Precarity of Place in the Global South: The Case of Tea Garden Workers in Assam

Abstract

Tea plantations in South Asia were notorious for the slavery-like working conditions during the colonial period. Although the factors such as the colonial state and closed economy among others that enabled the slavery-like work conditions have changed, the 'un-free' conditions of work still determine the social production of the tea garden labourers. The unfree conditions of tea garden labour have been the subject of many research projects. However, attempts to examine tea garden and its labouring people through the lens of precarity is limited. Drawing from in-depth interviews with tea garden workers this paper uses the concept of precarity of place and space to examine the experience of precarity of tea garden workers in Assam.