Impact of migration on Himalayan communities

September 15, 2014 11:13 pm | Updated 11:21 pm IST

Chennai: 11/06/2014: The Hindu: oeb: Book Review Column:

Title: Facing Globalization in the Himalays. Belonging and the Politics of the Self. Governace, Conflict, and Civic Action: Volume 5.
Author:Gerard Toffin and Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka.
Publication: Sage Publications release.

Chennai: 11/06/2014: The Hindu: oeb: Book Review Column: Title: Facing Globalization in the Himalays. Belonging and the Politics of the Self. Governace, Conflict, and Civic Action: Volume 5. Author:Gerard Toffin and Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka. Publication: Sage Publications release.

In the recent years I have travelled in and out of Nepal many times. In the mornings when I return from Kathmandu on a flight to New Delhi, a significant number of my fellow travellers at the airport are migrant labour. They are either joining their workplaces or returning to them in India, the Gulf countries, or in other parts of the world.

The first time I saw the importance of migration from a hill location, and the pains and pleasures that the emigrants and their families back home experienced, was when I had travelled through Garhwal Himalayas in the wake of the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake. Even 10 days after the event, men were returning to their villages from different parts of the country and elsewhere; to meet their families, repair what could be repaired and grieve for what could not be.

Globalisation has changed much of this in the past 23 years. Since erecting a tower is easier than laying a cable, mobile phones have reached many of the remote villages in the Himalayas. All-weather roads and electrical connections have also spread out. These have taken care of the physical needs.

However, migration and globalisation continues to have an emotional, social and cultural impact. Facing globalization in the Himalayas looks at this in depth. Though the book uses the term ‘globalisation’ in its title, it zooms in on one of its aspects – migration in search of employment and livelihood. Through this prism, it looks at what the globally interlinked world means for the hill communities of the Himalayas. Though there is mention of Ladakh, Garhwal and Sikkim in India, and Bhutan, the focus is mainly on migration from Nepal.

Unlike Bhutan, which still maintains certain insularity, migration from Nepal to India and other parts of the world has been in existence for so many decades that it has become less of a choice but more of a habit for some of the impoverished communities. In a recent op-ed after the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kathmandu, Nepali editor Kanak Mani Dixit called the Indo-Nepal Treaty of 1950, that allows for the free flow of people across the border, as the “safety valve” in the region.

Migration as adventure

Jeevan Sharma, a contributing author to the book under review, gives another dimension to this migration in his chapter. He says that for the young men in the hill villages of western Nepal, migrating to India is like a proof of their masculinity. Migration is seen as adventure, as a sign of modernity and is aspirational.

The young men prefer moving to a city like Mumbai, despite the tedious road and rail journey, than to practise subsistence agriculture in their villages. Of course, the reality hits hard soon. They persist over tough living and working conditions, and send back money to their families. “Paradoxically,” writes Sharma, “men might have their masculinity stripped from them once they began to work in India under difficult and exploitative conditions.”

Feeling like a migrant is a state of mind. It is the absence of a sense of belonging and a yearning for it. Most readers would have moved from their place of origin at least once in their lives. Even if they have not moved, they could still be yearning for a time-environment of the past. This yearning in distant lands creates strange situations. Nepali migrants in Oxford, United Kingdom, for instance, celebrate three festivals from their homelands in a year. They prepare Nepali food, play and sing Nepali songs and wear Nepali clothes. However, they stop short of practising rituals that could disturb the law of the land. Animals are not slaughtered for the ritualistic blood sacrifice during house warming functions. Innovation is the key for most migrant communities, as they find ways to follow rituals even while staying within rules. The Oxford Nepali community’s answer is buy a freshly-slaughtered animal whole from the abattoir and continue with the rituals as if the animal was killed then and there.

It is during the celebration of festivals that the migrant communities find the fact that they are away from their land liberating. Festivities in Oxford are not bound by the regimentation of caste, socio-economic and political distinctions that they would have faced back home.

Relating to a situation such as that of the Nepalis in Oxford is the reason why this book can have universal appeal. But then there is another sense of belonging, which unfortunately globalisation has not been able to achieve. That has been the deliberate blind spot of globalisation, which although works towards free flow of goods and services, is restrictive and excludes free movement of labour. And when it allows labour flow, it does not necessarily permit professional and socio-cultural assimilation in the destination country.

The story of the Nepali nurses mentioned in Facing globalization in the Himalayas is a case in point. There is a need in the UK for nurses from Nepal. However, the Nepali nurses find it difficult to get professionally included into the community of nurses in the UK. And the service recipient does not share the costs and the risks of nurses migrating to fill a need of the British population.

Overall, migration for employment is mostly an unequal process. Within this reality, migrating communities continue to find social space that allows them to have one foot in the destination country even while keeping the other in their homeland. Through an interesting in-depth study of communities from the Himalayas, the book links to the migrant in each of us.

FACING GLOBALIZATION IN THE HIMALAYAS — Belonging and the Politics of the Self: Edited by Gérard Toffin, Joanna Pffaf-Czarnecka; Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., B 1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044. Rs. 995.

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