vores 
CHAPTER XX. 
Principle of Indenture. 
The obvious means of ensuring this was by legislation, and 
legislation was adopted. All the laws regulating recruitment to Assam 
{and there is a long history of these) were based on the principle of inden- 
bure. Even the present law contains provisions for indentured labour, 
which, however, have been rendered inoperative by means of notifica- 
tions issued under the Act. The general scheme was that the labourer 
was bound by a contract to serve for a specified period on the garden to 
which he was recruited ; if he failed to work without reasonable cause, 
or absconded, he could be punished criminally, and the planter had the 
right of arresting an absconder. As a set-off against the grant of these 
powers, Government prescribed a minimum wage and provided for the 
protection of the labourer in certain other respects. The system of in- 
denture did not solve the difficulties ; 1t would be more accurate to say 
that it aggravated them. It increased the disinclination of labourers 
to go to Assam, and while the demand for labour became keener as the 
industry expanded, the supplies threatened to dry up. Assam had for 
long been regarded with justice as unhealthy, the labourer who went 
there had little chance of returning without the assistance of an em- 
ployer, and he had to surrender his liberty for a term of years. The price 
of a labourer rose, and there grew a class of contractors and of profes- 
sional recruiters, known as arkattis, many of whom were ready to adopt 
any device to secure the large prices obtainable for the supply of labour- 
ers. Grave abuses became common in the recruiting areas, and parti- 
cularly in Chota Nagpur. 
Reform of the System. 
Finally, after various legislative efforts Government took the 
step of prohibiting all recruiting except by garden sardars, and also 
made it illegal for anyone else to assist, induce, or even persuade a recruit 
bo go to Assam. A garden sardar is a man who has actually worked and 
is employed on a tea garden, and the operations of garden sardars are 
fenced round with numerous regulations. Local Governments were 
also empowered to prohibit recruiting absolutely in specified areas and 
these powers were used by more than one local Government. To this 
day a large part of the United Provinces is closed to all recruiting for 
Assam. Moreover, a body known as the Assam Labour Board was set 
up with a view to the better control of recruiting. This body, which is 
financed almost entirely by cesses on tea planters, is composed of repre- 
sentatives of the tea industry with an official chairman, and its duties 
involve the supervision of the machinery regulating recruitment in and 
smigration from the recruiting provinces. It has no responsibility for 
labour after it has arrived in Assam. These changes, together with the 
willing co-operation of the industry, secured their immediate object with 
the result that cases of serious abuse are now exceptional, though their 
memory remains in certain districts, and has still an effect on recruiting ; 
but the real difficulties remained unsolved. The Government of India 
had always professed adherence to the principle of free recruiting as the 
deal mn view ; but the alterations made in the law which restricted