Death of Professions or Saga of Subaltern

Death of Professions or Saga of Subaltern

Review_ The Lost Generation- Chronicling India’s Dying Professions by Nidhi Dugar Kundalia

India currently is proud of its demographic dividend and is keen on leveraging of this. Hence an estimated 550 million people need to be trained in skills, so that they can get employed thereby changing their fate as well as contributing to the GDP of the country. Interestingly almost 80% of these trades belong to the informal sector with no regulations, minimum wages policy, hostile working conditions. And in addition there are hundreds and thousands of people who are earning their livelihood, without any recognition of the means as a trade. These are the questions which I often struggle with. A young boy from Tejpur, comes all the way to Delhi to work in a shopping mall, earning 8000/- per month and sharing his accommodation with 7 others in a pigeon hole is supposed to do meaningful contribution to the economy, whereas in his village a vegetable seller who pushes his cart ful of greens to the local market doesn’t.

Interestingly the one who sells his own veggies and may even produce them has the capacity to think, create a livelihood option with this hands and is independent to some extent, still reeling under the burden of financial insecurity- being an entrepreneur. And the ones, who migrates, to work under someone is the one who contributes. However what will happen if suppose the Mc Donalds in Haryana, where this guy is working gets gutted down. What about his profession? He is employed under someone and what about social security etc. How as a country we look at jobs and not at entrepreneurship and in fact let many of the professions die. Many however cannot cope up with the changing demands of time. What are the fates of professions, if winds of time render them useless. What happens to that community? Or it is again the saga of the sub-altern? The one who had no voice and even the profession was not a choice or “ freedom as development”. They fell into accepting those, or compelled to do so, unable to get rid of the class, caste, gender baggage.

The Book- The Lost Generation- Chronicling India’s Dying Professions by Nidhi Dugar Kundalia, exposes us to a magical journey of 11 such professions, many should have been obliterated long back for its sheer oppression with respect to gender and class.

Nidhi takes us to Jharkhand to view the Godna Artists doing tattoo on forehead of little girls to the Rudaali women in feudal Rajasthan village.  There the women from upper caste cannot try or show emotional exuberance or vulnerability in front of others- repression works even to prevent them fropm expressing sorrows and the Rudaali women are the surrogate sorrow- bearers, emptying their soles and their eyes. At Haridwar the genealogists, seem to exude a feeling- how deep rooted caste sits in our system. The Kabootarbaz in Delhi refuse to accept their profession as an abuse to animal rights- however oblivious of the fact that the entire scheme was the fancy or whim of some rich nawab once upon a time. At Vikarabad in Andhra, we meet the Burrakatha story-teller, the part of the Jangam tribe, considered untouchables, and whose next generation has no problem in accepting a stable government job as a garbage cleaner with the municipality. At Baroda, the street dentist questions the relevance of medical schools, if the poor cannot afford the fruits of such education and he is proud of his own skills. The Urdu Scribes in Delhi are fighting not only the technology which has now given way to fonts, but also the idea of “ nationalism and other” which is hastening the decay of Urdu language. The Boat makers of Balagarh depict how culture and politics can go hand in hand- when the boats are used across the river for election propaganda and then re-used for immersion during Durga Puja. The Ittar Wallahs of Hyderabad, fondly reminisces his skill of creating the aroma for the “rooh” and seems to feel proud at his skill of identifying fragrances of the rich and poor, through some uncanny logic. The Bhishti Wallahs of Kolkata, now rendered of no use, are struggling with poverty, unable to get the OBC certificate and clutching on to the nostalgia of old camel skin “ bhishtis”- the word originating from the Persian word “ Beheshth” or paradise. (indeed water meant paradise in the deserts and the battlefields, where these water carriers or Bhishtiwallahs use to quench the thirst of the wary).

The most interesting one was the letter writer in Mumbai. Coming from Benares, he had made his living with honor, dominating the script of the ones who had none. However 2002 onwards, computers and email  and mobile phone has now posed a threat to this very profession. His deftness to express in form of the letter, is now not needed.

Throughout the book, however I could also see class playing a large role in the professions. Those who belonged to the upper caste dominated the “script”, be it through genealogists in Haridwar or the Letter Writer from Benares or the Urdu Scribe, who takes pride in curating books for Kashmir schools. Whereas the rest, once the subaltern in colonial domain, still reel from the pressure of caste or marginalization. Which makes me question- “has the saga of sub-altern really changed?”. Indeed the story-teller of the Jangam tribe in Andhra will become a garbage cleaner while son of the letter writer will join marcom industry and that of the genealogist in Haridwar has joined IT industry.
And when we charted the course of skilling, to employ 550 million people, we have also done the same, hardly giving them a freedom of choice, we know who will become a construction worker toiling in the concretes and living in a shanty and who will become the software engineer.

This is an interesting book- and after reading this wonder when would we realize that all professions will die, unless we have the power to create and choose one that befits us and our thoughts and wishes?..