Brewing Resistance: A Subaltern Marxist and Psychoanalytic Exploration of Suppression and Exploitation among Tea Labourers in Red Tea Novels by P.H. Danial

Abstract

This article examines how psychological trauma and colonial exploitation interact in Paul Harris Daniel’s Red Tea, a book that describes the hardships faced by Indian workers on British-owned tea plantations in South India. The study uses psychoanalytic and Marxist frameworks to investigate how the coolies' identities and mental health are shaped by the severe material realities of colonialism. The paper examines the workers' coping strategies and resilience while highlighting issues of internalized oppression, class inequality, and labor injustice. Red Tea is positioned as an important literary work that challenges colonial power structures and their enduring effects on underprivileged groups as a result of this research.