Tales Behind a Spice: Toxified Terrain and Tortured Bodies in the Making of Indian Small Cardamom

Abstract

This article explores the convergence of pesticide toxicity with caste inequalities and the lingering legacies of colonialism on cardamom plantations in the Cardamom Hills, India. Known for its fragrance and flavour, Indian small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) is the third most expensive spice on the international market. The mystic allure that is attributed to cardamom by the spice industry conceals how it is produced on a toxified terrain and by labouring female bodies tortured by toxic chemicals, marshalled through an exploitative socioeconomic system. This article brings the literature on toxicity in conversation with the epistemologies of the concept of the Plantationocene in order to explain the toxic worldings inside twenty-first-century plantations. In doing so, the article argues that pesticide toxicity should be read in the light of colonialism, social inequalities and the disparities in global regulations on pesticide production, trade and consumption.

Keywords

• plantations
• pesticide toxicity
• gendered labour