While the ambit of this particular excerpt zones in on the migraine Bengali population in the city, Raghavan duly mentions that the larger issue at play here has to do less with the particular ethnicity itself, and more with the intersection of immigrant labour and caste: “It is not just immigrant Bengalis who get exploited of course, but also various other immigrant labour communities; in general, you may say that the rising costs of living in India, compounded by agrarian and job crises, together create the conditions in which migrant labourers are forced to take up whatever jobs they might find. And because there is such a large floating population of workers clamouring for jobs, the corporations are assured of a steady work force through contractors who mobilise labour at low wages and zero security. ”
Readers of the book (and this piece) will be hardly surprised by the site of this oppression: Whitefield; after all, the emergence of a mutated limb of township and industry is not a phenomenon specific to Bengaluru, but is the case for every Indian metro one can think of. “Whitefield was built as an exclusionary settlement, so it is unsurprising that it continues to be one,” states Raghavan, continuing: “Still, this polarisation isn’t particular to Whitefield – it is a global feature of neoliberalism. The primary reason is that inequality has skyrocketed over the last couple of decades, and there is a general ignorance and apathy on the part of the wealthy elite who basically segregate themselves from ordinary society. They live in gated communities, send their children to private schools, visit private clubs, almost oblivious to the outside world. Migrant labourers sort putrid trash by hand, without any safety equipment at all, in a city known for being a tech-hub – the irony practically writes itself. It is ultimately the symptom of a merciless economic system that prizes private enrichment over societal growth.”
