Curtailed identities

Under capitalism, people become passive spectators, driven by the dull compulsion to work, alienated from community and self

- KEYOOR PATHAK & DHIRAJ KUMAR

The migration of thousands of labourers from Bihar to industrial hubs in Hyder

abad highlights the profound structural transformations that have taken place in South Asia.

Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both, American sociologist and professor C Wright Mills famously stated. From an anthropological perspective, the movement of these labourers is not merely an economic response but also a cultural displacement, shaped by the larger forces of capitalism and the agrarian crisis.

As factories in Hyderabad’s industrial centres, such as Katedan and Balanagar, produce goods ranging from biscuits to electric products, many of the workers who power these industries are rural migrants. The collapse of agrarian livelihoods in Bihar, driven by long-term underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment, has fuelled this exodus. Bihar’s rural population, facing dispossession of their means of production, has been pushed into a reserve army of labour, reinforcing the uneven development of capitalism.

These migrants leave behind not only their homes but also their languages and cultural practices. In Hyderabad, a Telugu-speaking region, migrants from Bihar, who speak vernaculars such as Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili and Vajjika, must navigate a foreign linguistic and cultural landscape.

Anthropologically, this migration represents both a dislocation and a process of cultural adaptation, as individuals and communities attempt to integrate into a new socio-economic environment. The agrarian crisis has thus restructured not only their economic existence but also their cultural identities, illustrating how economic forces intersect with the lived realities of marginalised populations.