Conclusion

The obvious gap between seemingly divergent positions engaged in the debate over the life and death of working class reflects a remarkable congruence especially in their choice of metaphors in support of their respective claims. As its starting point, this book chose the context-specific reality of the stone quarry workers who had migrated to the periphery of Delhi. It considered the possibility of documenting local expressions and the recollections of practical struggles to initiate a major reconfiguration of the social relations and everyday life with new political orientations. ‘Living off the stones’ aptly describes the quarry workers' experience of living and labouring in the stone economy against the backdrop of physical and social mobility from one lifeworld to another. The quarry workers were studied using stones, symbols, and sociation as implicit and broad markers.

Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora