Activism and Agency in India

Book excerpt: This book is the first interdisciplinary and intersectional work examining the nature of victimhood and agency among women workers on tea-plantations in North Bengal, India. The author views tea plantations as social spaces, rather than only economic units of production. Focusing on the lived experiences of the workers from the perspective of their multiple identities, including caste, gender, ethnicity, religion, location and kinship, the author uses the everyday as the entry point for understanding the exercise of agency, the negotiations of different spaces, gender roles and norms therein, as well as acts of protest.