A Time for Tea: Women, Labor, and Post Colonial Politics on an Indian Plantation

In this creative, ethnographic, and historical critique of labor practices on an Indian plantation, Piya Chatterjee provides a sophisticated examination of the production, consumption, and circulation of tea. A Time for Tea reveals how the female tea-pluckers seen in advertisementspicturesque women in mist-shrouded fieldscame to symbolize the heart of colonialism in India. Chatterjee exposes how this image has distracted from terrible working conditions, low wages, and coercive labor practices enforced by the patronage system. Allowing personal, scholarly, and artistic voices to speak in turn and in tandem, Chatterjee discusses the fetishization of women who labor under colonial, postcolonial, and now neofeudal conditions. In telling the overarching story of commodity and empire, A Time for Tea demonstrates that at the heart of these narratives of travel, conquest, and settlement are compelling stories of women workers. While exploring the global and political dimensions of local practices of gendered labor, Chatterjee also reflects on the privileges and paradoxes of her own decolonization as a Third World feminist anthropologist. The book concludes with an extended reflection on the cultures of hierarchy, power, and difference in the plantations villages. It explores the overlapping processes by which gender, caste, and ethnicity constitute the interlocked patronage system of villages and their fields of labor. The tropes of coercion, consent, and resistance are threaded through the discussion. A Time for Tea will appeal to anthropologists and historians, South Asianists, and those interested in colonialism, postcolonialism, labor studies, and comparative or international feminism.Designated a John Hope Franklin Center book by the John Hope Franklin Seminar Group on Race, Religion, and Globalization. In this creative, ethnographic, and historical critique of labor practices on an Indian plantation, Piya Chatterjee provides a sophisticated examination of the production, consumption, and circulation of tea. A Time for Tea reveals how the female tea-pluckers seen in advertisements -- picturesque women in mist-shrouded fields -- came to symbolize the heart of colonialism in India. Chatterjee exposes how this image has distracted from terrible working conditions, low wages, and coercive labor practices enforced by the patronage system.Allowing personal, scholarly, and artistic voices to speak in turn and in tandem, Chatterjee discusses the fetishization of women who labor under colonial, postcolonial, and now neofeudal conditions. In telling the overarching story of commodity and empire, A Time for Tea demonstrates that at the heart of these narratives of travel, conquest, and settlement are compelling stories of women workers. While exploring the global and political dimensions of local practices of gendered labor, Chatterjee also reflects on the privileges and paradoxes of her own "decolonization" as a third-world feminist anthropologist. The book concludes with an extended reflection on the cultures of hierarchy, power, and difference in the plantation's villages. It explores the overlapping processes by which gender, caste, and ethnicity constitute the interlocked patronage system of villages and their fields of labor. The tropes of coercion, consent, and resistance are threaded though the discussion.A Time for Tea will appeal to anthropologists and historians, South Asianists, and those interested in colonialism, postcolonialism, labor studies, and comparative or internationalfeminism.

In this creative, ethnographic, and historical critique of labor practices on an Indian plantation, Piya Chatterjee provides a sophisticated examination of the production, consumption, and circulation of tea. A time for Tea reveals how the female tea-pluckers seen in advertisements-picturesque women in mist-shrouded fields-came to symbolize the heart of colonialism in India. Chatterjee exposes how this image has distracted from terrible working conditions, low wages, and coercive labor practices enforced by the patronage system.

Allowing personal, scholarly, and artistic voices to speak in turn and in tandem, Chatterjee discusses the fetishization of women who labor under colonial, postcolonial, and now neofeudal conditions. In telling the overarching story of commodity and empire, A Time for Tea demonstrates that at the heart of these narratives of travel, conquest, and settlement are compelling stories of women workers. While exploring the global and political dimensions of local practices of gendered labor, Chatterjee also reflects on the privileges and paradoxes of her own decolonization as a Third world feminist anthropologist. The book concludes with an extended reflection on the cultures of hierarchy, power, and difference in the plantation's villages. It explores the overlapping processes by which gender, caste, and ethnicity constitute the interlocked patronage system of villages and their fields of labor. The tropes of coercion, consent, and resistance are threaded through this discussion.

In this ethnographic and historical critique of labour practices on an Indian plantation, Piya Chatterjee provides a sophisticated and creative examination of the production, consumption, and circulation of tea. "A Time for Tea" reveals how the female tea-pluckers seen in advertisements - picturesque women in mist-shrouded fields - came to symbolise the heart of colonialism in India. Chatterjee exposes how this image has distracted from terrible working conditions, horribly low wages, and coercive labour practices enforced by the patronage system. Allowing personal, scholarly, and artistic voices to speak in turn and in tandem, Chatterjee discusses the fetishisation of women who labour under colonial, postcolonial, and now neo-feudal conditions. In exploring the global and political dimensions of local practices of gendered labour, she reflects on the privileges and paradoxes of her own 'decolonisation' as a third-world female anthropologist. In the end, the history of empire itself is traced through tea's journey in the British imagination from an exotic to a consolingly domestic commodity. Chatterjee concludes with an extended reflection on the politics of women labourers to examine the intermingling of gender, class, caste, and ethnicity with issues of hierarchy, difference, and power. "A Time for Tea" will appeal to anthropologists and historians, South Asianists, and those interested in colonialism, postcolonialism, labour studies, and comparative or international feminism Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 1 Alap......Page 18 2 Travels of Tea, Travels of Empire......Page 37 3 Cultivating the Garden......Page 68 4 The Raj Baroque......Page 101 5 Estates of a New Raj......Page 132 6 Discipline and Labor......Page 185 7 Village Politics......Page 252 8 Protest......Page 306 9 A Last Act......Page 342 Appendix......Page 344 Glossary......Page 350 Notes......Page 352 Bibliography......Page 400 C......Page 428 G......Page 429 M......Page 430 P......Page 431 S......Page 432 W......Page 433 Duke University Press Books Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Acknowledgments 12 1 Alap 18 2 Travels of Tea, Travels of Empire 37 3 Cultivating the Garden 68 4 The Raj Baroque 101 5 Estates of a New Raj 132 6 Discipline and Labor 185 7 Village Politics 252 8 Protest 306 9 A Last Act 342 Appendix 344 Glossary 350 Notes 352 Bibliography 400 Index 428 A 428 B 428 C 428 D 429 E 429 F 429 G 429 H 430 I 430 J 430 L 430 M 430 N 431 O 431 P 431 R 432 S 432 T 433 U 433 V 433 W 433 0822326744,9780822326748,0822326795,9780822326793 Piya Chatterjee. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [383]-410) And Index.