On March 25, 2020, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed the world’s largest lockdown in a bid to stem the threat of COVID 19. The stringent lockdown triggered a mass exodus from cities across India, with panic-stricken people desperately trying to leave for their homes in villages, walking over hundreds if not thousands of kilometres. Who were these men, women and children streaming out of India’s cities? Why did they feel compelled to leave the economic engines of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and return to their rural homes? Why had they flocked to its cities and towns in the first place? The exodus from India’s cities points to the urgent significance of these questions. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork with migrant workers since 2016, this book offers unique perspectives on the lived realities of India’s migrant workers. Unlike studies that assume migrant workers are helpless victims with no agency of their own, and don't see them as resilient entrepreneurs able to improvise under any circumstance, this book offers a realistic account of their hopes and struggles. As social mobility and internal migration assume centre-stage in India, Indians on the Move presents compelling new evidence that will convince observers to rethink their understanding of India’s transforming political economy.
