58 SOCIAL SCIENTIST victuals from the same community or by individuals from a different community. Our study aims at explaining the latter type of change. There are 45 public limited tea companies founded by the Jalpaiguri Bengalees having registered offices and estates in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. Initially the directors of these companies were elected on the basis of merit. But this practice was discontinued after 1911 and control was exercised by the dominant group of planters from the Bengalee community of Jalpaiguri town. These individuals not only controlled the established companies but also promoted new companies with the help of their followers. However, after 1940 control gradually passed out of their hands to a different group of directors. This change in control is clear from the fact that, in the case of 16 of the 43 public limited tea companies covered by us, the distribution of directorships over time shifted clearly in favour of the Marwari community. These 16 companies constitute the sample of our study. Besides these 16 companies, there are other companies where control has passed on to a mixed group of Marwari merchants and Bengalee directors, with the latter constituting the majority on the Board. A third type consists of those companies where control passed from one dominating group of Bengalee planters to another dominating group from the same community. Our interest is confined to the first type, because in the case of these companies the original entrepreneurs have failed to retain their control and have yielded to new groups. An attempt is made in this paper to explain why the former directors could not continue their entrepreneurial role inspite of being promoters and controllers of these companies for over half a century. The number of directors in the 16 companies under study varied from 5 to 12. The specific identities of the new directors are provided in the returns submitted by the companies and their communal identity given in the form ^Hindu Marwari' or ^Bengalee brahmin'. Very general descriptions like ^Indian* and ^Hindu merchant5 are also to be found. As for their occupational identity, the description provided is more specific {merchants jotedear^ tea-planter, director, and so on)(See Table I). The point to note is that the former Bengalee directors concerned themselves with the management of tea companies as apart time affair while they pursued legal practice as a full time occupation. Thus, though all the directors belonging to the Bengalee community arc returned as ^tea. planters', they were in fact, ^pleaders-cum-tca planters^. STRUCTURE OF THE INDUSTRY The Indian tea industry may claim to be the oldest industry in India. The economics of the industry, compared with other manufacturing industries is rather simple and elementary. It is an agro-based industry and the major part of the assets of the industry consists of land and tea bushes of sixty to eighty years durability. Activity in the industry