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The tea plantations were historically referred to as the “Tea Gardens” to create a sense of intimacy and domesticity, to obscure what it really is, a site of violence and exploitation. C.V. Velupillai’s 1956 epic In Ceylon’s Tea Garden describes the creation and naturalisation of the living conditions on the tea plantations that is closely tethered to the colonial ideals that still dominate the exoticisation of the tea estates. The epic traces the transformation of Sri Lanka’s jungles into capitalist dreams of the British coloniser—an “Eden.” The creation of Eden is not created out of nothingness and wilderness but through brutality and murder. While In Ceylon’s Tea Garden exposes violences that take place in the creation and conservation of seemingly intimate spaces, Velupillai’s Born to Labour attempts to detach the community’s identity from their labour and sufferings by depicting their lives and traditions beyond their work. The tethering of individuals and communities to their livelihood marks them as disposable beyond their productivity.

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One Man’s Eden is Another Man’s Hell: Archiving of Violence and Histories of Indentured Workers in C.V. Velupillai’s Literary Works

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Corita Fernando

摘要

The tea plantations were historically referred to as the “Tea Gardens” to create a sense of intimacy and domesticity, to obscure what it really is, a site of violence and exploitation. C.V. Velupillai’s 1956 epic In Ceylon’s Tea Garden describes the creation and naturalisation of the living conditions on the tea plantations that is closely tethered to the colonial ideals that still dominate the exoticisation of the tea estates. The epic traces the transformation of Sri Lanka’s jungles into capitalist dreams of the British coloniser—an “Eden.” The creation of Eden is not created out of nothingness and wilderness but through brutality and murder. While In Ceylon’s Tea Garden exposes violences that take place in the creation and conservation of seemingly intimate spaces, Velupillai’s Born to Labour attempts to detach the community’s identity from their labour and sufferings by depicting their lives and traditions beyond their work. The tethering of individuals and communities to their livelihood marks them as disposable beyond their productivity.