Asking for and giving baki: Neo-bondage, or the interplay of bondage and resistance in the Tamilnadu power-loom industry

This paper on labour relations in the power-loom industry of the south Indi an town Kumarapalayam (Salem district, Tamilnadu) explores the dynamics of this practice of 'asking for and giving baki', employers' advances to their labourers, which has now become a widespread custom within this capitalist , industrial and urban setting. The introduction of this practice is relate d to the manufacturer-employers' search for a stable, skilled and disciplin ed workforce, the entry of a non-traditional weaving caste (Vellalar Gounde r) into this industry, and the exclusion of particular groups an the basis of caste, gender and skill. The effects of giving advances on labour relati ons and labour turnover, however, reveal the problematic nature of this pra ctice. Although employers have undoubtedly attempted to reintroduce through debt a form of labour attachment within this small-scale power-loom indust ry, the effectiveness of this strategy is highly paradoxical as labourers c ontinuously escape bonds by moving to other employers, factories and even t on ns. It is suggested that a study of the dynamics and dialectics of impos ing bonds and escaping ties may further our understanding of how labour bon dage and its contestation rake shape in an urban. industrial context.