Saurav Pathak
Thu, 27 Feb 2003 18:52:51 -0800
deepjyoti kakati said on AssamNet: + how did the assamese brown sahibs come into their wealth in + the first place? I mean before the british arrived and let them + be the retainers of the empire...wearing those brown pants and + white short with ridiculous rubber suspenders! before the british, the brown sahibs were seleng chador clad members of licchou maintaining aristocrats from the ahom aristocracy. post british, the foremost brown sahib was maniram dewan, who later fell out and had to pay with his life. who after that, i dont remember. now the khaki pants in the tea gardens are worn mostly by people from punjab or some such place. the new rulers of india today, too, come clad in khaki pants, but they dont call themselves sahibs... + + was it by exploiting and abusing their powers granted by kings + and warlords to be the 'zamindar' or 'raja' of certain areas ? + managing tea gardens on the backs of poor labour and sipping + whisky in the Club ? the ahom aristocrats had their licchous and ligiris and paiks, of course. but the tea gardens came after the british. and the owners were a different lot. for example, how many ahom tea planters do you know? -- saurav _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam