Between Khet (Field) and Factory, Gaanv

Abstract

Recent scholarship has reflected on these historical concerns by engaging with questions of modernity and change (Parry 2003; De Neve 2003; Strümpell 2008). Parry (2003:247) observes how articulations of the village as "backward," "conservative" and "a waiting room" by Bhojpuri migrants to the steel town of Bhilai feed into the post-independence, Nehruvian vision of industrial modernity. In a similar vein, Strümpell (2008) speaks of a "spatial limitation of caste" (p. 378) among workers of a public-sector power project in Orissa. He argues that while caste takes prominence in relation to workers' rural ties, it is consciously subverted and "negated" on the shop-floor, epitomizing the ideal of

Fake Gods and False History

“…Even so, there was no mistaking the amusement with which Anish and his friends viewed the attention I paid to my Gramastha Mandal friends, none of whom were regulars at the Jay Bhim Katta. Kunduri (2018) argues that while 'the process of migration is strongly represented as a means of breaking away from traditional hierarchies', caste identities 'often provide context and meaning(s) to how the migration process is envisaged'. In this chapter I probe this context and meaning, questioning the common narrative that urban migration can break down community divisions in favour of a deeper village solidarity (see Rowe, 1973, p. 229).…”