This book is about the strife for a good life among migrant workers in contemporary India.

The development process in India has brought new hardships into the lives of poor and working people. Farming families confront rising costs for seeds, low prices for crops, and ecological damage to soil. Many migrate to cities for work. There they contend with low-paid, insecure, and hazardous work. And in urban neighbourhoods they deal with congested living conditions, poor air quality and sanitation, and long separation from their families.

Souls in the Kalyug introduces readers to migrant workers who confront these myriad hardships and asks how they improve their lives. In a metal factory in Delhi they engage in resistance and collective struggle against oppression. In the city and village they weave connections to one another, building empathetic friendships. In the metaphysical realm they attempt to resist soul-distorting processes. Through these activities they strive toward the elements of a better life.

This book offers a nuanced, intimate, and moving portrait of migrant workers through a compelling narrative which includes analysis of their worldviews and politics.

Shankar Ramaswami is Professor of Sociology, O.P. Jindal Global University.

"Ramaswami’s fine-grained ethnography takes us deep into the literal daily grind of metal polishers in a Delhi factory to find, under grim conditions, vital countercurrents of humor and playfulness, of mutual aid and collective action" Ann Grodzins Gold

"Very deeply researched as well as beautifully written . . . explores the worlds of work, struggle, play and family life with an extraordinary sensitivity" Ramachandra Guha