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Join us for tea," reads a placard held by a woman at Delhis Shaheen Bagh. Its an invitation to the prime minister to come and talk to the protesting women, to hear their concerns. Tea here connotes dialogue, not accusation, conversation, not a fight. Tea and food have always been womens allies, in good times and bad. Teas power lies in its ordinariness, and if nothing else, tea offers sustenance to those fighting the good fight.

Tea has often figured in political history. Theres the Boston Tea Party of 1773, that pivotal event leading to the American war of independence. The Sons of Liberty, fighting against the British, chose to have their say by boarding the ships docked in Bostons harbour and dumping the entire load of tea into the sea. The economic loss was severethree shiploads of teabut nobody was hurt, no damage done to the ships, and nothing else was taken or stolen. In fact, after dumping the tea, the rebels swept the decks, made sure everything was in order, and left.

But the fight in which tea took centre stage was the feminist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Women had few liberties but the one they were fighting for was equal voting rights. How would they fight, however, if they were not even allowed to go out for a meal, unchaperoned by a man?!

Enterprising women opened spare rooms in their houses as tea rooms, serving tea and food. These spaces were inherently feminine and therefore considered safe for women. Women came in droves, and tearooms became the centre of the womens suffragette movement. The Historic England website says, In early 20th century Britain, tearooms were a magnet for women seeking emancipation, and tea was a class leveller uniting women across the social spectrum."

The same fight was taking place in the US. Pink teas" may sound frivolous but were serious political gatherings. In Boston, prominent socialite and suffragist Alva Vanderbilt Belmont built a Chinese tea house on her lawns, where she would organize suffrage teas". In California, Equality Tea was the suffragettes brand, available in English Breakfast, Ceylon, Gunpowder Green, Hyson and Oolong. In Los Angeles, Mrs R.L. Craig marketed the Votes-for-Women tea to raise money for the cause. The fight was won for unconditional voting rights, in 1920 in the US and 1928 in the UK.

Tea has since entered art galleries as a symbol of dissent, as seen in the work of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. His A Ton Of Tea is a ton of puer (Chinese fermented tea) compressed into a large cube, while Teahouse is made of compressed puer set on a lawn of loose tea. By taking something so ubiquitous as tea, and inherently Chinese, he has set out to make a political statement. It has been part of advertising campaigns, as seen in India in 2008, when a popular brand of Indian tea ran a campaign calling on people to cast their vote responsibly.

When called upon, tea has often played the catalystthat everyday drink that has wielded the power of a wake-up call.

TEA READS

The Trouble With Tea by Jane T. Merritt and Heroines Of Tea by Peter G.W. Keen

Tea Nanny is a weekly series steeped in the world of tea. Aravinda Anantharaman is a Bengaluru-based tea blogger and writer who reports on the tea industry.

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Brewing mutiny in a cup of tea - Livemint