From far away the planters came
In rugged clippers ’cross the sea
Those pale undaunted strangers
With pictures of their foreign queen
They came here from a sunless place
As overlords to live
To wrench from Mother India
What she would freely give
They brought the seeds from China
The seeds of slavery
From Assam Valley to Ceylon
To sow the land with tea
They marched us by the thousands
Across the land of dust and heat
With promises of better times
And prosperity
CHORUS
Om Namah Shivayah
Break the spell of this bad dream
For all the tea in India
We could not be free
And many died along the road
And many died along the road
In building up their empire
An empire built on weary bones
We worked for sixteen hours a day
To pluck and prune and hoe
This half-lit world of leafy grey
The only home we’ll ever know
CHORUS
These stains that darken all our hands
These stains, born of poverty
Are only with us this one life
Unlike the stains of cruelty
These Christian men looked on
As the disease and hunger claimed our lives
"That’s one less hungry mouth to feed"
And they called us uncivilized
In rugged clippers ’cross the sea
Those pale undaunted strangers
With pictures of their foreign queen
They came here from a sunless place
As overlords to live
To wrench from Mother India
What she would freely give
They brought the seeds from China
The seeds of slavery
From Assam Valley to Ceylon
To sow the land with tea
They marched us by the thousands
Across the land of dust and heat
With promises of better times
And prosperity
CHORUS
Om Namah Shivayah
Break the spell of this bad dream
For all the tea in India
We could not be free
And many died along the road
And many died along the road
In building up their empire
An empire built on weary bones
We worked for sixteen hours a day
To pluck and prune and hoe
This half-lit world of leafy grey
The only home we’ll ever know
CHORUS
These stains that darken all our hands
These stains, born of poverty
Are only with us this one life
Unlike the stains of cruelty
These Christian men looked on
As the disease and hunger claimed our lives
"That’s one less hungry mouth to feed"
And they called us uncivilized
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