International Migration and the "Moral" Economy of the 'Barani' Peasantry

In: The Pakistan development review: PDR, Band 30, Heft 4II, S. 1087-1102

Abstract

For James Scott, the cornerstone of the 'moral' economy was an
attitude of a subsistence and basically risk-averse-peasantry which was
elementally geared towards enhancing safety and the reliability of its
subsistence [Scott (1976)]. It was the need to be secure and the fear of
poverty, he submitted, which explained " ... many otherwise anomolous,
technical and moral arrangements in peasanl society" [op.cit: vii].
Commensurately, all coping strategies were noted to fundamentally
incorporate these arrangements. Though Scott's affirmations are based on
the analysis of rural Indo-China they also, to a great extent, ring true
of many peasant societies of South Asia. The peasantry inhabiting the
'bar ani' (rainfed agricUltural) areas of northern Pakistan provide us
with one such example. In the course of ascertaining the impact of the
recently massive out -country mov~ments of labour from the region to the
oil-producing countries of the Middle East, it was found that here too a
similar, and integral, subsistence ethic held sway over the "many
otherwise anomolous" structural arrangements of life. The >
examination, in general, of the out-migrations from "barani" areas
[which historically have constituted perhaps, the most effective element
of coping strategies of the inhabitants see Darling (1945); Naseem
(1981)], and specifically the recent movements to the oil-producing
economies is with a view to assessing their ability to 'nurture a
structural transformation in the sending areas. In so doing this paper
will attempt to illustrate the attributes of the subsistence ethic in
the 'harani' lands. It is more in the vein of a conceptual presentation
although the affirmations are based on surveys of two villages; one in
the Punjab and the other in the NWFP.