Labor bondage is discussed as a major feature of the peasant economies which have dominated the subcontinent of South Asia from an unrecorded precolonial past until the postcolonial present. Discussing when, why and how servitude originated on the tribal-peasant frontier in West India, the research undertaken moved on from a historical perspective to investigating the collapse of bondageby engagement in anthropological fieldwork from the 1960s onwards. Thecapitalist economy which has taken shape does not allow for the transition tofree labour. Because of lack of employment and income the workforce at thebottom of the pile remains stuck in neo-bondage.