Unsettled Settlers- Migrant Workers and Industrial Capitalism in Calcutta

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In portrayals of India's big cities, and of Calcutta in particular, ideas of destitution and crisis predominate. Large parts of the population crowd in slums where basic amenities are absent, and people have great difficulties in finding or keeping a job. For this study, I set the goal to describe these conditions, but, more importantly, I wanted to narrate the stories of the people who live in those conditions. It has become a study of migrants who have come to Calcutta and to Titagarh in particular to work in jute mills and other industries, and hence it has become a study of a group of migrants in crisis: during the last twenty years unemployment has soared, many have been forced to take up different kinds of casual jobs, and many have returned to their place of origin or have moved elsewhere in search of jobs.

I owe many thanks to the people who, despite their busy daily routines and their worries, were willing to narrate their stories, and to overcome their initial rightful distrust. To one person I will always be indebted without my bbai Baiju Gupta I would not have been able to carry out this study I am also grateful to Mr. V.P. Chand, the chairman of Titagarh Municipality who made my stay possible, and 'Popou' Ajay Shahi, who was the kindest landlord I have known. I owe special thanks to Mr. Indrajit Singh and Mr. Ram Bacan Singh

Often I feel that this study is as much the work of Gautam Sanyal as it is of myself. Officially, I employed Gautam as research-assistant, but he was much more than that. Without him, I would have understood much less of what goes on in an industrial town like Titagarh, and I thank him very much for his friendship, his patience with my ignorant questions, and his willingness to travel daily six hours by train to do this badly-paid job.

In Calcutta 1 received invaluable help by Professor B.B. Chaudhuri and Professor Ranajit Das Gupta. Parimal Ghosh also helped me with my research, but, perhaps even more important, supported me at times when the status of foreigner became a drain on my energies. I also would like to thank Anna-puma Shaw, Professor Bagchi, and Dr. Nirmala Banerjee for reading parts of my thesis. In Calcutta, Ellen Bal became a good friend and she was of great help with the archival research in Dhaka.

I have used a number of libraries and archives, and I appreciate the help which was given by many librarians and other staff members. These include Institute Ken of the University of Leiden, the India Office Library and Records, the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Library of the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Special thanks go to the Archive Department of the University of Dundee, Mrs. Auld in particular, and to the West Bengal State Archive in Writers' Building in Calcutta, where Mr. Sen has been of particular help.

Studying India brought me to England, and I have made many friends there I would like to thank Samita Sen for her guidance in the research on jute mill labour and the importance of gender issues in this, and of course for her friendship. Subho Basu was the second jutevala 1 met, and despite, or per haps because of, our many disagreements, I owe much to him. In London I have received help from Francesca Orsini with translations while finishing this study, from Janet Marks with the correction of my English, and from Rachel Dwyer with almost anything that came up. Ben Rogaly and Kirat Randhawa have been great friends, both in London and in India. I also would like to thank Peter Robb and Mr. K.N. Malik for their patience when I was working on my thesis while I should have been working on their project.

In 1880, the area north of Calcutta was a 'jungle', an area with swamps and marshes and a few scattered villages. With the expansion of the jute industry, the area was rapidly transformed. Factories were set up, and large numbers of people came to the area in search of work. Till the late 1920s, the industry prospered and the population of the industrial area increased enormously, but since then employment growth has stagnated and the population increased only moderately. At present, the industrial area still shows the features de scribed in the reports in the beginning of this century 'mill lines crowded with migrant labourers, bad housing conditions particularly in the private bastis, small houses with little ventilation and light, open drains, public bathing places, etc. The area is still dominated by industrial buildings set up a century ago, showing the signs of time and of the industrial crisis.

This study is concerned with the people who came to the industrial area, in search of employment Within this area, it focuses on the jute mill town Tita garh. Even today, Titagarh is predominantly inhabited by migrants, people from outside Bengal who came to work in the jute and paper mills. Although gradually settling more permanently, many have remained migrants, and the regional languages are still being spoken. This study describes these migrants during this century The central questions relate to the functioning of the labour market, to the way people acted on the labour market. Which people came to the area, where did they come from, and why did they come? How did they get a job? Could they choose between different jobs, or was there simply no choice for them? Did they stay in the same job throughout their lives, or did they find other employment? And did their children take up the same job?

Whereas most studies of migration and urbanisation have described rural urban transformation as a one-way movement, this study shows that the reverse movement is similarly important, that many migrants continue to go back to the villages they came from "Unsettled settlers are migrants who came to the industrial areas, but have continued to maintain their rural connections, going back regularly and after retirement. This study analyses the specific form of urbanisation under this pattern of circular migration. It shows a continuing interaction of rural and urban society, rather than a one-way transformation The development of industrial capitalism in Bengal has not lead to proletariani-sation, and different modes of production continue to exist.

This study argues that the pattern of circular migration has not been enforced by employers' strategies or economic forces alone, but that it is deter-mined by an interplay of economic, social and cultural forces, and it is argued that one has to take account of the migrants' decisions. In many studies of migration and urbanisation, people are portrayed as being driven or pushed to the city, forced by capitalist development or the colonial state. It is my contention that an analysis has to take account of both sets of factors, both of structural factors and of individuals' decisions. To conceptualise this I use the theory of Giddens (see Chapter 2), who argues that explanations in the social sciences have to involve reference to the purposive behaviour of agents as well as the social and material context of that behaviour.

The historiography of labour in Bengal has ignored the perspectives of the people which they describe, the motives of migrants, their hopes and aspirations. This study adds a perspective largely ignored in many studies in this field: people's decisions to migrate and their choices on the labour market. People's actions cannot be understood without understanding their motives, and thus we cannot understand the development of the city, the process of migration and the functioning of the labour market without taking account of the choices of the migrants.