‘Time Storm’ Brewing In Assam’s Tea Cup

In its bid to break away from the shackles of Indian Standard Time, Assam has caused some discomfort across the political circles of the country, which took this North-eastern state too much for granted since long. The campaign, started by Assam’s chief minister Tarun Gogoi a few years ago, seems to have reached a definitive stage while the central government is yet to place its concurrence (or otherwise) on record.

However, apart from quipping that ‘different time zones would create confusion,’ the Union Government has not expressed any vehement denial. Therefore, Assam may soon turn out to be the first state in India to have its separate time zone, which will be a good one hour ahead of IST. For those who didn’t bother about IST, here is the lowdown. Indian Standard Time or IST is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT), which is the standard time measurement worldwide.

If the proposal placed by Gogoi is passed by the central government, Assam will be 6 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT. In fact, when the time change kicks in, people of Assam will be literally struggling to sync with the flight, train and bus schedules as most of these will be travelling from outside Assam where the time zone will be different.

When the clock will be shifted an hour ahead in Assam (we assume it will happen in the near future), the state will actually travel back in time. That’s because the ‘hour ahead’ time was first introduced by the British about 150 years ago and it was then called ‘chai bagaan’ (tea garden) time. Informally though, Assam goes to work an hour ahead of the rest of India owing to the fact that the sun rises earlier in the North-east than in the other regions of the country. Chai bagaan time is a reality for those who work in tea estates and follow a different timeframe for going to work and wrapping up for the day. And this has to continue through the winter as the sun sets earlier in the North-east, compared to other parts of India.

Needless to say, the North-east is greatly inconvenienced owing to different sunrise and sunset timings. The state of Assam sees the first rays of sun by 4 am during the summer. But winter evenings are the darkest there, with the sun setting at as early as 5 pm.

The chief minister’s demand to shift the time ahead by one hour boosts the claims of ‘increasing productivity’ since offices will open early and close at a time specific to the North-east after logging the usual number of hours. But how will things work out in areas where Assam connects with the rest of the country? What will happen to the railway services in case of a changed time zone? Will it not lead to confusion and even collisions since train crossings are still managed manually? And when offices open early and close early, doesn’t it mean less time for co-ordination with organisations located in other states?

More than anything else, won’t the new time zone intensify the feeling of ‘distance’ and ‘detachment’ in this insurgency-plagued state, which has been claiming ‘negligence’ from all central governments? Issues that need to be clarified are many, but not entirely ‘impossible’ since many countries have implemented multiple time zones and they are working well across various regions.

The Assam CM has been arguing that a new time zone will result into energy saving and increased productivity. However, Bangalore-based National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) has suggested that daylight-saving time or the time difference between Assam and the rest of the country should be fixed at half-an-hour for various reasons.

India could save 2.7 billion units of electricity every year by shifting the IST Meridian eastward, from 82.5E longitudes in Uttar Pradesh to 90E near the Assam-Bengal border. But according to experts, it won’t be much of saving in terms of energy, compared to the chaos this ‘divided’ time zone will create.

While experts are busy laying out real-time reasons to keep the time zone as it is in Assam, opposition to this has been on a different tangent – sometimes sparking off debates on nationalism, federalism, daylight, energy, geography, discrimination, parity, tyranny of west over the east, time and its metaphysical, imaginary and psychological aspects.

Interestingly, when Gogoi voiced his demand to change the time zone for Assam, it was seen as a request to divide India itself. Such apprehensions are not simply black and white, but also come in various hues and shades. As of now, voices that are vociferously opposing this move, are scouting for some real reasons to strengthen their stance.