ABSTRACT

The ‘tea tribes’ in Assam have a unique socio-cultural history. They were the prime labour force of tea plantations in colonial Assam. Originally, they were migrants brought in by British tea planters in different phases during the eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries from different parts of India. Colonial engagements with these labourers in tea gardens were akin to slavery. Construction of the ‘coolies’ community in colonial India had broader implications for the community in post-colonial India. Constitutional provisions and state mechanisms to uplift the community from the margins have never borne fruits on the ground. This underdevelopment, coupled with the colonial legacy of an ‘outsider within’, catalysed the larger ‘Adivasi consciousness’ among the tea tribes in Assam. In this article, we argue that attributing every problem faced by tea tribes to the colonial system is an elitist attempt to undermine the role of the post-colonial state and society in excluding and reproducing these community as the ‘other’ in the wider social structure. Seven decades of post-colonial experience have not changed the sociabilities of these tea tribes who still live in the margins of Assam’s social landscape, causing them to unify within the ‘Adivasi’ consciousness.

摘要

阿萨姆邦的“茶部落”拥有独特的社会文化历史。他们是殖民时期阿萨姆邦茶园的主要劳动力。最初，他们是英国茶农在18世纪至19世纪中叶在不同阶段从印度不同地区带来的移民。这些工人在茶园里的殖民活动类似于奴隶制。印度殖民地“苦力”社区的建设对后殖民印度社区产生了更广泛的影响。宪法规定和国家机制使社区从边缘发展起来，从来没有在实地取得成果。这种不发达，再加上“局外人”的殖民地遗留下来，在阿萨姆邦的茶部落中催生了更大的“阿瓦帕西意识”。在这篇文章中，我们认为，将茶部落面临的每一个问题归因于殖民地体系都是一种精英主义的尝试，目的是破坏后殖民国家和社会在排斥和复制这些社区作为更广泛的社会结构中的“其他”社区中的作用。七十年的殖民后经验并未改变这些仍然生活在阿萨姆邦社会景观边缘的茶部落的社交能力，致使它们在“阿迪帕西”意识中统一起来。