Migration for Livelihood in India

Migrant workers have become the source of tension between states. The most recent one being in Kerala where Bengali workers were harassed and asked to produce certificates of not being involved in criminal activities.
This is surprising, war between two comrades?
History repeats itself. Reminds me of the spat between Russia and China.
Raj Thackeray, after lying low for sometime after the Mumbai massacre has again raised his ugly head and unleashed his venomous tongue against UP and Bihar workers.
This has got me thinking of migration in India.

Migration in India is intrinsically linked to the development of the India Railways. It is only fair that we should have a look at how the railways expanded in India.

The first train in India was operational on 1851-12-22, used for the hauling of construction material in Roorkee.
A few years later, on 1853-04-16, the first passenger train between Bori Bunder, Bombay and Thana covering a distance of 34 km (21 miles) was inaugurated, formally heralding the birth of railways in India.
Robert Maitland Brereton, a British engineer was responsible for the expansion of the railway from 1857 onwards.
In March 1870, he was responsible for the linking of both the rail systems, which by then had a network of 6,400 km (4,000 miles). By 1880 the network had a route mileage of about 14,500 km (9,000 miles), mostly radiating inward from the three major port cities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. By 1895, India had started building its own locomotives
In 1900, the GIPR became a government owned company. The network spread to modern day states of Assam, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and soon various independent kingdoms began to have their own rail systems. In 1901, an early Railway Board was constituted, but the powers were formally invested under Lord Curzon.
In 1907 almost all the rail companies were taken over by the government. The following year, the first electric locomotive makes its appearance. With the arrival of World War I, the railways were used to meet the needs of the British outside India. With the end of the war, the state of the railways was in disrepair and collapse.
In 1920, with the network having expanded to 61,220 km, a need for central management was mooted by Sir William Acworth. Based on the East India Railway Committee chaired by Acworth, the government took over the management of the Railways and detached the finances of the Railways from other governmental revenues.
The period between 1920 to 1929 was a period of economic boom. Following the Great Depression, the company suffered economically for the next eight years. The Second World War severely crippled the railways. Trains were diverted to the Middle East and the railways workshops were converted to munitions workshops. By 1946 all rail systems were taken over by the government.
Delhi was not even on the Railway map of India upto 1900. It was only in 1911 when the capital was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi that it gained prominence. It was planned by Edwin Lutyens, a leading 20th century British architect,
Migration cannot be discuused without speaking of the marwaris, who were probably the first migrants. And when you talk of marwaris, the first name that comes up is the Birlas.
Born on April 10, 1894, G.D. Birla, was a native of Pilani. His grandfather Shiv Narayan Birla was a traditional Marwari moneylender. Ghanshyam Das Birla entered the business arena during the time of First World War. He established a cotton mill in Sabzi Mandi, and later on established Kesoram Cotton Mills. Along with cotton mills he diversified to jute business and shifted his base to Calcutta city in Bengal, the world's largest jute producing region. He established Birla Jute Mills in Bengal, much to the consternation of established European merchants.

In 1919, with an investment of Rs. 50 lakhs, the Birla Brothers Limited was formed and a mill was set up in Gwalior. In 1930s, G.D. Birla set up Sugar and Paper mills. In 1940s, he ventured into the territory of cars and established Hindustan Motors
At that time large tracts of Rajasthan were deserts and the people could not feed themselves with the earning from the land. So they moved out.
The people of North Rajasthan moved over to Eastern India as Calcutta was the business capital at that time.
Not being well educated, they did not feel shy to set up small shops and start business. These small businesses gradully developed into business empires of the Birlas, Bangurs, Goenka, Poddars, Todis etc etc.
The people of south Rajasthan and Gujarat moved to Mumbai and started businesses there.The above two community with the Parsis who migrated from Persia (now Iran) 900 years ago because of persecution, were the three pillars on which Mumbai was born.
Raj Thackeray and his ilk were nowhere in the picture in the formation of Mumbai, which they now claim as there’s.
Those who do not learn from history are forced to create the same errors.
Raj Thackeray is making the same mistake which Jyoti basu made in 1967. He drove out industries by his shortsighted policy of intimidation and violence to win temporary battles for the workers. He has lost the war
Raj Thackeray is driving away industries. Nano has already gone to Gujarat. The textile industries were shut down long ago, thanks to an export from Bengal, Datta Samant.. Gradully Narendra Modi will pull away the two wheeler units from Pune. With the way Raj Thackeray treats people in the film industry, it is just matter of time when Modi will pull that industry to Gujarat. Whatever Maharashtra has, Modi can give more and faster.
Surat was the trading centre of the British upto 1687. The British got Mumbai through a dowry from the Portuguese on the marriage of King Charles II to the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza. They had wanted a port where larger vessels could dock. Mumbai had the advantage of deep sea port facilities which drew the British from Surat to Bombay. So surat gradully lost prominence and Bombay was developed.
With Adani’s starting their port in Gujarat, you can expect most of the traffic to go back from Mumbai to Gujarat. Modi just has to lay double line for the railways for faster movement of traffic. The roads are already very good.
So then , Maharashtra will be left with only sugarcane which Raj Thackeray and Sharad Powar can use to make alcohol to get their people drunk and sugar to give them diabetes.
But the governments of UP and Bihar and Bengal should take care. The point raised by Raj Thackeray is very valid. Because of their failure their people are left jobless and have to move out for jobs.
The infighting continues between Mayawati and Mulayum Singh to provide inefficient government so that state will not improve in a hurry not withstanding Anil Ambani of Sanjay Dutt or Amitabh Bachchan..
There is not much hope for Bengal either.On one side we have a government which does not work run by Budhadev Bhattacharya where his writ does not run even in Writer’s building, so how can he control Nandigram. On the other side we have a oppositon led by a woman who copies the negative qualities of Jyoti Basu of 40 years ago. She does not even learn from history
I have some hope for Bihar under the capable and honest leadership of Nitish Kumar.At last Bihar is having an honest Chief Minister who wants to help the people irrespective of cast or religion. If only he could control the hooliganism caused by people of his state in the trains people would start believing Bihar is improving, for that is the external face of Bihar which outsiders see.
Migration also took educated unempolyed from Kerala / Tamil Nadu to other parts of India. I remember most of the stenos working in Calcutta and other parts of northern India were Menons, Pillais and Kuttys. Of course now the Keralites can afford to throw out the Bengalis out but once they depended on Bengal to feed its people.
Bengal and Kerala had a large proportion of literate people. We have a saying that the godess of Learning (Saraswati) and the godess of Wealth (Laxmi) cannot live together.. Meaning if you received education you become status conscious and hesitate to do menial jobs or sit in a shop for 10 to 12 hours. That is why the educated never became rich. They were satisfied with their monthly salaries. Of course that has changed now, with the educated people drawing fat salaries in IT, BPO and other industries.
So, who did the menial jobs.. People from Bihar, UP and Orissa came and did the menial jobs in Bengal. All coolies, thela walas and rickshaw pullers in Kolkata were from Bihar and UP. All house servants came from Orissa.All the taxi drivers were sardarjis from Punjab.
Why from these states?
Orissa is a land of dry weather and hurricanes accompanied by corrupt leaders. On the one hand the poor became poorer and the rich became richer. So the poor went to Kolkata for jobs and became household servants.
Bihar and UP had a different problem. Annual floods devastated the lives of all who lived near the Ganga and its various tributaries. This, accompanied by leaders who just played caste politics and amassed wealth shoved the people to Kolkata to become labourers, coolies, thela-walas, rickshaw-pullers. The recent floods caused by the Kosi in Bihar was completely man-made. Engineers who were incharge of the project were more interested in making money than in doing a good job.A thorough enquiry would prove it.
Punjab had its share of refugee problems. But the Punjabis did not sit idly cursing their fate and reminiscing about the ponds filled with fishes which they had left behind. They are hard-working and many took up driving taxis in Kolkata or any other jobs offered to them.They understood the dignity of labour.Jyoti Basu just understood the power of labour.
Jobs in Bengal dried up after Jyoti Basu came to power.
Ours was a cosmopolitan Engineering college with students from all over India.In 1967 when I entered college I used to pity the students from Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan as there were very few industries in those states. By the time I left college in 1971, thanks to Jyoti Basu, the shoe was on the other foot. Now Industries had risen in those states while ones in Bengal closed one by one.
Bengal could not even provide jobs to its own people. The once proud Bengali started accepting work as a coolies, thela-walas, most unwillingly in his state.When they entered these profession, unions were formed with frequent disruption and violence.
All professions in Bengal became unionized. students, teachers, hotels. restaurants,public transport, taxis, autos,hospital, nurses, doctors, offices,shops, police,. You name the organisation, there was one, two or sometimes three unions.
If Bengal is given a NSG unit, it will soon be politicised and will packed with pot-bellied party members and chamchas of the ministers. The NSG in Bengal will become just as useless as their other police force in the state. In any crisis, they will wait for orders from Biman Basu, the party secretary or Prakash Karat The centre will just be wasting resources by locating a NSG unit in Kolkata.
Production fell or stopped. Violence increased. Managers and owners began to fear their safety. Quite a few were killed.
The next flow of migration started, this time away from Bengal to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai. And back to Delhi or Rajasthan. Rajsthan was now developing fast under Mohanlal Sukhadia and people of Rajasthani descent were welcommed with open arms. Jaipur, Kota, Bharatpur and other cities in Rajasthan rose like sphinx in the desert.
Bengal became a dead state. At the time of B C Roy, Bengal was one of the most industrialised states in India. By the time Jyoti Basu’s reign ended, it has become one of the most backward states of India.
Faced with a refugee problem from Bangladesh which they did not want to control because of vote bank politics, Bengalis soon found themselves without jobs. Finally it dawned on them that if they were to live they had to move out. While the earlier Bengali was educated, he could get white collared job anywhere in India. Thanks to the short-sighted policy of the Left Front who removed English from their school curriculum, the Bengalis had to do with menial jobs outside India. When I went recently to Mumbai on the death of my wife’s brother, the maid servant too happened to be a Bengali.
The once proud Bengali who never tired of talking of his Sonar Bangla and the fish available had to leave his state.
Now you find Bengalis in Delhi, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Gujarat, Kerala working at menial jobs and being persecuted for being Bangladeshis. I understand that all Bengalis are not Bangladeshis physical examination could prove if they are from Bangladesh.
Again, the Left front government is to blame for their plight for allowing free flow of minority community to come into India.
You may ask why I object to minority refugees and not to Hindus?
India and Nepal are the only countries on the earth which Hindus can consider as their own.. If we do not allow the Hindus living outside India to come back, where will they go?
On the other hand, the muslims had voluntarily decided to have their own country and broke away from India. Hence, those refuges should not be allowed to come into India, whether it be from Bangladesh or Pakistan.
But what to do to the minority refugees who have come over and are straining our economy.
They should all be detected and taken under custody as illegal immigrants and a count made.
All muslim countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (since they finance all the terrorist activities) should be informed that we have so many illegal immigrants and they should be asked to take them. If they don’t then I believe then the Thai solution would be the best.
Put 500 of them on a boat which can hold 300 people and leave them in the centre of the ocean with five days ration and inform the Muslim countries of their location. If those people die, then it is their responsibility.
We cannot afford to solve other nation’s problems and create our own.
The Muslims who are India citizens should be well looked after.
They chose to stay in India because they believe in India’s secular credntials. However, they should understand that NATION comes before RELIGION and not listen to some half-mad bin-Laden living in hiding.
Let them understand that they were allowed 4 wives during Prophet’s time as there was a disproportionate increase in female population as continuous wars had depleted the male population. Claiming that as a right in modern times creates distrust of their motives in Hindu minds. I know, the majority and educated among the muslims marry only once as nobody in his right mind could manage four women when even one is a problem. It is only the uneducated who use this provision to breed so that they have more hands to help them forgetting that they also have to intitially feed and educate those hands. The result is more criminals and beggars who roam the streets.
We should give our muslims good education (not the madarssa type) and allow them to compete with all the others. Let their education up to class X be free. Let us not segrgregate them . Asimmilate them amongst us and let them feel we are with them.
But illegal immigrants should be shown that we are serious about deporting them.

Radheshyam