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Chapter 19. Migration within India
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Oshwals people came to know about the opportunities. Healthy and adventurous young men of 15 to 18 years old moved to Mumbai. As they were strong, healthy and hard working they found jobs very easily. They started working as laborers in the construction industry, hired hands in shops or any work they could get.
Life in Mumbai was hard. A young man of 15 to 18 years old with hardly any education comes from a small village and leaves home to go to a strange place far away from home. That itself is frightening. There were no relatives and hardly any friends. They had no place of their own to live.
Some found jobs with a Cutchhi Oshwal owning a shop selling spices, grains and provisions. They worked twelve or more hours a day. They had to carry heavy bags of grain weighing 200 of more pounds on their backs. The pay was meager, about 1 to 2 Rupees a month. They were provided with meals but the food for the owner and for the servants used to be different. For people who worked in shops, owners were kind enough to let them sleep in the shops. The shops were dusty. There were rats and cockroaches all over and in summer it was very hot. So most of the time they preferred to sleep on the footpaths.
For other workers life was even harder. They had to find a place to sleep. They had to cook and clean personal things themselves. Because of all these hardships after they had made enough money most of the people would return home.
As time passed some people started settling down in Mumbai. They saved enough money and bought small shops and started their own businesses. They even got the family members to come and live with them. Not all Oshwals began as laborers. Devraj Devshi Gudhka, the first immigrant from Navagam, was a cotton broker. Now
