![]() ![]() Bidesiya Birha became all the rage among the migrating working classes and it is still sung today on different occasions. Its origin stems from Bhikhari Thakur, a rebel leader and cultural activist, who wrote and staged a natak (theatre play) titled Bidesiya that narrated the hardships endured by migrant workers and their families. Bidesiya Birha thus literally translates to ‘melancholy song for someone who is abroad’. ![]() Birha in Bhojpuri means ‘loneliness, a long, sad waiting for someone beloved, a strong sense of pain due to their absence’. A similar tradition is seen in Bhojpuri folksongs: Bidesiya Birha was very popular among the Bihari migrants who went to Kolkata, Delhi, and Mumbai as a part of post-colonial industrial development. They quickly became popular among the Malayali Diaspora and their families back home. Jameel is said to be the first to mould these emotionally loaded letters into love songs. Kathu Pattu is literally translated to ‘letter song’, referring to letters that are exchanged between a migrating husband and his wife who was left behind. It was popular among the Muslim population of Northern Malabar as they started migrating in large numbers to the Gulf countries following the 1970s oil boom. Kathu Pattu is a form of Mapila song written in Arabi Malayalam (popularly also known as Ponnani script, where Malayalam is written with Arabic letters) and sung traditionally by the Muslims of the Malabar Coast for different occasions. In the following article, I locate two specific genres of folksongs as a medium of communication between migrating men and their left-behind homes. While many may see migration as an opportunity for marginalised groups to escape poverty and feudal social oppression, the social cost of such decisions is hardly talked about. However, one thing remained the same: sex-selective labour migration. As their migration trajectories were different, so was the kind of work they started specialising in. Bihari labourers instead became a major workforce within the Indian subcontinent with the rise of the manufacturing industry and other low-skilled jobs. Later, people from Kerala migrated to Burma and other East Asian countries as plantation labour and now make up the largest portion of the Indian diaspora in Gulf countries. Malayalees’ relationship with the Gulf states started with the spice trade, whereas Biharis were taken to the Caribbean Island as bonded labour during British rule. Kerala and Bihar, the two Indian states discussed in this piece, are heavily dependent on labour migration as a major source of income, though in very different ways. ![]() In South Asia’s developing countries, internal and international migration have been shaped by the economic mobility of the working class. ![]() However, questions around non-economic opportunity cost are not discussed enough. Migration discourses have mostly revolved around economics or, more recently, legality. ![]()
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