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By Tharunikaa Koneru
I. Introduction
“Images of women plucking tea leaves that adorn the covers of the tea packages and their commercials is familiar to most of us, and we are fascinated by the images of women plucking green tea leaves while surrounded by lush green tea bushes, but not many of us are aware of the power hierarchy and structure of tea plantations to which the workers are subjected every day of their lives.”[1] The expansion of the British hegemonic powers was done by introducing tea plantations in India while destroying forest land in the mountainous areas. The effect was catastrophic as it facilitated the exploitation of many villagers, ultimately leading to their demise. The struggles of the tea plantation workers during the reign of the British were extensively described in the book Red Tea by P.H. Daniel. By ruthlessly exploiting the less fortunate, the British Empire planted its roots in Indian soil and drained the land of its resources, which enabled the Crown to establish hegemony over other territories. This paper will discuss the oppression of the plantation workers and its relation to the concepts of Realism, Capitalism and Marxism.
II. Background and Storyline
P.H. Daniel discusses the struggles of tea plantation workers in Annamalai. Although it’s a work of fiction, the book is based on the experiences of the workers who were employed in the estates prior to 1930.[2] The author worked as a medical practitioner in the region for about 25 years, which allowed him to acquire extensive information regarding the condition of tea plantation workers in the region.[3] In the book, a naïve and impoverished labourer, Karupan, is enticed into working at the estate by a wealthy maistri, Sakarapandian. Sakarapandian sows a seed of hope in Karupan and other villagers by promising better livelihoods and working conditions. Consequently, the villagers believed that working at the tea estate would improve their economic conditions.[4] They believed that it was an escape from oppression. But little did they know that they would end up in the clutches of the British. The British promised to settle the debts owed by the villagers. Later, Karupan and other villagers find out that they are bonded by both the British and the maistri, by the contract, which Sakarapandian merely described as a ‘paper signifying your willingness to work at the estate’.[5] Karupan had no choice but to succumb to the British and Sarakapandian as he had no other means to pay the mounting debt that he owed the maistri and the British. In the book, Karupan and the other villagers had to carry on with their labour despite having malaria and other maladies.[6] They were treated very poorly, and the women were harassed by the British officers. The British were extremely selfish in their motives and were only concerned about furthering their interests, even if it was at the cost of innocent people.
III. Analysis
To gain a better understanding of how the storyline interconnects with the concepts of Realism, we can infer from Thucydides’ book ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’, that realism developed over time into a complex set of theories with shared opinions.[7] Thucydides’ opinions on Sparta and Athens can be used to extrapolate this; he stated that it was “a matter not so much of arms as of money which makes arms of use.”[8] The profits from the growth of the tea industry funded wars and fueled colonization, specifically in the case of the British.[9] The British colonized various countries through their Navy, and the profits made from the tea plantations were used to supplement Britain’s navy, which allowed it to become a major colonial power.[10]
Morgenthau states that the realists “think in terms of interest defined as power, as the economist thinks in terms of interest defined as wealth; the lawyer, of the conformity of action with legal rules; the moralist, of the conformity of action with moral principles.”[11] He also believed that the inherent characteristic of humans was to pursue power and seize opportunities to expand their power.[12] It was proven that realism viewed wealth as the primary factor in acquiring military power and establishing hegemony. Despite criticisms from many theorists regarding its focus on security and international relations, realism has found application among various economists in understanding and describing economic relations between nations. Realism is important in understanding economic relations between countries because power and military competency are ultimately dependent on capital accumulation, economic growth, and development.[13]
Capitalism emphasizes that the concept of profit maximization is ultimately intertwined with colonialism.[14] Colonizers, i.e., the Britishers in this case were fixated on ways that they could exploit their colony to maximize revenue, which ultimately helped them expand their control over other territories. Accordingly, India, as a colony was sucked into capitalism.[15] “The mid-20th century experienced the transformation of colonies and semi-colonies as neo-colonial states and the imperial nations as neo-imperial nations”.[16] This transformation revealed how imperialist nations have asserted hegemony through ways “wherein military occupation was not essential for regional exploitation.”[17] This control over territories was achieved through the exploitation of skilled labour and villagers. The aforesaid helps us understand why the British were so persistent in their pursuit of tea plantations in India. It was merely a strategy of expanding their power across colonies and boosting their economy by plundering the resources and labour from the lands that they had invaded. The tea industry was a very lucrative source of income for the British, as mentioned in the book. The plantations provided raw materials and natural resources to the British, thus facilitating industrialization in Britain while the colonies became impoverished.[18]
Marxism was developed by Karl Marx and to some extent by Friedrich Engels. Marxism describes the “capitalist system of production as inherently unfair to the workers”.[19] It analyses the impact of the ruling class on labourers, leading to unequal distribution of wealth in society.[20] Their work ‘The Communist Manifesto’ was created during the age of Imperialism, rooting for the struggles of the proletariat (the workers).[21] Marxist historians have shed light on the exploitation of the labour force that was employed on the tea plantations. The British focused on methods of recruitment of labour, forms of organization and control of labour. The concept of Marx’s theory of alienation can be related to the exploitation of plantation workers. The theory states that the alienation of labour takes place in a capitalist society. Marx has discussed the four aspects of alienation that take place in a capitalist society, “one is alienation from the product of labour; another is alienation from the activity of labour; and the third is alienation from one’s specific humanity and the fourth is alienation from others, from society.”[22] In the book Red Tea, the plantation workers were secluded from society and were not allowed to meet their families. They were confined in the tea estates and were made to work all day. This theory mentioned in Stephen Hobden’s reading, thus holds good for the condition of plantation workers under colonial rule in British India.
The history of the plantation industry is invariably associated with the rise of colonialism as the exploitation of the colonizer over the impoverished and illiterate native workers both physically and mentally. [23] The struggles of the tea plantation workers are thus the best instances of hegemonic abuse of power while being driven by a capitalist ideology. Women were largely employed as it was presumed that women were naturally suited to pluck leaves due to their “nimble fingers”.[24] These women were mostly recruited from tribal areas and were unaware of their rights. Many of these workers were flogged, raped, cuffed, and kicked on a daily basis when they revolted against their masters.[25] The female plantation workers often used folk songs to portray the abuse and hardships that they lived through. One such example is:
Sardar bole ‘kam kam’ (Sardar says- Work! Work!) Babu bole ‘dhari aan’. (‘Get them here!’ Says the officer) Sahid bole ‘libo pither sam’ (I will take the skin off your backs’, says the Sahib) Hai! Nisthur Shyam Phanki diye aanili Assam. (You lied and brought us to Assam….)[26]
In the book, a villager similarly expresses his plight and hardship through a folk song. The bodies of both men and women workers were dehumanized and used for labour to produce tea with a minimum cost of production. This has been explained by Karl Marx, who held that workers in capitalist societies were exploited and were forced to sell their labour power to capitalists for less than the full value of the commodities they produce with their labour.[27] Marx believed that workers under capitalism were neither truly voluntary nor entirely for the benefit of workers themselves. It is not truly voluntary because the workers are forced by their lack of ownership of the means of production to sell their labour power to capitalists or else starve.[28] This is reflected in the case of the plantation workers in India during Colonial rule as they had little to no choice but to succumb to the British due to their lack of ownership over the means of production and the burden of debt.
IV. Conclusion
Through reading this book, we can learn how the daily beverage we all enjoy has a long history of tyranny and resistance. The elites in Britain continue to enjoy tea as a beverage. Many indentured labourers’ blood, sweat and tears go unrecognized, but this book brings their struggles to light. Interestingly concepts of realism, capitalism and Marxism are intertwined with Britishers’ agenda to plunder their colonies. Thus, tea can be understood as a product of colonialism.
References
[1]Suparana Banerjee, Activism and Agency in India: Nurturing Resistance in Tea Plantations 2 (Routledge, 2017)..
[2] Barbara Evans, ‘Cultural Context and Contractual Relations: The Madras Planters’ Labour Law and the Rise of the Plantation Maistri’ (1997) 7 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 72, 80.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 1, Chapter 83.
[9] Maria Godoy, ‘Tea Tuesdays: How Tea+Sugar Reshaped The British Empire’(NPR, 7 April 2015) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/07/396664685/tea-tuesdays-how-tea-sugar-reshaped-the-british-empire accessed 12th October 2023.
[10] Ibid
[11] Notre Dame International Security Centre, ‘An Introduction to Realism in International Relations’ (22 July 2022).
[12] Tim Dunne and Brian C. Schmidt, Realism (2001).
[13] Mahzid Kat, ‘A Conceptual Analysis of Realism in International Political Economy’ (16 April 2015) https://www.e-ir.info/2015/04/16/a-conceptual-analysis-of-realism-in-international-political-economy/ accessed 13th October.
[14]Solen Roth, ‘Can Capitalism be Decolonized?’ The American Indian Quarterly 43, 306-338.
[15]Pradhan H. Prasad, ‘Dynamics of Neo-Colonial Exploitation’ (1996) 3 Economic and Political Weekly 719, 722.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Chendreyi Sengupta, ’Tea Gardens and Geographies of Colonial Exploitation’ (Edge Effects, 23 March 2021) https://edgeeffects.net/tea-plantations accessed 13th October 2023.
[19] Thomas Brock, ‘Marxism: What is it and comparison to Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism’ (22 March 2023) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marxism.asp accessed 13th October 2023.
[20]Stephen Hobden, ‘Marxist Theories of International Relations’ 7 116 (2003).
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Aritre De, ‘Exploitation of Tea-Plantation Workers in Colonial Bengal and Assam’ (2015) 2, 277-288.
[24] Mita Bhadra, ‘Women Workers in Tea Plantations’ (1985) 15 Indian Anthropologist 93, 114.
[25]Biraj Jyoti Kalita, ‘Sex, Sahibs and Bodies: Women Workers in Tea Plantations of Colonial Assam’ (2022) 63(4) 1, 10.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ‘Exploitation’ (SEP, 20 December 2001) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/exploitation/ accessed 14th October 2023.
[28] Ibid.
Tharunikaa Koneru is a first-year student at Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University. Her areas of interest are International Law and Public Policy.
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