Chai Lies

It's the season finale, y'all! So it's time to investigate the history of the Desi diaspora's favorite symbol. Warning, it's not a warm, cozy story. 

VISUALS

• The BBC investigation of an Assam plantation that you hear at the very end of the episode
• A map of Assam

 

GLOSSARY

• Pashmina: a Kashmiri shawl made of spun cashmere from the Changthangi goat
• Canton: known today as Guangzhou, Canton is a huge port city in China on the eastern bank of the Pearl River.
• Sharbat: a sweet cordial made from fruits or flowers, served cold.

 

MUSIC CREDITS

Wasn’t this episode a bop!? Check out the incredible artists:

• Charanjit Singh | Raga Bhairav
• Brain Drop I Brain Drop vs. Silent Horror
• FINGERGAP I 恭喜你
• Codec I Trap Bach
• Jamblu I Hypocrite Pt 1
• Aloo Gobi I Spicy
• Lifeform I Inert AI

 

DIG DEEPER

This episode covers 300 years, 3 commodities and 3 countries, so very understandable you wanna learn more. Here’s where to start:

• Andy Liu’s new book Tea War and Rolf Bauer’s new(ish) publication were in many ways the backbone of our research
• This NPR excerpt from Sarah Rose’s book on Robert Fortune’s tea theft is wild, captivating, and delicious
• Jayeeta Sharma provided a stunning analysis of how and why the British built a migrant workforce on the tea plantations of Assam in her paper “Lazy Natives”

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• See the annotated transcript with citations and timestamps.
• Visit www.kahaani.io/misrepresented for free curriculum to help you use this podcast in your classroom.

 

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

• Give $15 on our website or via Venmo (@kahaani)
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• Sign up for our newsletter 

 

MISREPRESENTED is produced by Kahaani, a media organization that tells stories to widen the historical narrative.