Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India - by Soma Chaudhuri (Paperback)

About the Book

Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India, the only academic work on witchcraft accusations in India, uses sociological theory and primary data to study contemporary witchcraft accusations. Located in the tea plantation region in Jalpaiguri, India, the b...

Book Synopsis

Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers in India, the only academic work on witchcraft accusations in India, uses sociological theory and primary data to study contemporary witchcraft accusations. Located in the tea plantation region in Jalpaiguri, India, the book links the witchcraft accusations among the adivasi (tribal) to labor conflicts that ties tea plantation economics to the village household level quarrels. The book should be of interest to sociologists, gender scholars, labor historians, criminologists, anthropologists, migration and South Asian scholars.

Review Quotes

I think that this excellent book. . . .is a very useful contribution in the increasing sociological and anthropological research on Indian plantations.

Soma Chaudhuri uses the thoroughly impressive privileged knowledge she gained in her study of adivasi migrant workers to describe and analyze witchcraft accusations among them. Utilizing a highly persuasive line of reasoning, Chaudhuri invites us to a splendid tour-de-force description of the phenomenon, culminating in a scholarly serious and intrinsically captivating sociological interpretation. To really understand witchcraft accusations we need to realize that they do not simply reflect violence against women, but have to be understood within the specific cultural context of politics within the plantations where the accusations take place, and where victims are caught in a web of conspiracies constructed by their fellow men and the plantation owners and managers. Chaudhuri's book is an eye opener and a must read for anyone interested in this topic.

About the Author

Soma Chaudhuri is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.