Diamonds and Patels: A report on the diamond industry of Surat

In Surat, the second largest city of Gujarat and one of its main industrial centres, approximately 150,000 workers are earning a living in the diamond industry. Especially in the 1960s and 1970s, when the industry grew tremen dously, the working and living conditions of diamond cutters were bad. Work shop owners used extreme violence, torture and even murder to discipline wo rkers. After the mid-1980s the situation improved, but even today for many diamond cutters life in Surat's diamond workshops is hard. Despite these co nditions there have never been any strikes or organised forms of mass prote st in the history of the diamond industry of Surat. In this article a numbe r of possible reasons for this absence are discussed. One of these is recen t developments within the caste to which both diamond cutters and workshop owners belong.