With reference to the nature of workingclass movement during the different phases of freedom struggl...........

Modern Indian History 1905-1920

With reference to the nature of workingclass movement during the different phases of freedom struggle, consider the following statements:

1. During the Swadeshi Movement, there was a shift from labor struggles on purely economic questions to the involvement of the worker with the wider political issues of the day.

2. Although the nationalist mass upsurge declined temporarily after 1908, the labor movement continued with increased fervour.

3. During the Non-cooperation Movement, the working-class activity slowed down.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only

2 and 3 only

1 and 3 only

1, 2 and 3

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Explanation:

• The most important feature of the labour movement during the Swadeshi days was the shift from agitations and struggles on purely economic questions to the involvement of the worker with the wider political issues of the day. The labour movement had graduated from relatively unorganized and spontaneous strikes on economic issues to organized strikes on economic issues with the support of the nationalists and then on to working-class involvement in wider political movements. Hence, Statement 1 is correct.

• The national upsurge on the day the partition of Bengal came into effect, included a spurt of working-class strikes and hartals in Bengal. Workers in several jute mills and jute press factories, railway coolies and carters, all struck work. Workers numbering 12,000 in the Bum Company shipyard in Howrah struck work on being refused to leave to attend the Federation Hall meeting called by the Calcutta Swadeshi leaders. Workers also went on strike when the management objected to their singing Bande Mataram or tying rakhis on each others’ wrists as a symbol of unity.

• With the decline in the nationalist mass upsurge after 1908, the labour movement also suffered an eclipse. It was only with the coming of the next nationalist upsurge in the immediate post-World-War I years that the working-class movement was to regain its strength, though now on a qualitatively higher plane. Hence, Statement 2 is not correct.

• Beginning with the Home Rule Leagues in 1915 and continuing through the Rowlatt Satyagraha in 1919, the national movement once again reached great heights in the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement in 1920-22. There occurred a resurgence of working-class activity in the years from 1919 to 1922. The working class now created its own national-level organisation to defend its class rights, called AITUC(All India Trade Union Congress). It was in this period that the working class also got involved in the mainstream of nationalist politics to a significant extent. Hence, Statement 3 is not correct.