?46
ment, and that of the tea-garden labourer. Nor is it safe to assume
that the conditions of life in a newly opened country like the Duars
are similar to those of tracts from which tea-garden labour is drawn;
and in the Duars the conditions of life especially to the new-comer are
both difficult and hostile. It is frequently stated that under a free
labour system the coolie can move about from place to place just as
it suits him; but were this strictly true it would not benefit him for con-
ditions are everywhere the same in the Duars and by constant change
the coolie but emphasizes hostile circumstances. Another general
belief is that any coolie, should he desire it, is able at any time to leave
the district; but we shall show that such a view does not fully repre-
sent the actual facts. Again want of direct relations between the
planter and the coolie has been often supposed to be beneficial to the
latter; but a close study of the conditions in the Duars seems to indi-
cate that the need of protection is greatest just in proportion to the
lack of such a direct relationship.
The so-called "sardari" method of recruitment in the Duars
differs in a most important particular from the " sardari " and other
systems of recruitment conducted by Assam, namely, that while in
the latter area all labour when it reaches the garden is dealt with
directly by the garden manager, in the Duars practically all labour
is dealt with through the sardar, who does not on the garden
cease to have relations with the coolie. The distinction is well drawn
in a statement recorded by the Assam Labour Enquiry Commit-
tee (vide page 2), who in speaking of all labour recruited for Assam
say:-
"The fact that while the labourers in other tea areas were re-
cruited and managed through middlemen, in Assam
the system of direct management was in force, the recruit-
er's connection with the labourer ceasing directly the lat-
ter had arrived on the garden ".
And it is necessary to realise that though a recruiter in the Duars'
system may be an ordinary garden coolie he acts only, as a rule, as a
kind of agent for a sardar.