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Everyday Sustainability: Gender Justice and Fair Trade Tea in Darjeeling: Index

Everyday Sustainability: Gender Justice and Fair Trade Tea in Darjeeling
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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. List of Illustrations
  6. List of Tables
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Abbreviations
  9. Note on Transliteration
  10. Introduction
    1. Late Capitalism and Fair Trade in Darjeeling
    2. Gendered Projects of Value
    3. Gender and Sustainability
    4. Empowerment Lite?
    5. Everyday Gendered Translations of Transnational Justice Regimes
    6. Making Gendered Sense of Fair Trade
    7. Overview of the Book
  11. Chapter 1 Locations: Homework and Fieldwork
    1. Fieldwork: Pressures to be a “Conventional Anthropologist”
    2. Informant, Interlocutor, Researcher, or Activist?
    3. Note on Methodology
  12. Chapter 2 Everyday Marginality of Nepalis in India
    1. Politics of Recognition
    2. Struggles of Darjeeling Nepalis
  13. Chapter 3 The Reincarnation of Tea
    1. Plantations and the Reincarnation of Tea
    2. The Shadow History of Tea in Darjeeling
    3. Sānu Krishak Sansthā: The Cooperative of “Illegal” Tea Farmers
    4. Fair Trade in Darjeeling’s Tea Sector
    5. Fair Trade and Plantations
    6. Unions, Joint Body, and Fair Trade
    7. Conclusion
  14. Chapter 4 Fair Trade and Women Without History: The Consequences of Transnational Affective Solidarity
    1. Encounters
    2. Rituals of Witnessing
    3. Recollections and Documentation of Witnessing Fair Trade
    4. Fair Trade and Privatized Political Fields
    5. Conclusion
  15. Chapter 5 Ghumāuri: Interstitial Sustainability in India’s Fair Trade−Organic Certified Tea Plantations
    1. Survival Narratives
    2. Gendered Transitions in Regional Labor Politics
    3. Ethnicized Subnationalism and Plantation Labor Politics
    4. Chhāyā
    5. Competing Communities, Interstitial Spaces
    6. Conclusion
  16. Chapter 6 Fair Trade vs. Swachcha Vyāpār: Ethical Counter-Politics of Women’s Empowerment in a Fair Trade−Certified Small Farmers Cooperative
    1. Smallholder Tea Production and Fair Trade in Darjeeling
    2. From Debating to Contesting Fair Trade
    3. Middlemen, Gendered Spatial Politics, and the Government of Women’s Work
    4. “We Are the Police of Our Own Fields”: Gendered Boundaries within Sānu Krishak Sansthā
    5. Conclusion: Empowerment Fix?
  17. Chapter 7 “Will My Daughter Find an Organic Husband?” Domesticating Fair Trade through Cultural Entrepreneurship
    1. “She ate my work:” Women’s Work and Household Relations within the Plantation
    2. Household Relations in the Cooperative (Sānu Krishak Sansthā)
    3. Household Conflicts in Sānu Krishak Sansthā
    4. Household Politics and Public Discourses of “Risk”
    5. Consequences of Differential Visibilities of Women’s Work
  18. Chapter 8 “Tadpoles in Water” vs. “Police of Our Fields”: Competing Subjectivities, Women’s Political Agency and Fair Trade
    1. Being “Tadpoles in Water” vs. “Police of our Fields”
    2. Ghumāuri vs. Women’s Wing Meetings
    3. The Politics of Clean Hands vs. the Politics of Clean Trade
    4. Conclusion
  19. Conclusion: Everyday Sustainability
  20. Notes
  21. References
  22. Index
  23. Back Cover

Index

Note: Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations; those with a t indicate tables.

activism, 34–38, 41, 121–22, 172, 209

adivasis (indigenous people), 49

agency, political, 94–95, 108, 118, 151, 178, 181–208, 211

aggi barhnu (move forward), 136

Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), 51, 98, 223n15

alcoholism, 44, 54, 143, 162, 164, 166, 177, 212

Alexander, J. M., 89–90

ānganwādi. See Integrative Child Development Services

anthropology, 30–34; feminist, 36–37, 121–22, 140, 154, 209; methodologies of, 30–34, 38–41

Assam, 59, 60

awareness programs, Fair Trade, 135, 176, 195–202, 198

“backyard” research, 38–40

Banerjee, Rajah, 63

Bangladesh, 123, 154

basti (village) areas, 10, 45, 47, 49, 57, 185–86; classification of tea from, 59; Fair Trade in, 74–76, 77. See also small-holder women tea farmers

Basu, Amrita, 225n1

bāthi (street smart), 56, 141, 143, 173, 175, 193

bato dikhaunu (showing the way), 136

Bengali views of Nepalis, 31, 33, 35, 44, 53

Bhowmick, Sharit, 222n3

Biharis, 33, 53, 162

biopolitics, 85, 128; affective, 103; ethical, 22, 82–84; Fair Trade and, 83–84; transnational, 82–84

bonuses, 48, 51, 81, 111, 114, 217, 227n14. See also wages

Brown, Keith, 26

Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), 79. See also unions

Chakrabarty, Dipesh, 226n11

chamchas (planters’ henchmen), 32, 48, 107

Chaprāsis (field supervisor), 48–49, 186

Chatterjee, Partha, 156

Chatterjee, Piya, 37, 145, 222n3; on multiple patriarchies, 6, 49, 109; on plantation workers, 143

Chávez, César, 212

child labor, 102, 113

chuchchi (street smart women), 56, 155, 161–62, 175

chulāhs (ovens), 34, 65, 68

“clean trade,” 202–7, 204

collective bargaining, 32, 86, 89, 98, 102, 110, 122–24. See also unions; wages

Collins, J. L., 118, 122–23

Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM), 51, 54, 79; GNLF and, 111–16, 223n15; madeshis and, 111–16; Women’s Wing of, 113, 115, 120–21

Congress Party of India, 51, 79, 223n15

“coolies,” 120, 132–33, 227n15

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), 4, 85, 210–11, 229n1

credit unions, 72–74, 73t

Cruz-Torres, Maria, 18

Curnow, Kate, 224nn1–2

dairy cooperatives, 68, 69, 130, 134, 168, 172–75, 227n6

Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), 47; decentralization of, 55–56; economic development by, 226n9; formation of, 54, 55, 113; Gorkhaland movement and, 222n5; plantations of, 59

Darjeeling Planters’ Association (DPA), 31, 224n3; on “illegal” tea farmers, 57, 64–65, 142, 149

Darjeeling tea, 58–67; annual yield of, 58, 60; flavor of, 58, 60, 65; “illegal” producers of, 57, 61–67, 142, 149, 213; price of, 59, 60

Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA), 1, 31, 224nn2–3

Darjeeling Tea Garden Workers’ Union, 51

Dashai festival, 169, 227n14. See also Hinduism

de Certeau, Michel, 13

“deterritorialization” (Colins), 122–23

development. See economic development

DGHC. See Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council

Dolan, C. S., 26

DPA. See Darjeeling Planters’ Association

drug use, 162, 163. See also alcoholism

DTA. See Darjeeling Tea Association

East India Company, 222n5

ecofeminism, 19, 213, 216–17

economic development, 81–82, 137–38, 171, 226n9; Amartya Sen on, 19; yojanas for, 132, 136, 143, 149, 195, 209, 213

Elkington, Jon, 8

Elliston, Deborah, 154, 178

empowerment of women, 19–21, 49, 127, 150–52; CSR programs for, 4, 85, 210–11, 229n1; Gorkhaland Movement and, 48, 106–7, 222n5; Kristoff on, 211–13; skepticism about, 129, 218–19; terms of, 136

entrepreneurialism, 5, 75, 106, 128, 136, 148, 172; Ghumāuri and, 106; risk-taking in, 154, 172–78; social reproduction and, 12–14, 154–55, 210, 219; terms of, 136. See also housewife entrepreneurs

Equal Exchange, 75–76

European Fair Trade Association, 75

European Union organic standards, 70

Fair Trade, 9–12, 74–79; benefits of, 3, 84, 97, 103, 134, 140, 189–91, 213; “clean trade” and, 202–7, 204; contesting of, 127–29, 133–41, 134, 135, 217–20; as “economics of semiology,” 26; free trade versus, 128; gendered meanings of, 12–17, 25–26, 110; political implications of, 63; premium prices for, 7, 60, 80; privatized political fields and, 98–102; training programs of, 23–24; “transparent,” 5; World Bank and, 16–17

Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), 3–4, 34, 71, 80, 185–86, 221n2; awareness programs of, 135, 176, 195–202, 198; flowchart of, 76; government registration and, 195, 198; Hired Labor Organizations and, 17, 58; smallholder tea production and, 131; training programs of, 80; unions and, 100; voluntourists and, 88; worker complaints and, 99, 175

Fair Trade USA, 76, 106, 212

Fernandes, Leela, 178, 213, 225n1

fertilizers, 7, 60, 66–68, 224n6

forestry, sustainable, 19

Foucault, Michel, 82, 182, 219

Fraser, Nancy, 46, 47, 154, 155, 222nn4–5

Freeman, Carla, 14, 154

Gandhi, Indira, 49

Gandhi, Mohandas, 8

gender equality, 36, 48–49, 156–57; ecofeminism and, 19, 213, 216–17; Fair Trade and, 4–5, 12–17, 24–26, 106, 110; household politics and, 172–78; politics of, 46–50, 210–11; social distinctions and, 56; sustainability and, 4–5, 16–19, 216–17; visibility of women’s work and, 157–58, 176, 178–79, 206–7; World Bank Action Plan for, 17

gendered labor politics, 121–25, 135–41; of ghumāuri, 12, 15–16, 108–10, 183–92; work-household relations and, 157–64

gendered projects of value, 12–16, 18, 22–23, 125, 210, 213–18

gendered spatial politics, 141–46

Geographical Indications (GI), 59–60, 66, 74–75

Gezon, Liza, 19

Ghising, Subhash, 56, 110–11, 226nn9–10

Ghumāuri (mutual aid groups), 3, 5, 105–6, 118–25; as clandestine space, 16, 27, 119–20; as cultural resource, 21; etymology of, 227n12; gendered labor politics of, 12, 15–16, 108–10, 183–92, 216; SKS Women’s Wing and, 28, 74; union similarities to, 106–9, 114, 117–18; Women’s Wing meetings versus, 188, 191–202

Gidwani, Vinay, 154, 155

globalization, 19, 82, 118. See also neoliberalism

Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), 49, 222n5, 225n3; criticisms of, 225n5; formation of, 56, 226n10; GNLF and, 225n3, 226n10; Women’s Wing of, 28, 35

Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), 47, 49, 52, 223n9; aims of, 54–55, 111–13, 222n5; CPIM and, 54, 111–16, 223n15; criticisms of, 100, 114–16, 121; general strike of 2007 by, 174; GJM and, 225n3, 226n10; membership of, 54, 55; unions and, 54, 55, 79, 113, 223n15

Gorkhaland Movement, 45, 53–54, 111; first (1986–88), 54–56, 222n5; second (since 2007), 55, 79, 102, 114, 222n5, 224n17; women’s empowerment and, 48, 106–7, 222n5

Gorkhastan, 51

green technologies, 2, 7, 65–68, 88, 224n6

Gurkha Regiment, 50

Gurkhas, 30–31. See also Nepalis in India

Gururani, Shubhra, 19

hands, care of, 202–7, 204

Hāthe chiā (hand-rolled tea), 8, 58, 65, 149, 209

Hinduism, 192; Dashai festival of, 169, 227n14; dietary restrictions of, 33–34; Nepalis and, 34, 156, 226n9, 227n14

Hired Labor Organizations (HLOs), 7, 17, 58

“home work,” 39, 156; Kamalā on, 26–27; Visweswaran on, 36, 38

household conflicts, 21, 154–55, 158–78

housewife entrepreneurs, 45, 144, 152, 156, 158, 217; landholding, 49, 133. See also entrepreneurialism

human trafficking, 46, 212

hybridities, 35–36, 39

identity politics, 45–54, 222n4; entrepreneurialism and, 128; ethnicity and, 48–54, 115; Fraser on, 46, 47, 222nn4–5; gender equality and, 46–50; Middleton on, 100; subnationalism and, 50, 222n5

Igoe, Jim, 88

“illegal” tea producers, 57, 61–67, 142, 149

Indian Idol (talent show), 52

Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), 79

Indian Plantation Labor Act (1951), 101

Indo Nepal Friendship Treaty, 111, 113

Institute of Market Ecology (IMO), 65, 70

Integrative Child Development Services (ICDS), 47, 166, 227n5

Iversen, V., 179

jaivik kheti bāri. See organic agriculture

Janajāgaran Kāryakrum (People’s Awareness Campaign), 176, 195–202

jhākri (shamans), 33, 96

Joint Bodies (worker-management associations), 27, 79–80, 91; criticisms of, 99–103, 107, 114, 191; labor negotiations through, 89; unions versus, 93, 95, 97–98; voluntourists at, 93–96

jugaad economy, 11

justice. See transnational justice regimes

Kabeer, N., 178

Kāmdhāri (group leader), 113, 114

Karim, Lamia, 15, 153–54

Kenya, 60

Kisān Sabhā (farmers’ union), 68–71, 69t

Koehler, Jeff, 9, 62, 63, 77–79

Kristoff, Nick, 211–13

Lakshmi (Hindu deity), 192

landholders, 49, 133, 148–49

Lazreg, Marina, 211

Lepcha Development Board, 222n5

Lepcha women, 45, 221n2

Lyon, Sarah, 83

madeshis (plains people), 33, 49, 53, 77; politics of, 111–12; work opportunities for, 163

Mahilā Pratinidhi, 74

Mahilā Samity (Women’s Organization), 113, 115, 120–21

Makhmali (self-help group), 209–10

Malaysia, 123

maquiladoras in Mexico, 122, 123

March, Katherine, 105

Marwaris, 33, 43, 53

māyá (love/care/compassion), 206–7

McElwee, Pamela, 18

medical care, 203, 228n10

Merry, Sally, 23, 24

microcredit programs, 73, 106, 128, 130, 142, 166; in Bangladesh, 154; establishment of, 177; social reproduction and, 219

middlemen for small-holder farmers, 137, 141–46, 169, 172–75

Middleton, Townsend, 100

Miews, M., 21

Moberg, Mark, 83

Mohanty, C., 89–90

Mutersbaugh, Tad, 141

Nagar, Richa, 150, 218

Naples, Nancy, 39–40

Narayan, Kirin, 38, 39

Narayan, Uma, 212–13

National Organic Program (USA), 70

nationalism. See subnationalism

Naturland standards, 70

“need economy,” 12, 13

neoliberalism, 5, 19, 82, 118, 133; alternatives to, 20, 25, 210, 218–19; empowerment and, 152; Fair Trade and, 15; governmentalities of, 15, 90; unions and, 123–24

Nepalis in India, 43–56; Bengali views of, 31, 33, 35, 44, 53; Hinduism and, 34, 156, 226n9, 227n14; military service by, 50, 113, 146; nicknames for, 52; sociocultural differences among, 56; stereotypes of, 44–46, 52–53, 100–101, 143–44; struggles of, 50–56; “tribal” status of, 31–33, 50–53, 111, 226n9; voting rights of, 111

nepotism, 28, 101, 106, 123, 163, 182, 191, 225n4

nongovernment organizations (NGOs), 4, 69, 215; CSR campaigns and, 210–11; privatized justice of, 98; on risk-taking, 177; sakaunu and, 219; self-help groups and, 137–38; smallholder tea production and, 131–32; “techno-ethical regimes” of, 140; training camps of, 167; unions and, 85

Nussbaum, Martha, 19–20

Ong, Aihwa, 22, 118, 122, 140–41

“Oppression Olympics,” 212, 222n5

organic agriculture, 153, 227n1; benefits of, 67–68; Internal Control tests for, 74

organic certification, 3–7, 221n2; standards for, 65, 70, 221n2; voluntourism and, 88

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 211

Ortner, Sherry, 41, 124–25

Oxfam, 210–11

pāhāDis (people of the hills), 33; characteristics of, 112, 223n11; definition of, 223n7; identity politics of, 48–50, 53–54

panchāyat (local government body), 3, 21, 177, 209

partybazi (working for local political party), 48, 49, 55, 223n9

patriarchies, 22–23, 27, 47, 212; of cooperatives, 131–32, 137–38, 197–202; multiple, 6, 49, 109; questioning of, 13, 15

patta (land deeds), 47, 148

pesticides, 60, 65–66, 192, 224n6

Phulbāri plantation, 35; Joint Body of, 101; voluntourists at, 93

Pilgeram, R., 17

Plantation Labor Act (1951), 51, 79, 81, 117

plantations. See tea plantations

polio, 166

politics of redistribution, 123–24

privatized justice, 98

Punjab, 2, 162

purdha (veiling), 136

Rai, Biren, 2, 6, 57

Rai, Chitra, 35

Rai, Prema, 87–88, 96

raksi (alcoholic drink), 44, 106, 138, 158, 164, 170

Ramamurthy, Priti, 13, 145

Raman, K. Ravi, 222n3

rape, 35, 221, 229n3

Ravi Raman, K., 58

recognition, politics of. See identity politics

redistribution, politics of, 123–24

retirement plans, 186–87

Rice, Paul, 16, 88

Robinson, Phyllis, 75–76

Rocheleau, D., 17, 18

Russia, 59, 60

sakaune kaam (housework), 177–78

sakaunu (to make do), 71, 219

Samanta, Amiya K., 111

Sānu Krishak Sansthā (SKS), 57, 66–74, 128–52, 213, 223n6; annual meeting of, 206–7, 207; gendered boundaries in, 146–50, 220; government registration of, 195, 198; household conflicts at, 168–78; household relations at, 164–68; inspections of, 133–36, 134, 135, 141, 148; photographs of, 64, 67, 72; voluntourists at, 86, 91, 102; Women’s Wing of, 71–74, 130, 134–52, 164–77, 182–208. See also Small Producer Organizations

Sanyal, Kalyan, 12

Self Help Groups (SHGs), 73, 106, 137–38

Sen, Amartya, 19

Serageldin, I., 16–17

Sexsmith, Kathleen, 215–16

shadow economy, 62, 65

shamans, 33, 96

Sharma, Jayeeta, 143

sidhā (simple), 52, 56

Small Producer Organizations (SPOs), 10, 27, 131–52, 221n1; certification of, 76, 133–41, 134; cooperatives of, 65, 136–37, 222n6; development funds for, 81–82, 137–38, 171; history of, 64–66. See also Sānu Krishak Sansthā

small-holder women tea farmers, 47, 56, 74–77, 127–52, 156, 219; household relations of, 164–68; middlemen for, 137, 141–46, 169, 172–75; organic agriculture by, 67–68; patriarchal controls of, 190–91, 217; risk-taking by, 154, 172–78; shadow economy of, 62, 65. See also basti areas

social reproduction, 24, 47, 50, 130, 146; entrepreneurialism and, 12–14, 154–55, 219; Fair Trade and, 152; Freeman on, 14; Sexsmith on, 215–16

Sonākheti plantation, 53, 53, 79, 85, 184; child labor at, 113; Fair Trade at, 74, 81; Joint Body of, 98–101, 114; union history at, 100, 116–17; voluntourists at, 93

Spivak, Gayatri Chakraborty, 24, 129, 210

SPOs. See Small Producer Organizations

Sri Lanka, 60

Starbucks Corporation, 76

subnationalism, 27; ethnicity and, 48, 51–53, 110–13; identity politics of, 50, 222n5

survival narratives, 18, 27, 106–8, 209

sustainability: gender equality and, 4–5, 16–19, 216–17; interstitial, 48, 105–8, 117–18; market-based, 86; tourism and, 85; UN Commission on, 216; World Bank paradigm of, 16–17

Sustainable Development (journal), 18

swachcha vyāpār (doing fair business), 128–37 passim, 146, 149–53, 169, 176, 220. See also Fair Trade

Swarr, Amanda, 150, 218

Swiss organic standards, 70

Taylor, Charles, 222n4

Tazo Tea Company, 61

Tea Board of India, 59, 60, 63, 113; training events of, 66, 67

tea plantations, 58–63; criticisms of, 87, 112–13, 183, 216–17; daily routines on, 1–3, 91–92, 163, 188–89, 203; as Hired Labor Organizations, 58; household relations at, 157–64; labor politics of, 110–25, 163–64; land reforms of, 8, 47, 68–69, 148; monoculture of, 10, 59, 67; seasonal workers of, 228n3; sorting department of, 205; work hierarchy on, 48–49, 77, 78, 91, 162

“techno-ethical regimes,” 140

Ten Year Framework of Programs for Sustainable Consumption and Production, 216

thikā (wage work), 3, 107, 164, 187–90, 204–8, 216

THulo yojanā (big business), 132, 136, 143, 149, 195, 209, 213

Tibetans, 33–34, 45

transnational justice regimes, 128, 140–41, 213; gendered translations of, 5, 22–24; privatized justice and, 98

Trinamool Congress, 79

Udwin, Leslie, 212, 229n3

UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), 216

UN Conference on Women (Beijing), 16

unions, 32, 79–82, 105–25, 157, 212; collective bargaining by, 32, 86, 89, 98, 102, 110, 122–24; criticisms of, 48–49, 100, 110, 115–17, 123–24, 186–87; ghumāuri similarities to, 106–9, 114, 117–18; GNLF and, 54, 55, 79, 113, 223n15; Joint Bodies versus, 93, 95, 97–103; land reforms of, 68–69; maquiladoras and, 122; NGOs and, 85; after World War II, 51

value, gendered projects of, 12–16, 18, 22–23, 210, 213–18

“vernacular calculus of the economic,” 130, 145–46, 148–50

“vernacularization,” 23, 24

Visweswaran, Kamalā, 26–27

voluntourists, 25, 85–103, 219–20; criticisms of, 87, 95, 99–103, 124; daily routines for, 91–92, 203; documenting by, 87, 94–98, 103, 124; motivations of, 90

voting rights, 111

vyāpār garnu (doing transparent business), 136

wages, 107, 109, 120, 162; “being tied to,” 187–88; bonuses and, 48, 51, 81, 111, 114, 217, 227n14; collective bargaining of, 86–87, 102, 122–24; daily quotas for, 228n5; hazard pay and, 205; supplements to, 107, 158, 164, 192; Tea Board of India and, 113. See also collective bargaining; thikā

witnessing: documentation of, 87, 94–98, 103, 124; rituals of, 90–94

Wolf, Diana, 155

Wolf, Diane, 154

Wolfensohn, James, 16–17

World Bank, 16–17

World Trade Organization (WTO), Geographical Indications Act of, 59

World War II, 50–51

yojanas (development projects), 132, 136, 143, 149, 195, 209, 213

zamindāri (feudal domain), 183

Zichne, Hayden, 87–88, 96

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