Revisiting Doss & Co: The trading heritage of Assam

Dr Nayan Barua & Angshuman Sharma

(angshu2606@rediffmail.com)

In the modern era, almost all people dwelling in towns or cities have got the taste of visiting a shopping mall or a big departmental store. The facilities offered by these shopping malls are aptly suited to the lifestyle of a modern consumer. 'Harrods' of London is a landmark name in the field of shopping houses. Till 2010, it was owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, father of famous Dodi Fayed who died in the Paris dinner accident along with Lady Diana. 'Shinsegae' of South Korea is known to be the largest departmental store in the world with an area of 31, 63,000 sq. feet and is located in the city of Seoul. In India, 'Spencer Plaza' is located in Anna Salai; Chennai was the first departmental store and was established in the year 1863 by Charles Durant and JW Spencer.

In Assam, the history of departmental stores dates back to 1957 when Doss & Co. emerged as the first registered departmental store in the Cally building, KB Road, Jorhat, Assam. Subsequently, two more branches of the same were opened in the Golaghat and Nagaon towns of Assam. The structural design of these buildings followed British Archaeology and In the modern era, almost all people dwelling in towns or cities have got the taste of visiting a shopping mall or a big departmental store. The facilities offered by these shopping malls are aptly suited to the lifestyle of a modern consumer. 'Harrods' of London is a landmark name in the field of shopping houses. Till 2010, it was owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, father of famous Dodi Fayed who died in the Paris dinner accident along with Lady Diana. 'Shinsegae' of South Korea is known to be the largest departmental store in the world with an area of 31, 63,000 sq. feet and is located in the city of Seoul. In India, 'Spencer Plaza' is located in Anna Salahe remains of the premises still bear the testimony of colonial architecture. The same architectural design is also found on the premises of the buildings of Connaught Place in New Delhi. The buildings of Doss & Co. have been preserved as a single-storey option till today when we see skyrocketing buildings all around the country. The trade premises of the British heritage emerged naturally in Jorhat township as the lifestyle of a section of Jorhat planters and elites had connections with Calcutta in tandem with the culture of British administrators and merchants. The Gymkhana club was established in Jorhat by D Slimmons in 1876 where sports like a horse race, lawn tennis, polo, billiards, cricket, and swimming were organized. Jorhat town is also famous for tea cultivation with 88 major tea estates, besides many small and unregistered tea gardens. Therefore, it was said to be the hub of tea gardeners which consisted of a substantial number of tea planters including the leading luminary Hemendra Prasad Barua of Barua and Associates. The township still bears pleasant memory of the heritage site of the tea planter's residence with the hotel 'The Thengal Manor' that is built on the site of the residence of the 'Khongiya Baruah' family. The residential structure over this hotel was built by Rai Bahadur Shiv Prasad Baruah in 1929. It is needless to say that industry-made products were very costly in our country at one time because there was not enough production of such goods in India. The tea community which was one of the richest at that time used to purchase all the then costlier consumer durables and non-durables. Most of the non-durable goods were supplied to them through the trading agency of Doss & Co. which was a reputed name, especially in the purchase and sale of gorgeous FMCG products. The Doss & Co was opened nearly a hundred years ago and the organizational structure of the store was incorporated as a private company in the year 1955 with an authorized capital of Rs 5 lakh and a paid-up capital of Rs 1.5 lakh. The Board of Directors is currently represented by Tapan Kr. Doss and Manash Kr. Doss. The nomenclature Doss is a deviation from the present-day title 'Das' which bears the truth of aberration in the British pronunciation of Indian names. The store comprised goods like groceries, stationeries, confectioneries, different varieties of wine, beer, butter, cigarette and equipment relating to different sports of that time. These goods were mainly procured by aristocratic sections of the society such as members of the tea planter's family, officials engaged in tea gardens of Assam, especially those owned by Sterling company, administrators, bureaucrats, and a section of tourists. These goods provided by Doss & Co. were regarded as quality and luxury products not considered affordable by ordinary people. A major section of goods was supplied to the clubhouses which existed in the small towns of Assam namely Jorhat, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Moran, and Duliajan. It was also seen that the daily messenger (Dakowal) carrying posts from towns to the gardens usually carried such goods for the garden as per the demand of officials along with their official consignments. It is worth noting that many tea estates in Assam were run by British managers even after a couple of years of India attaining independence. Also, founders of many trading business groups in Assam hailed from Bengal and the majority of the personnel engaged in garden administration were also manned by Calcutta Babus.

Since time immemorial, the rural areas of the country comprised small trading businesses which were started, especially by the Marwari community that migrated from Marwar (Rajasthan) and a few Bengali businessmen from the then Calcutta. The Marwari traders used to carry grocery business along with storage of jute, paddy, mustard seeds, etc. Subsequently, they carried out lending business also and received deposits from the public for the safe custody of their funds. Among the products which were dealt with by the rural grocery stores, demand for two products namely salt and kerosene was relatively higher. These traders could not preserve perishable FMCG items for want of a refrigerator owing to the absence of electricity. Such FMCG products were however dealt with by the Doss & Company which fulfilled the need for standard products to a sophisticated section of society.

Barring a few licensed bars, there were only two wine shops until the mid-'70s in Guwahati, they were Khubchand & Sons and the BN Dey established in 1861. Subsequently, Sheikh Brothers were established in 1885 which also dealt in FMCG products. Today in Guwahati, we find so many malls and departmental stores namely Amar Bazaar, Vishal Mega Mart, Reliance Retail Ltd. etc. which offer different lucrative methods in the competitive market. Despite the emergence of many sophisticated consumer outlets in the modern-day Assam, the graceful memory of a trading institution like the Doss & Co. would remain in the hearts of senior citizens of Assam as an unforgettable memory.