SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis examines class relations, i.e. social relations of organising exploitation in the case of internal migrant labourers in India, in explaining class formation. By incorporating migrant labourers through production relations, such as sub-contracting in building construction, social relations of caste, ethnicity, region, etc., are deployed to organise and reinforce exploitation. A case in point is the historical and intergenerational exploitation of migrant labourers from the East Indian state of Bihar. Bihari migrant labourers, on the one hand, form the bulk of the labour force in, among others, building construction in India and, on the other hand, face ethnic discrimination and stereotyping as ‘Bihari’ labour. They are incorporated in building construction through historically exploitative labour relations organised by labour contractors, i.e. thekedars. However, the existing literature on class analysis has ignored how capital accumulation is enabled and reinforced through labour migration. Further, how the experience of exploitation is politically produced in shaping class formation remains to be discovered. The research fills these gaps in the literature on class formation. The thesis argues that the political apparatus of production relations shape the lived experiences of exploitation in ‘configuring’ class relations. The thesis outlines configurations of class relations, i.e. the conditions and mechanisms for the emergence and silencing of class conflicts shaping class formation. Methodologically, the research employs ethnographically informed approaches using qualitative research techniques. By employing these approaches and techniques, the thesis examines specific conditions and mechanisms that enable and reinforce the architecture of surplus extraction in the case of Bihari migrant construction labourers. In doing so, it explains the politics of production relations in building construction, shaping class formation.