Abstract
The imperial perspective on Assam’s ‘cha bagan’ has been studied through the alteration in colonial documents from the usage of the term ‘forests’ to ‘gardens’. This chapter scrutinises the material structures within the garden ‘space’ and the visual representation of female labourers. It looks into the material culture in the cha bagan, most visible in the bungalow, signified as a powerful structure. It further examines the relationship between the racialised inscriptions of minis (a racial term used for the female plantation labourers) associated with the processes of garden work. The colonial planter’s self-representation gives shape to an identity that is remembered and reinvented by the post-colonial planters. The first mai-baap of the nineteenth century conceptualised the nature of work and leisure, especially the leisure to give orders, go for hunting, billiards and polo matches. These practices are recreated among the contemporary Indian planters in the big bungalows. The social and material practices inside the garden are explicitly patriarchal. At the same time, state and private capitalism visually represent the body of the woman labourer (mini). The chapter traces the violent contrast of this exoticisation with everyday experiences inside the tea gardens and the incipient efforts of the workers as political subjects.
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Notes
- 1.
The category of ‘Assamese’ as a dominant identity is often criticised by scholars. Saikia (2005) and Sengupta (2016) explore how the hegemonic ‘Assamese’ identity emerged as a colonial and imperial construct. This colonial project has its genesis in the nineteenth-century cultural movement, not only confined to the literary phenomenon but associated with the food, customs and religious beliefs. Sharma (2011) explains that the Assamese identity is a gendered and classed identity which is also based on ‘location’, primarily the Brahmaputra Valley.
- 2.
Foucault (1975), discusses the role of modern tactics and strategies for constant observation. Foucault cited in Discipline and Punish: Birth of the Prison, the architectural layout given by Jeremy Bentham for the prison, asylum, hospital and factory. Foucault used the concept of panopticon which is central to modern institutions, instead of using violent methods constant observation can control and discipline subjects.
- 3.
Sardarni is a position held by a woman under whom there are 20–25 women plantation workers, a sardarni’s job is to give daily updates to the garden authority.
- 4.
In the context of Assam, the recruitment practice of the bondage labour was exclusively dependent on the arkatti and sardari system. The arkatti system had earned a historical reputation of fear and hatred because of the use of physical threat, kidnapping and other abuses. This recruitment was based on deception and exaggeration. Labour historian Chandavarkar (1998) argued that in sardari system the role of the sardar was not only limited to the recruitment process, but also in labour control and supervision. According to him, the sardars occupied the position of disciplining and supervising the workers. Sen (2010) examined that during the colonial time in urban industries and mills, employment was casual and informal. Still, interestingly there was an organised recruitment process for the Assam’s tea plantations. Sen wrote, ‘sardars were able, as insiders, sometimes to better exploit vulnerabilities within their communities to practice fraudulent recruitment’ (Sen 2010: 6).
- 5.
- 6.
The term coolie is often used to refer to unskilled labour in India, China and other countries in Asia. The term was popular particularly during the colonial period.
- 7.
For example, see Eugène Delacroix’s painting Women of Algiers in their Apartment.
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Borah, P., Robinson, R. (2021). Mai-Baaps and Minis: Spatiality, Visuality and Materiality in Assam’s Tea Gardens. In: Nongbri, T., Bhargava, R. (eds) Materiality and Visuality in North East India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1970-0_4
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