Folklore, Memory, and the Diaspora of the Adivasi Tea Community, North Bengal : A symbolic Interpretation of Colonial Resistencia

Sarkar, Sumita

HISTORICAL: Journal of History and Social Sciences
Vol. 4 No. 2 (2025): History and Cultural Innovation

This study explores how folk-songs from tea plantations of North Bengal and Assam reflected collective identity and resilience of tea workers, shaped by their colonial and migratory diaspora.  A shared narrative of these captive labourers during company rule would be considered to have a historiographical analysis, interpretations and memories of their lived experiences and cultural expressions. Songs that have exposed deceptive recruitment and exploitation tactics by the British enterprise and tea estate owners constitute major section of the present discourse. It tries to shed light on the labor recruitment strategies sanctioned by the colonial planters as mirrored in folk lyrics. Present paper also provides a theoretical viewpoint on the migration-colonialism and exploitation on one hand, folk songs –cultural exhibit and symbolic resistance on the other. This study highlights folk-songs that reveal deceptive recruitment and exploitation by British tea enterprises, reflecting the labour strategies of colonial planters. The paper offers a theoretical perspective on how these songs narrated the lived experiences of tea workers, especially women, serving as historical accounts and contraptions to resilience against systemic oppression. Songs like jhumur portray themes of migration, exploitation, and cultural defiance among tea garden workers. These folkloric expressions serve as collective memoirs and oral histories, denouncing colonial hegemony, forced migration, and the atrocities faced by Adivasi workers under colonial enterprises, preserving their struggles and resilience through generations. Folk-songs and dances in North Bengal’s tea plantations represent a ‘composite culture,’ unique to this region. These cultural expressions, passed down through generations, highlight the active participation of women laborers. They serve as a vital link for the diasporic tea community, preserving their identity and resilience within the broader Bengali society, while reflecting their shared history and lived experiences.