Shreya Chaudhuri L&S Social Sciences
Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Agroforestry in Indian Tea
My family’s roots belong to the land of Dibrugarh, Assam – the tea capital of India. From exploitation at the hands of the British Raj to decolonization with my ancestors rematriating land, the tea farm that we have tended to has undergone many transformations. India’s tea industry, which has colonial roots, is one of the largest in the world, exporting $709,000,000 of tea annually. Recently, there has been rampant corporatization of the tea industry, which is supported by a $7.8 billion investment from the World Bank. Our land is dying, and our culture is disappearing. To protect the land rights of small tea growers and our ancestral wisdom of land-caretaking, I will conduct research on Indigenous knowledge of Assam in relation to agroforestry. Through oral histories, interviews, literature/data review, and archival research, I will build a database to consolidate our Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and analyze possible methods of implementation. Researching the Indigenous wisdom of land caretaking in eastern India will be a small step towards our collective liberation on ancestral land.
Message To Sponsor
Thank you so much, Wishek for your generous contribution towards my work this summer. Without your support, it truly wouldn't have been possible for me to dedicate the entire summer towards my research. It has been so deeply meaningful and fulfilling for me to be able to support my community through this research. I have been able to learn about agroecology, Indigenous knowledge, farmer's rights, and colonial history on the field, which gives me a much more nuanced perspective on the problem and solutions. This experience has been integral to my development as a person, activist, and a researcher. I hope to publish this research and continue to build on this in grad school and beyond.