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PAU studies migrants, media
thinks results are mere fun
WSN Network
LUDHIANA: The migrant is often at the receiving end, and the
conventional wisdom is that there is no voluntary migrant in the
world. Each person who chooses to do so is either forced to, or is
lured by better prospects (read, lack of enough prospects at home)
or a victim of circumstances.
But trust the popular media to ignore all perspectives of migration
when reporting on the language and cultural changes effected among
the migrant community. In fact, while reporting a study carried out
by a Punjab Agricultural University professor on the migrants from
Bihar state to Punjab, The Times of India actually began by writing:
“The tenth and final Sikh teacher, Guru Gobind Singh, who was born
in Bihar’s capital Patna nearly 300 years ago, would have approved
of this sociologial trend in contemporary Punjab. The old advisory
to people to adapt to the culture of the places they go to, ‘When in
Rome, do as Romans do’, has been assimilated with gusto by the
migrant population of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in the “land of five
rivers”.”
It went further, saying, “the ‘bhaiyya’ from the heartland has
transformed into ‘paaji’ in Punjab.” In utterly thoughtless fashion,
the story was titled “Punjab now a land of Bihari sardars”.
The reporting smacks of utter lack of empathy, and is surprising in
a state where Surjit Patar wrote the ever-so-touching poem on the
loss of language and culture of the migrant when he penned ‘Nand
Kishore’.
The study by PAU’s Department of Economics and Sociology said 81% of
migrants reported a change in the language they speak, the food they
eat and the clothes they wear.
The study was carried out by Dr M S Sidhu, Dr A S Joshi and
Inderpreet Kaur.
Similar studies in 1978-79 and 1983-84 had shown that 33% and 40% of
migrant labourers had reported a noticeable change in their
language. Also, 84% of respondents reported a change of preference
from the traditional favourite rice to wheat. Similarly, 88% had
switched from dhoti to pyjama-kameez.
It names certain migrants, like Ranjit Kumar, who calls himself
Ranjit Singh these days, or Sukhram, who now sports beard and kara
on his wrist without understanding why a migrant goes in for such
changes.
5 December 2007
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