Home, Belonging and Memory in Migration: Leaving and Living (Migrations in South Asia)

This volume explores ideas of home, belonging and memory in migration through the social realities of leaving and living. It discusses themes and issues such as locating migrant subjectivities and belonging; sociability and wellbeing; the making of a village; bondage and seasonality; dislocation and domestic labour; women and work; gender and religion; Bhojpuri folksongs; folk music; experience; and the city to analyse the social and cultural dynamics of internal migration in India in historical perspectives. Departing from the dominant understanding of migration as an aberration impelled by economic factors, the book focuses on the centrality of migration in the making of society. Based on case studies from an array of geo-cultural regions from across India, the volume views migrants as active agents with their own determinations of selfhood and location. Part of the series Migrations in South Asia, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of migration studies, refugee studies, gender studies, development studies, social work, political economy, social history, political studies, social and cultural anthropology, exclusion studies, sociology, and South Asian Studies. This volume explores ideas of home, belonging and memory in migration. It discusses migrant subjectivities and belonging in migration; sociability and wellbeing of migrants; bondage and seasonal migration; women and migration; and, migration, the folk, gender, and religion to analyse the social and cultural dynamics of migration in India Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of figures 10 List of tables 11 Acknowledgements 12 List of contributors 13 Chapter 1: Introduction: Locating subjectivities and belonging in migration 18 In between leaving and living 18 Revisiting the discourse on migration 19 Belongingness in migrant’s subjectivity 28 Contributions 31 Notes 39 References 40 Part I: Labouring to freedom 44 Chapter 2: The aspiration of a “civilised”, “human”, and “dignified” life: An enquiry into sociability, sociality, and wellbeing of migrants in an Indian coalfield 46 Migrants and their social composition 48 Abusive work relations 51 Unseemly sociability and sociality among the migrants 55 Untoward experiences in schools 59 For advancing life 61 Upshot 65 Notes 66 References 69 Chapter 3: Migration and the making of a village 76 The village and its social ecology 76 Facets of in-migration 79 Land and migrants 82 Migration and labour relations 85 Dignity and cultural capital 27 88 Reflections on outmigration 92 Conclusion 95 Notes 96 Chapter 4: “Freedom talk of ploughmen”: Bondage and seasonal migration in East-Central India 99 Impression 99 Agency-unfreedom of seasonal labour migrants 101 Being “ halia ”: stories of survival in Borasambar, Odisha 103 Stories of canal migration: moving east and coming back 107 A story of brick kiln migration: moral breakdown 111 Narrative agency and freedom 114 Glossary of measurement terms 115 References 115 Part II: Engendering migration 118 Chapter 5: Gender and migration: A contemporary view 120 Gender and migration: patterns in Colonial India 121 Gender and migration: recent developments 123 Single women migrants and women single migrants: continuity and change 129 Conclusion 135 Notes 135 References 136 Chapter 6: Home away from home?: Belonging and dislocation among migrant domestic workers 138 Impression 138 Moments 142 Memory and migration among women migrants 146 Opting to move out: “choice” and “agency” in migration 147 Concluding remarks 148 Acknowledgement 150 Notes 150 References 151 Chapter 7: Migration, gender, and religion: A study of Malabar migration and gendered Christian identity in Girideepam (1961–71) 154 Gendered Christian identity: a study of Girideepam 160 Land, inheritance and migration 163 Acknowledgement 164 Notes 164 References 165 Part III: Migration, memory, and longing 168 Chapter 8: Making sense of migration: Reflections on the contexts and contents of Bhojpuri women’s folksongs 170 The migrant and the left-behind, or two migrants? 170 Folk songs as an epistemic resource for migration 171 Placing folk songs within Bhojpuri orality 172 Two categories of migration 173 Factoring in the absence of literacy 174 The migrant with no “home” 177 Migration and sexual desires 178 Comparing the “left–behind” woman 180 Conclusion: voicing change 182 Notes 184 References 186 Chapter 9: The idea of home in a world of circulation: Steam, women, and migration through Bhojpuri folksongs 189 The source: themes and historical contexts 190 Conceptual departures: gender and circulation 191 The birhani wife in “exile” 194 From naihar 21 to sasural 22 198 Beyond idealisation: work, sexual transgressions and modern desires 201 Reflections 204 Notes 205 References 209 Chapter 10: Jaun-Yeun : Simultaneous engagement of Konkani migrants 211 Migration from Konkan to Mumbai and the historicity of simultaneous engagement 213 Simultaneity in Konkan in contemporary times 215 Movement and simultaneity in Kunkeri 215 Changing Mumbai 216 Complexity of contemporary simultaneity 217 Frequency of visits 219 The significance of the village and Mumbai 220 Building assets 223 Role of the migrants’ association or Mandal 223 Women facilitating simultaneity 224 Conclusion 225 Notes 227 References 227 Chapter 11: Migration and music: Incarnations of Birahā 230 The three birahā “waves” 232 Specific survival strategies of birahā in India and the Caribbean 234 The converging and diverging themes of migration 237 Birahā narratives in two worlds 241 Conclusion 244 Notes 244 References 245 Part IV: Negotiating the city space 248 Chapter 12: The Purusharthi refugee: Sindhi migrants in Jaipur’s walled city 250 The purusharthi in the walled city 251 Transforming the walled city 255 Tropes of belonging in the city 258 Conclusion 261 Notes 262 References 263 Chapter 13: “Once a migrant, always a migrant?”: Negotiating home and belongingness in the city of Kolkata 265 The Marwari as migrant 266 “Doing and giving”: making of a Marwari city 267 Barabazaar: the “second” native place 270 “Bengal is your roots now, not Rajasthan” 277 Conclusion 279 Notes 281 References 282 Chapter 14: The figure of the migrant as other: Experiences, memory, and the politics of belonging 285 Impression 285 Provocations 285 Sohars and jhumars 287 Journey 292 Journey to Surat 295 Shahar/the city 296 Migrant as perpetrator 298 Conclusion 301 Notes 303 References 304 Index 307 Migration;,migration,in,India;,migration,in,South,Asia;,migrants;,Memory;,Home;,Belonging;,South,Asia;,sociology,of,migration;,migrant,subjectivities;,women,and,migration;,migrant,past Migration,migration in India,migration in South Asia,migrants,Memory,Home,Belonging,South Asia,sociology of migration,migrant subjectivities,women and migration,migrant past