Activism and Agency in India: Nurturing Resistance in the Tea Plantations

221 Pages·2017·3.01 MB·English

by  Supurna Banerjee

Activism and Agency in India
During the period 2000 to 2010, tea plantations in India experienced a crisis and
were at the threshold of transformation, framed by conflict and turbulence.
This book is an interdisciplinary and intersectional work examining the nature
of victimhood and agency among women workers on tea plantations in North
Bengal, India. The author views tea plantations as social spaces, rather than only
economic units of production. Focusing on the lived experiences of the workers
from the perspective of their multiple identities, the author uses the everyday as
the entry point for understanding the exercise of agency, the negotiation of dif-
ferent spaces, gender roles and norms therein, as well as acts of protest. Agency
and its relation to space are seen as continuums: from their everyday, hidden
forms to the more overt and spectacular; from conformity and endurance to chal-
lenge and protest.
Offering an understanding of the gendered nature of space and labour, this
book examines the post- crisis period by mapping the workers’ narratives about
their lived experiences and struggles in the times of economic, political and
social tumult in the tea plantations of northern West Bengal. It will be of interest
to an interdisciplinary audience interested in Development Studies, Gender
Studies, South Asian Studies, Social Activism and Labour Studies.
Supurna Banerjee is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Development Studies
Kolkata, India. She received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh.
Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series
Series Editor
Crispin Bates
and
Editorial Committee of the Centre for South
Asian Studies
Edinburgh University, UK
The Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series is published in association
with the Centre for South Asian Studies, Edinburgh University – one of the
leading centres for South Asian Studies in the UK with a strong interdisciplinary
focus. This series presents research monographs and high- quality edited volumes
as well as textbooks on topics concerning the Indian subcontinent from the
modern period to contemporary times. It aims to advance understanding of the
key issues in the study of South Asia, and contributions include works by experts
in the social sciences and the humanities. In accordance with the academic tradi-
tions of Edinburgh, we particularly welcome submissions which emphasise the
social in South Asian history, politics, sociology and anthropology, based upon
thick description of empirical reality, generalised to provide original and broadly
applicable conclusions.
The series welcomes new submissions from young researchers as well as
established scholars working on South Asia, from any disciplinary perspective.
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Jacob Copeman and Aya Ikegame Ian Harper
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Aya Ikegame Transnational Commitments to Social
Change
Empire, Industry and Class
Eva Gerharz
The Imperial Nexus of Jute, 1840–1940
Anthony Cox
Democracy and Transparency in the
Indian State
Violence, Torture and Memory in
The Making of the Right to
Sri Lanka
Information Act
Life After Terror
Prashant Sharma
Dhana Hughes
Transnational Pakistani Activism and Agency in India
Connections Nurturing Resistance in the Tea
Marrying ‘Back Home’ Plantations
Katharine Charsley Supurna Banerjee
Activism and Agency in India
Nurturing Resistance in the Tea Plantations
Supurna Banerjee
First published 2017
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Supurna Banerjee
The right of Supurna Banerjee to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-23842-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-26738-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
To my parents
for their unconditional love and unwavering support

Contents
List of illustrations viii
Foreword ix
Acknowledgements xi
List of Acronyms xiv
1 Introduction 1
2 Intersectionality, labour and agency: theoretical paradigms 17
3 Scene setting 43
4 Identity and belonging through the lens of intersectionality 64
5 Understanding the plantations within a gendered space 93
6 Understanding the plantation as a gendered space 108
7 Understanding agency 136
8 Understanding everyday activism 159
9 Conclusion 183
Appendix 194
Glossary 198
Index 200
Illustrations
Figures
3.1 A rough map of the area around Daahlia plantation 53
3.2 A rough map of the area around Kaalka plantation 55
3.3 Hierarchy of tea plantation staff 58
5.1 Hand- drawn map of Daahlia 95
5.2 Hand- drawn map of Kaalka 101
Tables
3.1 Comparison of tea sale quantity and price in Dooars and
Daahlia 54
3.2 Religious composition of the workers 57
Foreword
It gives me great pleasure to contribute a foreword to Dr Banerjee’s fascinating,
revealing, accessible and thought-p rovoking book. This little gem started life as
a piece of research for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, with Dr Hugo Gor-
ringe and me as her advisers. Helping Dr Banerjee to mature as an academic and
a writer has been a richly fulfilling experience for us: one of the most rewarding
aspects of our roles as professors is to watch (and where possible, assist) in such
a process. It is even more gratifying to develop the supervisory relationship into
a collegial one, and to see one’s students flourish as scholars in their own right. I
am indeed honoured to have been asked to write this foreword. Dr Banerjee’s
book is much more than the result of an academic apprenticeship: it is a major
contribution to the literature.
The core insight at the heart of the book is that tea estates are not just economic
production units, but are fully social spaces. A class analysis must be complemented
by a gender analysis. But Dr Banerjee sensitively goes beyond class and gender, as
she brings into play other aspects of the fissures and glue that characterise the
everyday social world of Dooars tea plantations. The rather awkward term ‘inter-
sectionalities’ that sociologists have coined to refer to these cross-c utting tendencies
is beautifully brought to life: how not only class but also ethnic origins, the specifi-
cities of the ‘lines’, as well as gender must be brought together to understand par-
ticular actions – or their absence. Through a light touch approach, Dr Banerjee
brings some complex theory to life, as she investigates how women and men exer-
cise agency, negotiate access to different spaces, work out what behaviour is pos-
sible and desirable in these spaces and (occasionally) protest against what limits
their freedom. Unlike studies that focus only on visible public acts of rebellion and
resistance, she also shows how women conform and endure, and yet somehow find
spaces to reaffirm their individuality. The book takes seriously the ‘jokes, whispers
and rumours’ through which – despite their position at the bottom of the labour
hierarchy – women workers keep alive their hopes, plans and aspirations.
My personal engagement with tea workers is now very dated, and was always
somewhat restricted. With Patricia Jeffery, I visited tea estates in Assam in 1978, as
part of campaigns organised in Britain to draw attention to the very poor living and
working conditions of plantation workers. We challenged the complacency of
shareholders and managers of companies in Scotland and England that earned their
profits from operating tea estates in India, Bangladesh and Kenya. In an early form