Peshgi Without Bondage: Reconsidering the Links between Debt and Bonded Labour

This article looks at the link between debt bondage and the ubiquitous advance (or what is called peshgi in Pakistan) in the context of the football-stitching and bangle-making industries of Sialkot and Hyderabad in Pakistan. By drawing on an analysis of the football-stitching and bangle-making industries it disputes the notion that the presence of peshgi inevitably leads to a relationship of debt bondage between employer and workers. This article shows that a sense of shared origin amongst workers and employers can mitigate the factors that lead to a relationship of debt bondage. Specifically, patrilineage (biraderi ) ties in the case of the bangle-making industry of Hyderabad and common geographical and class origin in the case of the football industry of Sialkot have helped cement ties between workers and employers and led to the prevalence of peshgi without the resulting debt bondage. In the case of both these industries, their unique historical development—with the historical emergence of industrialists in Sialkot from the ranks of the artisans and workers and the migration to Hyderabad after Partition of those belonging to the Ferozabad Siddiqui kinship group—helps explain the absence of a more antagonistic relationship between employers and workers in these industries. This article concludes that peshgi does not always lead to debt bondage and certain factors such as a sense of shared origin or patrilineage ties between workers and employers can explain the existence of peshgi without debt bondage.