Tea was first discovered growing in Assam 1823 by Robert Bruce, although it was his younger brother Charles Alexander who pioneered the establishment of the first tea plantations. Today Assam produces most of India’s tea. Old colonial tea planters’ bungalows surrounded by neat rows of emerald green tea bushes dominate the landscape, particularly in Upper Assam. After an early experiment using imported Chinese labourers ended in near mutiny, the British began the mass recruitment of Adivasis from Choto Nagpur plateau, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. They have now been assimilated into Assamese society. One o the largest groups of organized labour in India today, they enjoy benefits undreamed of by other workers including free health care, education and subsidized food. The lifestyle of the plantation, hardly changed since the days of the Raj, has been tarnished lately by the rise of insurgency, with tea companies being targeted for extortion and kidnapping.