Leaving the Land: Indigenous Migration and Affective Labour in India

169 Pages·2019·4.88 MB·English

by  Dolly Kikon and Bengt G. Karlsson

Leaving the Land
During the last decade, indigenous youth from Northeast India have migrated in
large numbers to the main cities of metropolitan India to find work and to study.
The migration is facilitated by new work opportunities in the hospitality sector,
mainly as service personnel in luxury hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and
airlines. Prolonged armed conflicts, militarization, a stagnant economy, corrupt
and ineffective governance structures, and the harsh conditions of subsistence
agriculture in their home villages or small towns impel the youth to seek
opportunities outside their home region. English language skills, a general
cosmopolitan outlook as well as a non-Indian physical appearance have proven to
be key assets in securing work within the new hospitality industry. Leaving the
Land traces the migratory journeys of these youths and engages with their new
lives in cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Thiruvananthapuram.
Dolly Kikon is Senior Lecturer in the Anthropology and Development Studies
Program at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of Living with Oil and
Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast India (2019), Life and
Dignity: Women’s Testimonies of Sexual Violence in Dimapur (2015), and Experiences
of Naga Women in Armed Conflict: Narratives from a Militarized Society (2004).
Bengt G. Karlsson is Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University.
He is the author of Contested Belonging: An Indigenous People’s Struggle for Forest
and Identity in Sub-Himalayan Bengal (2000) and Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology
of India’s Northeast (2011). Karlsson is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy
of Letters, History and Antiquities.

Leaving the Land
Global Value Chains
Indigenous Migration and Affective
and Development
Labour in India
Redefining the Contours of
st
21 Century Capitalism
Dolly Kikon
Bengt G. Karlsson
Gary Gereffi
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© Dolly Kikon and Bengt G. Karlsson 2019
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First published 2019
Printed in India
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ISBN 978-1-108-49442-7 Hardback
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For indigenous migrants around the world
All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hands to left or right,
And emptiness above –
Know that you aren’t alone.
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.
– Vikram Seth, All You Who Sleep Tonight, 1990

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1. Wayfinding 26
2. Light Skin and Soft Skills 42
3. Departures and Returns 60
4. Interlude: Photoethnography 83
5. Dreams and Desserts 97
6. Talking about Method 113
Conclusion 129
Afterword: Bridging Ruptures 134
References 139
Index 150