THE TEA-GARDEN JOURNAL

Somnath Hore

Seagull books, 108 pages, Rs1,125

In the 1930s, the Communist Party of India organised a union movement in the tea gardens of Bengal. Despite powerful opposing forces, the workers successfully wrenched concessions from the tea companies. The Communist Party sent a young artist and activist named Somnath Hore—later one of India’s foremost painters and sculptors—to document this struggle. This book presents his observations, recorded in text and illustrated with more than a hundred pen drawings.