Small Hands, Big Deeds: New Forms of Labour Mobilisation delves into the complex and multilayered world of Indian labour; a world that has its own hierarchy with organised industrial labour occupying the primary position as the vanguard class. The reasons why labour has been conceptualised exclusively from the prism of organised working class are historical as well as theoretical. This exclusivity marginalises other protests and concerns, often relegating them to the footnotes of working class history.
While the manner in which other movements of protests are marginalised is being documented, most notably in literature defined as counter-cultural, this book deconstructs the ‘adult’ logic that permeates not only the metanarratives of globalisation and corporate capitalism, but also, equally, movements that are clearly counter-cultural and anti-systemic.
As per Government of India records Bhima Sangha, active in various regions of Karnataka, is a union of working children. It is a nomenclature that can at best be described as a square peg for a round hole. Moreover, traditional frameworks of working class analysis consider child labour to be a marginal concern relative to the larger class struggle. The ‘adult’ logic doesn’t imagine that children can develop class consciousness, mature enough for collective action. The activities and the actors of Bhima Sangha build a strong case for a theoretical reconceptualisation of working class and showcase the need for counter-cultural and anti-systemic forces to re-imagine and reconstruct themselves for an alternative hegemonic articulation strong and effective enough to dismantle the universalising logic of globalisation.
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