Correspondent
KOHIMA, December 17, 2019: The launching programme of Dolly Kikon and Bengt G Karlsson’s book titled ‘Leaving the Land-Indigenous Migration and Affective Labour in India’ organised by Youth Net Nagaland was held at Made in Nagaland Centre Kohima.
The author of the book, Dolly Kikon while sharing her thoughts spoke on the collusion of state, industry and indignity and trace how indigenous migrants are trained to serve in the hospitality industry and follow their experiences. She also said they examine how indigenous migrants are on a path of 'way finding' - a manner of moving about in the world without having a definite destination and pointed out that this kind of mobility is shaped by the militarization of their homelands and the increasing loss of land and practices of subsistence cultivation.
She also illustrated the lives of indigenous youth and indigenous migrants from Northeast India, the grueling work hours in cities and the disruptive life pattern in villages which have set them on a path to seek opportunities and see the world and how many of them yearn to come back and own a piece of land although they are unsure about returning to their villages.
Dolly highlighted about how the ongoing political processes deeply impact the lives of young indigenous migrants, their zest for work for dignity, respect and notion of hope, how they are exploited, the hardship they face in work places and explained about the health hazards they faced over the years, and how under challenging circumstances, they are determined to forge new possibilities’.
The author of the book, Dolly Kikon is an Anthropologist who teaches at the School of Social and Political Sciences, the University of Melbourne and her research focusses on the political economy of extractive resources, development initiatives, gender relations, customary law, and human rights in Northeast India. Apart from publishing with various journals, she has also authored Life and Dignity: Testimonies of Sexual Violence in Dimapur (Nagaland) (2015) and Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast India (2019).
Advisor Information Technology, Science & Technology, New & Renewable Energy, Mmhonlumo Kikon who also spoke on the occasion hoped that the newly released book will leave a large impression on many of the readers and also enable policy makers, scholars and researchers to get ideas and knowledge from the book. He also added that the book will be close to the hearts of the government to bring solutions to the issues that are mentioned in the books about migrant workers from the North East India.