Papers by Maansi Parpiani
Mumbai / Bombay: Majoritarian Neoliberalism, Informality, Resistance, and Wellbeing, 2022
The chapter provides an ethnographic examination of the intersecting modes of precariousness enco... more The chapter provides an ethnographic examination of the intersecting modes of precariousness encountered by small manufacturing producers in Mumbai. Following industrial deregulation under neoliberalism, small enterprises have largely operated “informally” without the structural support to grow and become competitive. The producers, who are mostly Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, are also stigmatised as performing polluting and dirty work and denied basic civic amenities. They are neither able to relocate to larger industrial areas, nor grow their marginal businesses within the neighbourhood. In this context, we foreground their use of the term pehchaan – as the set of business strategies, that they deploy with their vendors to guarantee a minimum level of work orders. Pehchaan can be understood as an everyday credibility-building exercise through which migrant producers invest a certain amount of certainty in business transactions and expectations. While pehchaan is central to carving out survival in urban small manufacturing, we show how maintaining pehchaan over time is not able to counter the precariousness that surrounds it and gets mired within it. Making the small producers too dependent on tenuous relationships, pehchaan often gives way and forces them continue to live with precariousness.
Anthropology of Work Review, 2019
Economic and Political Weekly, Jun 7, 2013
The enlargement of the scope of the discipline of history means that it can at best be one of the... more The enlargement of the scope of the discipline of history means that it can at best be one of the many media to convey stories and memories of the past. A response to "Remaking the Indian Historian's Craft: The Past, Present and Future of History as an Academic Discipline" by Anirudh Deshpande (EPW, 16 February 2013).The enlargement of the scope of the discipline of history means that it can at best be one of the many media to convey stories and memories of the past. A response to "Remaking the Indian Historian's Craft: The Past, Present and Future of History as an Academic Discipline" by Anirudh Deshpande (EPW, 16 February 2013).
Economic and Political Weekly, Jul 7, 2012
This article discusses the contradictions and inconsistencies within colonial plans for the urban... more This article discusses the contradictions and inconsistencies within colonial plans for the urban renewal of Bombay in the years between 1898 and 1928. It attempts to break the perception of the colonial state as a coherent, hegemonic force of domination. Instead, it brings out colonial discourses of pretence and mimicry, and of upholding dichotomies and camouflaging inconsistencies with the purpose of evolving more problematised concepts of colonial imperatives, intentionalities and rationalities.
Anthropology of Work Review, 2021
Anthropology of Work Review, 2021
In India, many women from former untouchable caste groups (Dalits) are domestic workers. Despite ... more In India, many women from former untouchable caste groups (Dalits) are domestic workers. Despite attempts at seeking formal, legal recognition, they continue to be seen by the state as part of a broad, ambiguous category of “informal workers” whose work is stigmatized and not legislated for. In this essay, I suggest that the discourses and practices of a neighborhood-level Dalit domestic workers’ union in Mumbai reconceptualize domestic work as “formal” work.The workers assert themselves as formal workers (kamgaar) owing to their long histories of work in specific neighborhoods, relationships of trust with employers, and their ability to negotiate long-standing employment with them. Though domestic work does not align with the state’s definition of formal work (for example, through the presence of written contracts), for the workers, it was their own qualities, origins, social positions, and relationships that defined the formality of work rather than the other way around. Centering respect and dignity in their own work, their union also facilitated the articulation of the caste and gender-based prejudices that have not only kept domestic workers outside the ambit of formal recognition but also have brought about routine encounters with violence and harassment for Dalit women in the local neighborhood.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2020
Migrant workers in one of Mumbai’s most industrially dense areas with 3,500 small manufacturing a... more Migrant workers in one of Mumbai’s most industrially dense areas with 3,500 small manufacturing and recycling units face a number of hazards, with fires being among the common ones. This article looks closely at the causes and aftermaths of these fires and notes how the workers cope with them even as their skills and knowledge prevent even bigger accidents.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2012
This article discusses the contradictions and inconsistencies within colonial plans for the urban... more This article discusses the contradictions and inconsistencies within colonial plans for the urban renewal of Bombay in the years between 1898 and 1928. It attempts to break the perception of the colonial state as a coherent, hegemonic force of domination. Instead, it brings out colonial discourses of pretence and mimicry, and of upholding dichotomies and camouflaging inconsistencies with the purpose of evolving more problematised concepts of colonial imperatives, intentionalities and rationalities.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2013
The enlargement of the scope of the discipline of history means that it can at best be one of the... more The enlargement of the scope of the discipline of history means that it can at best be one of the many media to convey stories and memories of the past. A response to "Remaking the Indian Historian's Craft: The Past, Present and Future of History as an Academic Discipline" by Anirudh Deshpande (EPW, 16 February 2013).
Journal of Modern Slavery, 2021
Authors from NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a five-month rapid assessment of COVID-1... more Authors from NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a five-month rapid assessment of COVID-19’s impact on the Ready Made Garments industry (RMG) in Bangladesh and India with funding from the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS). The research presented here highlights the increased risk of forced labor among vulnerable working populations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid assessment addresses descriptive and normative questions about the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Bangladesh and India’s RMG industries. Qualitative data collection methods included 19 semi- structured key informant interviews (KIIs) with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders and actors across the RMG supply chain. KIIs were informed by a systematic review of recently published media articles, reports, white papers, and other online content. RMG sector stakeholders, including private sector supply chain actors, policy actors, and implementing partners, can u...
Book Reviews by Maansi Parpiani
Economic and Political Weekly, 2016
Civility against Caste: Dalit Politics and Citizenship in Western India by Suryakant Waghmore, Ne... more Civility against Caste: Dalit Politics and Citizenship in Western India by Suryakant Waghmore, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2013; pp 276, Rs 588, hardback. Dalit Households in Village Economies edited by V K Ramachandran and Madhura Swaminathan, New Delhi: Tullika Books, 2014; pp 339, Rs 556, hardback.
Anthropology of Work Review, 2019
Journal of International and Global Studies, 2014
Book Chapters by Maansi Parpiani
Uploads
Papers by Maansi Parpiani
Book Reviews by Maansi Parpiani
Book Chapters by Maansi Parpiani