Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how different collective identities are constructed, contested and used in negotiations over justice and representation of tea plantation labourers in Assam by different interest groups engaged with the welfare and development of the labourers.

Paper long abstract:

While some ethnographies on tea plantations in the Indian state of West Bengal came up recently (e.g. Besky 2014), the study of tea plantations in Assam is, so far, limited to historical approaches. However, post-colonial Assam constitutes a particular research field regarding the region's socio-political landscape and the tea plantation labourers' social fabric. To this day, labourers are largely recruited from the Chota Nagpur Plateau to work for the tea industry in Assam. They belong to various ethnic communities such as Odia, Munda or Oraon. After the Indian Independence, the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) became the largest trade union in the Assam valley to negotiate over wages and labour issues with the tea planters. Next to it, the All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association (ATTSA) was among the most important groups to claim the protection of tea plantation labourers' interests. Both these groups are based on the conception of the labourers' identity in terms of their occupation as 'tea tribes'. In the late 1990s, however, other groups e.g. the All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam (AASAA) emerged. They challenge the legitimacy of former groups to represent the plantation labourer's interests and rely upon the collective understanding of the labourers as Adivasis. Based on extensive fieldwork in Assam since December 2014, the present paper analyses how different collective identities are constructed, contested and used in negotiations over justice and representation of tea plantation labourers in Assam.