''Red Tea'' is an English
historical novel written by Paul Harris Daniel. It was published in
Madras by
Higginbotham's
Higginbotham's is an Indian bookstore chain and publisher based in the city of Chennai. The company's first bookstore at Mount Road, Chennai is India's oldest bookshop in existence.Madras Rediscovered, Pg 81 The company's second bookstore in Ba ...
in 1969.
It is based on the experiences of tea plantation workers in the
Madras Presidency during the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
.
Background
Daniel was born on May 22nd 1910.
Daniel was a medical doctor and had worked in a series of
Assamese tea plantations in South India as chief medical officer from 1941–1965. He also acted as a
union organiser
A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers.
In some unions, the orga ...
. During that time, he had interviewed workers, obtaining signed statements, developing material from which he used to write the novel. Though a work of fiction detailing the lives of Karuppan and Valli, ''Red Tea'' was written with an "explicit documentary purpose". It details how the Madras Planters Act of 1903 led to the poor conditions of plantation workers. Debt bondage of the workers, their poor working conditions, their inability to escape their life are all captured in the novel.
Translation and adaptation
It was translated into
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
as ''Eriyum Panikaadu'' by Ira. Murugavel.
The 2013 Tamil film ''
Paradesi'' was adapted from the novel.
References
Indian English-language novels
1969 novels
1969 Indian novels
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