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oapen-20.500.12657-578012022-08-26T10:13:42Z Plantation Crisis Raj, Jayaseelan India tea belt ethnography Dalit economics capitalism class system anthropology sociology social classes ruptures Plantation Tea Crisis Tamils Dalits Labour Workers bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JH Sociology & anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JF Society & culture: general::JFS Social groups::JFSC Social classes bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JH Sociology & anthropology::JHB Sociology::JHBL Sociology: work & labour What does the collapse of India’s tea industry mean for Dalit workers who have lived, worked and died on the plantations since the colonial era? Plantation Crisis offers a complex understanding of how processes of social and political alienation unfold in moments of economic rupture. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Peermade and Munnar tea belts, Jayaseelan Raj – himself a product of the plantation system – offers a unique and richly detailed analysis of the profound, multi-dimensional sense of crisis felt by those who are at the bottom of global plantation capitalism and caste hierarchy. Tea production in India accounts for 25 per cent of global output. The colonial era planation system – and its two million strong workforce – has, since the mid-1990s, faced a series of ruptures due to neoliberal economic globalisation. In the South Indian state of Kerala, otherwise known for its labour-centric development initiatives, the Tamil speaking Dalit workforce, whose ancestors were brought to the plantations in the 19th century, are at the forefront of this crisis, which has profound impacts on their social identity and economic wellbeing. Out of the colonial history of racial capitalism and indentured migration, Plantation Crisis opens our eyes to the collapse of the plantation system and the rupturing of Dalit lives in India's tea belt. Praise for Plantation Crisis ‘Raj’s well-crafted ethnography offers profound and moving insight into the experience of Tamil Dalit plantation workers as they become alienated not just from their labour and its product, but from their families, communities, settlements and selves. An excellent read.’ – Tania Li, University of Toronto ‘An important, insightful and compelling story of the alienation of Tamil Dalit plantation workers, the disjuncture between economic and social mobility, the production of stigma and the role of caste and class, the failure of unions alongside that of the state and corporations, the destruction of labour organisation yet the possibility of finding resistance. Not only a major contribution to the South Asian literature but also a decolonisation “must read”.’ – Alpa Shah, London School of Economics 2022-08-05T15:38:02Z 2022-08-05T15:38:02Z 2022 book ONIX_20220805_9781800082274_11 9781800082274 9781800082281 9781800082298 9781800082304 9781800082311 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/57801 eng Economic Exposures in Asia application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International 9781800082274.pdf UCL Press UCL Press 10.14324/111.9781800082274 10.14324/111.9781800082274 df73bf94-b818-494c-a8dd-6775b0573bc2 9781800082274 9781800082281 9781800082298 9781800082304 9781800082311 UCL Press London open access
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What does the collapse of India’s tea industry mean for Dalit workers who have lived, worked and died on the plantations since the colonial era? Plantation Crisis offers a complex understanding of how processes of social and political alienation unfold in moments of economic rupture. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Peermade and Munnar tea belts, Jayaseelan Raj – himself a product of the plantation system – offers a unique and richly detailed analysis of the profound, multi-dimensional sense of crisis felt by those who are at the bottom of global plantation capitalism and caste hierarchy. Tea production in India accounts for 25 per cent of global output. The colonial era planation system – and its two million strong workforce – has, since the mid-1990s, faced a series of ruptures due to neoliberal economic globalisation. In the South Indian state of Kerala, otherwise known for its labour-centric development initiatives, the Tamil speaking Dalit workforce, whose ancestors were brought to the plantations in the 19th century, are at the forefront of this crisis, which has profound impacts on their social identity and economic wellbeing. Out of the colonial history of racial capitalism and indentured migration, Plantation Crisis opens our eyes to the collapse of the plantation system and the rupturing of Dalit lives in India's tea belt. Praise for Plantation Crisis ‘Raj’s well-crafted ethnography offers profound and moving insight into the experience of Tamil Dalit plantation workers as they become alienated not just from their labour and its product, but from their families, communities, settlements and selves. An excellent read.’ – Tania Li, University of Toronto ‘An important, insightful and compelling story of the alienation of Tamil Dalit plantation workers, the disjuncture between economic and social mobility, the production of stigma and the role of caste and class, the failure of unions alongside that of the state and corporations, the destruction of labour organisation yet the possibility of finding resistance. Not only a major contribution to the South Asian literature but also a decolonisation “must read”.’ – Alpa Shah, London School of Economics
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