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Chapter l;
INTRODUCTION
~,1 ~he studY of Migration ~J'O
'ltig~a tion is a topic of common ill terest to
severa~ social science disciplines, The demographer,
for example, considers migration as one of the factors
affecting the structure, distribution and growth of
population in a given region, the other factors being
fertUity and mortality, The town planner is concerned
with rural~urban migration as a factor generating several
urban pr.oblems such as overcrowding, slum-dwelling etc.
"Spatial processes and spa\tial interaction are of more
concern" to the modern geographer "than a concern with
~patial patterns 111 and hence the importance of the
territorial r~distribution of population, To the
economist, geographical mobUity of people is a pre
condition for economic development since the logic of
industrial:ization demands that manpower is available at
p~aces where industria~ enterprises are ~ocated.
~he sociologist who studies migration is
· basically interested in the following aspects;
{a) the ·causal factor in migration \-Thich may be
based on the· motivational and personality structure
of the individual mdgrant or in the socio-econo~c
structure of society \'Thich encou1·ages migration; .,.. :
2
(b) t~.proc~ss .of migration including the decision
to ai&rate, planning and prepration, mobUi.sation 'of
J>esouroe•l
(c) the nature of interaction between the migrants
and the local popUlation; and
·( 4) ' tbe consequences of migration tor (1) the llig:rant
g·~up; (11) the aocial structure of the sending coJIIIlunit;y;
arid (111) ·i;be soCial structure ot thfil J'eceiv1nl community:;)
~a apit~ of the number of studies Qn migration b.1
~cholars ti'Oa ~1-~st all pranches of social science,
theory buUd1ng 1n th1.- field has been ~;~tatic ~d . . . .
inadequate. This 1a inspite of "the ·dntalilic quality ot
a~g~tlOD 1-elf and the extraordinary importance vhic}l
moveaent• ot popul•tion ass~ both as a catalyst and an
1ngredien' ot social cl;lange"• 2 Mo•t theories of micration ' ,, -- . . '
tend to lie "tiae•bound, culture-boun.~ an~ situation-bound"• 3 .
The iDadeq~ate theoretical development 1n the field is
partl7 4ae to the absence ot inter-disciplinary research '
~th the result that "there has been little •ttempt to
. order tM contusion wi.th theoret1ca1 propositions and
models ~oh wouad lend both elegance and qnderstand1ng
to thia laqe and important subJect".~
- 3
1!here are also several myths and misconceptions
regarding m~ration. It is often believed that man is
universally sedentary, that "movement away from the natal
place is a deviant activity associated with disorganiza~ion
and a threa,t to the established harmony of Gemei,nschaft
relation~hips which are implied by a life lived within a
fixed social framework". 5 However, there are societies
where migration is a way of life. For example, in
societies wh~re inheritance is governed by primogeniture
the younger males are expected to migrate. Among nomads
shifting Qf residence is the rule rather than the
exception. Another misleading assumption regarding (l.
~gration is its snapshot characte~Aonce and only once
phenomenonf, But a significant part of the world
popUlation ,today consists of what Richmond calls
"transilients",6 that is, people who spend periods
of their life, outside. their country of birth, return
home and again migrate'!]
~ost research in the field of migration has
been done by demographers and economists with elegant
lo6k1ng mathematical models and with an almost exclusive
emphasis on rural-urban migration. Even sociological
studies haye been restricted to studying the problems
of urban integration of migrants, race relation in
4 ..
metropolitan cities etc. The urban bias in migration
studies has resulted in ignoring other important types
. of migra tio~
~.2 Txpefl of Mig;at~on
J:!t would be useful here to cl.assify the different
types of migr~tion. The geographical boundaries which
the migrant.~ .gross _may be one basis for identification
of migration ~y.pes. If migration takes place Vi thin
the boundaries of a given nation state, it may be termed
~ntranational (internal) migration; if the movement
crosses national boundaries t-re have international
migration. T~e persons involved 1n internal migration
·are called • i~~migrants' with reference to the receiving
area and 'out-migrants • with reference to the sending
~rea. Simila;rly, international migrants may be designated
by the terms ·~immigrants' and 'emigrants •:;J
The level of development of a society may have
important cons~qu~nces for the composition ef migrants.
For example, in the pre-industrial European nations and
in the contemporary Third world, persons involved 1n urban
"tvard ndgration are largely unsk.Uled labour. They are
~ecruited from the poorest and over populated rural areas
5
and consist· of large number of unmarried males. The
reverse is true for societies which have reached a high ' ~ ' ....
level of economic development. Brain-power, rather than
muscle power is.in demand in those societies. Consider-
ations of na~ionality, race and welfare may also govern
·the selection and composition of migrants. For example,
nationality laws, sons of the soil policy, ethnicity,
planned relocation of popUlation (particularly in
socialist societies) etc. are relevant considerations
in contemporary internal and international migrations.
~Another typology of migration may be obtained
from the scope for individual choice 1n the decision to
migrate. Thus migratio~ may be tree or forced, Refugees
who migrate du~ to political or ethnic causes, persons
displaced by natural calamities, slaves bought and sold
etc are exampl.es of forced migrants~
. ~prom' the urban-rural character of sending and
receiving are~§ .we get the following types of migration:
·{ i) rural to ~ural; (11) rural to urban; (111) Ul"ban to
:t;qral; and (1:-v) urban to urban. {Hural-urban migration
catches att~n~~pn of most students of migration in
developing co~~ries due obviously tQ the visibll1ty
of rural migr~nts in urban areas and due to their impact
- 6 -on urban amenities, job opportunities, patterns of
living, delinquency, crime etc. As a result, the other
migration stre~ms are given scant attention~At least
one demographer has expressed dissatisfaction at this
state of affairs. 7
••• a whole edifice of demographic investigations awaits to be built up around three phenomena of rural to rural., urban to rural and urban to urban migra~ion, because, in the context of economic and social development in developing countries, material and cultural progress depends largely on activating the rural base through the raising of agricultural production and expansion of agro-based industries.
~here is evidence to show that in recent decades,
the volume ~~ ~rural to urban migration in India has
decreased and.~he other streams have gained 1mportance.8
Zachariah's study9also suggested a change in the
character of ~igration after 1951 1n the sense that
urban to urban and rural to rural migration might
have become_more 1mporta~
~ban to ~ural. migration is comprised of t~ro
elements. The first is rural migrants returning to
their original villages after retirement or demobi
lization. This is also called tum-over lldgration.
7 -
The second is the flo't'l of skU led manpower, whether
~dministrative ~· scientific or technical, to rural areas
under government incentives such as hardship bonuses,
higher salaries etc. The urban to rural migrants "act
$S a critical mass for bringing about accelerated
social change. among seemingly stagnant soc1etiesu .§
~~~rom the angle of sheer volume and number of
people involved, rural to rural migration occupies
pride of place in developing countries. (The most
common form of rural-to-rura1 migration is marriage
migratio~ resulting from village exogamy and virilocal
residence. In lndia about three fourth of the <rural
to rural migrants is comprised of females; In South
India, on the .other hand, 't-rhere village exogamy is
less rigid, the proportion pf rural-to-rural migrants
•to total migrants is consioJerably less.ll However
1 t would al~o ,not be corre4t to assume that all female
migration is .mar.riage migr~tion, since working class
rural women migrate either . 3ingly or "t-Tith families to
· urban or rural areas. J:!l ~~~Another type of lrur,l-rural migration is the
seasonal migr~tion of agr19u1tural labour from agr1-I
culturally backward and employment scarce areas to
relatively developed and la oour scarce are~. The
movement of labourers from Easte~ U.P and Bihar to
8 -to Punjab is .a good example of this typey This movement is
seasonal, related to the agricultural cycle, and temporary
since the labourers return to their native places at the
end of the season. However, during the next season the
labourers may again go in search of employment. Hence
it is also called circular migration. This m~gration
has important consequences both for the sending and
receiving area.s. For the sending <D mmun1ty remittance
of migrants and the release from underemployment may
act as effective cushions for economic backwardness •
. The remittances may also help acquire new assets or
finance the education of a relative thereby raising the
economic an~ social status of the migrant's family.
~he return1n~ migrants may also bring along with them
n.ew values and behaviour patterns. In the receiving
community the availability of cheap migrant labour may
depress wages of local labour and reduce their bargaining .. pol-Tar, thereby increasing the power of landowners and
perpetuating the poverty of the labourers~
[A third subtype of rural to rural migration is
the mjg ration of \_labourers to plantations, mines and other
extractive and processing industries located in rural
areas•j In most Third World countries the development of
plantations and mining was the direct result of colonial
rule. Interestingly, the planters, who were mostly /
.. 9 -
foreigners, preferred to recruit outside la mur partly
because the latter was cheaper and partly because the
local. population was reluctant to give up their. tradi·
tional occupations. Indentured labour and ~ecru1tmant
through 1ngen1ou$ systems such as the 'leader• system
(also kno~ as the parq,an or the AAoPni system) t1ere
··characteristic features of the early development of
.plantations Emd mines. Several people from India,
including tU-banites_, migrated to Ceylon, Malaysia, BUI'Clat ... , and to some African countries as plantation labourers or
miners. In India also several plantation centres developed
chief among which were the foot bill zones ot Brahmaputra
and Surma valleys in Assam, the Dar3eel1ng-Jalpaigur1
tract of 1-:est Bengal, the tieatorn Ghats of Kerala (High
l~anges of Travancore and WJnad of Malabar), Kama taka
(Coorg) and T.amU Nadu (the Nilg1r1s) •1!)1
~olon1zatlon of agricultural waste, either
~brcugh government sponsored schemes, or through spont
aneous peasant action, 1S another type of rural.rural
m.igrat1on. Eltamples of Governmen~ colonization schemes
are the Ita jast}lan Q.anal Colonies, the Dandakaranl18
. ~eheme and the w~a. exserv1cemen colonizat1on scheme.
U()t~ver spontanc:lous agricultural col.on.1zat1on bas
played a much moro impo~ant role 1n deve1op1ng backtlard
- ~0 -
areas and increasing agricultural production. the
plantations, by improving communications and controlling
epidemics, accelerated the pace of peasant colonization
ot agricultural waste land. B.H. Farmer14bas shown that
while 1n the n~eteenth century tbe extension of area a.
un.der cultivation in India was associated with tea_..plant-
ation crop, in the twentieth century it ~s associated
with spontaneou$ movement of peasants from the plains to
3ungle area.p. In both Assam and the \·lestern Ghats peasant
colonization gained momentum after the successfUl establi
shment of plantations and land hungry peasants from the
plains took up forest land for cultivat1on:J
It is interesting to note that 1n both the regions 0.
peasan~ colonization has been spoarh~ded by people from
geographical regions and social groups from outside the
region. For examp~e, the coloniZers of the Assam valley
were Muslim peasants from Benga115whereas those in the
highlands of Malabar were Syrian Christian ... pea.sants from
Travancore. ~e difference uas that while the Assam . a
coloniaers wel,'e linguistically and culturally "different
group, the Syrian Christian migrants in !>falabar '~re ' from ~he same 11ngu1stie and cultural region, though 1n
the· 1nitia1 stages Travancore and Malabar were separate
pol1tica~ units~
- l.l -
1..3 ?\he »resent st;udx
\[Migration in general 9 and peasant migra t1on in
particular, constitutes a crucial agent of social change
in seemt.Qgly stagnant societies. Peasant migration into
tribal areas usually resUlt in exploitation of tr1bals and
the alienation of their land which leads to conflicts
bett>Ieen migrants and tribal.So ~his sometimos erupts
into miiitant tr1bal movements.16 In certain areas
peasant mi~rants bring along with them ag~icultural innovations
auch ao new CU"Opping patterns and tecbnology. they may
Qlso introduce changes 1n the social and agrarian strue~ure
of the 1 bo$t' society and also be affected by the latter.
The migration itself may be the result of factors inherent
in the social and economic arrangements of the •sending'
area and alSo the ones relating to the •receiving' are~ The purpo$e of tho present exercise is to highlight some
of these sociological dimensions of peasant migration and
specifically, the migration of peasants from Travancore
to Mala bar.,
This study is addressed specifically to the
tollowJ.ng questi.ons:
(a) Why the people from distant 'fravancore and not
from tha nearby planes of l{a].abar were more suceessi"ul.
in extending the agricultural 'frontier' of Malabar?
- l.2 -
(b) ~nat were the socioweconomio cha4~cte~1Stics
of tbe migrants?
(c) l-lhat. were the structural factors which operated
t·o bring about a large scale voluntary transfer or population
from Travancore. to ~~labar?
-(d) Given the same st1·uctural factors W}\y were members
of certain religious groups and not others more prone to
migrate?
(-e) How did the 'm1gJ:at1on cbain' opex·ate in the
process of Ullgra t1on?
~f) ~nat were the consequences of this large scale
migration ~OJ! the agrarian an4 social structure of I-ialabar?
(g) What eere the patterns of adaptation and
$Ssimilat1on of the migrant community to thoir altered
$9C1al and physical env1ronmen~?
The pres~t study attempts to provide reasonably
sat1sfactory explan~tions to these questions. These expla
nations are based on a direct field work based study conducted
tv the researcher ln the in-migration area. In other words
the study provides empirical evidences to support the argue
ment$ used as explanations foJ: the phenomenon of a specific
t~p~ or migl~tion, namely, the spontaneous migrntJ.on of
pe~sants to othe1• rural areas for agricultUl•al purposes.
1.3
1.4 Plan of. the stud¥
Chapter 2 provides a theoretical backd~op for
the succeeding parts of the study. We divide the process
of migration into three analytically distinct stages and
discuss briefly various approaches to the study of each
stage, and attempt to specify our own approach.
Chapter 3 turns to the historical. process of the
development of society 1n Kerala, our universe of study. 0
This discussion provides a background to the accel.erated
rate of mobility of Kerala's population in recent times.
Chap~er 4 focuses on the historical development
0
• of population mobility in Kerala, to provide a context Glrlcl~l\J ~l-.
to ourAintra~rural migration in Kerala.
Chapter 5 presents the results of our emp1rica~
study of peasant migra t1on to Mal.a bar. It explains the
social structural factors ~ich caused the migration of
peasants frQm Travancore to Malabar and describes the
actual migratory process.
Chapter 6 is concerned with the probl.ems of adjust
ment and a~~pt~tion of the peasant migrants, and the
emerging inter-group relations 1n t1alabar.
Chapter 7 reviews the whole exercise to understand
hot-r the theoretical framework we adopted to study peasant
migration fit the facts, to identify limitations and to
point out a~eas of further research.
- 1.4 -
l., L.A. 1\ocinsU and M.R. Prothero~ nlntroduction: The Study of Migrationno in L.l"• l!.osinski and M.a. Prothero (ed.) ,ffilol)lG qn the H.Qxe: stugi~fl .oo !nt~:tna1 [email protected], London; l-iethuen, 1971, p.l •
. 2. J.A. Jackson, ~tintroductionu in J .A. Jackson, ~igrat1Qn, London; Cambridge University Press, 1.969, p.2~
3. G. Gormani, "Migration ana tt.ccultaration° in P.llauser {eel.) • MnqhoQts fg~ .. ~ocSAl ll.M~Atct\ in_ IIX!han AX!£Wl, Par!sa t.~ESCO; 19M; p.lG4o
4t J.A. Jackson, op.eit.t p.6.
s. ~·~ .p.3
6.. ln industrial socieities migration has become part
7.
a .•
of a persons' carreer cycle. ThO word 'transUients • is used by A.n. Richmond, £t:e-J4!U>_lmrniemn~ in Canada, Toronto; 'Xoronto University PressJ 967,p.~B.
Baa al.so C.J. Janson, "~ociological Aspects of t1igrat1onn, in J.A~ Jackson• o~c~., p.69.
R.T. Appleyard ~sb. ~!oil ta_Auat~o London; Weidenleld and Nicolson, 1964, p.~74•6i A.J. Hernandez, ~.t.utn 61a..Rm.Y.!on tg ,fugstg lliAA, Population M.onograph 1 9 Institute of lntern.ational Studies, Berkeley; University of Californ.ist 1.967•
~:o~~i~ak~!~~~~~2lgog~~~~~~~f~~t paper presented ~ the International Union for Scientific Study of Population, London, {mimao).
.B.K. Roy Burman, ttintroduction'' in Census of India! 1.971, C~n.sus Centenary Monograph No~?, Economic: on ~.1g,.;:cp~tnw DimennianB ~1Dn~l1za.tion~'~\.n lndQ-~~.s.n ollaborativc Study, P.AXAIV-XXXVI.
- l.S -
9. K.C. Zacbriaht 4- ri,j,Storic:Jtl dtudy of Internal ~1gr~tSon in thO Indian Bub-cQntinent, 1$01-1234, Bombay~ Demographic Training and Research Centre, Researoh Monograph l.• 1.964, p.39.
l.O,
1.6,
See also Ash1sh DoDe, ritudtes in I.pdia's UrbanizaUtm, !,901-.JJrZ.}., New Delhi: Institute of Economic Grouth, l973, p.l.44 .. Asok Mitra, Q»•Qit• p.l.o.
G.s. Ghosal and G,Krishnn, .. Patterns of Internal . t-tigrution in Indian t in .i. ... •• t .. osinski and M.R.Prothero (ed.) ~~., p,l.99.
M.s.A, .liao, "Some Aspects of t!:e Sociology of Migt~ation"t SgQj,gJ.pg,!gal ,l}ulle~ Vol.30t No.1., March l.98J., p.26. See also Maneefa A .. .Singh, "t<Jom.on in the tt,rl:.et-Place: Ba~hers and Street Peddlers", paper presented to the subpanel en migration at tha XVtn All-India Soc1ologieal Conference, Meerut, 1980.
G.~. Ghosal and G. A.rishan, £U2&AU., p .202
B. H. Farmer, A3£icQL tural Cpl gn iz~tion in ln~io .§1ncc. l,n.(l..e,nenA9nce, Dalllit OAford University Press, 1.974. pp.l-0•20.
S.K. Da.ss "~he DeGlographic Tro.nsformation of Assam" p
Jiconamig o.nd Eol $t1~'l1 Wacls:JJC, l.S(l.9), Hay l.O, l.980, p.860-859; ~lyrt>n Weiner, ~ M~~~ Su.C£geg an,d. ~o.i~AA.M~l, A~samand, c:£~ ; Cambridge (Mass), ; :t. Centre for International Studies v1orking Paper, January 1975, pp 1.-73,
For the roots of nativist movement in Assam see Myron Weiner, g,aneing Cgneagtigns of Q1tizen1?,bj,p in a.HUltJ. ... Blilln!~' Sgg!§1iX~ Cambridge_, I1ass; H.I.i'.Centre for tnt0rnnt1onal Studies Working Paper, February 1975, p.l-39.