ABSTRACT
This chapter determines Dooars in the political economy of West Bengal. Within this setting, it then moves on to the specifics of the plantation. Dooars formed the tea belt of the North Bengal region of West Bengal. While the mainstay of the economy of this region naturally has been the tea trade, there is also a thriving timber trade in the region. The region witnessed two different types of economic activity – cultivation engaged in by the local population and the growth of the tea plantations. The tea plantations do not function as enclaves insulated from the larger politics and economy. To offset the tendency to read the plantations as closed-off spaces, they need to be located within the larger political and economic contexts in which they are situated. This study comes at a time of turbulent politics in West Bengal in general, which finds resonance in Dooars.
