3 Review(s)

The spectacle of the mass exodus of migrants following lockdowns during the first wave of COVID-19 in India brought to centre-stage a migrant discourse that exposed various fault lines in Indian society such as class, caste, gender, religion and ethnicity, which tended to magnify during the crisis. Moreover, the state’s failure to stand with and care for its toiling classes, particularly migrants, has intensified debate on state, democracy, citizenship, market, mobility, domicile, welfarism, urbanism, labour, foreign policy vis-à-vis overseas Indian migrants, human-pathogen relations, and right to life and livelihoods. The gradual but impending impact of the pandemic is likely to bring about far-reaching changes in the way politics functions, the triad of liberalisation, privatisation and labour reforms is exploited, urban is conceptualised, and workers’ organisations go about organising them. This book, using multi-disciplinary lenses, explores all these topics as they unfolded during the first wave of the pandemic in India and tries to bring forth the perceptive aspects of the issues discussed and debated during the pandemic.