“The workers are seeing what Hindutva groups are doing. In bastis it’s not just Muslims. They know who wants to push them out. They will carry this back home as well. Like labour, the struggle against Hindutva is also multi-sited.”
Therefore, these tech workers, with partisan ties to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M))—once the ruling party in West Bengal but now challenged by the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and the rise of Hindu nationalist party like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)— saw organizing migrant labourers as a critical site of political resistance as well. Organizing lower-class migrant workers was their way of channelling efforts to contribute to not just labour solidarity, but also to the political movements of their home state.
Nonetheless, in March, as the pandemic hit, 30 people from Dinajpur, West Bengal, stranded in Kattamanallur near KR Puram, received support from Bengali tech workers, Pother Dabi volunteers, and the traditional trade union CITU (many of them are native Kannadigas, Malayalees), who provided them with 15 days’ worth of rations. As the crisis deepened, the number of volunteers increased, with many being tech workers who were working from home. They took the initiative to support lowerclass Bengali migrants during COVID-19, using their personal vehicles to deliver essential mutual aid and food. By collecting money from friends and with the help of Gyan Vigyan Samity, they reached out to those in need, ultimately feeding 20.000 workers across Bengaluru. As Hari shared, “We started off with 2–3 people and two bikes. Later we had 18 people, 6 four-wheelers, and three bikes. From Bommanahalli to Yelahanka, even Ramnagar, we were reaching as many people as possible.” Some also expressed the futility of donating to union government funds, as they felt the state was neglecting migrant workers. As Dipak expressed People were giving [donations] to PM Cares, but they are not feeding anyone. So we had to.”
During the pandemic, lower-class Bengali migrant workers also felt the need to raise demands to their home state. As our participant Jabbar explained:
“COVID taught me a lesson. I have only one demand from the home state government: if we die and our bodies need to be returned to Bengal, it costs 20.000 rupees. Do we have that money? No. Many of our brothers are cremated in this foreign land. If the government could at least take on that responsibility, I would be happy.”
9 TRANSVERSAL UNIONISM: RESISTING AND NAVIGATING
247