Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

until recently. A third form migration was to places like Tamilnadu, Karnataka and
Maharashtra. A number of people went to Madras, Tirunelveli, Tiruppur, Salem, Erode
and Coimbatore, all long the railroad from Calicut to Madras. WE have already seen the
early recruitment as railway labourers. They went there mainly as hotel laborers, teashop
keepers and small traders, and the number of industrial laborers was very few. People
went to Shimoga, Mysore, Bangalore, Hasan and other places mainly as bakery workers,
and the migration of Bakery workers was up to Kolhapur, Pune and Mumbai. Yet another
form of temporary migration is also mentioned. The Hajj was a very important event in
the life of a Muslim, and in early days, going for Hajj was an arduous and risky affair.
Many people going for hajj used to stay in Mecca itself, evading the notice of emigration
authorities. They used to do all kinds of odd jobs, the most prestigious being sweeping
the roads through which the pilgrims made their journey, and returned after one or two
years, with adequate amount of money. Perhaps the earliest accounts of the life and
opportunities in Arabia were given by them.
Such migrations never involved the migration of the whole families. Only the male
members migrated, leaving the entire families in their parental homes. The migrations
were taking place at a very young age, some times even less than ten or twelve years,
when children either ran away from home or taken by some of their relatives to work in
the new places. This also probably explains the unskilled character of the labor, such as a
helping hand in a hotel or bakery. In the initial years most of them worked without any
wages, but only for food and shelter. All of them learnt the trade in the place to which
they migrated. Lack of formal education is another reason why they never acquired any
skills. Most of the migrants returned after several years, mainly to get married and leave
again. This form of migration was clearly a solution to the miserable condition of their
existence, and as one of the informants testified, it was hunger that drove the children