In this book, Mythri Jegathesan attempts to expand the anthropological understandings of dispossession. In doing so, she draws attention to the political significance of gender in investment and placemaking, particularly in Sri Lanka, but also more generally in South Asia as well.

This detailed ethnography sheds considerable light on an otherwise invisible minority whose labour and collective heritage of dispossession as ‘coolies’ in colonial Ceylon are central to Sri Lanka’s recognition, economic growth and history as a post-colonial nation.


Author
A cultural anthropologist by training, Mythri Jegathesan is Associate Professor at Santa Clara University, California. Her research focuses on gender, labour, minority politics, and development in the Global South. Her research in Sri Lanka has specifically looked at the social and economic experiences of Tamil women tea plantation residents and workers in the country.