Delivering the nation: The dabbawalas of Mumbai

South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 235-257

  Pathak, Gauri Sanjeev ^a  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

dabbawalas; ethnography; globalisation; media; Mumbai

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL IDENTITY; GLOBALIZATION; MASS MEDIA; OCCUPATION;

INDIA; MAHARASHTRA; MUMBAI;

EID: 77954720054     PISSN: 00856401     EISSN: 14790270     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2010.493280     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. This paper is based on two sessions of fieldwork, each of three months' duration, conducted in Mumbai in May-July of 2006 and 2007. The research consisted of participant observation, interviews, collection of oral histories, and the examination of documentary evidence such as articles in newspapers and magazines, pamphlets issued by the dabbawala organisation, and websites. The quotations and narrations are based on extensive notes taken during the fieldwork. All Indian names are pseudonyms except in the cases of authors, historical figures, and people holding publicly-recognised office.
2. They have also been called tiffinwallahs or tiffinwallas; 'tiffin' means lunchbox.
3. The Maratha caste is difficult to define given its historical background. Peasant castes, such as the Kunbi, recruited into Shivaji's armies, gradually came to be identified/identify themselves as (higher-caste) Marathas. For more on the Kunbi-Marathas, see Richard Maxwell Eaton, 'Tukaram (1608-1649): Non-Brahmin Religious Movements', in A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761: Eight Indian Lives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 129-54;
4. and Thomas Blom Hansen, 'Deccan Pastoral: The Making of an Ethnohistorical Imagination in Western India', in Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 20-36.
5. Alexandra Quien notes that most of the dabbawalas' surnames indicate a link to the land and therefore attributes their caste membership to the agrarian Kunbi-Marathas. See Alexandra Quien, 'Mumbai's Dabbawalla: Omnipresent Worker and Absent City-Dweller', in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, no. 13 (29 Mar. 1997), pp. 637-40. However, Maharashtrian surnames are often village-based, regardless of caste, and a surname's link to a place does not necessarily designate Kunbi-Maratha caste status.
6. For more on Khandoba, see Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer, 'The Dhangars: A Nomadic Pastoral Community in a Developing Agricultural Environment', in Heidrun Brückner, Anne Feldhaus and Aditya Malik (eds), Essays on Religion, Literature, and Law (New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in association with Manohar Publishers, 2004), pp. 87-122;
7. and Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer, 'The Erosion of Folk Religion in Modern India', in Vasudha Dalmia and Heinrich von Stietencron (eds), Representing Hinduism: The Construction of Religious Traditions and National Identity (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1995), pp. 389-97.
8. For more on the Varkari sect and the bhakti movement see, for example, Rohini Mokashi-Punekar, 'Bhakti as Protest', in Culture and the State: Alternative Interventions, Vol. 4 (2-5 May 2003), pp. 129-36;
9. Rohini Mokashi-Punekar and Eleanor Zelliot (eds), Untouchable Saints: An Indian Phenomenon (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 2005);
10. David N. Lorenzen (ed.), Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995);
11. David N. Lorenzen, 'Bhakti', in Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds), The Hindu World (New York: Routledge, 2004), pp. 185-209;
12. and Philip Lutgendorf, 'Medieval Devotional Traditions: An Annotated Survey of Recent Scholarship', in Arvind Sharma (ed.), The Study of Hinduism (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003), pp. 200-60.
13. Percentages quoted provided by my informants.
14. For more on the dabbawala community and its organisation, see Gauri Pathak, 'Bridging the Home and the World: Iconic Representation and the Negotiation of Cultural Brand Value in the Dabbawallahs of Mumbai', Master's dissertation, National University of Singapore, 2008, pp. 13-29.
15. For more on the NMTBSCT's delivery and coding system, see: Natarajan Balakrishnan and Chung-Piaw Teo, 'Mumbai Tiffin (Dabba) Express', in International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, Vol. 119 (2008), pp. 271-8;
16. and Pathak, 'Bridging the Home and the World: Iconic Representation and the Negotiation of Cultural Brand Value in the Dabbawallahs of Mumbai', pp. 29-37.
17. Subrata Chakravarty and Naazneen Karmali, 'Fast Food', Forbes (Internet edition), 8 Oct. 1998 [http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/0810/0109078a.html, accessed 17 Nov. 2007].
18. Deal Ya No Deal (India: Sony Entertainment Television, 24 Feb. 2006).
19. The dabbawalas have been in advertisements for AirTel, Radio Mirchi, and The Mumbai Mirror, amongst others.
20. For example the dabbawalas played football against a Brazilian team in a Nokia-sponsored event in June 2006, and they participated in AIDS Awareness Campaigns on World AIDS Day (1 Dec.) in 2005 and 2006.
21. 'When Pingle met Prince Charles', The Times of India (5 Nov. 2003).
22. 'Dabbawallas attend Wedding', The Hindu (10 Apr. 2005), p. 7.
23. 'Branson's Day Out with Dabbawallahs!' rediff.com (1 Apr. 2005) [http://us.rediff.com/money/2005/apr/01look.htm, accessed 12 Nov. 2007].
24. A UK-based group of restaurants, 'Tiffinbites,' conducted a branding exercise with the dabbawalas in 2007. See 'About Us', TiffinBites (2007) [http://portal.tiffinbites.com/about-us, accessed 12 Nov. 2007].
25. Mars Group's New Jersey-based 'Dabbawalla' restaurant is branded after the dabbawalas. See Dabbawalla [http://www.dabbawalla.com/accessed 12 Nov. 2007].
26. Parul Sharma, 'NCERT Books Promote Gender Parity', The Hindu (14 May 2007), p. 3.
27. Arvind Panagariya, 'India in the 1980s and 1990s: A Triumph of Reforms', in IMF Working Papers, 04/43 (24 Mar. 2004), pp. 1-37.
28. George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society (Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Pine Forge Press, 2000).
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31. See for example David Washbrook, 'From Comparative Sociology to Global History: Britain and India in the Pre-History of Modernity', in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 40, no. 4 (1997), pp. 410-43.
32. See Edward Said, Orientalism (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978);
33. and Ronald B. Inden, Imagining India (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1990).
34. See for example S. N. Eisenstadt, 'Multiple Modernities in an Age of Globalization', in Canadian Journal of Sociology, Vol. 24, no. 2 (1999), pp. 283-95;
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36. Washbrook, 'From Comparative Sociology to Global History: Britain and India in the Pre-History of Modernity', pp. 410-43.
37. Gyan Prakash, Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
38. Poverty Estimates for 2004-2005 (New Delhi: Govt. of India Press Information Bureau, Mar. 2007).
39. Douglas Holt, How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003).
40. Shobhaa De, 'Medge & More', in the 'Politically Incorrect' column, The Times of India (17 Apr. 2005), p. 18.
41. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1959).
42. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1959).Ibid., p. 32.
43. Grant McCracken, 'Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods', in Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 13, no. 1 (1986), pp. 71-84.
44. Holt, How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding.
45. A rise in the NMTBSCT's cultural brand value does not have an impact on the dabbawalas' client base or increase delivery-related dabbawala income.
46. Dada here is a Marathi kinship term, as is Kaka.
47. He participated in an episode of the television game show Deal Ya No Deal which aired on 24 Feb. 2006.
48. See Deal Ya No Deal. He was also involved in the football match against a Brazilian team sponsored by Nokia in June 2006.
49. Bernard Cohn, 'The Command of Language and the Language of Command', in Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 16-56.
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51. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, p. 46.
52. For more information on Six Sigma, see Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder, Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
53. '55 Things That Make India Proud', India Today (19 Aug. 2002).
54. 'Your Dabbas on Time, Everytime', The Times of India (18 July 2004).
55. Becky Anderson, 'Fast Food Delivers Lunchtime Lesson', CNN.com (18 Aug. 2004) [http://edition. cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/08/16/mumbai.dabbawallahs/, accessed 14 Nov. 2007].
56. Gavin Van Marle, 'Door-to-Desk Daily, and in Time for Tiffin', International Freighting Weekly (17 Jan. 2005).
57. 'Dabbawalas on a Royal Call', The Statesman (10 Apr. 2005).
58. S. N. M. Abdi, 'Charles to See First Hand how Lunch Carriers Deliver the Goods', South China Morning Post (2 Nov. 2003), p. 11.
59. Subrata Chakravarty, private email correspondence (11 Jul. 2007), italics added.
60. Dabbawallas, dir. Paul Goodman, 2004.