ABSTRACT
Migration has often been understood as a disruptive force in both sending and receiving societies. In popular imagination, migration as physical movement has a tone of finality attached to it. But for migrants themselves, boundaries blur – place of origin and destination are not separated in neat containers but are woven together through innumerable threads of simultaneous engagement in both places. Drawing from Levitt and Glick-Schiller’s (2004) conception of “simultaneous engagement”, this chapter looks at social history of migration from Konkan, Maharashtra to Mumbai. The chapter is based on qualitative fieldwork interviews and family genealogies conducted in Konkan and Mumbai. It shows that simultaneity spanning over generations is a central feature of Konkani migration and a mundane fact for migrants and families. Migration is central to rural life in Konkan. Migrant’s understanding of their lives as “jaun-yeun” [come and go] best describes the place of migration in their lives – an inextricable part of their milieu. Thinking of migration as simultaneous engagement has implications for how categories of rural, urban, ownership of assets and migration itself are understood.
