Abstract
There is no precise English equivalent to this Hindustani proverb. A rolling stone gathers no moss, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between a rock and a hard place, torn between two masters—none of these really fit. The dhobi ka kuta is the dog who figuratively and literally runs every day between two places, two obligations, and two choices. Does he stay behind to guard the master's house or does he guard his master as he washes clothes by the river? There will be a trade-off either way. The phrase does not conjure up vagabond restlessness or nomadic liberation. It evokes the anxiety of rootlessness, and the lack of certainty about choice and loyalty. It is about the doubt cast your way for not picking one thing over the other. It is about being stuck in the vagaries of the in-between.
Highlights
Migrants’ lives, at the existential level, reflect the dilemma of the dhobi’s kuta
Temporary labor migrants in the Persian Gulf are perpetually tied to obligations to those they have left behind as well as duties to those they live among in the moment
Belonging neither at home nor to their currently adopted land, they are occupants of a liminal space where they are without political status, without political weight, without political solidarities, and without political rights
Summary
Migrants’ lives, at the existential level, reflect the dilemma of the dhobi’s kuta. Temporary labor migrants in the Persian Gulf are perpetually tied to obligations to those they have left behind as well as duties to those they live among in the moment. Belonging neither at home nor to their currently adopted land, they are occupants of a liminal space where they are without political status, without political weight, without political solidarities, and without political rights.
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