In its August 2019 report, the National Register of Citizens, mandated and supervised by the Supreme Court of India to verify the quantum of cross-border illegal migration into India's northeastern state of Assam, identified over 1.9 million “illegal immigrants.” While the matter is sub judice, the topic of migration in India—its history, context, and socioeconomic ramifications—has generated considerable interest. This book by Chinmay Tumbe on migration and its historical antecedents viewed through an India-centric lens is hence timely. One of his core premises is that while the ideological battle of the twentieth century was between capitalism and communism, that of the twenty-first century “is likely to be between cosmopolitanism and nativism” (p. 230). In light of these transitions and tensions, visible through changing immigration policies in the world's leading economies, the study is contextual.
In his foreword, Arvind Subramanian, former chief economic advisor to the Government of India, calls the book “rigorous but accessible and interesting scholarship” (p. ix). In his introductory note, Tumbe calls his work “the first book on the history of both internal and international migration and voluntary and involuntary migration related to India” (p. xi). True to both of these observations, the book emerges as an admirably concise account of the history of migration to and from India from the first millennium BCE to the year of publication. The book covers very diverse kinds of migration including those of artisans, merchants, slaves, indentured laborers, warriors, workers, students, and high-skill professionals.
The book covers substantial ground extending from the history of ancient India, when Buddhism and Jainism led to the creation of new migratory circuits within India and Asia; to the coming of migrant representatives of the Semitic religions who, for several reasons, entered through the west coast of India and made the country their home; to the medieval period marked by the Turko-Afghan and Mughal invasions of northern India and the eventual colonization of various parts of India by the Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French, and British empires. Tumbe notes that migration in the medieval period was “at the intersection of complex military, commercial and religious networks” (p. 22). He also captures certain global migrations and their consequences in those years, including that of twelve million slaves from Africa to the Americas. An entire chapter focuses on “a story that has never been told”: that of the world's largest and longest voluntary migration stream in documented history, which Tumbe calls “the Great Indian Migration Wave,” a phenomenon that over the last hundred years has led to the migration of nearly two hundred million Indians (p. 40).
Tumbe has done much justice to topics that have attracted little scholarly attention in the field. The diversity of themes and the depth of data gathered across centuries impress the reader with the magnitude and effects of forced migration—rarely a part of mainstream discourse, except during conflict situations in postwar scenarios observed in West Asia or the postcolonial years in South and East Asia. A book dedicated to documenting the migration story of the world's largest democracy, the challenges and opportunities of welcoming migrants from different religions and regions over a millennium, and their influence on its pluralistic, multicultural, and multireligious identity is a welcome contribution to scholarship in this field. Moreover, through his extensive research Tumbe has compiled over three thousand academic publications in a bibliography that is accessible online. The book's endnotes include a portion of these sources, which have been drawn from a range of archival records, government and multilateral reports, and books and journals of national and international repute.
However, the book itself relies primarily on secondary and published studies. While the author states that he has interacted with migrant workers across countries and learned from their life histories, he has not woven those anecdotal narratives into the body of his study (p. xv). Such an attempt would have enabled readers to gain a firsthand understanding of the workers’ migration-related compulsions and experiences. Tumbe relies more on aggregate data of trends in migration than on microdata derived from individual experiences. A blend of both would have enhanced the book's readability. Two recent publications on migrants’ experiences use the anecdotal approach effectively: Aanchal Malhotra's Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material History (2018), which focuses on stories from both sides of the border following British India's partition in 1947; and Karan Agrawal's 7 Untold Secrets of Living Abroad (2019), which captures the experiences of thirty-four expat professionals across twelve countries in the new millennium.
Readers of Business History Review will benefit from the chapter “Merchants and Capital,” which provides a thoroughly researched account of the contribution of Indian migrant merchant communities including the Chettiars, Punjabis, Sindhis, Marwaris, and Gujaratis during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The role of migrant Parsi, Muslim, European Christian, and Baghdadi Jewish merchants in trade and capital has been sufficiently captured. Another relevant chapter for the journal's readers is “Diasporas and Dreams.” The story of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been that of an Indian diaspora, twenty-five million strong (2018 figures), spread across the globe for educational and economic opportunities. Realizing the benefits of vibrant diasporic dialogue, the Indian government has proactively engaged with them since the first decade of the new millennium. India's diaspora provides it with a geopolitical clout through soft power and with financial assistance through remittances that contribute nearly 2 percent of India's GDP, among the highest in the world. In the last decade, the example of CEOs of Indian origin leading iconic companies such as Google, PepsiCo, and Microsoft has also been a source of ideas and inspiration to Generations Y and Z, who constitute nearly two-thirds of India's population.
Though addressing a necessary element in India's migration story, the chapter “Partition and Displacements” has little connection to business history. It focuses on the impact of the 1947 partition of British India, its aftereffects in India and Pakistan, and the displacements caused by internal disturbances in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Tibet, and Kashmir. The displacements convey a tale of not only the ill-planned colonial and political decisions but also the reprehensible outcomes of terrorism and human trafficking that have negatively impacted the lives of over five million people in the Indian subcontinent.
As a millennial, I resonate with Tumbe's observation that the future is one of greater responsibility. With India's economic position rising in the comity of nations (it is currently the third-largest economy by nominal GDP purchasing power parity), it is likely to become a country of immigration beyond its immediate neighbors. The impact of climate change on low-lying geographies in India's neighborhood, and the effect of terrorism on and persecution of individuals belonging to faiths in India, could lead to more migration into the country. All this would make the study of migration and its historical roots a necessity for policymakers, economists, social scientists, and business leaders. To this cause, Tumbe has made a significant contribution.
