Abhishek Avtans

Abhishek Avtans teaches Indic languages and linguistics at Leiden University (the Netherlands). He tweets at @avtansa.

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Packing tea on a Ceylon estate, circa 1905. In the late 19th century, coffee plantations were swept by a fungal epidemic called coffee leaf rust. Following the coffee crash, tea quickly replaced coffee and the tea trade became the economic backbone of the British colonies, leading to the migration and settlement of Indian Tamil labourers in Ceylon.

Languages and labour on tea estates in South India and Sri Lanka: Part 2

Abhishek Avtans

04 Jul 2025

Assamese women plucking tea leaves, circa 1890. The establishment of commercial tea plantations in the region by the British engendered the migration of diverse groups of people to tea-growing areas to work there as labourers. Many of these workers belonged to marginalised communities, and they brought their eclectic languages along to their new homes.

The languages of tea-estate workers in Southasia: Part 1

Abhishek Avtans

20 Jan 2025

Thaana has characteristics of both an abugida (diacritic, virama / vowel-killer strokes) and a true alphabet (all vowels are written), with consonants derived from indigenous and Arabic numerals, and vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of the Arabic abjad. Its orthography is largely phonemic, and may be called an alphasyllabary. Thaana is perhaps the only script in Southasia where letters are derived from numerals. Photo: IMAGO / UIG

Language of the islanders in Southasia: Part 2

Abhishek Avtans

03 Jul 2023

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