An Empire of Drink: Gender, Labor and the Historical Economies of Alcohol

Abstract This article examines the colonial and post-colonial histories of gender, labor and alcohol production and consumption in the tea plantations of North Bengal, India. It argues that the symbolic and metaphoric constructions of primitivism within a - wider imperial narrative provides one backdrop for an exploration of the symbolic and material histories of labor and alcohol politics in the plantation. The essay moves between different historical periods and languages, highlighting the interconnections between the semantic and bodily practices, which continue to index the gendered and racialized labor politics of contemporary tea plantations. It ends with a contemporary ethnographic examination of women's protest around the "liquor business" in the postcolonial plantation.