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Caste, Labour, and Migration: Everyday Pains of Dalits in Brick Kilns

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Caste in Everyday Life

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Abstract

Whilst Dalits often seek to improve their position by migrating for work, much of this work is insecure and exploitative. This study focuses on Brick Kiln industries, which are analysed as a hybrid form of caste tyranny. Research with twenty Dalit families working in brick kilns in Telangana reveals denial of wholesome food and conditions of extreme exploitation. Labourers have been forced to eat human excreta, beaten for demanding their wage, and dragged behind a tractor for negotiating their rights and initiating a union. Caste, as Ambedkar noted, is a ‘division of labourers’ and fellow workers, owners, and supervisors from upper castes assign work based on caste. Upper-caste fellow workers do not share kitchens, food, and places of worship with Dalits.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘The system of forced, or partly forced, labour under which a debtor enters, or has, or is presumed to have, entered, into an agreement with the creditor’ (The Bonded Labour System [Abolition] Act, 1976, p. 1). In the traditional gothi system a Dalit is hired or purchased in return for a minimal wage and grain, either for a year or two or for five to ten years—or even for generations if the family had not repaid advances/bonded debt, or if they had signed (or imprinted a thumb impression) any written/verbal agreement.

  2. 2.

    The process of purification is usually held during funerals and related events when individuals are considered assudha (impure) and a Brahmin comes to chant mantra (hymns). Dalits have their own priests, but there are important purification rituals that only a Brahmin can do. At death, it is believed a person (family member of the deseased) remains impure for ten days and on the tenth day the Brahmin conducts the purification process that removes the individual’s impurity. On death in the family, Dalits must follow this practice (purification process) and must invite a Brahmin to carry it out in return for dakshina (remuneration). This practice costs more than it did 50 years ago, as in Pati’s grandfather’s experiences. I came across similar things while talking to Dhobei (age 65).

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Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Dr Hugo Gorringe and Dr Dhaneswar Bhoi for organising the workshop ‘Caste in Everyday Life’ and for providing me an opportunity to present my paper in the workshop. Their valuable feedback and suggestions have greatly assisted me in developing this paper.

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  1. London School of Management Education, University of Chichester, London, UK

    Neelima Rashmi Lakra

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Correspondence to Neelima Rashmi Lakra .

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  1. Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Dhaneswar Bhoi

  2. University of Edinburgh, Edinbrugh, UK

    Hugo Gorringe

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Lakra, N.R. (2023). Caste, Labour, and Migration: Everyday Pains of Dalits in Brick Kilns. In: Bhoi, D., Gorringe, H. (eds) Caste in Everyday Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30655-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30655-6_13

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