Absentee of Rajbangsi Entrepreneurship in the Tea Plantation Industry: A Case Study of the Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling Districts in Colonial Period

Abstract

The Rajbangsi's constituted the most predominant section of the local Hindu population in the Northern districts of colonial Bengal. A large section of them possessed a substantial amount of land commonly known as Jotedars, Zamindars. Unfortunately, a very small section belonged to this landlord class showed much interest in the field of tea plantation industry in spite of having land on a large degree. Interesting to say, other Indians had to set up a large number of tea estates on the land owned by the Rajbangsi landlord once. Instead of assuming initiative in this economic field the Rajbangsi jotedars and other affluent personalities of the same community remained aloof them from the tea plantation industry. This factor actually drew me to make a study in this field of the economic history of colonial Bengal.