The agrarian origins of the knitwear industrial cluster in Tiruppur, India

It is noted that the reorganization of work in Tiruppur into small-firm networks has propelled it to the centre of India's cotton knitwear exports. Industrial studies explanations remain unresolved in reconciling informalized, insecure labour alongside the possibility of an innovative 'industrial district'. An analysis of the industrial present reveals that not only are the majority of owners of the agrarian Gounder caste but they are also predominantly ex-industrial workers. The paper investigates the regional and agrarian processes through which Gounders of worker-peasant origins forged their class mobility through their 'toil', while also remaking the knitwear industrial cluster into dynamic small-firm networks.