ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which Indian migrant labourers in Nagaland's burgeoning urban capital aspire for better work opportunities, while negotiating lax labour laws, sectarian isolation and elusive state entitlements in the midst of deeply rooted customary laws and larger unresolved political contingencies. The chapter suggests four important developments in relation to socio-political patterns. First, postcolonial India has long privileged capitalist expansion over the politics of democracy, thus systematically ignoring migrant labour –despite its indisputable role in India's growth. Second, In the context of Nagaland, constitutionally protected customary laws and deeply rooted segmentary social structures govern state resources and institutions, tethering state welfare programs and stateentitlements to village kinship groups. Third as the church benefits from the increasing wealth of its members, it is reluctant to confront corruption, often spiritualizing social discontent. Finally though the cheap labour of distress migration fuels Nagaland's growth, re-emergent Naga nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment threaten to destabilize the tenuous political calm.
