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Politics of Indian migrant labourer migration during COVID-19: A visual discourse analysis of liminality and communitas through cartoons


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Albeena Stephen
CHRIST (Deemed to be a University), Bangalore, India
e-mail: albeena.stephen@res.christuniversity.in


AGATHOS, Volume 15, Issue 2 (29): 395-405, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.13950261
© www.agathos-international-review.com CC BY NC 2024


Abstract: As the COVID-19 pandemic dawned, society was reduced to a state of exception. The most turbulent sight in India was the exodus of migrant labourers onto their homelands as the formal labour market collapsed. This act of 'migrating back' emerged from the desire for 'home' during an uncertain phase of societal existence. This research examines the social and spatial liminality of migrant labourers during a necropolitical era of restricted mobility. The same state of exception invoked by the coronavirus demanding a curbing of mobility turned out to be a counterforce behind the act of migration migrant labourers embarked on. Cartoons on migrant labourer migration during the COVID-19 pandemic by select artists such as Satish Acharya and Manjul are explored in detail to understand how the various visual techniques are exploited to portray the liminal state of the communitas of migrant labourers. Placed within the methodological framework of 'liminality and communitas' put forth by Victor Turner, the discourse analysis method would be aided by Scott McCloud's comic theories. The migrant labourers, while performing the act of migration, constitute a 'communitas' and exhibit the traits of a collective community that experiences a state of liminality. Further, the study analyses how select artists have used the spaces within the medium of cartoon to depict the 'liminal space' and the 'collective liminal identity' the migrant community inhibited while on an exodus to homelands. The study examines the same by analysing visual narratives within the cartoons, focusing on visual symbols and metaphors, dialogues, colour palettes, lines and perspectives, etc. The spacing of these elements uncovers the larger social, political, and economic discourses within which the plight of the migrant labourer community is embedded. Thus, examining the same reveals the politics of migration of these migrant labourer communities within the geopolitical backdrop of India.


Keywords: COVID-19, cartoons, communitas, discourse, liminality, migrant labourers


Introduction: Lockdown and its diverse impact on India’s internal migrants

The COVID-19 pandemic trampled governments worldwide, with India no exception. There were many repercussions, but some sectors were more vulnerable. The Indian government announced a nationwide lockdown on 24 March 2020 without prior notice and heavy restrictions imposed overnight. The sudden announcement of the lockdown stunted all kinds of mobility, commercial activities (Rajan, Shivakumar, and Srinivasan 2020, 1021; Rahaman et al. 2021, 788). This had a significant impact on India’s internal migrants. India is one of the countries in the world with a high rate of internal migration, driven by employment and work demands in search of economic stability (Rajan 2013; Rahaman et al. 2021, 789). A significant section of those employed within informal sectors are further vulnerable and alienated from availing social security benefits and even fundamental rights at workplaces (Rajan, Shivakumar, and Srinivasan 2020, 1023; Srivastava and Sutradhar 2016, 27-48). Thereby, the impact of the lockdown was even more complex on informal migrant labourers, particularly marginalised and daily-wage labourers, due to job loss and trimming (Rajan, Shivakumar, and Srinivasan 2020; Bhagat et al. 2020, 705-718).

 The plight of migrant labourers in India during the lockdown reveals fault lines within the economy and society (Ranjan 2021, 721). During the initial phase, the government failed to address the fundamental issues of migrant labourers like economic crisis, food shortage, unemployment, lack of transport facilities and financial and ration relief (Bhagat et al. 2020, 705-718; Rahaman et al. 2021, 788). As Krishnakumar and Rana say, the government had not developed any appropriate strategies to handle millions of internal migrant labourers, informal sector labourers and houseless populations during the first phase of the lockdown period (2020, 389-391). About one and a half months after the lockdown, measures like announcing special trains came forth. However, coupled with anxiety and sudden uncertainty, the very first month of lockdown, precisely post-March 24th, 2020, was the worst phase for these migrant workers communities. 

The commencement of the lockdown generated widespread panic among migrants across India's major cities and states of destination, kicking off concerted attempts to return predominantly to rural hometowns in the states of origin. From the scale of the attempted exodus, it is evident that the government did not account for India's enormous magnitude of internal migrants, with the four-hour notice preceding the first lockdown taking migrant workers by surprise. (Rajan et al. 2020, 1022)

The powerlessness made them powerful enough to take decisive steps. In the Indian context, the political reactions and measures taken to tackle the virus caused this imposed immobility-driven liminality that forced the migrant worker community to form communitas and protest against the same. “Large number of migrants stranded in the first lockdown were unable to claim their rights because they were not registered under laws such as the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 and the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996” (Deshingkar 2022, 177). This act of 'migrating back' emanated from this 'desire for home' and 'feeling of security and belongingness'.

 This paper explores the social and spatial liminality of these migrating migrant labourers in a necropolitical era of restricted mobility. Select cartoons by two renowned Indian cartoonists, Satish Acharya and Shailendra Pandey, known as Manjul, have been chosen for this study. The agenda is to examine in detail how these artists have used the spaces within the medium of cartoons to depict the collective liminal identity of migrant workers. Placed within the methodological framework of 'liminality and communitas' put forth by Victor Turner, the discourse analysis method would be aided by Scott McCloud's comic theories. More than exploring the unique style of these two artists, the rationale of this study is to examine the visual techniques and tools used within the select cartoons that reveal the 'liminal' identities of the communitas of migrating migrant workers during the lockdown period. These cartoonists' selected web cartoons on X (previously Twitter) are viewed as visual narratives of the pandemic scenario in India. They can be viewed as critiques of the socio-political dimensions of the pandemic through satire. Widely disseminated through social media, these digital cartoons by these political cartoonists can be viewed, as Yadav calls it, as “a counter-hegemonic narrative of the pandemic in India” (2020, 266). All the selected cartoons were published during the first week of lockdown after its unprecedented announcement on 24 March 2020. This period saw a mass reverse migration flow from metro cities and urban areas to rural parts (Rahaman et al. 2021, 790). The abundant freedom and options that software offers within the digital space are the reason for creating comics and cartoons with ease, and thereby, this explains how these digital cartoonists respond to these events in real time.


Methodology and Method: Victor Turner’s idea of 'Liminality and Communitas'

Coined by Arnold van Gennep, the concept of 'liminality' was developed by Victor Turner within a sociological backdrop to denote the middle phase of a ritual process where an individual undergoes a transition from one social status to another (Wels 2011, 1). This liminality is an ambiguous state of 'no longer' and simultaneously 'not yet'. Turner (1966, 359) says that liminal personae are “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial”. Turner himself was not strict about the contextual use of the concept; thus, Turner's concept of liminality is used within various fields to understand this in-betweenness. Originating from the Latin word limen, which means 'threshold', the idea of liminality refers to a situation where some thresholds or boundaries are crossed and exist in a state being neither here nor there or a state of transition (Turner 1967, 20). Thereby, it is a stage of ambiguity. Liminality is not simply crossing or straddling a boundary or threshold. Instead, the liminal space, phase, or condition is temporary ambiguity, fluidity, and statuslessness, defined by the brief lifting of normal social rules and, more significantly, the momentary levelling of social ranks and statuses. Turner (1966, 95) calls “this momentary social levelling and temporary utopian feeling of social oneness, this underlying of deeply held humanitarian value, communitas”.

 Due to temporary ambiguity, these migrant workers embarked on an exodus and ended up being in a liminal state of belonging nowhere, neither the real home nor the migrated home. They went into a state of limbo, and in this state, they crossed the rule of no travel, thus, in a way, exerting more power to their identity of being bound by laws. These liminal personas or threshold people often experience structural inferiority as “these persons elude or slip through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions” (Turner 1966, 95). By migrating, they reacted against the sovereign's powers; hence, they slipped through the rules of the sovereign of imposed mobility. The liminality dawns on migrant labourers in their rite of passage of trying to pass through a state of lockdown and isolation. Migrant labourers are 'transitional beings' or 'liminal persona', defined by a name and a set of symbols. Analysing these comics for the set of symbols and signs through which they are depicted gives us an insight into how their liminal identity is portrayed. Since the chosen discourses are web cartoons, the visual discourse analysis method would be performed using Scott McCloud’s comic theories as it facilitates delving into the unique aspects of visual storytelling and the dynamic possibilities offered by the digital medium. 


Analysis: Cartooning the liminality of the migrant communitas: a visual analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a profound “crisis of mobility” among India’s internal migrant labourers, compelling many to seek refuge in their hometowns (Rajan et al. 2020, 1021). This crisis plunged them into heightened vulnerability and liminality, characterised by what Deshingkar (2022, 176) terms “hyper-precarity”. These migrants, already marginalised within urban settings due to informal employment, lack of access to state welfare, and protective legislation, found themselves further marginalised amidst pandemic-induced immobility, rendering them essentially belonging nowhere—a liminal space. However, rather than succumbing to this liminal state, migrant workers utilised it to subvert state controls and regulations. In navigating this liminality, their identities became increasingly complex. Identity, encompassing socio-cultural affiliations with home communities, occupational roles, and spaces, clashed with the imperative to “stay at home” during lockdowns, compelling them to “go back to their homes” despite the challenges of urban life. While liminality and marginality are distinct concepts, there exists a connection between the two, as marginalised individuals often find themselves on the threshold of liminality (Brown 2007, 25). Marginality implies restricted boundary-crossing, whereas liminality suggests the freedom or ability to traverse boundaries actively. The marginality of migrant labourers propelled them into a state of “liminars” during the pandemic, caught between their urban workplaces and rural homes. Their exodus, constrained by transportation shutdowns and restrictions, thrust them into a state of transit, where they lingered in ambiguous spaces like highways, railway stations, and makeshift shelters, unable to reach their destinations or return home. This state of in-betweenness induced feelings of disorientation and ambiguity. Communitas emerged amidst this liminality as migrant workers bonded over shared experiences of unemployment, uncertainty, and the common goal of returning to their rural origins. Despite their diverse backgrounds and occupations, they formed a collective identity driven by the imperative of survival and the quest for belonging.

 In most cartoons, the selected artists’ predominant utilisation of silhouette figures is a strategic visual device to represent migrating migrant labourers within the thematic context. By eschewing distinct physical features, these figures evoke a sense of communitas, emphasising the collective vulnerability inherent in their shared experience of hyper-precarity. Moreover, the depiction of these migrating figures in elongated queues, seemingly without defined endpoints, adeptly communicates their liminal transit state, elucidating the perpetual in-betweenness characterising their journey. The cartoon 'Survival!' by Sathish Acharya, posted on 29 March 2020, shows an exodus of people entering a giant maze in the shape of a lock. Right next to a fallen figure, another figure is seen screaming, 'The key is survival'. Within the vast land outside the maze is a newspaper that says, 'Corona lockdown migrants walk home'. The mass of people standing in queues to enter the maze shows the in-transit state of these migrants. The lock-shaped maze can be viewed as a symbol of the vulnerable and marginal states into which the lockdown has locked them. The cartoon by Manjul created for Mid Day and posted on X on 30 March 2020, part of the Mumbai Meri Jaan series, again shows silhouette figures with luggage on their head running. This single frame again highlights the in-transit state of these migrants. The bent legs in the caricature show that these figures are running for their lives. These silhouettes of migrants against empty landscapes and backgrounds evoke a feeling of anonymity and dislocation. 

 Althusser’s idea of repressive state apparatus can be used to examine migrant worker migration during COVID-19, where the state employed repressive apparatuses such as police, military, and legal systems to maintain travel restrictions after the sudden announcement of the lockdown. These measures hampered the survival measures of migrant workers and contributed to the chaos and hardships. 'The Plan!' by Sathish Acharaya, posted on X on 30 March 2020, shows the exodus of migrants carrying their luggage through a deserted land. Interestingly, they are walking over a human figure with a head buried in the ground. A sartorial examination of the figure wearing a kurta and vest reveals it depicts a politician. Here, the traversing migrants are portrayed as minuscule black silhouettes. However, the political figures they are walking over are exaggeratedly enormous. A close analysis of the cartoon reveals the dynamic power imbalance within a liminal space. Lying as an obstacle, the head-buried political figure indicates the government policies that served as an obstacle for the migrants and the government's passivity towards the struggles of migrant workers during the initial lockdown phase. The speech bubble emanating from the burrowed figure which says 'PLAN?' is a symbolic representation of the unplanned measures the government took to curb the virus that seriously affected migrant lives. However, these silhouette figures trample and walk over the figure. Their liminality vests them the power to inverse the power dynamics. They walked over the government-imposed immobility, and through that liminal identity, they exerted power back with their mobility. A reverse visual approach is visible in Manjul created for 'First Cut' posted on 28 March 2020 on X. Here, a figure’s leg wearing a tattered pant and rubber slipper can be seen in a walking motion and considering the context, the figure can be presumed to be a migrant worker. Between the migrant’s legs is a silhouette figure speaking through a mic on a podium that reads 'GOVT. ' The silhouette figure is seen to be saying, 'Here are the steps I'm taking to fight corona'. Juxtaposing this dialogue alongside the steps of migrants in transit highlights the irony of discriminating government measures. The enlarged size proportion of walking migrants' feet against the figure on the podium again asserts the power that embarked on these migrants when pushed into a state of liminality. The background of this cartoon again consists of faded sketches of migrants' feet in motion in tattered pants and slippers, further asserting this idea of being in transit as a marginalised and vulnerable community. 

 Yet another cartoon by Manjul was created for First Cut and posted on X on 27 March 2020. It shows a migrant worker returning home. He is seen walking on a police lathi, almost like a tightrope walk. The figure is seen to be carrying huge luggage on his back, and it is sarcastically a saffron-clad, plumpy, political figure with the phrase 'lockdown planner' written on the back of his dress. This single-frame cartoon is embedded with various visual symbols that portray the identity of migrant labourers as communitas of liminality. This image of a tightrope walker further enhances this as they are seen to be balancing precariously, trying not to fall. The police lathi on which the figure is walking symbolises the various obstacles on their journey back imposed by the different repressive rule-enforcing bodies of the government. Most of these comics portray migrants in transit as figures clutching onto their belongings and luggage, but the luggage carried here with exasperation is a political representative. This is quite symbolic of how the government's unplanned lockdown measures forced them to perform this tightrope walk bearing a liminal existence during an era of imposed immobility. Unlike other cartoons discussed, which consist of silhouette figures, here, there is a humanised focus on the weary face of the traversing migrant worker. A physiognomic analysis reveals that he is struggling with fatigue and despair. 

 Satish Acharya’s cartoon 'Home!', dated November 26, 2020, portrays a migrant family in destitution on a footpath, juxtaposed with a police officer nearby. The father, depicted urgently preventing his emaciated son from crossing into the road, ironically implores, ”No! No! Stay Home! Don't cross the Laxman Rekha!” This dialogue satirically underscores their lack of a conventional home as they subsist on the footpath amidst rags and empty utensils. Their homelessness paradoxically becomes their home, highlighting their liminal existence. The migration from economically stable urban employment to impoverished rural homes signifies a ritualistic transition to a former identity. Amidst the crisis, millions returned to their rural origins for social support and security. Hindered mobility compelled arduous journeys akin to pilgrimage, symbolising a passage from turmoil to resolution. This journey mirrors ritualistic rites of passage, marked by trials like physical exhaustion, hunger, and governmental restrictions. These trials parallel individuals' challenges in traditional rituals, fostering community and solidarity. Ultimately, such rituals culminate in transformation and reintegration into society.

 The Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute and the retelecast of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana provided fertile ground for the creation of political cartoons, exemplified by Satish Acharya’s 'The Long Walk' and Manjul’s cartoon for First Cut. Acharya's work depicts a mass exodus of migrant workers against the backdrop of the 'Ramayana Returns!' slogan on a towering wall, emphasising the government's failure to address their plight. The use of contrasting orange and blue hues underscores the sarcastic reference to Ram Rajya, evoking the ritualistic undertones of the migrant exodus. Similarly, Manjul’s cartoon juxtaposes a political representative emotionally engrossed in the Ramayana retelecast with stranded migrants on a deserted highway, drawing parallels between their predicament and Lord Ram’s exile. This symbolic comparison accentuates the ritualistic aspect of migrant labourers' liminal identity, elevating their journey to a quest for salvation amidst political complexities surrounding the Ayodhya conflict and Ram Mandir construction. Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of Ram Rajya, initially grounded in principles of people’s sovereignty and moral authority, becomes entangled with contemporary debates over Hindutva agendas, adding layers of nuance to the migrants’ quest for a sense of belonging. Ultimately, these cartoons critique the government’s prioritisation of religious symbolism over addressing the pressing needs of migrant workers, reframing their migration as a symbolic rite of passage towards an elusive notion of purity and salvation.


Conclusion

McCloud’s exploration of the visual language of comics underscores the potency of symbols, metaphors, and visual techniques in conveying intricate concepts. This effectiveness is apparent in political cartoons portraying migrants' challenges, emotions, and societal implications. These cartoons prompt readers to reflect on issues surrounding migrant labourers’ liminality, engaging them emotionally and intellectually. Through nuanced use of scale, perspective, and colour, these visual elements foster a profound understanding of migration complexities and resultant liminal identities. Turner's concept of liminality describes a transitional phase where individuals exist between established social structures. Migrant workers, trapped between urban employment and rural homes due to travel restrictions, exemplify this liminal state. Cartoons depicting their plight often feature endless queues and highways, symbolising a journey with no clear destination. Drawing techniques like converging lines emphasise the mass exodus towards an elusive goal, enhancing the portrayal of transit. Within this liminality, Turner’s notion of communitas emerges as migrant workers form a collective identity and solidarity in the face of adversity. Silhouette figures symbolise this communal struggle, their dynamic poses conveying distress and determination. A subdued colour palette underscores the migrants' plight against barren landscapes, evoking a sense of exhaustion and despair. These cartoons also depict power dynamics between migrants and authorities, employing visual metaphors like maze imagery and size exaggeration. Zooming-in techniques humanise their distress, while symbolic motifs like spirals emphasise the chaotic nature of their journey. Furthermore, the association of migration with rituals, such as the Ram Mandir dispute, adds layers of meaning, highlighting the suspension of social norms and roles during liminal phases. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new layer of complexity, enforcing immobility while igniting migrant mobility. Cartoons metaphorically depict necropolitical forces pushing migrants into a liminal state, where they exist in motion yet belong nowhere. Through these visual techniques, the cartoons poignantly illustrate the liminal identity of migrant communitas, shedding light on broader social, political, and economic discourses surrounding migration during the pandemic. In conclusion, analysing visual elements in political cartoons unveils the intricate politics of migrant labourer communities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in India. By effectively conveying complex concepts like liminality and communitas, these cartoons offer profound insights into the migrant experience and the socio-political forces at play.


Acknowledgement: This research adds to the researcher’s doctoral research on COVID-19 comics, funded by the ICSSR.


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