The Movement of the Working Class

The beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century heralded the entry of modern industry into India. The thousands of hands employed in construction of railways were harbingers of the modern Indian working class. Further, industrialization came with development of ancillary industries along with railways. The coal industry developed fast and employed a large working force. Then came the cotton and the jute industries.

The Indian working class suffered from the same kind of exploitation witnessed during the industrialization of Europe and the rest of the West, such as low wages, long working hours, unhygienic and hazardous working conditions, employment of child labour and the absence of all amenities. The presence of colonialism in India gave a distinctive touch to the Indian working class movement. The Indian working class had to face two basic antagonistic forces-an imperialist political rule and economic exploitation at the hands of both foreign and native capitalist classes. Under the circumstances, inevitably, the Indian working class movement became intertwined with the political struggle for national emancipation.

EARLIER EFFORTS: The earlier attempts to improve the economic conditions of the workers were in the nature of the philanthropic efforts which were isolated, sporadic and aimed at specific local grievances.

1870 Sasipada Banerjee started a workingmen’s club and newspaper, Bharat Shramjeevi.

1878 Sorabjee Shapoorji Bengalee tried to get a bill, providing better working conditions to labour, passed in the Bombay legislative council.

1880 Narain Maghajee Lokhanday started the newspaper Deenbandhu and set up the Bombay Mill and Millhands Association.

Attitude of the early nationalists

The moderates

*    were indifferent to the labour’s cause.

*    differentiated between the labour in the Indian-owned factories and those in the British-owned factories.

*    believed that labour legislations would affect the competitive edge enjoyed by the Indian-owned industries.

*    did not want a division in the movement on the basis of classes.

*    did not support the Factory Acts of 1881 and 1891 for these reasons.

1899 The first strike by the Great Indian Peninsular Railways took place, and it got widespread support. Tilak’s Kesari and Mahratta had been campaigning for the strike for months.

There were many prominent nationalist leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal and G. Subramanya Aiyar who demanded better conditions for workers and other pro-labour reforms.

During swadeshi upsurge

Workers gradually began participating in wider political issues. Strikes were organized by Ashwini Kumar Banerjee, Prabhat Kumar Roychaudhuri, Premtosh Bose, Apurba Kumar Ghosh etc. These strikes were organized in Government Press, Railways and the jute industry.

There were attempts to form trade unions but these were not very successful.

Subramaniya Siva and Chidambaram Pillai led strikes in Tuticorin and Tirunelvelli and were arrested.

The biggest strike of the period was organized after Tilak’s arrest and trial.

During the First World War and after

The War and its aftermath brought a rise in exports, soaring prices, massive profiteering for the industrialists but very low wages for the workers. This led to discontent among workers.

Emergence of Gandhi led to a broad-based national movement and the emphasis was placed on the mobilization of the workers and peasants for the national cause.

A need was felt for the organisation of the workers in trade unions.

International events like establishment of a socialist republic in the Soviet Union, formation of the Comintern and setting up of ILO (International Labour Organisation) lent a new dimension to the movement of the working class in India.

In 1920 The All India Trade Union Congress was founded. The Indian National Congress president of the year, Lala Lajpat Rai was elected as the first President of AITUC and Dewan Chaman Lal as the first General Secretary. In his address, Lajpat Rai linked capitalism with imperialism-”imperialism and militarism are twin children of capitalism.”

The AITUC- The prominent Congress and Sawarajist leader C.R. Das presided over the third and fourth sessions of the AITUC. The Gaya session of the Congress (1922) welcomed the formation of the AITUC and a committee was formed to assist it. C.R. Das advocated that the Congress should take up the workers’ and peasants’ cause and incorporate them in the struggle for swaraj or else they would get isolated from the movement. Other leaders who kept close contacts with the AITUC included Nehru, Subhash Bose, C.F. Andrews, J.M. Sengupta, Satyamurthy, V.V. Giri, Sarojini Naidu. In the beginning, the AITUC was influenced by social democratic ideas of the British Labour Party. The Gandhian philosophy of non-violence, trusteeship   and class-collaboration also had great influence on the movement. Gandhi helped organize the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association (1918) and through a protest secured a 27.5% wage hike.

The Trade Union Act 1926

*    Recognised trade unions as legal associations.

*    Laid down conditions for registration and regulation of trade union activities.

*    Secured immunity, both civil and criminal, of trade unions from prosecution for legitimate activities, but put some restrictions on their political activities.

LATE 1920s- A strong Communist influence on the socialist movement lent a militant and revolutionary content to it. In 1928 there was a six-month-long strike in Bombay Textile Mills led by the Girni Kamgar Union. The whole of 1928 witnessed unprecedented industrial unrest. This period also saw the crystallization of various Communist groups, with leaders like S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, P.C. Joshi, Sohan Singh Joshi etc.

Alarmed at the increasing strength of the Trade Union movement under extremist influence, the Government resorted to legislative restrictions. It passed the Public Safety Ordinance (1929) and the Trade Disputes Act (TDA), 1929. The TDA-1929 provided-

*    compulsory appointment of Courts of Inquiry and Consultation Boards for settling industrial disputes,

*    making illegal, the strikes in public utility services like Posts, Railways, Water and Electricity, unless each individual worker planning to go on strike gave an advance notice of one month to the Administration.

*    forbade trade union activity of coercive or purely political nature and even sympathetic strikes.

Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929) - In March 1929, the Government arrested 31 labour leaders on charges of creating unrest by organizing strike in Indian Railways. The trial resulted in the conviction of Muzaffar Ahmed, S.A. Dange, Joglekar, Spratt, Bradley, Usmani and others. The trial got worldwide publicity but weakened the working class movement.

The workers participated during 1930 in the civil disobedience movement but after 1931 there was a dip in the working class movement because of a split in 1931 in which the corporatist trend led by N.M. Joshi broke away from AITUC to set up All India Trade Union Federation. In 1935, the communists rejoined the AITUC. Now, the left front consisted of the communists, Congress socialists and the leftist nationalists like Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose.

Under Congress Ministries during the 1937 elections, the AITUC had supported the Congress candidates. The Congress governments in provinces gave a fillip to the trade union activity. The Congress Ministries were generally sympathetic to the workers’ demands. Many legislations favourable to the workers were passed.

After the Second World War

Initially, the workers opposed the War but after 1941 when Russia joined the war on behalf of the allies, the Communists described the war as a “people’s war” and supported it. The communists dissociated themselves from the Quit India Movement. A policy of Industrial peace was advocated by the communists.

1945-47: Workers participated actively in the post-war national upsurge. In 1945, the dock workers of Bombay and Calcutta refused to load ships taking supplies to the warring troops in Indonesia. During 1946, the workers struck in support of the Naval Ratings. During the last year of foreign rule, there were strikes by workers of posts, railways and many other establishments.

After Independence the working class movement got polarized on the basis of political ideologies.