Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India : Tempest in a Teapot

Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India: Tempest in Teapot is a unique book that brings together a holistic theoretical approach on the subject of witchcraft accusations, specifically those taking place inside a tea workers' community in India. Using a combination of in-depth and extensive qualitative methods, and drawing on sociological, anthropological, and historical perspectives, Chaudhuri explores how adivasi (tribal) migrant workers use witchcraft accusations to deal with worker-management conflict. Chaudhuri argues that witchcraft accusations can be interpreted as a periodic reaction of the adivasi worker community against their oppression by the plantation management. The typical avenues of social protest are often unavailable to marginalized workers due to lack of organizational and political representation and resources. As a result, the dain (witch) becomes a scapegoat for the malice of the plantation economy. Within this discourse, witch hunts can be seen not as exotic and primitive rituals of a backward community, but rather as a powerful protest by a community against its oppressors. The book attempts to understand the complex network of relationships--ties of friendship, family, politics, and gender--that provide the necessary legitimacy for the witch hunt to take place. In most cases examined here, seemingly petty conflicts within the villagers often escalate to a hunt. At the height of the conflict, the exploitative relationship between the plantation management and the adivasi migrant workers often gets hidden. The book demonstrates how witchcraft accusations should be interpreted within this backdrop of labor-planters relationship, characterized by rigidity of power, patronage, and social distance. Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India should appeal to criminologists, sociologists, anthropologists, labor historians, gender scholars, labor migration scholars, witch hunt and witchcraft accusation global scholars, adivasi scholars, South Asian scholars, and anyone interested in India's tribes, witchcraft accusations, gender in a global world, labor conflict, and Indian tea plantations -- Provided by Publisher Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India: Tempest in a Teapot is a unique book that brings together a holistic, theoretical approach on the subject of witchcraft accusations, specifically those taking place inside a tea worker community in India. Using a combination of in-depth and extensive qualitative methods and drawing on sociological, anthropological, and historical perspectives, Soma Chaudhuri explores how adivasi (tribal) migrant workers use witchcraft accusations to deal with worker-management conflicts. Chaudhuri argues that witchcraft accusations can be interpreted as a periodic reaction of the adivasi worker community against their oppression by the plantation management. The typical avenues of social protest are often unavailable to marginalized workers due to lack of organizational and political representation and resources. As a result, the dain (witch) becomes a scapegoat for the malice of the plantation economy. Within this discourse, witch hunts can be seen not as exotic and primitive rituals of a backward community, but rather as a powerful protest by a community against its oppressors. This book explores the complex networks of friendship, family, politics, and gender that provide the necessary legitimacy for the witch hunt to take place. In most cases examined here, seemingly petty conflicts between the villagers often escalate to a hunt. At the height of the conflict, the exploitative relationship between the plantation management and the adivasi migrant workers often gets hidden. This book demonstrates how witchcraft accusations should be interpreted within this backdrop of labor-planters relationship, characterized by rigidity of power, patronage, and social distance. Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India should appeal to criminologists, sociologists, anthropologists, labor historians, gender scholars, labor migration scholars, witch hunt and witchcraft accusation global scholars, adivasi scholars, South Asian scholars, and anyone interested in India's tribes, witchcraft accusations, gender in a global world, labor conflict, and Indian tea plantations. Book jacket __Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India: Tempest in Teapot____adivasi__Chaudhuri argues that witchcraft accusations can be interpreted as a periodic reaction of the worker community against their oppression by the plantation management. The typical avenues of social protest are often unavailable to marginalized workers due to lack of organizational and political representation and resources. As a result, the (witch) becomes a scapegoat for the malice of the plantation economy. Within this discourse, witch hunts can be seen not as exotic and primitive rituals of a backward community, but rather as a powerful protest by a community against its oppressors. The book attempts to understand the complex network of relationships—ties of friendship, family, politics, and gender—that provide the necessary legitimacy for the witch hunt to take place. In most cases examined here, seemingly petty conflicts within the villagers often escalate to a hunt. At the height of the conflict, the exploitative relationship between the plantation management and the migrant workers often gets hidden. The book demonstrates how witchcraft accusations should be interpreted within this backdrop of labor-planters relationship, characterized by rigidity of power, patronage, and social distance.__Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India____adivasi__ Dedication 7 Contents 8 Note 10 Acknowledgment 12 Prologue: Beech Tea Estate, Central Dooars, March 2005 14 1. The Politics of Witchcraft Accusations and Witch Hunts: An Introduction 17 2. Theory and Literature on Witchcraft Accusations and Witch Hunts 35 3. Two Leaves and a Bud: The Beginning 53 4. Categorization of Witch Hunts 75 5. Women, Moral Boundaries, and Gossip in the Plantation 99 6. Tea Plantation Politics, Oppression, and Protest 133 7. Towards a New Direction: Activism and Protests 155 Appendix A. Outline of Interview Guides 177 Appendix B. Selected List of Participants for the Interviews 185 Appendix C. List of Abbreviations 189 Appendix D. Glossary 191 Bibliography 193 Index 205 About the Author 215