An Assamese nobleman and a freedom fighter of India, Maniram Dewan was the first Tea planter of Assam, who established the tea gardens at Chinamara in Jorhat and at Singlou in Sibsagar district.

  Born into a family tracing its lineage to the early 16th century, when it had migrated from Kanauj to Assam whose ancestors had held high offices in the courts of Ahom Kingdom, on 17th April, 1806, Maniram Dutta Baruah, popularly known as Maniram Dewan was undeniably the greatest Assamese. Maniram himself became a confidante and counsellor of Purundar, the titular Ahom king elevated to the throne in 1833, and his son Kameswar Singha and grandson Kandarpeswar Singha.

   Despite being Kayasthas, his family had assumed the status of nobility under the Ahoms, which not only enhanced Maniram’s influence at the court and the subjects, but also instilled in him a fierce sense of independence and patriotism, as also an aristocratic pride that....