57
them originally came in search of work ; some were invit-
ed by their relatives staying here, and one, as already
noted* the head of the Christian family, came for mission-
ary work.
Emigration : Little historical evidence is available for
tracing the history of emigration. During our enquiries,
however, we came across two cases of emigrants which
give us a faint impression of the time from which the iso-
lation of this village has been affected by emigration. In
one case it is reported that a Mahommedan went on foot
to Calcutta about seventy years back in search of service.
In the other, a Dhed went to Bombay about fifty years
ago for a similar purpose. Of recent times we could
get a few instances of Banias and Suthars (carpenters)
migrating to some city or town, the former to avoid the
increasing competition among their fellow-money-lenders,
the latter to make a better living. The census we took
in 1927 gives us much more interesting information about
this fact of emigration. 218 persons, including 182 males
and only 36 females, were found to be out of the village
at the time when we took the census in the winter of 1927.
Of these emigrants some are semi-permanent, like the
Dheds who serve as domestic servants to Europeans in
Bombay ; or the male members of the Bhangi family who
stay outside and serve as sweepers of roads on a regular
salary ; or again like the two Banias, one of whom stays
at Bombay and is a sub-broker in the Share Bazaar and
another has set up a grocer's shop in Bulsar. Some are
temporary migrants like the Kaliparaj who go out in the
off season to serve as labourers at Kalyan, Andheri,
Dharsana, Surat or Bulsar. A few Koli and Mahom-
medan youths are employed as teachers in the vernacular
schools in villages in the vicinity of Atgam. They usually
stay for week-days on the spot and return home on
Sundays. These are classed as temporary emigrants.
Of the Kolis, however, one is at Bombay serving as an
accountant in a Shethia's pedhi (merchant's shop). Of