Abstract

This paper is an attempt to understand how labour has been historically operating within tea plantations of Assam. This has been done by looking at a plantation through the socio-economic lens in relation to the Plantation Labour Act, 1951. The paper goes on to argue that ‘plantation’ as a category is a colonial legacy and the tea industry’s inability to adapt to changing times is spelling crisis in the near future. However this adaptation is restricted to labour processes in the paper. The term ‘Adivasi communities’ has been used in place of’ labour’ or ‘tea tribes’ as a point of assertion firstly, as a position to indicate that labour is not free within a plantation in Assam and secondly to indicate how a community is being stripped off their identity for over a century. The paper hopes to bring out a generic understanding of the complex relationship between the adivasi communities, the tea industry and the people of Assam. After laying out the historical context, it goes on to unravel the socio-economic realities supported by primary data collected in a tea plantation of Upper Assam. The paper concludes with suggestions to a way forward for the industry.