Contextualizing Tea in Bangladesh

Origins in Colonialism

        Tea, or Camellia sinensis L., production in Bangladesh began under British colonial rule and has continued today after their independence in 1971.^[1] Bangladesh is the modern nation state discussed here, but is referred to as Bengal during the British colonial period, as East Pakistan following the end of British rule in 1947. The difference in these labels rests in who was deciding Bangladesh’s future, before Bangladesh gained autonomy and independence.   The East India Company established themselves in Bangladesh, bringing with them the tea plants from China in 1757.. Rather than working with the Bengali people, the British brought with them plans for labor recruitment and labor structure. The British would select managers and assistant managers from around the plantation area and use them to recruit laborers from elsewhere. Those who lived closest to the plantations did not want to change their lives as self employed farmers or fishermen. The British manipulated people from Uttar Pradesh, Madras and West Bengal who were poor and illiterate. When they signed on as tea laborers their lives became at the mercy of the British, meaning that the East India Company could report anyone to the police who tried to flee or did not work hard enough. Tea laborers, men and women, were paid a wage barely enough to buy bread, often paid with coinage only usable within the plantation. This quickly evolved into “state sponsored socio-economic conditions” continuing to today, controlling laborers by restricting their movements and options through coercion and threats.^[2] The colonial manager-laborer relationship persists and affects how workers are treated.

Land and Labor in the Tea Sector

        As of 2022, Bangladesh ranks 12th among tea producing countries in the world and 3rd in consumption. There are currently approximately 166 tea plantations in Bangladesh, and 135 of which were created under colonial rule, based on indentured labor.^[3] Tea production in Bangladesh has had a steady increase in the last 20 years approximately.^[4] Hossan et al. examined trends in land use in intervals from 2004 to 2013 to 2022. A map of Bangladesh was created for each year and mapped the land use as one of six categories: “agriculture, tea cultivation area, settlement, waterbody, bare land, and forest.”^[5] Analyzing land transformation, researchers found that tea cultivation areas decreased between 2004 and 2013, and then increased in 2013 to 2022. This resulted in an overall increase by 41.08%, with bare land and forest being the areas most transformed into tea plantations. As far as trade development goes, this shows the growth and resiliency of the sector in Bangladesh. However, in terms of land use, the authors call on policymakers to provide safeguards for croplands and other land use types. Environmentally there is value in a diverse landscape, and the tea sector cannot exponentially transform land.

        Labor conditions in Bangladesh directly relate to this growth in the tea sector, with plantation workplaces reducing in both safety and proper compensation. These plantations follow precedent set by colonialism, perpetuating the same systemic violence against tea plantation workers.

        While Hosan et al. evaluate Bangladesh’s change in land use over ten years, they do not discuss the previous owners or if any instances were examples of land grabbing. Khan and Lasslett analyze community resistance in Bangladesh against land grabs, seeing how tea workers successfully stopped the state from confiscating land.^[6] In the case study, tea plantation workers resisted Duncan Brothers (Bangladesh), a UK owned tea production company, from gaining tenure over 512 acres that had previously been used by the workers to grow crops to feed themselves. In 2014, a newspaper article alerted the workers to this potential. They quickly mobilized and created a committee consisting of them and the workers from 23 neighboring gardens or plantations. The participants called this a movement: scheduled strikes during part of the workday everyday, visible sit ins, continuous petitions to legislators, educational/cultural events about working conditions, and more. This resulted in the successful resistance against the Duncan Brothers land grab. Marginalized communities like tea plantation workers are able to resist owner and state powers when they can rely on sustained force when the numbers, determination, and political confidence are in their favor. This mobilization of tea workers operated entirely within the workers themselves, and did not go through any formalized labor union. Unlike this mobilization, a formalized labor union is an organization of workers with the goal of improving their employment conditions, and often have a designated representation for negotiations. This instance of self motivated resistance was successful, but only because of the large, diverse, and sustained effort.