NEW DELHI, 7 November 2003 — Nineteen tea garden workers were burned to death in eastern India yesterday when a mob set fire to a trade union leader’s house, police said.
More than 100 people set fire to the house in the remote Dhalgaon tea estate near Falakata in Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal state following a dispute over the recruitment of clerks, Chayan Mukherjee, inspector general of police, said. The two groups of workers attacked each other with swords and lethal weapons and then set fire to the house, he said.
When the police reached the spot, the house was already in flames. The house belonged to T. Lohar, secretary of a workers’ union, Mukherjee said.
Later, 106 people were arrested on charges of rioting and arson, he said.
While the specific cause of the clash was not ascertained, it was related to tension in the tea garden over recruitment of clerks, Mukherjee added.
Tea plantation workers are paid low wages. More than 85 percent of tea workers are tribespeople, fourth generation immigrants of indentured migrants from the central Indian tribal heartland.
In a separate arson attack, seven people were burned to death in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night after their huts were set ablaze by people from another community.
The attack followed an argument after one group’s goats strayed onto land belonging to the other group and began grazing on crops, officials said.
People are often burned to death in caste-related violence and feudal disputes in rural India.
