The Labouring Poor in India
Patterns of Exploitation, Subordination and Exclusion
Jan Breman
Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2003
Pages: xi+351, Price: Rs 395
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Informal labour or footloose labour has always been a foremost concern for Jan Breman, the social anthropologist. Though south Gujarat has been the focus of much of his research work, this collection of essays throws light on the overall pitiable condition of informal labour, who in particular bear the brutal consequences of the new market capitalism. Breman, however, is never as haranguing as some forceful critics of new capitalism have been, but he makes his arguments persuasively.
Breman believes that capitalism worldwide has been irrevocably transformed. The ever-growing accumulation of privilege and capital in few hands has transformed the fight against poverty into a fight against the poor.
For Breman, these constitute the masses of landless labourers