Gender ideologies and the formation of rural industrial classes in South India today

Abstract

Major structural changes are under way today in employment in rural India. There has been a great increase in non-agricultural employment. This case study considers one form of non-agricultural employment, namely rural manufacturing industry in South India. The synthetic gem-cutting industry has been established in central Tamilnadu for decades. However, in the 1990s this rural industry has gone through extremely rapid and significant change. It is argued that this industrial transition is both impacting on, and has in turn been influenced by, rural caste and kinship relations. These transforming relations connect closely with the process of class differentiation that is under way within the various rural social groups who are associated with the industry. Within this context it is argued that two general hypotheses can be made. First, it is argued that the 'working class' is not undifferentiated, but deeply fractured along caste and gender lines. Second, it is claimed that class relations do not always stand as the primary mediator of labour relations: it is shown that for a significant part of the industrial workforce, it is in fact gender ideologies, discourses and practices that mediate labour relations.

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