ABSTRACT
Intersectionality research has debated the position of individuals or groups with multiple subordinate group identities. The women workers of the tea plantations do not fit into the prevailing notions of androcentrism or ethnocentrism. By exploring the multiple dimensions such as caste, race, ethnicity, education and so on in the analysis of a single category – in this case women workers – this chapter illustrates not only the complexities of social relations but also how they are managed. Notions of identity and belonging are used in the chapter to map out the implications of these multiple intersectional identities. It tries to locate the women within the multiplicities of their identities by drawing out how these identities play out in the everyday social life of the women. For this a specific group phenomena is used which illustrates how identities are often contextual and varying. The chapter focuses on the operation of identities and how they regulated the everyday spaces of belonging.
