| | Economic liberalisation has brought about significant changes in the experience and meanings
of work, as well as in the social consciousness and political subjectivity of workers. This paper
explores the transformation of ideas about the state, democracy and rights, and the impact on
political action. A case study of declining jute industrial areas of Kolkata shows that the
labouring poor interpret their experience of unemployment and “casualisation” not primarily
as an economic phenomenon, but as a political crisis involving the betrayal of the working
classes. This perception has led the poor to abandon political activism, to condemn democratic
politics as unrepresentative, and to confine their engagement with institutional politics
merely to extracting patronage benefits. Working class youth seek to exercise their agency
within the urban locality in diverse ways, ranging from extortion and coercion to local
community-oriented social work. Politics among this section of the poor is undergoing
intense localisation, shunning the wider arena of democratic politics, thus
spelling a crisis of political representation and participation.
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