Digging for sand after the revolution: mafia, labor, and shamanism in a Nepali sand mine
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Digging for sand after the revolution: mafia, labor, and shamanism in a Nepali sand mine Michael Peter Hoffmann 1 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
This article offers a descriptive analysis of the working worlds of sand miners along a river near a city in the mid hills of Nepal. I argue that the sand mines in the region examined are effectively mafia run, but those who work in them do not resent their mafioso employers and instead view them as patrons who provide much-needed employment. Focusing on the everyday work practices in a sand mine, the article highlights workers’ understanding of sand mine work which range from viewing sand mines as spring boards to better-paid jobs in far-away countries to more negative renderings of sand mines as places where one risks to loose one’s own life. It further shows that workers mediate this tension between their attempts to achieve “big dreams” of upward socio-economic mobility and their fears of work accidents by engaging in shamanistic practices. In conclusion, I argue that the conditions of work in the sand mine examined cannot be understood without taking into account Nepal’s more recent political context. The article contributes to the literature on criminality, politics, and labor in South Asia. Keywords Nepal . Maoism . Mafia . Sand Mining . Labor . Shamanism
Introduction In early December 2018, I met a group of four workers near a sand mine along the Sethi River in the middle hills of Nepal. The workers were in the process of removing stones from the river’s water, which were sold as building material to local construction companies. One of the workers had driven a tractor into the depths of the river and the other three were busy lifting larger stones out of the river with the help of an iron bar and loading them onto the truck bed of the tractor. The water reached them between their knees and upper body, and larger stones that could not be removed from the river were broken into pieces with a huge sledgehammer to make them ready for the tractor. After a while of
* Michael Peter Hoffmann [email protected]–halle.de
1
ZIRS, University of Halle, Halle, Germany
M. P. Hoffmann
quietly watching the work, I began to strike up a conversation. As it turned out, all four of them belonged to the ethnic community of the Magar and had been doing the hard, dangerous work of sand and river mining for years. That day, the group had broken enough rocks to load five trucks before they finished their work at 3 pm. Toward the end of their working day, I met Sajit1, the mine’s contractor. He wrote invoices and handed out coupons to the truck drivers that transported the stones to local construction sites. Since contractors for river and sand mines were usually called “dons”—mafia-like figures—in the Nepalese press, I began to enquire about his background. As it soon turned out, Sajit was the son of a wealthy farmer from the Chettry community in the area and had enjoyed a rather privileged childhood. After school, he met a fellow student from an equally privileged fa
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