History of Burdens: Kashmiri Migrant Labour in Shimla, Present and Past

Abstract

Muhammad Ramzan is carrying an old television from the owner's textile store to an electrical goods outlet in the Lower Bazaar. The television is effectively strapped to his back using a rope, and he is hunched over his worn out shoes, panting as he lays it down gingerly at its destination. Ramzan is from the Anantnag district in Kashmir. For the last 30 years, he has been spending six months each year in Shimla, carrying heavy loads from point to point in the Lower Bazaar area. Shimla has christened Ramzan and the numerous other porters from Kashmir with the overarching epithet of ‘Khan’.