The tea industry began in India in 1851. Most of the tea gardens were situated in Assam. Since Assam was sparsely populated and the tea plantations were often located on uninhabited hillsides, the bulk of the sorely needed labour had to be imported from other provinces. But to bring thousands of people every year from their far-off homes into strange lands, possessing an unhealthy climate required the provision of financial and other incentives which the tea planters were unwilling to offer. Instead they took recourse to fraud coercion and persuaded the government to pass regressive penal laws. Thus the recruitment of labourers for tea gardens of Assam was carried on by contractor under the provisions of transport of Native Labourers Act (No 111) of 1863 of Bengal as amended in 1865, 1870 and 1873.
Read the passage given above and answer the questions:
Transport of Native Labourers Act (No 111) of 1863 was not helpful for:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Labourers
Option (1) Tea plantation owners — Incorrect. The planters were unwilling to pay the incentives needed to attract workers, so they took recourse to fraud and coercion and got the government to pass penal laws in their favour. The Act served them.
Option (2) Contractors — Incorrect. The recruitment was carried on by contractors under the provisions of the Act. It was the legal basis of their business, so it helped them.
Option (3) Labourers — Correct. The Act was a regressive penal law. Labourers were brought from far-off provinces to an unhealthy climate through fraud and coercion, without fair incentives, and the colonial administrators knew that harsh measures were taken against the labourers to benefit the planters.
Option (4) Colonial government — Incorrect. The government passed the law at the planters’ request and acted on behalf of the British planters. The tea industry was run in colonial interests, so the Act suited the government.
NCERT: Social Change and Development in India — Chapter 1: Structural Change, Box 1.5 (2025-26)
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