NINE-TENTHS of the world’s natural diamonds pass through the Indian state of Gujarat, where they are cut and polished before being sold on through the trading houses of Antwerp and Dubai. Diwali, the Hindu holiday most characterised by gift-giving, fell on November 11th this year. It kicks off a season of coolish weather, auspicious weddings and hot retail activity. Global demand for diamonds hits its annual peak just before the festival. Then, with shops around the world stuffed with the gems to last through till Christmas, the workshops of Surat, on the Arabian Sea, shut down for an annual unpaid, month-long break for their workers. Perhaps half a million Indians head home for the holidays, while shop managers settle their accounts in homemade chopri, or bank books.
A port once notorious for an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1994, Surat is home to what must be the world’s biggest cottage industry. Perhaps 2,000 of the 5,000-odd operations that buy diamonds for polishing are reasonably large operations, employing 300-500 grinders, most of them migrant workers. The rest are small-scale, family-owned affairs with maybe a couple of grindstones. Many...Continue reading
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