece of social change inside and outside a household.

Variations that allowed for the amplification of the tea’s flavour witnessed the addition of spices like ginger and cardamom which brought heat and sweetness to the milky, sweet beverage. Other experiments by chai wallahs turned what was a rather mellow beverage into a cup of warm liquid which was spiced with black peppercorns and cinnamon. The shapeshifting of chai which left its Colonial origins far behind is currently associated with South Asian heritage and also being recognised globally as a drink that wins over the drinker rather easily!