Platform - Kolkata


Participants: Shamsher Ali / Love Anand / Calcutta Research Group / Ishita Dey / Giorgio Grappi / Stefano Harney / Katie Hepworth / Anja Kanngieser / Sophea Lerner / Sandro Mezzadra / Brett Neilson / Ned Rossiter / Ranabir Samaddar / Suhit K. Sen / Tiziana Terranova / Eyal Weizman

The Logistical City

Brett Neilson July 30, 2011

Image: Ned Rossiter

Brett Neilson and Ned Rossiter

 

Boarding Gate C10, Suvarnabhumi Airport: midnight approaches at the end of the concourse, beyond the malls and gates collecting passengers for Singapore and Hong Kong. A long line of young Indian men wait to weigh their hand luggage before boarding the Kolkata flight. These are kuruvis, low-level ‘hand-carriers’ employed by shadowy bosses to transport consumer goods like electronics and garments between Thailand and India. Not surprisingly their pre-weighed luggage comes in exactly at the maximum weight allowance. But it is also carefully apportioned according to value, each carrier transporting just enough to stay under the Rs 5 Lakh limit that attracts prosecution for smuggling electronic goods into India. When the laden flight docks in Kolkata, the baggage hall is resplendent with commodities: plasma televisions, hi-fi systems, musical keyboards, not to mention the iPods, mobile phones, digital cameras and computer circuit boards stowed in makeshift bundles of shabby cloth. This is a full-scale logistical operation – a single link in the many networks of formal and informal labour that distribute consumer goods manufactured in China to markets around the globe.

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