Circular Migration and The Spaces of Cultural Assertion

Circular Migration and the Spaces of Cultural Assertion
Author(s): Vinay Gidwani and K. Sivaramakrishnan

Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Mar., 2003), pp.
186-213
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Circular
Migration
of
Cultural
and
the
Assertion
Spaces
VinayGidwani*and K. Sivaramakrishnan**
andInstitute
of GlobalStudies,University
of Minnesota
*Department
of Geography
University
of Washington
*Department
of Anthropology,
Harnessingprimaryandsecondaryevidence fromIndia,ouressayconceptualizesthe culturaldynamicsof migration.
In so doing, it demonstratesthe incompletenessof standardmarginalistand Marxistaccounts of laborcirculation.
As a corrective,we examine the linkagesbetween culture,politics,space,and labormobilityand offera wayto think
about them by buildingon poststructuralcritiquesof developmentand postcolonialtheoriesof migrantsubjectivity.
The proverbialcompression of space-time not only has made extralocal work more viable for members of
proletarianizedgroupsbut, more importantly,has allowedthem to transfertheir experiencesof new waysof being
into local contexts throughacts of consumptionand labordeploymentthat can become elements of a Gramscian
counterhegemonicpraxis.We arguethat the possibilityof this sort of "bodypolitics"compelsnot merelya critique
of the modernizationparadigmthat has organizedclassicalmigrationstudiesbut, moreprofoundly,a reassessmentof
the waywe understandmodernityitself.We advocatean approachthat provincializesthe Eurowestand foregrounds
the existence of pluritopic"regionalmodernities." KeyWords:consumption,India,migration,regionalmodernities,
work.
his essay examinesthe relationshipbetween

circularmigration,identitypolitics,andlivelihood
strategiesagainstthe backdropof agrarianchange
in India. We consider the culturaldimensionsof labor
deploymentand mobilityin orderboth to evaluateand to
supplementthe practicalreason embodiedin the livelihood strategiesof migrants.1Althoughneithermigration
norits understandingas a materialandsymbolicactivityis
new,we suggestthat whatis new andimportantin termsof
agrariansocialrelationsis the intensityand rate at which
labor, goods, and meanings are now able to circulate
through space. In many parts of India, the forces of
modernityhave saturated the countrysideto such an
extent that semioticand spatialdualismsthat identifythe
"rural"as the realmof productionand traditionand the
"urban"as the realmof consumptionand modernitynow
seem anachronistic.2At the sametime, it is quite evident
that the erasureof boundariesand the multiplicationof
spatiallinkageshave not followeda uniformpattern.As
Watts (1992, 6) observes, "[G]lobalityand locality are
inextricablylinked,but throughcomplexmediationsand
configurationsof 'traditionalsociety';the nonlocal processes driving capital mobility are always experienced,
constituted,and mediatedlocally... [through]a working
and reworkingof modernity."
This underscoresthe point that villagersand villages
havebecomecosmopolitanin myriadways.In the process,
they have become acquaintedwith worldsof goods and
significationsthat carryall the baggagethat accompany

modernformsof desire.3Butremarkably,
these sameforms
of desire,and the consumptionsof modernitythey entail,
can occasionally contain emancipatory potential for
groupssubordinatedby place-specificrelationsof hierarchy.We are referringhere to ideologiesof class, caste,
ethnicity,andgenderthat slot agentsinto normalizedroles
oridentitiesandqualifytheiragencybymakingthese roles
appear as given-that is, as historicallyand spatially
invariant.The primarypurposeof this essayis to discuss
migrationand identitypoliticsin termsof the renegotiation of group identities at the level of caste and tribal
differences.4
The sprawling literature on "globalization"within
geographyandassociatedsocial-sciencedisciplinesmakes
it abundantlyclear that global modernityhas been an
uneven and inequitousphenomenon,markedby simultaneousprocessesof time-spacecompression(Harvey1989)
and expansion (Tsing2000b) at variousscales, with the
result that some cities, regions, and countries have
become increasinglyinterlinkedin termsof materialand
culturalflows,whereasothers have become increasingly
dissociatedandmarginalized(Piot 1999;Appadurai2000;
Bauman2000; Beck 2000; Tsing2000a). Our essayrefers
to three regions within India that fall into the first
category,where time-space compressionnot only has
made extralocal work more viable for members of
subordinatedgroupsbut, more importantly,has allowed
Annalsof theAssociationof AmericanGeographers,

93(1), 2003, pp. 186-213
? 2003 by Association of American Geographers
Publishedby BlackwellPublishing,350 Main Street, Maiden, MA 02148, and 9600 GarsingtonRoad, Oxford,OX4 2DQ, UK.
CircularMigrationand the Spacesof CulturalAssertion
themto transfertheirexperiencesof new waysof being

into local contextsthroughacts that recastthe body,
or throughthe way
eitherthroughformsof consumption
theirlaborpoweris valorizedin pursuitof livelihoods.5
Such "bodypolitics"-a termthat we qualifybelowmirrornewattemptsat self-making
caste
bymarginalized
andtribalgroups-or,toinvokeBourdieu
(1977,168-69),
a"heterodoxy"
atthelevelofidentitythathassporadically
enabled disempoweredmigrantgroups to repudiate
established
structures
of authorityandoppression.6
More
pointedly,we arguethatwiththe riseof ruralcosmopolitanism,modesof consumptionand laborvalorization
havebecomeelementsofa Gramscian
counterhegemonic
forchallenging
vocabulary
praxis:a symbolicandmaterial
wearethefirstto concedethat
However,
rulingideologies.
the analytical
recoveryof suchpraxisis not easy,because
thediscursive
universefromwhichit emergesisrarelywell
articulated
orcoherent.Intentisneverclearlyspelledout.
Instead,asGramsci(1971,325-26) pointsout,subaltern
praxisoften reflectsfragmentary
conceptionsand goals
bundledtogetherin bizarre
combinations.7
We do not, therefore,basethe possibility
of counteron
the
hegemonicpractice
premise(paceHebdige1988,
206) thatforGramsciallsocialrelationsarecontestable.
of Comaroffand
Rather,we share the interpretation
Comaroff(1991, 27, 30) that hegemonyis intrinsically
unstablebecauseit is"theproductofthedialecticwhereby
thecontentof dominantideologiesis distilledintoshared
formsthatseemto havesuchhistoricallongevityasto be
above history-and, hence, to have the capacityto
generatenewsubstantive
practicesalongthe surfacesof
economyandsociety."
But, havinginterpretedhegemonyas a perforated
ratherthanseamlessstructure
of controlling
ideas,whose
has
to
be
legitimacy
constantlyreproduced
by the ruling
we
want
to
make
several
to our
classes,
qualifications
thesis.First,at no pointdo we intendto suggestthatthe
two types of body practiceswe highlight (styles of
andlabordeployment)
areequallyeffective
consumption
as
a
of
antidomination.
Second,we
everywhere language
do not, in fact, even want to claim that formsof
are invariably
consumptionand laborvalorization
premeditatedactsof resistance.Moreoftenthannot, these
actionsoriginateasrelativelyinnocuoustransgressions
of
socialcodesthatthenproduceunexpectedresults.Toput
it anotherway,agencyoften surfaceslike an uninvited
guestfromthebywaysof routineoreveryday
practice.We
to studiesofpopular
believethisisanimportant
corrective
of marginal
culture(particularly
subcultures
groups)that
as a formof resistance
arequickto anoint"consumerism
elitistculture"(Campbell1995,98).
againsttraditional,
Agency,in ourview,is a moreelusiveandlesspurposive
187
beast.8Third,our thesis does not claim to supplant

standardnarrativesof migrationwithingeography-for
instance,thecollectionofarticlesin Robinson(1996),the
textbookbyGolledgeandStimson(1997),ortheworkof
Skeldon(1997);rather,it supplements
andcomplicates
themby bringinga culturalgazeto geographies
of work
andmigration.
The essayis organizedas follows.We beginwith an
overviewof conventionalMarxistandmarginalist
explanations of migration,and question their pervasive
economismandlinksto modernization
theory.We then
evaluatesomerecentliteratureon migrationby geograthat critiquethese convenphersand anthropologists
tional accountsfromfeminist,postcolonial,and postdevelopmentperspectives.These new approachesto
migrationstress the need to reassessmigrationas a
"cultural
event"(McHugh2000),organized
bypractical
thattransforms
and
consciousness,
migrantsubjectivities
notionsof "place"in gendered,raced,andclassedways
(Halfacreeand Boyle 1993;White and Jackson1995;
Silveyand Lawson1999;Lawson2000). In short,they
seekto transform
it into
population
bybringing
geography
withsocialtheory.Althoughthe newmigraengagement
tion scholarssucceedadmirably
in theireffortsto free
fromits behavioralandstructural
populationgeography
fromits links to
straitjackets-and,moreimportantly,
Eurocentric
of
"modernization"
and"developideologies
ment"-we arguethat thereis scopeforan even more
profoundrethinkingof modernity.
Existingpostcolonial
andpostdevelopment
of
critiques modernityaretimely,
and
in
correct
acute,
manyrespects,but too undifferentiated.Therehas been a strongtendencyto identify
modernityexclusivelywith its excesses,which then
becomesthe basisfor its repudiation.
Correspondingly,
therehasbeena postmodercelebration
of "difference,"
whosecriticaloriginsnowthreatentobeovershadowed
by
the (selective)installationof "difference"
as the new
evidentin postguidinguniversal.This is particularly
manifestos
Sachs 1992;
instance,
(for
development
Escobar1995;Rahnema1997),wherethe postdevelopment imaginary
has roomfor those "newsocialmovements"thatoppose"development"
orexpresslongingfor
a state of "predevelopment,"
but none for those that
desire"development"
in a varietyof ways.This sortof
move
not
exclusionary
only has the ironic effect of
the
consolidating
perniciousEurocentricdistinction
between"modem"
and"nonmodem,"
butalsothreatens
to imposea new "regulativeideal"(Butler1993) or
desire
visionthatrevealsthe samemodernist
normalizing
thatis ostensibly
as
the
of
posited
object critique.
consistent
As a wayofformulating
a moretheoretically
that
andpolitically
nuancedaccountofcircular
migration
188
Gidwaniand Sivaramakrishnan
furthersthe workbegunby the new migrationscholars,we

introducetwoorganizingconcepts:an oppositionalnotion
of self-makingwe term "bodypolitics"that underscores
the liberatorypotentialof migrationwithinthe context of
development;anda provincializednotionof modernitywe
term "regionalmodernities"that avoids the conceptual
contradictionsof existing postcolonialand postdevelopment appraisalsof migration.In its crudestform,ouruse of
the term "regional modernities" can be read as a
repudiationof Eurocentricscholarshipthat postulates(a
singular)Modernityas self-validationof the Eurowest's
intrinsicculturalsuperiorityandthe causeforits economic
and politicalcentralitywithinworldaffairspost-fifteenth
century.(See Dussel 1999 for an incisive critiqueof the
Eurocentricparadigm.)By contrast,we makethe case for
scholarship that carefully untangles how the ideals,
practices,and institutionalformsof Eurowester modernityhave traveledvia colonialismandneocolonialismand
articulatedwith regionalpolitiesand practicesto produce
distinctive"regionalmodernities,"whichoperateat scales
that are spatiallyand temporallytransitive.One notable
featureof "regionalmodernities"is theirunevenrejection
andacceptanceof the universalizing
thesesof Eurowestern
modernity.Hence, discursive and modular formations
such as"nationalism"
and"development"whoseoriginary
momentsare claimedas European9may be appropriated
and resignifiedas power/knowledgerelationsof a quite
differentsort within the context of "regionalmodernities."A discourseof Indian"nationalism"that combines
the temporal domains of the spiritual/divineand the
material/secularclaims a very different ontology (vide
Chatterjee 1993) than, say, a French "nationalism"
founded on the premiseof "empty,homogenoustime"
(vide Anderson [1983] 1991). Similarly,manifestos of
"development"within a Costa Rican context, or "modernity"within the Zambiancontext, may become potent
icons in struggles for "justice"-in one instance, by
peasantswho contrastthe justiceof "development"to the
injustice of neoliberal macroeconomic policies that
threaten their livelihoods (Edelman1999); in the other
instance,by Zambianmasseswho embraced"modernity"
as vindication of a successful anti-imperial struggle
(Ferguson1999).
It is this "self-alienated"aspect of both "modernity"
and "development"that we wish to foregroundin this
essay.In contrastto postdevelopmenttheoristswho view
"modernity"and "development"as uniformlydisempowering, we want to propose that these are discursive
formations whose operations are geographicallyand
historicallyuneven, and which contain the elements of
their own critique.In short, "modernity"and "development"can produceboth vocabulariesof self-repudiation
(hence, the languageof an unrealized"development"

can becomethe basisfor critiquingactually
imaginary
and spacesfor an oppositional
existing"development")
bysubaltern
groups(hence,uneven
politicsofself-making
undermine
may
emplacedrelationsof
"development"
domination
andexclusion).
Ouressaymakesthe additionalmoveof linkingthis
oppositionalpolitics,which takes the form of "body
primaryand
politics,"to circularmigration.Harnessing
Indiaevidence
from
three
within
secondary
regions
ruralGujarat,
TamilNadu,andWestBengal-we identify
casteand
the waysin whichmembersfromsubordinated
tribalgroupshave attemptedto use the labormobility
within the context of
promotedby "development"
modernities"
to
their
"regional
advantage.
A DiscontentedLook at Standard
Modelsof Migration
Shreshta(1988, 183) suggeststhat five types of
haveshapedmigration
studiessince
modelingapproaches
Ravenstein'sinfluential1885 article, "The Laws of
the field.Theyinclude:
formally
inaugurated
Migration,"
modelspremised
on utilitymaximieconomic/behavioral
zationbymigrants
seekingbettereconomicopportunities
elsewhere;ecodemographic
"push"modelsthat identify
and
returnsto laboras
populationpressure diminishing
the primarycausesof migration;spatialattractionor
gravitymodels that emphasizeurban"pull"factors,
forthe risingtransaction
costsimposedon
compensating
decisions
migration
by distance;anthroposociological
modelsthathighlightthe importance
of groupnetworks
and modernizinginfluenceson migration;and neoMarxistdependencymodelsthat viewunevendevelopmentandthe articulation
of precapitalist
withcapitalist
modesofproduction
astherootcauseofmigration.
Infact
Shreshta's
five-foldtypologycan be condensed,without
grievouslossof precision,intotwodominantapproaches:
on the one hand, "dualeconomy"modelsfrom the
and rationalchoice traditionin economics
marginalist
(Ravenstein1885, 1889;Lewis1954, 1958;Jorgensen
1961,1967;RanisandFei1961;HarrisandTodaro1970;
Todaro1976;Stark1991);andon the other,variantsof
the Marxisttraditionthatexplainmigration
asa response
to orconsequenceof unevencapitalistdevelopment
and
classstruggle(Kautsky[1899]1990;VanSchendeland
Faraizi1984; Breman1985; Standing1985; Shreshta
1988;Pincus1996;Wells 1996). Anthroposociological
approachesthat underlinethe importanceof social
networksare typicallyrevisionaryoffshootsof these
dominantframeworks
(Stark1991 is an examplefrom
the marginalisttraditionand Breman1996 from the

Marxistthat recognizethe role of networksin migration
decisions). An importantthird categoryof models that
do not appearin Shreshtra'staxonomyis feministinterventions in the migrationliterature(exemplarsinclude
Abu-Lughod 1975; Chant 1992; Schenk-Sandbergen
1995; Mills 1999; Silveyand Lawson1999).
Since reviewsof the marginalistand Marxistperspectives arestaplesin the migrationstudiesliterature(see,for
instance,Standing1985;Shreshta1988;Brown1991), we
offer only a cursoryoverview here. In the marginalist
universe,individualsmigratefromone sectorto anotherif
theyexpectbetterwagesormarginalreturnsto laborin the
othersector,net of migrationcosts.10The standardmodel
has two sectors: agriculture(rural/traditional)and industry (urban/modem).The normal assumptionis that
the marginal value product of labor is lower in the
agriculturalsector relative to the industrialbecause of
demographicpressure, poorer production technology,
and relativelyinelasticdemandfor agriculturalproducts.
As a result,agricultureon net expelslaborersandindustry
on net receives them. In this essentially gravity-flow
model, migrationceases and the system achieves equilibrium when marginalreturns to labor are equalizedin
agricultureand industry.11
Imperfectcompetition,imperfect information,and boundedrationalityon the partof
agents can be inserted into the basic model to explain
variationsin migrationpatternsand, in general,produce
more sophisticated accounts of migration (see, for
instance, Stark 1991), but the distilled wisdom of the
approachremainsfundamentallyunchanged.Instrumentalrationality,embodiedin the migrant'sexquisitesenseof
utility-maximizationor risk-minimization,rules the
day.
Marxistapproachesharnessa differentsystemlogic to
explainmigration:at the heart of these explanationslie
effortsby dominantclassesto sustainor expandlevels of
(absoluteand relative) surplusextraction by exploiting
spatiallyuneven patterns of proletarianizationand depeasantization.Hence, the "divideand rule"thesis (Hart
1986;Pincus1996) arguesthat locallydominantclassesin
"core"areasrecruitseasonalmigrantsfrom"peripheral,"
economicallyunderdevelopedsites as a way of creatinga
surpluslaborpool that exertsdownwardpressureon local
wagesand, in addition,makesthe local demandfor labor
more elastic, therebyweakeningthe likelihoodof collective bargaining by resident workers. The Kautskian
version argues that migration is a forced livelihood
responseundertakenby semiproletarianhouseholdswho
own or lease some amountof land in home areas,but not
enough to generate a subsistence income. Migration
becomes a way of covering the income shortfall. But
preciselybecause extralocal (ruralor urban) employers
189
knowthatmigrants
have"continuing
economicties[with
theirvillagehomes,andthatthese]... villagehomesbear
andreproducing
thislabor
partof the costof maintaining
force... [it allows]employers
to pay[migrantworkers]
lowerwagesand offerlowerbenefits"(Mills1997,38).
in thisnarrative,
becomesthespatialanalogof
Migration,
Kautskian
whichsubsidizessurplus
"superexploitation,"
extractionby capitalistemployers.
The thirdprominent
Marxistaccountismigrantasthearchetypical
workerin a
world
recruited
to
(and
system,
capitalist
imperialist)
travel sometimesvast distancesto sites of capitalist
production(Breman1989).
It is fairlyclearthat althoughboth marginalist
and
offerusefuland credibleinsightson
Marxistapproaches
biasthatunderplays
migration,
theysharean economistic
or else entirelyignoresthe culturaluniverseof labor
circulation.
bothultimately
Moreover,
identifytheuneven
of
the
spatialdevelopment capitalist
economyasthemotive
forceof migration.But whereasthe marginalists
paint
as a voluntary
choicebyinstrumentally
rational
migration
Marxists
areless
agentsseekingbettereconomicprospects,
abouttheelementofchoiceandarepronetoview
sanguine
migrationas the outcomeof spatialvariationsin class
interactionand capital'spenetrationof agriculture.
To
put it baldly,marginalistapproachesposit migrant
versionof it,
agency(althougha curiouslydeterministic
the
of
governedby
imperatives utility optimization)
whileMarxistapproaby structure,
relativelyunhindered
ches posit structurerelativelyimperviousto migrant
agency.
Neitherthemarginalists
northe Marxists
questionthe
of "modernity"
Eurocentric,historicistmetanarrative
that undergirds
theirmodelsof migration,and thathas
takenthe formof Orientalism
undercolonialism,
Modandnationalism,
andGloernizationunderimperialism
balizationunder late capitalism-in each instance
"anunderlying
structural
ascribing
unity... to historical
processandtimethatmakesit possibleto identifycertain
elementsin the presentas'anachronistic"'
(Chakrabarty
2000, 12). Whatis pernicious,of course,arethe moral
thesestagist,
valencesandprescriptions
thataccompany
secularaccountsof time;theyenablethe productionof
binariessuchas uncivilized/civilized,
traditional/modern,
andunderdeveloped/
backward/industrialized,
developed
that justify,underthe guise of Reason,often violent
transformations
of society and "nature"(Scott 1998
numerous
misguidedschemeshatchedunder
catalogs
colonial,capitalist,and socialistmodernities).In this
universalized
storyof Progress,migrationand its upif sometimesunfortuheavalsarereducedto a necessary,
nate, subplotin the unfoldingof Historyin Europe's
image.
190
GidwaniandSivaramakrishnan
Culture,Space,andLaborMobility
Recent studies of migration by geographers and
anthropologistshave sought to expose the ideological
moorings of the social categories that organizedevelopmentalist understandingsof time and space within
modernizationtheory, its colonial antecedents, and its
post-Fordistcognates. Contraryto the behavioralismof
marginalisttheories of migrationand the structuralism
of Marxisttheories,new migrationscholarshave sought
to restore agency to migrantsby showing,throughbiographical and ethnographic research, how migrants
apprehend,negotiate,and transformthe socialstructures
that impingeon their lives (Halfacreeand Boyle 1993;
Lowe 1996; Stack 1996; Mills 1999; Lawson 2000;
McHugh2000). In short,althoughstructurationtheories,
buildingon Saussureansemioticsand Marxistdialectics,
have been around for at least two decades (exemplars
include Bourdieu 1977 and Giddens 1984) and have
offered sophisticated insights on the spatiotemporal
recursivity of structure and agency, their empirical
deploymentwithin populationgeographyand migration
researchis relativelyrecent.
Ben Rogaly's work on rural seasonal migration in
easternIndiais a stellarexampleof this trend.His (1998b,
22) basicargument,basedon fieldworkin Bardhamanand
Puruliadistrictsin West Bengal,is that "seasonalmigration ... is not simplyan inevitablepart of the cycle of
indebtedness,but can enableworkersto save and even to
accumulate capital on a very small scale"-thereby
augmentingtheir abilitiesto alterinstitutionalizedstructures of oppression.This conclusionechoes some of the
findings Wells (1996) documents in StrawberryFields,
her fine study of Mexican bracerosand undocumented
workersin the Californiastrawberryindustry.She describeshow these workerstoil in appallingconditionsfor
theirMexican-Americanpadronesin the North Monterey
hills, often survivingon as little as U.S.$500 for an entire
year and sustaining families or farmingin Mexico by
diligently dispatchingtheir annual savings of $2,0003,000 across the border (Wells, 209-10). Wells (164)
describesthe psychologyof these migrantsby noting that
"undocumentedworkers... aspireto returnto Mexicofor
their long-termeconomic advancement."Thus, migration is viewed as a meansfor accumulatingsurplusesthat
may enable workers to augment economic and social
statusin theirplacesof origin.
Despitethe ethnographicrichnessof these studies,the
organizingparadigmfor Wells and Rogalyis a dialectical
materialismthat views migrationprimarilyas an "economic event" that fits into rural livelihood strategies,
rather than as a simultaneously"culturalevent" that
transforms
andperceptions
ofplace.
migrant
subjectivities
Our essay draws theoreticalinspirationfrom three
literatures:(a) new workin populationgeography
that
essentialisms"
and
Lawquestions"longstanding
(Silvey
son 1999,128)withinthe field,particularly
the binaries
that have shapedstudiesof migrationempirically
and
workon migration
normatively;
(b) newanthropological
andmodernitythatstressesthe transformative
powerof
whether
of
or
of
consumption,
physicalgoods
representations(Ong1987,1991;Miller1995a,1995b;Mills1997,
of
1999);and (c) renewedinterestin phenomenologies
the laborprocess(oyce 1987;Scott1990;Kapadia1995;
Freeman2000).
The empirical
forourarticlecomesfrom
justification
the unprecedentedmultiplicationof rural-urban
and
rural-rural
linkagesin South Asia over the past two
decades,whichhas enormously
expandedlaborcirculationandcausedthecatchmentareaofworkers
to become
in
rather
thanlocallyruralorurban(Ghose
regional scale,
1990;McDowellandde Haan1997).Thishashappened
through occupationaldiversificationfor rural labor
(Harriss1991;Chandrasekhar
1993;Basant1994),the
of
rural
and
industrialization
spread
periurban
(Mukhopadhyayand Lim 1985; Islam 1987), the increased
prevalenceof contractfarming(LittleandWatts1994;
Panini1999),andgreatercirculation
of laborto agricultural and urbandestinationsdue to declininglabor
intensityof farmingin both irrigatedanddrylandareas
(Breman1985; Ramachandran
1990; Conway 1997;
Rogaly1998a).As Srivastava(1998,584) pointsout in
the Indiancontext,officialstatisticssuchas censusdata
andNationalSampleSurvey(NSS)datatendto "underestimatepopulationmobilityand labormigrationto a
significantextent,"becausethey relyon surveyinstrumentsthat primarily
coverpermanentand semipermanent migrationand handleshort-duration
circularor
seasonalmigration
farlesseffectively.
Bycontrast,microlevel studiesof migration(Dupont1992;Breman1996;
and Lanjouw1998;Bremanand Das 2000)
Jayaraman
attest to largeincreasesin labormobility,particularly
short-duration
migration.In fact, a recent estimate
moveseach
suggeststhatone-sixthof India'spopulation
smallindustry,
year,manyto workin agriculture,
forestry,
andconstruction
(Rogaly1998a,273,n. 2).12
As more and more people enter into new work
in ruralareasor travelseasonallyto work
arrangements
in informalsectorsof the urbaneconomy,theirsocial
relations,theirsenseof self,theirrelationto a senseof
of workundergochanges
place,andtheirunderstandings
thataremanifestinidentityformation.
ToinvokeGramsci
([1957]1980,77),"[M]an[sic]changeshimself,modifies
himself,to the sameextentthathe changesandmodifies

the whole complex of relationshipsof which he is the
nexus."Based on the accumulatingempiricalevidence,
we contend that ruralhouseholdsin Asia areincreasingly
generatinglivelihoodsby participatingin plural,coeval,
and spatiallydispersedlaborprocessesthat displayfeudal,
Fordist,and post-Fordistcharacteristics.The emerging
space of work is regional-neither exclusively local or
nonlocal,nor exclusivelyruralor urban-and the culture
of workis one of liminalityand fluidity:migrantsare part
of a travelingculturethatexposesthemto diverseworldsof
associationand significationthat sow the seeds of discontent. Such arethe modestoriginsof counterhegemony.
In their recent Annals article, Silvey and Lawson
(1999) have chartednew directionsformigrationstudies,
combining the insights of populationgeographerswho
draw on social theory to interrogate migration with
insightsfromfeminist,postcolonial,andpostdevelopment
theoriesthat destabilizemetanarrativesof patriarchyand
modernizationand foregroundthe politics of difference.
They do so by unravelingthe developmentalistassumptions that have framed the categories "place" and
"migrant"in classicalmigrationstudies. They note, for
instance, that "place"has been commonlyunderstoodin
the conventional migrationliteraturein terms of some
index of economic developmentor modernization.Accordingto SilveyandLawson(122), the focuson placesas
"arenasof developmentthat structureaction"ratherthan
as "domainsof contested powerrelations"has precluded
attention to important sites of subject formation and
negotiationsuch as communities,households,andbodies.
It is preciselythese placesof difference,which have been
silenced within the homogenizingdiscourseof modernization, that are broughtto the forefrontin feministand
postcolonialtheorizing.
Inevitably,thisrethinkingof "place"withinpopulation
geographydemands a correspondingrethinkingof the
category"migrant,"who, in classicalmigrationstudies,
has been implicitlymale and rural,and rarelyinflectedby
the markingsof "gender,race, ethnicity,class, sexuality,
andnationality"(SilveyandLawson1999, 125). Welearn
fromSilveyand Lawsonthat to recognizethe influenceof
these markingson the formationof migrantsubjectivityis
to simultaneouslyacknowledgethe contingentnatureof
migrantidentitiesand discoverthe ambivalencemigrants
voice abouttheir mobility.
Our essayexploresand augmentsthe leads Silvey and
Lawsonoffer,with two majordifferences.First,we appeal
to recent anthropologicalstudies of consumption and
labordeploymentin orderto demonstratehow migrants
from subaltern classes can rework processes of "modernization"and "development"to their advantage.Our
primaryintention is to show the "spacesof hope" (cf.
191
Harvey2000) that dialecticallysproutin the intersticesof

domination.But in so doing, we also want to arguethat
many contemporarycriticsof "development"and "modernity"tend to universalizethese processes,ratherthan
give them the spatial and cultural particularitythey
deserve.We introducethe idea of "regionalmodernities"
as a provisionalcorrective.Second, and correspondingly,
we appeal to recent critiques of postcoloniality and
postdevelopment in order to demonstrate that these
perspectives,which begin with "a welcome humblingof
certain hegemonic regimes of Truth" (Scott 1999, 4),
often and unintentionallyend up perpetuatingelements
of that sameTruth.
FieldSites and Fieldwork

In giving empiricalsubstanceto our theoreticalarguments on migration and modernity,we focus on two
categoriesof subordinatedgroupsin ruralIndia: tribals
and dalits.13We drawevidence fromsecondarymaterials,
as well as fieldworkconducted by the authorsbetween
1993 and 2001 in the Kheda and Baroda districts of
Gujarat,TiruvannamalaiDistrict of Tamil Nadu, and
MidnaporeDistrictof West Bengal (Figure1).
A briefnoteon the genesisof thisarticleseemsnecessary.
Our initial projectswere independentevaluationsof the
distributiveandpoliticalimpactsof developmentprograms
in two differentagrariansettings(Gidwanistudiedhow the
introductionof a large surface-irrigation
scheme transformedagrariansocial relationsin centralGujarat,particularlythe bargainingpowerandpoliticalconsciousnessof
low caste workers;Sivaramakrishnan
examinedhow the
introductionof jointforestmanagement(FM) schemesin
eastern West Bengal intersected with regional tribal
politics, and whetherJFMmarkeda devolutionin state
controlor a new formof governmentality).Althoughthe
linkbetweencircularmigrationandchangesin the cultural
assertivenessof subordinatedcaste and tribalgroupswas
not the explicitfocusof our initialresearchprograms,the
parallelsbetween these geographically
dispersedresearch
sitessoonbecameevidentto us. And whilewe wereclearly
struckby the upsurgein intercastetensionsand the riseof
regionalidentity (caste, dalit, and tribal)politics in the
1990s,we werealsointriguedby microstudiesof migration
(notablythe workof Dutch anthropologistJan Breman)
that suggesteda risingtrendin labormobilityin ruralIndia,
after1991-the yearwhen the Indiangovernparticularly
ment formally adopted the macroeconomictenets of
"economic liberalization"and "structuraladjustment."
We decided it was importantto explore whether there
wasa relationshipbetweenrisinglaborcirculationand the
intensificationof regionalidentitypolitics.
192
? Metropolitan
Areas
0 FieldworkSites
StudyAreas
*
UrbanCenters
Figure 1. Fieldworksites in India
Accordingly,in 1997, we initiated a collaborative

researchstudy to investigate the connections between
short-duration (circular or seasonal) migration and
regional political assertion by oppressedsocial groups.
We decided to drawon Gujaratand West Bengalas our
regionalfield sites-not merely for reasonsof linguistic
fluency and priorethnographicworkin these areas,but
also because these states fulfilled the broad structural
requirementsthat a study with our goals seemed to
demand. Both Gujarat and West Bengal have long
histories of colonial rule and modernizationprograms
and, subsequently,nationalistinterventionsfor"development"; both have a regional ecology that is a mix of
drylandandirrigatedareas;both have largetribalanddalit
populations;both arehighlyindustrializedand urbanized
states; and both have aggressivelywooed domestic and
foreign capital investment in the aftermathof India's
embraceof liberalizationand structuraladjustment.To
these we addeda thirdstate, TamilNadu, whichsharesall

the above structuralcharacteristics.
Todate,ourprojecthastriedto evaluatefroma regional
perspective and at the morphologicallevel of group
identity how processesof development and modernity
have influencedpatternsof laborcirculationand identity
politicsin our studyareas.The empiricalfindingspresented in this essay derive from village-level survey and
ethnographicdata, key informantinterviews,and associated studies of migrationdrawn from our three field
areas.Our currentresearch,stillin its preliminaryphases,
investigatesthe culturalmicropoliticsof ruraland urban
workfromthe perspectiveof migrantsandemployers,and
how migrationprocessesand grouppolitics are differentiatedby genderand religion.We aresensitiveto scholarship calling for engendered migrationstudies, and we
recognizethat the categories"tribe"and"dalit"deserveto
be morefullydifferentiatedalongaxesof dominationsuch
as gender,religion,and ethnicity.However,our initial

researchrespondedto a SouthAsiancontextin which
and
severalexcellentrecentstudieson gender,migration,
areavailable
ofpatriarchy
andclassrelations
contestations
(Chen1991;Feldman1992;Pryer1992;Kapadia1995;
1995;Fernandes1997;Sen 1999).
Schenk-Sandbergen
anddalit/tribal
identitiesand
on migration
Theliterature
In
thin.
this
article,we
curiously
politicsis,bycomparison,
offer a conceptualframeworkto fill this breachby
examininghow circularmigration,consumption,labor
deploymentandidentitypoliticsinterweaveto produce
alternative
of-and, occasionally,
understandings
realignofcasteandtribe.
mentswithin-place-basedhierarchies
MigrationandBodyPolitics
Like the new generationof migrationscholarsin
weviewmigration
asa social
andanthropology,
geography
andculturalprocess-notmerelyaneconomicone-that
weregard
transforms
Correspondingly,
spaceandplace.14
as
of
a
as
who,
such,are
culture,
traveling
migrants part
worlds,alwaysnegotiating
alwaysstraddling
shiftingframes
andconstraints,
ofreference,
always
facingnewpossibilities
withnewsubjectpositions.
andalwaysgrappling
Our particularfocushere are those dalit and tribal
migrantswho, throughtheirtravelsand travails,often
thatarestrategically
expresacquirepoliticalsensibilities
sedin theirplacesof originasa "bodypolitics."
Wederive
that
theideaof a"bodypolitics"froma feministliterature
has soughtto rewritebodiesas signifyingand signified
entities that are "neitherbrute nor passivebut . . .
interwovenwithandconstitutiveof systemsof meaning,
andrepresentation"
(Grosz1994,18).15This
signification,
literaturerejectsthe notionof bodiesas naturalobjects,
on the basisof
priorto culture,thatcanbe differentiated
characteristics
self-evidentbiological
(such as "sex").
Indeed,asJudithButler(1993,2) arguesin a radicalvein,
ofbodiesisproduced
themateriality
performatively-that
andcitationalpracticebywhich
is, througha "reiterative
she
discourse
producestheeffectsit names."Accordingly,
how
considersit the taskof socialtheoryto understand
She (1993,9)
andwhycertainbodiescome"tomatter."
advocatesa "returnto the notionof matter,not as siteor
thatstabilizes
over
surface,butasa process
ofmaterialization
and
timetoproduce
theeffectof boundary,
fixity, surfacewe
callmatter"(emphasisin original).
feminismrelevantto the
Whyis thiskindof corporeal
Wearguethatit isdeeply
issueofdalitandtribalidentities?
relevantforseveralreasons.First,as we nowcommonly
an
identitiesareindividuated
byexternalizing
appreciate,
is
of
an
which
'other'
"the
by
positing
other-specifically,
of
the
asopposedto the identity
constitutedsymbolically
193
self" (Norval 1996, 65). More perniciously,identities

come to be associated with a politics of purity,which
activelyseeks to excludeexternalizedothersas impureor
The term"abjection,"
Butler(1993,243) explains,
"abject."
"designatesa degradedor cast-outstatuswithinthe terms
of sociality."This could easily stand as the constitutive
principleof India'scastesystem,which,despiteits regional
fluidity of hierarchiesamong endogamousgroups who
belong to the four overarchingand formally-anointed
(twice-born)"castes,"fixeson the bodilyimpurityof dalits
and tribals as a way of markingthe latters' social and
and therebyjustifiestheirsubordibiological"inferiority"
nation by caste groups.In other words,just as the female
bodyhas been constructedas the abjectof the malebody
and anointed as "inferior"within patriarchalideologies,
so, too, have dalit and tribal bodies been constructed
within ideologiesof caste.
Second-and linked to the previous point-is the
impositionon women of "beingthe body for men while
men are left free to soar to the heights of theoretical
reflectionandculturalproduction"(Grosz1994, 22). This
carriesthe implicationswithin male-dominatedsociety
both that women have been viewed as less capablethan
men of intellectual and cultural activities and that
their value to society has consisted primarilyof the
functions they have been able to performfor men. In
similarfashion,caste societyhas activelytriedto diminish
the individualityand capacitiesof dalit and tribalwomen
and men (who, as matter of rote, are treated as lower
on the "civilizational"scale, vergingon animality)and
valued them primarilyas the working body for caste
groups.
It is thereforehardlysurprisingthat dalits and tribals
shouldchoose to expresstheirdissentvia a politicsof the
bodythat entailstwomoves:first,the searchforalternative
forms of employmentthat enable them to reject their
historicalpositionof servitudeto castegroups;andsecond,
the desire for forms of consumptionthat would have
previouslyonlybeen affordableor possibleforcastegroups
and which,therefore,signifysocialtransgression.
Resistanceto the WorkingBody

Labor deployment is conditioned by the structural
featuresof uneven developmentand labor-marketconditions; but we argue-in concurrence with the new
scholars of migration-that it is also inflected by the
desireof migrantsto refashionplace-basedidentities.We
hypothesizethat cyclicalmigrationmay occur becauseit
can allowagentsto loosen-and occasionallyrepudiateinstitutionalizedformsof authorityand control that are
exercisedthroughthe rurallaborprocess.Clientistlabor
194
of underpaid
relations,debtbondage,andthe drudgery
wageworkaresomeof the mostvisibleexamplesof such
who"escape"
to dailyor
Hence,ruralworkers
compulsion.
encounter
arduous
semipermanent
factoryjobs may
in
conditions
their
new
even
working
employment, earn
lowerrealwagesandtemporarily
sufferdiminishedfood
butdespiteit expresspreference
foreconomically
security,
inferioremployment
becauseit allowsthemto undercut
the undesiredrolesthrustuponthemby history.Parry's
(1999)workin MadhyaPradesh,centralIndia,illustrates
this pointverywell:he describeshow the Satnamis(a
religioussect formedmainlyof dalits)weregalvanized
after the mid-1960sby the prospectof employment
at the Bhilaisteelplantandthe industrial
opportunities
city that developedaroundit.16Consider,as further
evidence,the followingexamplefromcentralGujarat,
whereGidwaniconductedhisfieldwork.
forefathers(bapdada)were substantiallandowners.A
culturalrevivalistcore amongthe Baraiyasand Kolis
exhortstheir ritualstatus as kshatriyas
or rajputsand
remindsthemthatthePatels,althoughnowoperationally
onparwiththeuppercastes,weremerelylow-castesudras
severaldecadesago.17One Baraiya
Koliagevan(commuPatelsas "lankadheds."
Since
nityleader)characterized
dhedis a derogatory
formof addressappliedto Vankar
whichfiguratively
means
dalits,the term"lankadheds,"
"Vankars
in guise,"is meantnot only to disparagethe
lowlyancestral
originsofPatelsbutto furtherindicatethat
theirpresentupper-castestatuswas managedthrough
subterfuge-hencethe useof the word"lanka,"
referring
to Ravan'ssubterfuge
in spiritingSitaawayin the Hindu
epic,the Ramayana.l8
SeveralKolishaveresortedto dailymigratory
workat a
locallight-bulb
in
the
of
factory
hope evadingagricultural
workunderPatel employers(ironically,
this light-bulb
factory-whichis a collaborativebetweenthe Indian
The Kolisof KhedaDistrict,Gujarat
subsidiaryof GeneralElectricand Apar Lighting-is
ownedbya wealthyDesaiPatelfromthecityofNadiad!).
TheBaraiya
andTadbda
Kolisoccupya liminalposition The factoryhiresabout800 to 900 workers-allmenin centralGujarat's
castehierarchy.
Severalof the upper overthreedailyshifts.Mostworkers
aretemporary
andare
castesconsiderthem descendantsof the originaltribal rehiredperiodically.
The companydoes this in orderto
inhabitants
of theregion,whowereassimilated
intocaste
minimizethe numberof permanentemployeeson their
in
the
seventeenth
and
centuries
society
eighteenth
roster,becausepermanentemployeesare eligiblefor
withRajputlineagesfromRajas- variousnonpecuniary
benefitsunderIndianlaborlegislathroughintermarriages
than fleeingMughalincursionsthere.Interestingly,
totion. Dailyincomefroman eight-hourshift is Rs. 40
andDarbar
underU.S.$1.00)fortheaverageworker.
castes,whoconsiderthemselves (slightly
day'sGarasia
Workers
the"true"descendents
oftheRajputrefugees,acceptKoli
who attemptto organizea union (thereweretwo cases
womenin marriage
butrefuseto givetheirowndaughters between1994 and 1995) are thrownout of theirjobs.
in marriageto Koli men. This one-sidedrelationship Sincethe companydoesnot payforthe transportation
of
seemsdrivenentirelyby culturalpragmatism
workersfromtheirhomevillages,this is an addeddaily
(sincethe
Garasias
andDarbars
area numerically
smallcommunity) costsomeworkersmustbear.
andis a clearsignthattheydonotconsidertheKolistheir
Meanwhile,
agricultural
wagesforroughlysixto seven
socialequals.Infact,theKolisarefrequently
hoursofworkareRs.25-30 ($0.55-$0.65)in peakseason
disparaged
by
theuppercastesas"rude,"
and"uncivilized." and Rs. 20-25 ($0.45 to $0.55) in the lean season.
"backward,"
TheKolismaintainthatmembers
ofthelandedandlocally
Workersexpect-and normallyreceive-in-kind reimdominantPatelcaste dispossessed
them of theironcebursement
forcertainagricultural
suchasthe
operations,
substantial
usurious
landholdings
through
lendingpracharvestingand threshingof wheatin the rabi(winter)
ticesandsubterfuge;
butPatelsdismisstheseallegations
as
season. Nonpecuniarybenefitsinclude the rights to
the claimsof an "agnani
andignorant collectfodderandfuelforhouseholdusefromthefarmer's
praja"("illiterate
people"),whosefailureto prosperis entirelythe resultof
field,to gleanleftovergrainsafterharvest,and,often,to
their"bagdela
lakshan"
habits"-the
reference
is
solicit small zero-interestconsumptionor emergency
("bad
to the likingmanyKolisdisplayforrecreational
gambl- loansfromthe employer.
ing,drinking,andopiumconsumption)and theirroodiAlthoughexpectedreturnsfromfactoryworkand
chust'ta("culturalconservatism"-figuratively
workareroughlyequalwhenpecuniaryand
denoting agricultural
irrationaladherenceto custom,superstitiousness,
and
benefitsare tallied,the clamorto find
nonpecuniary
work
reaches
feverpitch everymorning,when
backwardness).
factory
ThereactionamongKolisto thissortofstereotyping
isa
workers
line
aspiring
upin frontof theGE-Apar
complex.
mixof disdainanddefiance.Manyspeakaboutthestigma Whenaskedto explaintheattraction
ofuncertainfactory
of workingas laborersfor Patels, given that their
work,severalKolisin the queueof workersclaimedthey

were tiredof beinggoadedby Patelfarmemployers;a few
Kolis took the stance that factory work was more
"prestigious"than farm work by invoking an inverted
form of a Gujaratiproverbthat has become popularin
centralGujarat:
Originalproverb
Khetiuttam("Cultivation
best"),
195
ogists of work to caution againstnarrativesof migration

that identifydeclining economic securityas the sole or
overridingcauseof the phenomenon.Such accounts,they
claim, are liable to be incomplete, or even misplaced,
becausethey exclude hermeneuticinvestigationinto the
variedperceptionsand desiresof migrantsand altogether
overlookhow migrationreflectsand endowsagency(Ong
1987;Safa 1990;Wolf 1992;Mills 1999).
Vyaparmadhyam("Trademiddling"),
Naukrikanisht
("Salaried
jobworst").
The Lodhas of Midnapore District, West Bengal
Invertedform
The conflictedrelationshipthat landlessLodhatribals

in westernMidnapore,West Bengal,bearto farmworkis
revealing in this regard.One immediatelynoteworthy
featureof this relationshipis its similarityto the attitudes
of the Kolisof centralGujaratand the Halpatisof south
Gujarat.Historically,the imperativesof rain-fedagriculture placed the landed, higher-casteMahato farmersin
relationsof dominanceover Lodha labor.An economic
hierarchy based in control over cultivable land (the
primarymeansof production)wasreinforcedby a cultural
hierarchythat privilegedMahato agronomicknowledge
and farm-managementskills. Lodhas,meanwhile,were
disparagedby the cultivatingMahatoand Santhalgroups
for their poor cultivation skills. Lately,Lodha laborers
have begun to counterthese allegationsof ignoranceand
sloth by pointingto decliningstandardsof remuneration
for farmwork and the remindersit carriesof historical
processes of dispossessionand denigration that have
created their current status as Midnapore'slandless
proletariat.While the various income-earningoptions
open to Lodhasdifferlittle in strictlymonetaryterms,20
the evaluation of these options by Lodha workers is
coloredbysocialmemoriesof dependencyon the Mahatos
and the Lodhas'compulsion,as a result,to performtasks
that they consider humiliating.This is the single most
importantreasonwhy the Lodhastry to avoidworkingin
agriculturefor the Mahatoswheneverpossible.
The case of the Lodhasillustratesthe ambivalenceof
"development,"both as a process of change and as a
signifierof aspirationswithin the context of a distinctive
"regionalmodernity."On the one hand, the storyof the
Lodhas-unrealizedland reformsand dashedhopesof an
agrariantransformationthroughcanal irrigation21-can
be written as a postdevelopmentcritique of "development." The emancipatorypromises of "development"
remain illusionary,but, through their discursiveoperations and appealto "expert"knowledge,they depoliticize
local strugglesand secure the status quo. We find this
postdevelopmentperspectiveonly partiallyconvincing.
Lodhaworkopportunitieshave alwaysfluctuatedwith
the fate of the drydeciduoussal (Shorearobusta)forestsof
ornonfarm
Naukriuttam("Salaried
jobbest"),
Vyaparmadhyam("Trademiddling"),
Khetikanisht
worst").
("Cultivation
The culturaldissentevident in the precedingexample
is reinforcedby Breman's(1996, 238) observationsabout
the motivationsof youngergenerationdalit migrantsin
south Gujarat:
The new generationof Halpatisseems to graspevery
to escapethe agrarian
regime.Awayfromthe
opportunity
theyearna fewextrarupees,
villageandfromagriculture,
mostlycounteredbygreatereffortbesidesthelongerjourey and
worktimes[emphasisadded] ... Hiredforthe dayas loader-
theseyoungmenandwomenstandin thebackof
unloader,
the truckwith their matesand enjoya freedomthat is
deniedthemwhenworkingin the fields.Forthem,thatis
alsothe attractionof the urbancasuallabormarkets.They
butatleastthey
arecertainlytreatedthereascommodities,
are not immediatelyidentifiedand stigmatizedas sala
Dubra. (author's emphasis for a derogatorylocal
termappliedby upper-casteemployersto the low caste
Halpatis)
One of the primarylessonswe learnfromtheseexamples
is that the linkbetweenmigrationand economicreasonis
lesssecurethanis conventionallypresupposedin migration
studies. It is, for instance, neither clear that migration
improveslivelihoodsecuritynor clearthat
unambiguously
lack of livelihood securityis the primarydeterminantof
migration. Relatively scant attention to the cultural
moldingof migrantagencyis a largepartof the problem.
While it is clearlyimportantto uncoverand publicizethe
abjecttreatmentof migrantworkersby powerfulemployers,19it is equallynecessaryto documentthe "quitedistinct
motivationsfor migration"and admit the possibilitythat
even in thosecaseswheremigrationis involuntaryworkers
mayin factsee "theirbargainingpowerimprovein relation
to local sourcearea employers"(Rogaly1999, 375). It is
preciselythis ingrained-and sometimeswitting-neglect
of migrantculturethat has recentlypromptedanthropol-
196
southern West Bengal: the collection of minor forest

produceforthe ForestDepartmentandits contractorshas
long been an importantsourceof supplementaryincome
for the Lodhas.But their exclusion froma development
programthat fleetinglypromisedthem the restoredstatus
of smallholderssabotageddeeplynurturedaspirationsfor
farmingand autonomy.This historicalcontext, and the
renewedsocialmemoriesof exclusionthat it containsfor
Lodhas, goes a long way in explaining the puzzling
preferenceof Lodhamen for coolieworkin local bazaars
over farm work, despite the physical hardship and
instabilityin employmentassociated with coolie labor.
However,not all Lodhamen can makerealthe aspiration
to abandonfarmworkforcooliework.Only thosewhocan
breakthe circle of debt and conscriptioncan make the
transition, and this is only possible when alternative,
seasonally reliable, nonfarm work becomes available.
Recently,with the active promotionof JFMinitiativesin
southwesternBengalby the state, regionalhierarchiesof
material and ideational domination have undergone a
markedtransformation.
Lodhasare acknowledgedexpertsof the jungle.They
have minute knowledgeof forest floraand fauna. Their
intimate knowledgeof forest productshas made them
valued participantsin JFM. State forestryofficialsand
local leaders actively seek to employ them in JFM
programs,often as vanmazdoor(forestlaborers)in Forest
Departmentnurseries.As opportunitiesfor alternative
employment and intraruralmigration expand, Lodha
women and men find themselves increasinglyable to
disengagethemselvesfromoppressiveworkrelationswith
Mahatos.Theirgrowingpreferenceforcashwagesoverinkind wages,which have been the historicalroute to debt
bondage,is one visibleexampleof their risingbargaining
power.In this alternativenarrative,which the Lodhas
themselvesvalorize,"development"in the form of JFM
becomesan avenue for "justice."
This "self-alienated"characterof "development"is
also evident in the life histories of female and male
migrantsfromdifferenttribaland caste groupsin Purulia
Districtof West Bengalthat Rogalyand Coppard(2002)
have recently begun to record. One such history,of a
woman they call Soma Mahato, reveals how regionally
uneven processesof developmentcan enable circuitsof
migrationthat are liberatory.22
Accordingto Rogalyand
Coppard(20),
Soma's
asawomanin
storycanbereadasoneofemancipation
termsof her move awayfromdifficultmarriages
towards
effectivelyrunninghouseholdaffairsin her natalvillage.
Whenshefirstmigrated
sherequired
herfather'spermission
andwasonlyallowedto gobecauseshewasaccompanied
by
hasbeencentralto hersmall-scale
relatives.Migration
but
of wealthforthe household,someof
steadyaccumulation
whichshe expectsto inherit.It has also enabledher to
purchasegoodson the journeyhome,includingthe blouse
andpetticoat,whicharesignsof upwardmobilityformany
women.She has a verypositiveviewof migration,
clearly
indicating,moreover,that it wasand continuesto be her
choice.
A recent econometric study by Haberfeldand colleagues(1999) on the impactof seasonalmigrationon the
social status and income levels of tribal households in
DungarpurDistrict of Rajasthan,on the border with
Gujarat,reinforcesRogaly'sethnographicfindingsfrom
West Bengal. The authorsnote that migrationis widespread,that migranthouseholdshave significantlyhigher
income levels than nonmigranthouseholds, and that
income frommigrantlaboraccounts"foralmost 60%of
their total annualincome" (Haberfeldet al., 487). More
pertinently, income from migration appears to allow
migranthouseholds to compensatefor structuraldisadvantagesin access to education and agriculturalincome
vis-a-vismoreprivilegedcaste groups.
Each of the cases cited above reveals the efforts of
subordinatedtribalor dalit groupsto reject their identificationby caste groupsas "inferior"
personswhosebodies
and laborscan be used, abused,and controlled.
The Vankarsof Central and North Gujarat
Consideralso the case of Vankars,a widespreaddalit
communityin Gujarat,traditionallyweaversby occupation,23 who came to be valued as paddy workersby
employersfrom the Patel and Rajput castes. This was
reputedlybecause they had nimble fingersthat allowed
them to transplantrice saplingsandweed fieldsfasterand
more expertlythan workersfromother laboringgroups.
But anotherreasonquicklysurfacesin conversationswith
Patel and Rajputemployers:namely, that unlike other
dalitgroups,Vankars"knewtheirplace"in society ("pota
ni jigya jaanta hata"). The implication is clear: Vankars
were docile and rarelyrancorousin their behaviorwith

upper castes, unlike their fellow dalits-the Rohits,
Vaghris,and Bhangis.As ably documented by Marxist
scholars, compliance or obedience is an attribute that
employersvalue in workers.
But today's Vankarsare different. Gidwani (1996)
interviewedtwentyVankarfamiliesin his censussurveyof
353 householdsin the centralGujaratvillage of Shamli.
Whereasolder-generationVankarsstill displaydeference
towardsupper-castegroups,youngergenerationVankars
openlydefythe prevalentcastehierarchy.Theirattireand

demeanorreflect their hostilityto caste norms:they are
invariablybetter dressedthan their upper-castecounterparts;they refuseto toleratethe use of the term dhed,a
derogativethat uppercastes frequentlyemploy in conversationsto describeVankars;and they place a premium
on educationas a markof theirdifference.It comes as no
surpriseto learn that the majorityof younger-generation
Vankarsare schooled outside the village (highesteducational attainment in years averages 9.11 in Vankar
households,as contrastedto 6.50 in Rajputand 10.88 in
Patelhouseholds).Halfof the twentyVankarhouseholds,
moreover, have family members engaged in nonfarm
employment:six workas clerksor chaperonesin the subdistrictheadquarter,two workin the diamond-polishing
industryin the city of Suratin southGujarat,one worksas
a civil engineer in the Public Works Departmentin a
provincialnorthGujaratcity,andone is a careerpolitician
(whose rise to prominencein local politics is signaled
by the enormous house he built in Shamli's Vankar
quarter).24
None of the Vankarsholdingnonfarmjobsis a woman.

The proximatereasonforthis imbalanceappearsto be the
fact that even the more educated among the younger
generationVankarwomenareunableto pursuejobsonce
marrieddue to patriarchalnormsthat prioritizehousehold
duties as the primaryobligation of married women.
Notwithstandingpersistentgenderinequitiesin employment and intrahouseholdrelations,however,migration
has clearly transformedthe political consciousness of
young Vankars (although more visibly among Vankar
men, who are ableto operatein the "public"sphere,than
Vankarwomen,whose participationin the publicdomain
remains tightly circumscribed).Ketanbhai Shamabhai
Parmar,son of a Vankaragevan(casteelder),told Gidwani
of the variousindignitieshis fatherhad to sufferin Shamli
as late as 1975-among them unpaid work (veth) for
prominentPatel familiesand restrictionsforbiddinghim
fromwalkingin the villagewithoutheadgearorwithinten
feet of a memberof the uppercastes, lest these actions
"pollute"villagehierarchs.Pointingto a portraitof B. R.
Ambedkar(the charismaticfounderof organizedtwentieth-century dalit politics in India), Ketanbhaivowed
that Vankarsand other dalits would one day displace
upper-casterulein Gujarat.In his view,educationleading
to off-farmemployment(preferablyin a secure government job) was key to this aspiration.With this goal in
mind, and at considerable personal expense, he has
recently dispatched his eleven-year-olddaughter to a
reputableboardingschool in the city of Ahmedabad.As
Tarlo(1996, 141) points out, Vankarsin Saurashtra(the
western expanse of Gujarat) have followed a roughly
similartrajectory:
197
Whiletheyarestillconsideredrituallyimpure,somehave
bothineducationand
madegooduseofgovernment
support
white-collar
andnowholdrelatively
prestigious
employment
Butif thesejobs,combined
jobs... in the cityof Larabad.
with the moneythey have generated,have made these
[Vankars]
slightlymorerespectedin the village,theyhave
alsomadethemmoreresented.
The Limits of Agency
As illustratedby the precedingcase studiesof the Kolis
and Vankarsof Gujaratand the Lodhasof West Bengal,
the growingparticipationof dalits and tribalsin circular
migration circuits carries with it a potential for their
economic and political empowerment,and may enable
membersof these subordinatedgroupsto contest placebasedhierarchies-indeed, to repudiatetheir"interpellation" (cf. Althusser 1971) as working bodies by the
dominantcastes.In someinstances,the diverselifeworlds
of associationandsignificationthat migrantsencounterin
the courseof theirtravelsmayleadto theirparticipationin
formal modes of political organizing,like unionization
effortsin small-scaleindustrieslike brick-making,
quarryareas
in
urban
Work
and
construction.
may
ing, dyeing,
also bring dalit and tribal migrantsinto contact with
politicalagendathat challengethe legitimacyof existing
caste and class hierarchiesand that suggestpossibilities
rival to their lived realities.This may happen either via
radicalnongovernmentalorganizationsworkingin areas
where migrants congregate or through contact with
activistsof dalit/lowercaste politicalparties,such as the
DalitPanthermovementorRashtriyaParty(RP)in western
India, the Puthiya Tamizhagamin TamilNadu, or the
BahujanSamajParty(BSP)in northernIndia.Engagement
with partyactivistsmay alertdalitsand tribalmigrantsto
the considerablepoliticalpowerthey can wield within a
democracyas a collectiveelectoralbloc (Pushpendra1999
furnishesempiricalevidenceforthis claim).
Regardlessof involvementwith organizedpolitics,the
travailsof migrationinvariablyproduce"streetsmarts"and, with them, an oppositionalconsciousness-that can
be mobilizedto resist subordinatingrelationsat home.25
Breman(1996, 42) recordsthe case of Babubhai,a dalit
fromone of his studyvillageswho migratedto Bombayand
returnedaftereighteenyears:
Bombayhad been a hard trainingschool where Babubhai
expandedhissocialhorizonsandacquireda rebelliousattitude
towardsworkbosses,slumlords,authoritiesand otherpower
holders.He now earnsan independentlivingdoingplastering
and painting work.... He refuses, however, to work as
laborerforlessthanminimumwage.Never again,
agricultural
198
he has assuredme morethan once, will he acceptsuch

treatment.
While these variedinstancesof politicaloppositionare
importantremindersof the spaces of cultural assertion
that can takeshapewhenmigrantsubjectsunderminethe
sedentaristmetaphysicsof modem formsof domination,it
is equallyimportantnot to be naivelycelebrationist.The
limits on counterhegemonicpractices by subordinated
groupsare real and formidable.Forinstance, as Breman
and Das (2000) observe, unionization attempts by
migrantsare sporadicand rarelysuccessful. Moreover,
fearingthe politicalassertivenessofdalitsandtribals,caste
groupshave adopteda varietyof tacticsto mitigateagainst
a loss of control over their pools of laborpower.These
tacticsattemptto renderdalit and triballaborers"immobile"and to preventthe growthof politicaloppositionand
bargaining
powerthatcircularmigrationmayproduce.The
followingexamplefromone of Gidwani'sstudyvillagesin
central Gujaratillustratesthe effortsof caste groupsto
regulatedalitsas "bodiesforlabor."
The Harijans of Village Astha, Kheda District,
Gujarat26
The Harijans(Bhangis)of Astha own eleven acresof

land,fiveownedbyBholabhaiChhaganbhaiHarijan.Four
of these five acres are unirrigatedgoraduthat is able to
produceonly one cropannually;one acreis irrigatedkyari
land, which can be double-cropped.Bholabhaiis fortunate. The other Bhangishave smallerplots and survive
largelyon wagelabor.The Bhangishave traditionallyhada
stronglyclientalistrelationshipwith uppercastes.Several
have worked,at one time or another,as mahinadars(farm
servants;literally,"monthlycontractors")for Brahmins
and Patels in Astha. Because cultivatorshave begun to
perceive permanentlabor contracts as more expensive
than casual labor contracts, and because the younger
generationof Harijansresentsthe element of unfreedom
that permanent contracts contain, the prevalence of
mahinadari
has declined.A few decadesago almostevery
upper-castecultivators had one or more mahinadars,
servility being an emblem of status; today, only two
Harijansworkas mahinadars.
The recentintroductionof canalirrigationinto the area
and the use of tractors, mechanical threshers, and
combine-harvestershas transformedproduction,raising
croppingintensity.Accordingto the Harijans,agricultural
mechanizationhas led to only a slightreductionin labor
demandscomparedto the pre-irrigation
scenario.Soil and
climaticconditionsmake it difficultto switch awayfrom
rice;moreover,rice productionis not readilyamenableto
mechanization.
weeding,fertilizing,and
Transplanting,
operations.The harvesting
wateringarelabor-intensive
andthreshingof the ricecroparetheonlytwooperations
wherelaborcanbe replacedwithrelativeease.Whilethe
use of mechanicalthreshersis catchingon, adoptionis
slow,becausecultivatorsfeel mechanicalthreshingresults
in greaterdamageto the grain.Meanwhile,the use of

combineharvestersis constrainedby plot size and soil
cannotmaneuverwellin smallplots
texture.Harvesters
withawkward
corers, andtheytend to flounderin the
loamyclay soil aroundAstha.
sticky,water-retentive,
Giventhat cultivatorsaremarriedto paddycultivation
for the foreseeablefuture,they dependon laborand
them, includingthe
pursuestrategiesto "discipline"
active recruitmentof migrantworkersfromadjoining
alsoattemptto control
Panchmahal
District.Cultivators
theHarijans'
accessto themeansofproduction,
including
andgovernmental
surplusvillagegrazinglands(gauchar)
loans. The Bhangisbelieve that the
small-enterprise
is
cultivable.
Hasthesalt-affected
gauchar
gaucharin the
of
Limbdevi
not
been
givento members
adjoining
village
frombackwardcommunities,they ask, and has it not
become cultivable?The Bhangissay that they have
to thedistrictcollector(DC)to award
repeatedly
appealed
themgaucharlands.The DC evidentlybearsno objecthatthevillagecouncil(gram
is
tions,provided
panchayat)
agreeable.Yet,the grampanchayathead (sarpanch)-a
Patel-refusesthe request,declaringthatthe landis for
theoptimisticappraisal
grazing
villagecattle.Apparently,
of the Bhangisregarding
the gaucharis at variancewith
theopinionsof castegroupsin thevillage,particularly
the
Patelelite, who categorically
assertthat the gaucharis
unfitforcultivation.
TheHarijans
feelthatthisdenialofgaucharlandsis an
attemptby land-owningcaste groupsto keep them
landlessandidle,so thatlargerfarmerscan continueto
havereadyaccessto a "reservearmy"of underemployed
workers.If dalitswereto becomelanded,laborscarcity
wouldincreaseand agricultural
wageswouldrise.But,
moredamagingly
forthe villageelite,dalitsmightbe able
to accumulatesavingsto realizetheir aspirationsfor
nonfarmwork.BholabhaiChhaganbhai
Harijanclaims
thatthisistheprimary
reasonwhythePatelsarpanch
does
not heed his loan petitions:BholabhaiChhaganbhai
wantsto setupa smallretailshopin thevillagebutcannot
applyfor a governmentloan without the sarpanch's
form.He narratedan
signatureon the loan application
instancewhen the sarpanchrejectedhis requestfor a
signaturewith the remark:"ShoonBhola,kyaanpaisa
malshe?Aa dhandhani vaatchhod,majurimadhyaanraakh"
("What,Bhola,whowillgiveyoua loan?Dropthisideaof
a businessand concentrateon work").
Resistancethroughthe ConsumingBody
Giventhe difficultiessubordinated
groupsfacein overtly
social
relations,the norm is a more
resistingexploitative
often
obtuse
subdued,
repudiationof place-specificsocial
hierarchiesthrough"aesthetictransgressions"
that recast
bodiesandthereforethe bodypolitic.27As Bourdieu(1984,
56-57) writes,"The most intolerablething forthose who
regardthemselvesas possessorsof legitimateculture [i.e.,
dominant groups]is the sacrilegiousreunitingof tastes
which taste dictates shall be separated. . . [because]
[t]astes are the practical affirmationof an inevitable
difference."Aesthetic transgressionschallenge this inevitability and the doxa that sustains extant power
relations.These trangressionstakemanyforms,including
nonconformistattire,speakingstyles,mannerisms,diets,
andconsumptionhabits.In short,theybespeaka "cultural
style,"28a term we borrow from anthropologistJames
Ferguson(1999, 83), who found that migrantworkersin
the urbanCopperBelt of Zambia,in "consideringhow one
mightsucceedor failin the taskof 'goinghome'to a rural
area ... turnedquicklyfromquestionsof remittancesto
mattersof dress,styles of speech, attitudes,habits,even
body carriage."29
Consumption and Politics
During field work in TiruvannamalaiDistrict, Tamil
Nadu, in June 1997, Sivaramakrishnanobserved that
dominantpeasantand businesscastes who reside in the
plains area nurture deep antagonismtowardsMalayali
tribalsfromthe JavadiHills. Over the past decade, these
tribalshave begunto participatein seasonallaborcircuits
thatcrisscrossTamilNadu andadjoiningKarataka. Their
travels have generated money and growing disdain
towardsthe plainselite. Resentfulover this loss of social
controland superiorstandingvis-a-visthe Malayalis,one
farmerin the villageof Chengamtold Sivaramakrishnan
with considerable indignation that "[T]he Malayali
returnsfromurbanworkwith lots of cash and then buys
fancy face creamsin the local store while we [the local
farmers]continue to use cheap soaps!"
Writingon ruralBangladeshiwomen'sgrowingparticipation in the urbanworkforce-particularlyin publicfirmsin Dhakasectoremploymentandexport-processing
the
Feldman
ambivalence
of, and
(1992) captures
Shelley
transformationsin, body practices associated with the
migrationprocess.Accordingto her (123-24), migration
"[o]n the one hand . . . provide[s] women with an
opportunityfor employmentpreviouslydenied them. On
the otherhand... [it] tie[s] womento formsof obligation
and socialcontrolthat establishnew formsof subordina-
199
tion and domination."Youngunmarriedwomen are

attractedto urbanemployment
becauseit allowsthem
to exert "independencefrom male familymembers'
inter- and
control,"to engage in "unaccompanied
"new
travel"
and
intracity
consumption
patterns,"and
to"leavethesariandburkha
behindanddonshalwar(long
shirt)andcomise(loosetrousers)to reflecttheirageand
mobility"(Feldman,122).
Why do parentspermityoungwomento travelto
Dhaka?One explanation
mostcertainlyseemsto be "the
slowerosionofeconomicsecurity"
(Feldman
1992,121)at
home.But an equallyvalidone that Feldmandoesnot
is thelikelihood
thatrepatriated
incomesfrom
foreground
for
generateconsumption
working
daughters
opportunities
status.
In
that
enhance
the
social
short,
family's
parents
thelack
whereas
earlier"aworking
oftensignified
daughter
of concernwithpurdahandappropriate
femalebehavior
andwasinterpreted
other
as
the
by
villagers representing
lackof familystatusandresources"
(Feldman,117),the
carried
consumer
by"modern"
charged
significations
goods
mayhave the capacityto counteractsocialnormspreandpatriarchal
Asseveral
dicateduponreligious
ideologies.
theoristshave pointedout (Bourdieu1984 and Miller
1995bare representative),
consumptioncan offernew
andstatus,andevensupplythe
sourcesofsocialdistinction
semioticelementsfora counterhegemonic
vocabulary.
Mills'
Beth
(1997,
1999)
Mary
studyof Thai rural
womenshowsthey are attractedto urbanemployment
becauseofbothongoingobligations
to assistcash-strapped
to pursuepersonal
ruralhouseholdsand opportunities
with
autonomyandself-expression
throughengagement
She
that
and
urban"modernity" "progress." argues despite
diverse backgrounds,these women found common
groundin the labormovement(in whichthey became
resiinvolvedafterworkingand establishing
temporary
denceinBangkok).
were
able
to
new
They
explore waysof
themselves
and
their
about
genderedexperithinking
ences. Throughlimitedmeans and opportunitiesfor
oppositionalexpression,unionizedmigrantsbegan to
contestinequitable
laborrelationsandgenderroles,and
of
learnedhowto presstheirdemandsthrougha discourse
as
workers
and
as
women.
"rights"
AttireandPolitics
Garmentis a centralelementin dalitbodypolitics
that have been
because of the severe proscriptions
the
castes
on
their
dress
(see Tarlo
by
upper
imposed
1996). Under the old jajman(patron)system,it was
fordalitsto receiveclothingfromtheirjajman
customary
at festivaltime.Dalitswerealmostuniversally
prohibited
fromwearingheadgearof anysortin the presenceof an
200
uppercaste;in partsof TamilNadu, they were prohibited

from carryingan umbrellaor wearinga shirt, shoes, or
sunglasses. More degradingly,until the 1930s, dalit
women in Ramnad District of Tamil Nadu were not
allowedto cover theirbreastsor weara sarithat reached
below the ankle, and dalit men were compelledto wear
loinclothsthat could not reachbelow the knees (Deliege
1999, 107). Historian Chris Bayly (1986, 286), in a
provocative essay on the politics of attire within
Indiansociety,observesthat one of the most important
"uses of cloth in the social process . . . [is] its use in
symbolizingstatus or in recordingchanges of status."
While this functionis common to all societies, there is a
special significancegranted to cloth in many regionsof
India:
mediumwasconceivedasa unique
[C]lothasa transactional
or
conveyorof spiritand substance,holy,strengthening,
of
cloth
different
or
Thus,
textures,
colors,
polluting.
origins
coulddo morethansimplyimpartinformation
in society;it
could changethe moraland physicalsubstanceof the
individual....Cloth,then,wasalmostliterallyasintegralto
the personashisskin(Bayly1986,287,291).
On a field visit in June 1999 to the village of
Vanampuram,a multicaste periurbanvillage just a few
miles out of the town of Tiruvannamalai,we received a
first-hand introduction to the politics of attire. In
conversation with a local landownerand politician, a
memberof the sociallydominantbut numericallysmall
Agemudicaste,we inquiredaboutlaboravailabilityin the
village for agriculturaloperations.Our informantcomplained bitterly about labor scarcity. He told us that
younger-generationdalits in the village, who constitute
the bulk of the rural workforce, prefer to work in
construction and urban industries in Hosur, Tiruppur,
and other industrialcenters in south India. Then, with
obviousire, he mockedthe dalitson theirnewlyacquired
dress habits: "They parade around in jeans and costly
sports shoes." Although the dalits are still overtly
deferentialtowardsthe local elite, their preferencefor
migratory work and consumption of Western attire
indicates to landed groups like the Kurumbarand
Agemudisthat the traditionalsocialorderis undersiege.
Fieldobservationsmadeby FrenchanthropologistRobert
Deliege in anotherpartof ruralTamilNadu on the social
conditionsof the dalit Paraiyarssupportsthis conclusion.
He (1999, 111) writes that when it comes to clothing,
dalits are requiredto dress with a certain humility,and
that young dalits"liketo tell how furiousit makeshighcaste people to see them dressed in fashion; and this
stylishnesscan sparkreactionsrangingfrom sarcasmto
blows."
Consideralso the politicsof culturalstyle in Valiyambadu, a multicaste study village, where dalit families
constitute over 40 percent of the village residents (687
families). At the time when migration details were
collected, in the fall of 2000, 15 percentof all familiesin
the village (110 families)were engagedin some type of
migration.Circularmigrationwas the dominant form,
involving 72 families.Of these, nearly two-thirdswere
fromdalithouseholds,anddestinationsincludedthe cities
of Tiruppur,
Chennai,andBangalore.Migrantsengagedin
unskilledlabor and semiskilledemployment,a common
vocation being masonrywork at construction sites in
Bangalore.About a dozen dalit migrantshad mustered
resources to set up petty businesses in Chennai and
now
Tiruppur(forexample,one barberfromValiyambadu
his
trade
in
while
another
dalit
has
a
plies
Tiruppur,
in
60
In
of
the
circular
tailoringshop Chennai).
percent
migrationcases,young,single sons left for Kerala,Coorg,
Bangalore, and Chennai to work in construction, as
coolies in public-worksprojects, as seasonal labor in
at
plantations,and as attendantsor guards(chowkidars)
privatefirmsandhomes.They contributedremittancesto
their rural,impoverishedfamiliesin Valiyambadu,along
with urbanstylesand city fashionsto theirpeers,younger
siblings,and other childrenin the village.
In other cases, nucleated dalit families traveled to
Bangalore, where the men found work as masons,
carpenters,and bricklayersand the women worked as
unskilledlabor in the same constructionsites or, occasionally,ventured into neighboringresidentialareas to
workas domesticservants.These youngmen and women
returned to Valiyambaduas bearersof "cosmopolitan"
lifestyles,in the clothes they wore, the sightsand images
they described,and the urban work opportunitiesthey
relayed to kin and neighbors.Their comportmentand
display irritatedlanded families from the Agemudiyar,
Vellala,Naidu, and Kurumbacastes, who, habituatedto
subserviencefrom older dalits, witnessed these changes
dalitswith consternation.30
amongyounger-generation
Consumption as Counterhegemony
The dalits of Vanambaramand Valiyambadumay or
may not consider their consumptionand labor deployment choices acts of "resistance."But if we judge
resistancethroughpoliticaleffectratherthan intent,it is
abundantlyclearthat dalitbodypracticesareexperienced
negativelyby the dominantgroupas a repudiationof their
socialcodes and hierarchies-in otherwords,as elements
of a "counterhegemony."
Bourdieu(1984, 57) remindsus
that an importantfunctionof the workingclasses,in any

society,is to "serveas foil, a negative referencepoint, in
relation to which all aesthetics define themselves, by
successivenegations"-in short, as the "abjectother"or
constitutiveoutsideof "civilized"society.But what if the
workingclassesshouldviolatethe aesthetichierarchyand
begin to exhibit dispositions that were hitherto the
purview of the elite, making elite identity insecure?31
Indeed,caste elites in TamilNadu (and elsewhere)have
respondedby reinforcingsocialhierarchiesin a varietyof
ways. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, members of the
dominantcastes are exhibitingrenewedinterest in local
historyandsponsoringthe discoveryof hero-stonesburied
in the landscapethat consolidate their claims to have
settled and "civilized"the villagesin which they live. The
ancestral exploits of caste groups are celebrated in
vernacular newsletters and caste forums, and new
strugglesover village temples and access to them are
emergingin villagesaroundour studyareain TiruvannamalaiDistrict.
Ourargument,quitesimply,is that muchof sociallife is
about marking"distance"and naturalizing"difference."
And distanceand differencearetypicallyplottedthrough
the invention of aesthetic hierarchiesand dispositions,
which include formsof consumptionand the mannerin
which laboris deployed.We do not argue,however,that
suchexpressionsof "bodypolitics"aresymptomaticof late
capitalistmodernity.The historicalrecordof migrationis
instructive. Early nineteenth-century migrants from
northernTamilNadu were poor, lower-caste,and from
drylandareas like Tiruvannamalaithat were well connected to Madrasand Pondicherry(Barnabas1991). The
flowof migrantsthickenedas Tenassarimwas conquered,
and plantationswere establishedin Sri Lanka,Mauritius
and the West Indies. The abolition of slaveryin 1834
provided a great impetus to these flows, made up
preponderantlyof men (Geoghehan1873, 4-22). By the
early twentieth century,migrantsfrom northern Tamil
Nadu'sdrylandsand hill areaswere also supplyingfactory
demandsin westernIndia,Burma,and the Gangesdelta.
These factoryworkers,like ourcontemporaryinformants,
"cherishedthe hope of returning"home with assets and
on Laborin
socialstanding(Reportof theRoyalCommission
India 1931, 13).32 And, like the Tamilian plantation
workers who traveled to the Caribbean and Straits
Settlements in the previous century, factory migrants
went to extraordinary
lengths to accumulateand repatriate wealth to their homes.33The memoriesand social
consequences of such travel and return worked to
consolidatea regionallymodem historyof mobility.
Over the pasttwentyyears,it is the growingintensityof
circularmigrationby dalit and tribal groupsin dryland
India that is of strikinginterest. Their travels present
201
fromthecolonialperiod.
aspectsofcontinuityandrupture
Forinstance,the hill-tribeMalayalisof the Javadisare
relativenewcomersto such travel,which takes them
acrossdistrictand state boundaries.A groupof six
of 1999thatneitherthey
informants
toldusinthesummer
nor theirparentshad traveledto constructionsites in
in the Coorg,beforethe 1980s;
orplantations
Bangalore,
theirmigrations
arestillorganized
aroundthesowingand
of
rice
in
(samai) the monsoonseason
harvesting dry
A
motivationformigrationis
(July-December). primary
the prospectof lump-sumearningsthatareusedforthe
in
ofhigh-interest
debtsowedtomoneylenders
liquidation
the JavadiHills. Brideprice,house-building,
and the
ofcigarettes,
consumption
soaps,radios,watches,clothes,
Insharpcontrastto the
andshoesareadditional
priorities.
tribalMalayalis,dalit youth migrantsfrom adjoining
plainsvillageswere more likelyto use the migration
forsemiskilled
experienceto enhancetheirqualifications
workand elude the drudgeryof farmworkfor caste
landowners.Some stressed prospectsfor economic
to workfor,and
mobilityby highlightingopportunities
learn, tile manufactureas it mushroomedarounda
boomingconstructionindustryin expandingtowns.
Othersunderscored
the excitementof traveland the
new-foundsolidaritythey experiencedwith dalit coworkersas theyjourneyedthroughsouthIndiaerecting
and disbandingtemporarystructures(pandals)used
for politicalmeetings,governmentfunctions,festivals,
andfairs.34
ProvincializingMigration,Modernity,
andDevelopment
criticalof
SilveyandLawson(1999,122)arejustifiably
to
that
have
evaluated
economistic
approaches migration
it as part of a prefigured"Westernmodernization
andso haveauthorized
theoreticalexclusions
trajectory,
of development
itself as contested and problematic"
(emphasisin original).We interprettheir claimsas a
basedon
corrective
to conventional
migration
scholarship
two relativelyrecent strandsof theorizing.First,their
articleinvokespostcolonialscholarshipbecausesuch
demandforthe
containsa cognitive-political
scholarship
the dedecolonizationof representation-specifically,
oftheWest'stheoryofthenon-West.
colonization
Second,
whichassails
scholarship,
theyappealto postdevelopment
thatimposesits
discourse
asa Eurocentric
"development"
visionon the worldthrough
andteleological
normalizing
and
semioticcategories,
anensembleofsocialinstitutions,
the
realms
of
that
subjectivity,
thought,
practices regulate
andaction(Sachs1992;Ferguson1994;Crush1995).
202
We have no disaffectionwith either postcolonialor

postdevelopmentscholarshipat these general levels of
characterization;indeed, we are sympathetic to their
effortsto create a counterspacefor representationaland
politicalpractice.Ourdisquietstemsfromthe fact that in
their attempts to destabilize the master narrativesof
modernity,both postcolonialandpostdevelopmentscholarshiphave tended to portray"modernity"and"development"as monolithic,depoliticizingprocesses,everywhere
the same and alwaystaintedbeyondredemptionby their
progressivistEuropeanprovenance.Setting up the target
of criticism in this manner has led many postcolonial
scholars to privilege what David Scott (1999, 135)
perceptivelysummarizesas the "responsibilityto otherness" over the "responsibilityto act"-in other words,
"the opening up of cognitive space for the play of
differenceoverthe affirmationof institutionalframeworks
that embody normative political values and normative
political objectives." Postdevelopment scholars have
similarlytended towardsa celebration of "difference."
The logical endpoint of their critique has been the
celebrationof "antidevelopment,"an inversionarydiscourse that is "retrieved"by foregroundingforms of
cultural difference that "development"has tended to
homogenizeor suppress,and by recoveringthe hitherto
silenced communitarian,antimarket, antidevelopment
voices of "development's"
countlessvictims (Sachs1992;
Estevaand Prakash1996; Rahnemaand Bawtree1997).
It is in this spiritof recoverythat we can readSilveyand
Lawson's(1999, 123) call to researchersto interpretthe
"voices of migrantsthemselves as theoreticallymeaningful"as a way of problematizing"development"and
of placeas undeveloped,backcritiquing"categorizations
ward,and traditional."While we are sympatheticto this
spirit, however, we feel it is necessary for migration
researchersto be aware of the large debate that has
circulatedwithinpostcolonialstudieson the epistemologicalpossibilityandmethodologicalchallengesof recovering "subaltern"voices (see endnotes 35 and 36). This is
particularlyproblematicwhen the underlyingconceptualizationof poweris the Foucauldianone of "biopower"or
"disciplinary
power"-as, in fact,it is formostpostcolonial
and postdevelopmentscholarship.If biopoweris indeed
the practicalmanifestationof the modem power/knowledge regimeof socialcontrol,then it is difficultto see how
an antidisciplinarianagency can be meaningfullyrecovered.35Afterall,biopowerowesits nameto the factthat"it
penetratesdeeplyinto the reifiedbodyandconfiscatesthe
whole organism along the subtle paths of scientific
objectificationandsubjectivitygeneratedby technologies
of truth"(Habermas1996, 285). Where such a notion of
power inspires the Foucauldianpostdevelopment/post-
colonialcritiqueof modernity,
it leaveslittleroomforthe
sortofoppositional
consciousness
ortransformative
actsof
resistance(ratherthansimplyactsof resistancethatare
enabledbypowerandreproduce
it) thatwe takeasmarks
of counterhegemonicagency.36
Wemerelypointthisout as a methodological
conundrumwithinthe development-as-discourse
In
argument.
our view, it is more analyticallyconsistentto regard
developmentas a systemof hegemonicideas,following
ratherthansaturating,
whose
Gramsci,thatis perforated
must
be
and,which,as
legitimacy
constantlyreproduced,
is
to
contestation.37
As William
such, potentiallyopen
understood
Roseberry(1996, 77) pointsout, "Gramsci
andemphasized,
moreclearlythandidhisinterpreters,
the
of
coercion
and
consent
in
situations
of
complexunity
domination.
was
more
a
material
and
Hegemony
political
conceptin Gramsci's
usagesthatit hassincebecome...
of hege[Indeed,]Gramsciwell understoodthe fragility
in
mony"(emphasis original).
Ourmoredeep-seatedconcernwiththe Foucauldian
as partand
critiqueis thatwhileit exposesdevelopment
parcelof a Eurocentricdiscourseof modernity,it unskepticallyaccepts the idea that modernityemerged
in Europeandlaterspread,viacolonialism,
autonomously
to therestoftheworld.Thisformulation
neverentertains
the possibilitythat the rationalizing
processeswithin
economyand societythat we typicallyassociatewith
modernity(capitalistproduction,divisionof labor,contractualexchange,bureaucratic
themapadministration,
of
betweenstate
ping peopleandplaces,the disjuncture
andcivilsociety,andthe ascendance
of "science")
might
havesproutedat differenttimes,on differentlevels,over
differentscales,andin differentculturalincarnations
in
variousregionsof the world,quite autonomouslyof
Europeaninfluence.Scholarsof differenttheoretical
haverecognized,
forinstance,the distinctive
persuasion
historicalprocessescontributing
to the constructionof
Indianmodernities.ParthaChatterjee(1997, 198) has
thispointin his discussionof nationrecentlyillustrated
states and modernity,in which he says, "[T]here
cannotbe justone modernityirrespective
of geography,
time,environmentand socialconditions.The formsof
modernitywill have to varyamongdifferentcountries
depending upon specific circumstancesand social
practices."
Suchomissionsin the conventionalFoucauldian
take
on "modernity"
renderthe recentliteratureon "alternativemodernities"
salient.Asweviewit, the
particularly
intellectualandpoliticalmotivationof thisliterature
has
been to vemacularizeEurowestern
modernity(henceforth,Modernity)by unsettlingits pretensionsto universality,by arguingthat Modernity"imposesa false
on thediverseandmultipleencounters
ofnonuniformity
Westerncultureswiththe allegedlyculture-neutral
forms
ofsocietalmodernization"
andprocesses...characteristic
1999,15).
(Gaonkar
task
Despitethissharedpoliticalimpulse,thepractical
of provincializing
Modernityhas been undertakenby
scholarsin quitedifferentways.The firstis a "cultural"
farfromreplicating
thatModernity,
anglewhichmaintains
itselfin itsownimage(theconvergence
theoryof societal
studiesand
modernization
thatlurksinclassicalmigration
thatthenewmigration
scholarssoundlycritique),unfolds
"withina specificculturalor civilizational
contextand
thatdifferentstartingpointsforthe transitionto modernity lead to differentoutcomes"(Gaonkar1999, 15).
Scholarswho subscribeto this viewpoint(exemplars
include Lee 1993; Appadurai1996; Gaonkar1999)
that arisesfromthe
tend to stressthe cosmopolitanism
flow
of
and
and the
commodities
ideas,images,
global
in
is
which
multiple-oftensubversive-ways
modernity
"consumed."
The secondanglefromwhich Modernityhas been
isthe"political";
andheretheobjectivehasbeen
critiqued
to provincialize
Reasonand illustratethe ambivalent
encounterof Europewith colonizedsocieties.While
the influenceof Westernpoliticalideas
acknowledging
suchas "secularism,"
and"jus"democracy,"
"equality,"
tice"on the politicalimaginaries
nurturedin anticolonial
struggles,scholarssuch as Chatterjee(1993), Prakash
(2000) have been at painsto
(1999), and Chakrabarty
showhowthe historicistassumptions
embodiedin these
andreinterpreted
Westernideaswereupstaged
bycolonial
Adherents
of
the
subjects.38
"political"critiquehave
soughtnot so much to reject the liberatoryimpulse
idealsof Modernityas
containedin the universalizing
much as to showhow the diffusionof these idealsin
colonizedsocietieswassociallyandspatially
uneven,and,
moreimportantly,
thatthepromiseoffreedomheldoutby
Modernitywas alwaystaintedby the violence of its
imposition.
A third angle from which the metanarrativeof
Modernityhas been challengedis best describedas the
"articulationist"
angle. Here, the effort has been to
betweennon-Western
historical
continuities
demonstrate
andWesternformsofeconomicandpoliticalorganization.
Thus,withinthe Indiancontextwe havebegunto learn
of the seventeenthand
fromrevisionisthistoriographies
the
about
centuries
emergenceof
eighteenth
precolonial
in theeconomyandpatternsofmoder
relations
capitalist
state formationthat were later adapted,ratherthan
supplanted,undercolonialism(for key syntheses,see
1992;BoseandJalal1997,
Bayly1990;Subrahmanyam
48-56).
203
We incorporateeach of these three perspectivesin our

concept of "regionalmodernities,"which we considera
theoreticallyconsistent,empiricallynuanced, and politically radicalway of advancingthe critique of classical
migrationstudies and Modernityinitiated by the new
migrationscholars.Thus, the idea of "regionalmodernities"has a triadicstructure.First,we emphasizethe flow
of ideas, images, and goods and how these facilitate a
counterhegemonicpolitics of consumptionamong subordinatedgroups.Second, we underscorethe ambivalent
and self-alienatedcharacterof "modernity"and "development." This formulation,on the one hand, means
acknowledgingthe (materialand symbolic)violence of
these hegemonicformationsin agreementwith postcolonial and postdevelopmentcritics.On the other hand, it
leaves open the possibilityfor the appropriationof the
practices and languagesof "modernity"and "development"bysubordinategroupsin emancipatoryways.Thisis
preciselywhy we argueagainsta discursivedeterminism
that seems to precludea spacefor the politicaland argue
insteadfor situating"modernity"and "development"as
hegemonizingprocesses that are brittle and open to
contestation.39We also insert here the notion of the
materialinto the concept of hegemonyby suggestingthat
counterhegemonicstrugglesby subordinategroups are
conducted throughthe languageof "bodypolitics"that
consistsof two lexicalelements:first,the recastingof the
workingbody,and,second,the recastingof the consuming
body.The third componentof our concept of "regional
modernities"emphasizesa movementawayfromstagistor
transitionnarrativesof modernitythat tend to reinforcea
Eurocentricview of the worldand towardsarticulationist
narrativesthat underscorediscontinuitiesand continuitiesbetweenprecolonial,colonial,andpostcolonialsocial
formations.What is differentaboutmigrationin the late
twentieth century is not migration itself, but how
habituallyit is undertakenand what it can symbolically
accomplish for the migrant through the avenues of
consumptionand labordeployment.40
Conclusion
Our essayhas askedtwo broadquestions:First,how do
circularmigrantscreate spaces for culturaland political
assertionwithin the context of "regionalmodernities"?
And second, what role do culturalpolitics play in the
subjectiveexperienceand assessmentof circularmigration? These questions relate in importantways to the
historical centrality of migration in the struggle for
livelihoodsecurity-a chronicproblemin drylandIndia,
even for villagerswith means and status. Peoplefromall
204
groups-high and low castes, landlordsand laborers,

artisansandserviceworkers-havemigranthistoriesin
theirfamilies.However,patternsof migrationand the
ofmobilityandsubjectformation
within
specificdynamics
the contextof place-basedhierarchiesand inequalities
havevariedbygroupsandovertimeandspace.
Ouressayquitedeliberately
focuseson the migratory
experiencesof dalitsand tribalsin the late twentieth
in
centuryandtriesto askwhethermobilityatthisjuncture
timehasenabledthesehistorically
to
marginalized
groups
opposethe hegemonyof dominantcastegroupsin their
home villagesand regions.In underscoring
a historic
we intendto drawattentionto twoaspectsof
"moment,"
life in India.First,we wantto emphasizethat
agrarian
circularmigrationhas been a longstandingsurvival
strategyfor dalitsand tribalsin drylandIndia-at least
since the colonial period, if not earlier.As such,
experiencesof mobilityhave been integralto the
fromTiruvannamalai
have been willingto travelgreat
distancesin orderto accumulate
andremitsurpluses-all
partof theirunequalstrugglesforrecognitionin a place
theycontinueto calltheirsonthauuru(nativeplace).One
futureresearchdirectionforourprojectis to document
of migration,differentiated
familybiographies
by caste,
religion,ethnicity,and genderand explorehow varied
of "migrant
experiences
(the cultural,
cosmopolitanism"
political,and economicresourcesenabledby mobility)
have influencedanticolonial,national,andnow subnationalpolitics.
Thisbringsustothesecondaspectofagrarian
lifeatthis
historicalconjuncture.
Wewantto suggestthatpolitical
in Indiaoverthepastfifteenyearsasa resultof
upheavals
the "seconddemocratic
2000)-a referupsurge"(Yadav
ence to the rise of dalit, tribal,and other minority
in electoralandotherpoliticalprocesses
in a
participation
more open, assertiveway41-may be responsiblefor
subjectivitiesand cultural/politicalaspirationsof these
enabling previouslyunimaginablecounterhegemonic
andTamil practicesbydalitsandtribals.Indeed,evenaswepresent
groups.DalitsandtribalsfromBengal,Gujarat,
Nadu have traverseda bewilderingarrayof migratory evidenceof "bodypolitics"in thisarticle,we aregroping
circuits.Theyhavetraveledasagricultural
workers
to the
to answera muchlargerquestion:whetherdalitandtribal
fertileagricultural
asagents
plainsof the Indianrivervalleys,as
are,wittinglyorunwittingly,
migrants
operating
workers
to tea,coffee,andrubber
estatesin the
forthe diffusionof politicalsensibilities
acrossthe rural
plantation
the impetusto regionalpolitical
Nilgiri hills of southwesternIndian, the Himalayan landscapeandproviding
foothillsin the north,and the hillytractsof northeast movements-severalof whichexplicitlyclaimdalitand
tribalsubalters as their primaryconstituenciesand
BengalandAssam,as mineworkersto minesandallied
industriesin easternandsouthernIndia,as indentured challengenot merelyregionalhierarchiesbut also the
construction
andplantation
workers
toUganda,Malaysia, hegemonyof the "caste-ist"/"Hindu"
nation.The signifiand
the
and
have
served
as
a
"reserve cance of this line of thought derivessupportfrom
Natal,
Caribbean,
aroundsteelcities
microstudies
of migrationthat testifyto an increasein
armyof labor"forthe heavyindustries
andpetrochemical
India.
the formsandextentof migration-inpartas a resultof
complexesin postcolonial
Likethe circuitsthemselves,the durationof circular unevendevelopmentand globalization
that have prohas
been
varied.
In
some
the
is
a
duced
labor
migration
cases, cycle
regional markets,
regionalpoliticalforms,and
dailyonebetweenplacesofworkandhome;inothercases,
regionalspacesforculturalassertionof the sortwe have
it is seasonal;in yet othercases,migrantsreturnhome
illuminated
in thisarticle.
afterlongintervals;andsomemigrants
even
Morepertinently,
thesortofquestionsthrownupbyour
sporadically,
leavepermanently-orso they think-and then return researchprovokeus to examinecloselythe effortsof the
hometo retire.Whatis interesting
andcommonto these
newmigration
scholarsto liberatepopulation
geography
of
not onlyfromits behavioraland structural
biographies circularmigrationis the imprintof
straitjackets
but also-and more importantly-fromits links to
mobility-whatwe mightcall "migrantmemory"-on
oflabordeployment.
Forinstance,in
Eurocentric
and"developsubsequent
practices
ideologiesof "modernization"
all threemulticastevillagesincludedin Sivaramakrish- ment."Predictably,
thesescholars
invokepostcolonial
and
nan'scurrentresearchsite in the northernTamilNadu
ofmodernity
insupport
oftheir
postdevelopment
critiques
districtof Tiruvannamalai,
thereareseveralfamiliesfrom
we tryto
project.Butwhilethesecritiquesarepowerful,
whichmembersleft as indenturedworkersforNatalor
showthat theyremainproblematic,
because
partly
they
failto theorizethe spatialandculturalparticularities
of
Malaysia.Some sent their childrenback to newly
India
to
but
their
children
have
task
that
involves
farm,
and
independent
"modernity"(a
vernacularizing
thenotionof "modernity"),
andpartlybecause
migratedin turnto workin the jutemillsof Calcuttaor
pluralizing
the Bhilaisteel plantin Chhatisgarh,
in centralIndia.
theyrelyon a Foucauldian
analyticofpowerthatseemsto
of the particular
andoutcomesof
Regardless
trajectories
precludeanyeffectivespaceforpoliticalactionof the sort
travel,however,upper-caste,
dalit, and tribalmigrants we describein thisessay.

To recognize the ways in which counterhegemonic
practicesareenabledbycircularmigrationandthuscontribute to the workbegunby the new migrationscholars,we
introduce two organizing concepts-an oppositional
notion of self-making we term "body politics" that
underscoresthe liberatorypotential of migrationwithin
the context of "development,"and a provincialized
notion of "modernity"we term "regionalmodernities"
that avoids the conceptual contradictionsof existing
postcolonialandpostdevelopmentappraisalsof migration.
Our findings on the varied encounters of migrants
with regionalmodernitiesand their risingculturalassertivenessresonatewith those of recent migrationscholars
who have conducted research in eastern and western
India,as well as in Bangladesh,Thailand,Indonesia,and
Ecuador.
In theirsurveyof geographiesof consumption,Jackson
and Thrift (1995, 205) note that, in their engagement
with consumption, eminent Marxist geographerssuch
as David Harvey treat it "as part of the 'politics of
distraction'ratherthan as a substantivetopic on its own
account." They go on to note that in Harvey'swork,
"[t]he cultureof consumptionis reducedto the economic
imperative of sustaining sufficientlybuoyant levels of
demand to keep capitalistproductionprofitable.Consumptionis about'the cultivationof imaginaryappetites';
it is part of the "surfacefroth and evanescence, the
fragmentationanddisruptions,so characteristicof present
politicaleconomy."We do not dismissHarvey'scritiqueof
consumptionas misplaced,for we recognizethat moder
economies of desire can dissipatepolitical projectsand
disempowerpeople. But we want to keep open the
possibilitythat the cosmopolitan world of goods and
significationscan have emancipatorypotentialforgroups
subordinatedby "traditional,"place-specificrelationsof
hierarchy.
While we departfromHarveyon this point, it is hardly
into the waiting arms of subculturetheorists, such as
Miller(1995a, 1995b),who anointconsumerismas a new,
diffuseformof resistance.These celebrationistnarratives
offer a mythologizedconsumer as agent of history.By
contrast,in our framework,the migrantas consumeris a
creature of more modest aspirations,prescience, and
agency.LikeGramsci'speasant,he or she exhibitsa streak
of conservatismand realizeshis or her agencyin unlikely
ratherthan clearlyarticulatedways.Moreoften than not,
migrantscontinue to retainprimaryattachmentsto their
home villages,and successfulmigrantsutilizetheirnewly
acquiredwealth to upgradesocial and politicalstatus at
home. In this sense, they are circumspect"rebels"who
seek to ascendor modifya given hierarchyratherthan to
dismantle it.
205
One of our majorclaimsin this essayis that once the

cultural logic of migrationis taken into account, the
frequently invoked link between declining livelihood
security and increasingproclivity to migrate becomes
harderto sustain.In the evolving worldof ruralcosmopolitanism, livelihood security may no longer be the
overarchingfactorin determiningmigration.In fact, we
would go so far as to suggest that migrationmay be
undertaken,even if it sometimescompromisesthe livelihood securityand workingconditionsof the migrantprovidedit contains the promiseto positivelytransform
place-basedidentitiesand relationsof subjugation.
Finally,we suggestthat our understandingof agrarian
change can be substantiallyenrichedby returningto an
olderbut ailingtraditionof Marxism,one that seeslaboras
a simultaneouslymaterialand symbolicactivity.Precisely
because some form of work is a prerequisitefor social
reproduction,the terms and conditions under which
individualsdeploy their labor become core to identity
formation, particularlytheir internalized notions of
hierarchywith referenceto caste, class, gender,community, and place. In dialecticalfashion,these notions then
informsubsequentlabordeploymentin time and space,
including patterns of migration.We have already explainedwhythese actsof migrationcanbe a potentforceof
social change. In short, we think there is tremendous
scope for energizing and expanding intellectual and
politicaldebateon the "agrarianquestion"withinhuman
geographyby renewedcommitmentto phenomenologies
of ruralwork.
Acknowledgments
Specialthanksto John PaulJonesIIIfor his adviceon
content and organization,and to the variousanonymous
reviewers for their helpful comments on the original
article.We particularly
acknowledgethe detailedcritiques
of tworeferees,whocompelledus to undertakedifficultbut
entirelynecessaryrevisionsand, we hope, writea substantiallystrongerarticle.We are gratefulto Ron Aminzade,
Ben Crow,MichaelDove, Ben Rogaly,JamesScott, and
MarkSteinbergfor their meticulouscommentson earlier
versionsof thisarticle,andwe thankPaulAlexander,Tania
Li, MaryBeth Mills,DavidMosse,PaulinePeters,andJeff
Rommforhelpfulconversationsalongthe way.Thanksalso
to Sula Sarkarfor her cartographicassistance.Responsibilityforremainingerrorsorinconsistenciesis entirelyours.
The variouspiecesof researchon whichthis essayis based
were supportedby grantsfromthe AmericanInstituteof
Indian Studies, the IzaakWalton KillamFoundationof
Canada, the Population Council, the Social Science
Research Council, the Wenner-GrenFoundation for
206
Gidwani and Sivaramakrishnan
Anthropological Research, the Institute of Development

Studies, the University of Sussex, U.K. and the Royalty
Research Fund, University of Washington. Our heaviest
intellectual and emotional debts are to friends and
acquaintances in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal
who made our researchpossible. Our abiding thanks as well
to V Arivudai Nambi and Muniappan for their crucial
support during field research in Tiruvannamalai District,
Tamil Nadu, in 1999, 2000, and 2001.
Notes
1. The observationsdevelopedin thisessayapplyto seasonalor
circularmigrantsand relaymigrants,not to permanentoutmigrants. Labor circulation encompassestranshumance,
ruralto urban,and intraruralmigration,whetherof a short
nature.Fortaxonomiesof migration,
termorsemipermanent
see Chapmanand Prothero(1985) and Rogaly(1996).
2. Our stanceon "modernity"
deservesclarification:we reject
narrativethat portraysthe historyof
both the "transition"
societiesas a discontinuousswitchfromthe "traditional"
to
the "modern"(hence,implicitlysuggestsa definingmoment
when"modernity"
takesholdof ruralsociety)andthe related
"modernization"
narrativethat portrayshistoryin progressivist, evolutionaryterms. Instead,we take the position of
South Asian and Latin Americanscholarsof subaltemity
(Chatterjee1993;Coronil1997;Dussel1998;Mignolo1999;
Prakash1999; Chakrabarty2000) that "modernity"is a
pluritopicphenomenon,not confinedto Europe,andthatthe
rationalizingeffectswe observein societiesand ascribeto a
singular,Europeanmodernityarein fact the operationof an
Eurocentricdiscourse that has collapsed geographically
differentiatedprocesses of modernity (representingthe
articulationof precolonial,colonial, and postcolonialpolities) into a unitary,historicistaccount.Watts(1995) makesa
similarpoint.
3. Harvey(1989),Anderson(1998), andTwitchell(1999)offer
trenchantanalysesof these pathologies,particularlycommodityfetishism.
4. Although we bracket the issue of gender in this article,
obviously our intention is neither to suggest that the
migratingbodyis onlymalenorto saythat the renegotiation
of genderidentitiesis politicallyless salientthan the tussles
over class, ethnic, caste, and tribalidentities.Rather,our
emphasisin this articleon caste and tribalidentifications
reflectsour researchtrajectory,as well as a perceivedgapin
the migrationliteratureon these struggles.
in Marx's([1876] 1976,
5. Weunderstand"laborvalorization,"
ch. 7) sense, as the processwherebythe commodity,labor
power,is purchasedand consumedforits use-valuewithina
capitalistproductionprocessin order to generate surplus
value. However, in this article we understandacts of
consumptionand laborvalorizationnot as merelyaboutthe
butjust
acquisitionof use- orthe transferof exchange-values,
as crucially,fortheirsymbolicvaluein communicatingsocial
distinction.The communicativeaspectof commoditiesis the
to Veblen
subjectof a richliterature.Weowe debtsprimarily
([1899] 1994), Douglas and Isherwood ([1979] 1996),
Bourdieu (1984), Appadurai(1986), Baudrillard(1988),
McCracken(1988), Parryand Bloch (1989), and Miller
(1995a, 1995b). Like severalof these authors,we want to

underscorethe signaling and gate-keepingfunctions of
commodities-the waysin which they serve to marksocial
boundariesandhierarchies.
6. Bourdieu (1977) contrasts "heterodoxy"(the universe
of competing possibilities) to "doxa" (the universe of
undisputedideas)and "orthodoxy"(the universeof straightened or rationalizedideas). We employthe word"heterodoxy"in this precisesense to convey the point that "body
politics"is intrinsicallyabout the dominatedchallenging
the institutionalizedor internalizedcensorshipsof the
dominant.
7. Arnold (1984) discusseshow Gramsci'sideascan augment
ourunderstanding
of peasantsubalterity in India.
8. Asidefromthe workof StuartHall(see,forinstance,Halland
CentreforContemporJefferson1976) andthe Birmingham
Cultural
the
work
of
Michel
de Certeau(1984)
Studies,
ary
also deservesmention here. Witness this account (1984,
xii-xiii):
To a rationalized,expansionistand at the same time
centralized,clamorous,and spectacularproduction[i.e., a
anotherproduction,called
dominatingmedia]corresponds
The latteris devious,it is dispersed,but it
"consumption."
insinuatesitself everywhere,silent and almost invisibly,
becauseit doesnot manifestitselfthroughits ownproducts,
butratherthroughitswaysofusingtheproductsimposedbya
dominanteconomicorder.
Weappreciatethe spiritof subversiveness
thatpervadesde
Certeau'saccount,but we findit overlyinstrumentaland
optimistic.Our view is much closer to Gramsci's,who
recognizesthe contradictionsand brittleness of both
hegemonyand agency.
9. Significantly,
FrederickCooper'sworkclaimsthat the origins
of "development"
were not exclusivelyEuropean-that, in
fact, it is tied to how the "laborquestion"was resolvedin
Europe'sAfricancolonies(videCooper1992).
10. The key variablein the migrant'sdecisionto move is net
expected
earnings.Inotherwords,the rationalmigrantweighs
the industryto agriculture
wagedifferential
bythe probability
of findingurbanemploymentand subtractsmigrationcosts
fromthis expectedincome.
11. In the popularHarris-Todaro
(1970) model of migration,
+ LI)wF
+ (LI/LF
+ Li)w
theequilibrium
conditionreads:(LF/LF
= WA, where LF is total formal employment available in
the urbansector,LIis total informalemploymentavailable

in the urbansector,wFis the fixedor mandatedwageratein
the formalsector,wi is the wagerate in the informalsector,
+ LI)
andWAis the wageratein agriculture.
The term(LF/LF
is simplythe probabilitythat the migrantwill find formal
employmentin the urban sector; similarly,the term (LI/
LF+ LI)representsthe probabilitythat the migrantwillfind
informalemploymentin the urbansector.Thus,the left-hand
side of the equationgivesthe migrant'sexpectedearningin
the urbansector.In equilibrium-that is, a state whereno
personwishes to migratefrom one sector to the otherexpected urban sector wage must equal the prevailing
agricultural
wage.
12. The decennialcensusof Indiaprovidesfigureson the stockof
ruralmigrants(urbanresidentsof ruralorigin)in the survey
yearandcan thereforebe usedto trackdecennialchangesin
migrantinflowsto urbanareas.Unfortunately,the census

data allow no way of discerningpermanentmigrantsfrom
circularmigrants.As mentionedin the text,mostestimatesof
circularmigrationrelyon intelligentconjecturesfromsmaller
regionalsurveysandethnographicstudies.Papola(1997)and
Srivastava(1998) discusslimitationsof the Indiancensus
dataformigrationstudies.
13. The word"dalit"appliesto those downtroddengroupswho,
within the schemeof orthodoxHinduism,were considered
ritually impure and therefore untouchable. Unlike the
euphemism"harijan"(peopleof god) coined by Mahatma
Gandhi,the term"dalit"has an explicitlypolitical,anticaste
connotation. Zelliot (1992), Omvedt (1995), Ferandes
1996, Mendelsohnand Vicziany(1998), Deliege (1999),
Michael(1999), andMoon (2001) ablydocumentthe riseof
dalit socialconsciousnessand dalit movementsin India.A
note of clarification:
we employthe term"dalit"formembers
of historicallysubordinatedlow-castegroupsbecausethis is
increasinglyhow they choose to representthemselves(and
when they do not, we substitute the proper term of
reference-for instance, "harijan").By contrast,the term
"adivasi"(originalinhabitant) does not carry the same
positiveor politicalconnotationsas the term"dalit."Tribal
(instead,they use their
groupsdo not use it self-referentially
propergroupname-for example,"bhil").And upper-caste
Hence,
groupsoften employthe term"adivasi"derogatorily.
we preferto use the term"tribal"in placeof "adivasi."
14. Forour purpose,"space,"in any historicalcontext, can be
circumscribed
by materialsocialprocessesthat involve the
trafficof goodsor ideasbetweensets of people;by contrast,
"place"refers to the forms of consciousnesswith which
individualsand groupsapprehendand transformparticular
material spaces, taking for granted that these forms of
consciousnessare dialecticallyrelatedto socialpowerrelations.Thisdistinctionbuildson Heidegger(1977,332ff.)and
the evocativediscussionof place that is developedin Basso
(1996, 105-49). Creedand Ching (1997, 7) offera related
definitionof placeas "agrounded
metaphor."
15. We thank two of the anonymousrefereesfor urgingus to
foregroundthe feministliteratureon "bodypolitics."
16. Parry(1999) goes on to providea vividaccountof a tension
between young and old that crossescaste lines and is the
resultof a generalizeddisenchantmentwithagrarianlife.He
workis now
(117) notes that "[T]hefact is that agricultural
regardedwithdeepdistaste-especiallybythe young... even
unemployedyoungstersresolutelyrefuse to so much as
supervisethe workof daylaborersin the fields,let alonework
in them themselves . . . the young see agriculture as
emblematicof the rusticworld."

17. Whereasthe Patelsultimatelychose to emulateVanias,the
Kolisadoptedthe Kshatriyamodel-particularlyaftertheir
politicalmobilizationin the 1950sand 1960sby the Gujarat
KshatriyaSabha (on the role of caste associationsin the
prosecutionof RajputKshatriyaidentity,see Kothariand
Maru1970;Shah1975;Lobo1995).LikePatelsbeforethem,
the Kolis retained the servicesof Barots to build Rajput
genealogiesforthem (Shahand Shroff1959).
18. Again,it is difficultto siftfactfromfictionin thiscontestover
identities.If anything,the struggleoverrankexposesthat an
essentialistaccountof caste,one that sees it as fixedin time
and space,is irretrievably
flawed.
19. Breman(1985, 1996) doesan especiallyfinejobof thisin the
Gujaratcontext. Karlekar(1995), Menon (1995), Sarada-
207
moni (1995), and Teerink(1995) document the difficult

workenvironmentof womenmigrantsin variousotherparts
of India, based on detailed ethnographicfieldwork.Pryer
(1992) discussesthe Bangladeshcase.
20. At the time of our fieldresearchin 1993-1994, the Lodhas
werepaidfive kilosof rice (dhan)and two rupeesfortiffinat
the endof the workday.
Theycouldmakethe cashequivalent
of that wageand sometimesslightlymoreperformingcoolie
workin the nearbymarkettownofJhargram,
if suchworkwas
in fact available.When they took a head-loadof fuel-wood
into the bazaar,it usuallyfetchedfiftyto sixtyrupees(three
times the dailyearningfromfarmor coolie work).But the
preparationof such a head-loadusuallyinvolvedtwodaysof
workbya Lodhamanandhalfadayof walkingto the location
of sale by a Lodhawoman.
21. The Kangsabaticanal project failed in part due to the
enactment of the Forest ConservationAct in 1980 by
the governmentof Indiaand the subsequentrefusalof the
ForestDepartmentto allowconversionof forestland into a
watercourse.Fordetails,see Sivaramakrishnan
(1998).
22. We are gratefulto the authorsforgrantingus permissionto
cite fromtheirpreliminary
recordof findings.
23. The name "Vankar"
is a synthesisof the Gujaratinoun van
(meaning"unginnedcotton")and the verb kar ("to do");
cotton-a weaver.
hence,a Vankarissomeonewhotransforms
24. The figures on educational attainment are drawn from
Gidwani (1996, 8, table 1.1). Remaininginformationis
distilled from Gidwani'sfield notes on changingagrarian
relationsin the villageof Shamliin the Matarsubdistrictof
the KhedaDistrict,Gujarat,recordedbetween8 May 1994
and31 August1995.Villageandrespondentnameshereand
belowhave been alteredto preserveconfidentiality.
25. Hence,Gooptu(1993,277-98) describeshowthe AdiHindu
movementin Uttar Pradeshin the earlytwentiethcentury,
which gainedmomentumwith urbanizationand migration,
transformedthe laborpracticesof the untouchableChamar
caste-although she is carefulto qualifythat the rejectionof
degradingmenialworkby Chamarsdid not translateinto a
pointedrejectionof the castesystemitself.Inshort,subaltern
agency can express itself in ways that are simultaneously
unconventionalandconservative.
26. Fieldnotes, Gidwani(1996). Namesof villagersandvillages
Gidwaniused
have been alteredto preserveconfidentiality.
the term"harijan"
ratherthan"dalit"becausethisis howhis
respondentsreferredto themselves.
27. It is importantto clarifythatwe viewaestheticsasanaspectof
politics.In so doing,we abjurea commonview (sometimes
linked to the works of Adorno and Horkheimer)that
interpretsaestheticsas a formof escape from (the despair
of) politics.Wewantto assertthe materialityof aestheticsand
henceits expressionnot justin consumptionstylesbut alsoin
the recastingof the workingbody.Havingclarifiedthis, we
clearlybelievethat bodypoliticsexceedsaesthetics,because
the domination of bodies cannot-and should not-be
reduced to aesthetics alone. That would diminish the
physicalandpsychologicalviolenceof domination.
28. Ferguson(1999, 95) writes:"I use the termculturalstyleto
refer to practices that signify differencesbetween social
categories.Culturalstylesin this usagedo not pickout total
modes of behaviorbut ratherpoles of social signification,
cross-cuttingandcross-cutby othersuchpoles."He usesthe
term "style"to emphasizethe accomplishedperformative
208
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.

natureof suchpractices.Fergusoncautionsthatwe shouldnot
assumesharedculturalcommonalitiescan survivepersistent
stylisticdifferencesthat may arise in situationalbehavior.
Equally,we mustbe carefulnot to presumethatsimilarstyles
signifysimilarthings for differentpeople (Ferguson1999,
93-97).
This body politics of consumptionechoes the notion of
"culturalproduction"
advancedbyLisaLowe(1996). As she
(158) observes, "[C]ultural forms of many kinds are
importantmediain the formationof oppositionalnarratives
and arecrucialto the imaginationand rearticulation
of new
formsof politicalsubjectivity,collectivity,andpractice."
The struggleoverattireandlower-casteconsciousnessof the
uses of attire in making defiant gestures is not a new
phenomenonin TamilNadu. Andre Beteille'sclassicstudy
([1966] 1996) of a Thanjavurvillagecontainsevidence of
similarassertionby youngmen returnedfrombreathingthe
freshairof self-respectin citieswheretheystudiedorworked,
even as casuallabor.The interestingtwistin the storyis the
waythe struggleover attirein the 1960swasaboutviolating
proscriptionsabout coveringpartsof the body or affecting
upper-castestylesof traditionaldress.Thirtyyearslaterthe
contest is conducted in cultural styles evoking modem
fashionsandcosmopolitanattire.
Dressing in styles consideredas "hip"or "chic" in the
centersvisitedbymigrantsin theirwork-related
metropolitan
travelsoftenprovesto be the mosteasilyavailableformof selfassertionwhen they returnto socialrelationsof dependency
and subordination
in theirhome villages.Osellaand Osella
endorsementof thispointin their
(1999)providecomparative
studyof the low-casteIzhavasof Kerala.Theirstudyalsonotes
how low-castegroupsadoptdifferentiated,
ratherthan uniform,consumptionstrategiesin their effortsto assertnew
identities.
Accordingto Geoghehan(1873,71) morethan20 percentof
overseasmigrantsreturnedhome,bravingthe mostappalling
traveling conditions, between 1842 and 1870. So this
aspirationclearlycut acrosshistoricalperiodsandthe spatial
seamsof the migrationexperience.
Comins (1892) providesdetailed informationon wealth
created and returnedby emigrantsto India. The scale of
led to a fearin colonialgovernmentsof a drainof
repatriation
wealthand skillsfromthe islandcolonies.
This descriptionand the precedingparagraphdraw on
Sivaramakrishnan's
field notes for June 1999. A study is
presentlybeing conducted in four villages,includingone
tribalvillage,and three multicastevillageswith significant
dalit populationsin Tiruvannamalai
District,TamilNadu,
India.One of these villageshas been specificallyselectedfor
its periurbanlocation less than ten miles fromthe district
town. In additionto open-endedinterviewsand periodsof
participantobservation,a baselinesurveyof socioeconomic
characteristics
wasconductedin allfourvillagesduring1999
and 2000, covering1,534 familiesin the multicastevillages
and56 familiesin the tribalvillage.Information
on migration
storieswascollectedin the courseof these surveys.
Our skepticismon the possibilityof exercising"freedom"
withinthe frameworkof biopoweris offsetby an altogether
differentskepticismon the part of theoristssuch Wendy
Brown(1995,63-64) whofearthatFoucault,in fact,yieldsto
a naive "volunteerism"
that arisesfromhis tacit assumption
aboutthe "givennessandresilienceof the desireforfreedom."
She (64) attributesFoucault'soptimismabout"freedom"to

his "rejectionof psychoanalysis
and his arrestedreadingof
Nietzsche (his utter neglect of Nietzsche'sdiagnosisof the
cultureof modernityas the triumphof 'slavemorality')."
We
find Brown'spsychoanalyticcritique curiouslytotalizing,
unlikeGramsci'sunderstanding
of subaltern"consciousness"
as a fragmentary,
bizarrecombinationof conceptionsand
goalssuturedtogether.
36. Foucault(1977, 1979, 1980) assertedthathe wasofferingan
analyticsof power ratherthan a theory of power.This is
entirelyconsistentwith his pictureof poweras a capillary
forcethatsuffusesbodiesandthe bodysociety.Sincepoweris
everywhere(there is no "outside")it is, then, logically
impossibleto give an accountof powerthat is objectiveor a
priori,as theoriesclaimto be. Bythe sametoken,it is difficult
to imaginea subjectivitythat does not servepower-and if
this is so, in what sense is it meaningfulto speakof human
agency?Silvey and Lawson (1999) contend that migrant
narrativescontainedin life histories,folk songs,poemsand
othernonconventionalsourcesof informationofferus a way
of recoveringuncolonizedsubjectivities.But this fails to
addressthe problemthat Dreyfusand Rabinow(1983, 203)
concede in their largelysympatheticappraisalof Foucault's
work:"Theforceofbiopowerlies in definingrealityaswellas
producingit. This realitytakesthe worldto be composedof
subjectsand objectsand theirtotalizingnormalization.
Any
solutionthat takes these termsfor granted-even if it is to
opposethem-will contributeto the holdof power."Someof
the methodologicalproblemsin recoveringsubalter voices
are discussed in Guha (1983), Spivak (1988), Bhabha
(1994), and Pratt(1999). Foucaultevidentlybeganto move
awayfromhis pervasiveemphasison powerand tackle the
analyticsof agencyin his later writings(the three-volume
Historyof Sexuality[beginningin 1979] is thought to
representthe beginningof these endeavors).Regrettably,
his taskremainedunfinished.
37. Butler'seffortto combinetheoreticalinsightsfromJacques
Derrida,Foucault,and Luce Irigarayto discussthe possibilitiesof politicallytransgressive
agencyis noteworthyin this
regard.She introducesa temporalfactorin Foucault'snotion
of discoursethroughthe idea of "citationality."
This simply
meansthat the termsof discoursemustbe reiterativelyand
performativelyreproducedby those who are enacted as
subjectsby that discourse.This injects the possibilityof
slippage during reiterationsand hence, for Butler, the
possibilitythat the realmof the "abject"-the constitutive
and excludedoutside-which is ordinarily"uninhabitable"
and"unlivable,"
becomesimaginedasan alternativeto some
normalizing
"regulativeideal"(suchasheterosexuality).But
despiteher rejectionof voluntarism,even Butlerseems to
succumbto the need to smugglein a momentof "freewill"in
orderto arguethe possibilityof resistance.See Butler(1993,
introduction;1997,ch. 3). The workof RobertSack (1997)
offersprovocativeinsightson the necessityof "freewill."
38. As Chakrabarty(2000, introductionand ch. 1, 8) explains,
historicismspawneda "notyet"or "waitingroomversion"of
history on the part of colonial rulers-and even liberal
intellectualssuchasJohnStuartMill-who maintainedthat
some "historical time of development and civilization
(colonialrule and education,to be precise)had to elapse
before they [Indians or Africans] could be considered
preparedfor [the taskof self-ruleor government]."

39. See Simon (1997), Moore (2000), Sivaramakrishnan
and
Agrawal (forthcoming),and Gidwani (forthcoming)for
detailedcritiquesof postdevelopment.
40. Circularmigrationhas a longhistoryin the Indiansubcontinent. Rarely,however,did it permit subalternclasses to
repudiatetraditionalhierarchiesand codes of conduct.But
today,the spreadof television,city editionsof newspapers,
retailing,transportation,and state-sponsoredliteracyprogramshas hugely expandedand acceleratedthe flow of
materialsand meaningsand grantednew potency to conthe political
Similarly,
sumptionasa sourceofcounteridentity.
spacein whichsubordinated
groupslikedalitsandtribalscan
operatehas also widenedwith the entrenchmentof state
affirmative-action
programsand the riseof panregionaldalit
movementsthat recognizethe influencedalitscan exertin a
democraticnation-statevia theirimmensecollectivevoting
power.These sortsof structuralchangesin postcolonialIndia
makesubaltern"body
politics"possibleandeffective.
41. Fora discussionof the seconddemocraticupsurge,see Yadav
(2000).As he pointsout, thisneedsto be juxtaposedwiththe
"firstupsurge"in the 1960s,which witnessedthe widening
and deepening of political participationin the country
throughthe channelsof strongmiddle-of-the-road
parties.
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Correspondence:
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Author(s): Vinay Gidwani and K. Sivaramakrishnan

his essay examinesthe relationshipbetween

significationsthat carryall the baggagethat accompany

Annalsof theAssociationof AmericanGeographers,