By Binu Mathew
Courtesy: Countercurrents.org | 13 September, 2015
“We pluck the tea leaves,
You pluck our lives”
Thousands of women gathered in front of the Kannan Devan Hills Plantations Company (P) Ltd (KDHP) office in Munnar are shouting this slogan in a dialect which is a mixture of Tamil and Malayalam in a low, slow rhythm. One woman sitting in the gathering of about 5,000 workers holds a placard which reads, “Green Blood Revolution, Strike Of the People, For the People, By the People.”
Munnar is a tea country, said to be the Queen of hills of Kerala. Waves after waves of rolling mountains and hills covered with carpeted tea gardens are a beholders delight. Millions of tourists both domestic and foreign flock to this hill resort to enjoy this sight, the cool weather and breathe ‘fresh’ air. Very few realize that behind all this natural beauty there lies tears and tyranny, trauma and helplessness of workers who toil in these gardens from dawn to dusk.Read More »
Journal of People 