Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

Ankündigung

The presentation deals with the social history of post-Independent Amritsar city in
Punjab based on orality, memory and ethnography. The focus will be on the changing
social profile of labour force in the city during the past seven decades after
independence. Historically and contemporaneously migrants from the surrounding
agrarian hinterland and other parts of Indian subcontinent formed bulk of the labour
force in the city. Industrial and commercial activities revived in the process of
recovery from the trauma of partition and the trade unions and labour activities again
picked up during 1960s and 1970s, particularly textile sector, in the city suburbs of
Chhehrta. By the 1980s and 1990s, however, organized industry in Amritsar district,
like in other parts of the country, drastically declined marginalizing organized labour
force. Informal labour in the city retained its significance as the city remained the hub
of trading and commercial activities.