Labour Migration in the Tea Plantations: Colonial and Neo-Liberal Trajectories of Plantation Labour in the Dooars Tea Belt of West Bengal

• Article

Tea plantations in North Bengal, as elsewhere in India, share a colonial root. More often than not, tea plantations were developed in regions that were sparsely populated, to ensure that sufficient land was available for the propagation of plantations in the first place. What distinguishes tea plantation from other industries is the fact that the production process is heavily dependent on human labour for both on-field and factory operations.