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Oral
History Documentation of Indian Labour Movement
(Anil
Rajimwale, Krishna Jha & Bobby Poulose)
(The
authors are with N.M. Joshi Centre for Labour Research and
Education, New Delhi. This report is prepared as a part of
a collaborative project of the Integrated Labour History
Research Programme and the N.M. Joshi Centre for Labour
Research and Education. The authors are grateful to Prabhu
P. Mohapatra and Babu P. Remesh, for their guidance and in
carrying out the study. Suggestions and encouragement from
Uday Kumar Varma, Navin Chandra, Chitra Joshi, Gurudas
Dasgupta, D.L. Sachdeva, G.L. Dhar were particularly
useful.)
Preface
The
essay, ‘Oral History Documentation of Indian Labour
Movement’, forms part of the output of an oral history
documentation project, jointly carried out by the
Integrated Labour History Research Programme (ILHRP) and
the N.M. Joshi Centre for Labour Research and Education,
New Delhi. The project, in two phases, documented the
memoirs of more than 120 trade union activists and leaders
who were part of the Indian labour movement, in its early
phase. It also generated detailed biographical material on
these activists.
Retrieval
and preservation of the memoirs of the key actors of the
working class movement, through specifically designed oral
history documentation projects has been a core concern of
the Archives of Indian Labour, which is the central
component of ILHRP. The Archives of Indian Labour is
designed as a Digital Archive and is perhaps the first of
its kind in the country. The archive systematically
preserves documents relating to labour movement, as well
as historical documents generated by the state and the
business enterprises. Contemporary documents and
other materials like personal narratives; video and audio
material related to labour are also preserved in the
archive. The creation of oral history collections in the
archive, not only provides valuable input to researchers
and trade unionists to reconstruct the eventful past of
the Indian labour movement, but also enriches the profile
and content of the archives itself.
In
the present essay, the authors who are the principal
researchers of the aforesaid unique oral history project,
make an attempt to highlight certain interesting findings
from their effort of documenting the oral narratives of
various interviewees. Many of these trade unionists have
several decades of rich experience in organising, the
details of which have not yet received much attention from
mainstream researchers. It is heartening to note
that the essay has been successful in lucidly and briefly
explaining the relevance and utility of oral
historiography in reconstructing the lost worlds of
working class movement.
While
using the technique of oral history documentation, the
authors have collected data through a combination of
open-ended interviews and a structured questionnaire. The
authors have taken special care in gaining methodological
expertise to carry out this unique project, by holding
consultations and workshops with experts and practitioners
of oral history. The preliminary findings of the project
were presented and discussed in an Internal Seminar of the
Institute and also at the III International Conference on
Labour History of the Association of Indian Labour
Historians at the National Labour Institute in March 2002.
On
the whole, the essay provides valuable material hitherto
unexplored in the mainstream history of labour in India. I
hope that the publication of the essay will provide a new
dimension to the history of Indian working class and
inspire further attempts of oral history documentation.
Uday
Kumar Varma
Director
Introduction
A
lot of history is hidden among the individual participants
of the labour movement. A lot has been written about and
by the individuals and organisations of labour on events,
incidents, movements, lives, problems and various other
aspects. Normally, history, individual as well collective,
can be glimpsed in papers and periodicals and books. Not
only the movements but the personal lives and habits of
the individuals have been penned down. A huge amount of
literature is available: resolutions, histories, journals,
pamphlets/booklets, periodicals, books, even tapes of
interviews, newspaper and other articles, proceedings of
meetings, conferences, seminars and so on. Besides, there
are doctoral theses available on the labour movement with
lot of information. Biographies and autobiographies are
there. Superficial writings as well as in-depth analyses
are available. There are ‘movement studies’ from
various points of view, as also descriptive works with no
view at all. Some claim ‘objectivity’ in their
writings, while others are simply ‘subjective’. The
subject/object dialectic is at play quite often. There are
complaints that facts are suppressed and distorted in the
description of the mainstream-movement studies. Well-known
movements are studied and brought to light at the cost of
the smaller movements and the role of common individuals.
If at all the individual is focused upon, it is as part of
the organised movements and organisations. Thus the role
of the individual is predetermined, they complain. The
dynamics of the individual are ignored. How does the
person evolve, not only as labour but as a multi-faceted
being? What about the non-movement, non-political,
non-economic aspects of the individual, for example the
cultural or family aspect? What is the position of the
woman in the whole setting?
The
movement of the labourers and the labourer himself/herself
is often treated as an ‘object’ of study, draining the
person of all the life. The study is often taken to the
extent of ‘guinea pig’ for experiments. Consequently,
the human beings are treated as devoid of feelings and
life, as ‘things’, even though it may not be the
intention of the researchers.
Relevance
of Oral History Documentation
The
other major problem with the study of the labour movement
is that though a big amount of printed and other tangible
materials are available, for example in form of documents,
much more remains hidden or unknown, which has never been
put down or hardly at all. This part of history and life,
the inner and outer self, is available only with the
person concerned or those to whom he or she was closely
known. Such persons were participants, activists and
leaders of the work-places, organisations, movements,
detached observers and so on. Their experiences are lost
to us when they pass away. They are never able to share
them with others or hardly much. Enough is not being done
to retrieve and preserve this extremely material and to
pay attention to the source of this information. This part
of facts has not been put down in writing.
There are tens of thousands of persons all over the
country of all kinds at all the levels, who are mines of
extremely valuable information, source of knowledge and
experience, who have gone through much in their lives,
have seen much in the activities known and unknown to us.
All
these highlight the necessity to retrieve all that is
still available in the memory of the persons connected
with the labour movement. The present work/project is
being done in several stages/phases. It proposes to get in
touch with the individuals, stalwarts, activists,
observers, leaders, cadres, and others. Many of them have
in fact gone into
obscurity, and serious and intricate efforts have to be
made to find them out and to talk to them.
Much
of the material is available only with these participants.
Only a part of what they know has gone into the documents.
Documents and other materials are generally abstractions,
while talks with the persons is live material reflecting
not only bare facts but also feelings. They tell not only
about movement/activity/organisations, but also about the
individuals’ inclinations, intentions, personal
disposition and perceptions. They transmit through their
individuality the very dialectic of the movement.
We know nothing about the personal feelings of the
participants, their emotions, agonies, moments of
happiness, personal initiatives and contributions,
observations and so on. In many cases, they did not intend
to join the movement but were dragged against their will
by combination of circumstances.
We
have a tendency to look upon the respondents only as a
finished product, a leader or activist and cadre,
secretary or president or some other office-bearer, and
often ignore their actual human development, the efforts
that went to create the person, his or her own
pre-history, the relatively independent effort that person
put in during his/her own lifetime.
Besides,
the oral history work has several interconnected purposes:
to dig out or to know more about the movements and
organisations, their unique features, unknown or obscure
facts, unknown persons and more about the known persons,
greater and indepth and wider information about the labour
history, its origins, evolution, disaapearance of
activists and organisations, their feelings and
perceptions, and so on.
In
the course of the extensive work of the last two years or
so, we have come across a large number unknown labour
leaders and activists as well as movements/organisations.
We also came across many absolutely unknown facts. In some
cases, they alone are the depositories of important facts.
It was also interesting to see them scaling and comparing
their efforts with the actual results.
All
this valuable information is likely to be lost if
immediate efforts are not made to cantact them. Some of
the information will be lost irretrievably if contact with
the prospective respondents is delayed. Hence all the more
necessity to emphasise this point.
Concerns
of the Study
In
the course of work of collecting oral history, basically
the period from the 1930s to 1980s, i.e. nearly half a
century, has been covered. Talking to them, the whole
history and events of the period comes alive. While the
following carrying out the work
concerns were kept in mind:
-
Retrieve
and preserve as much of information and experiences as
possible, and as quickly. Contact as many of such
persons as possible who are late into their lives, not
keeping good health, and about to lose their faculties
and memory. Many are not likely to live long, and some
of them have already passed away just before and
during the work. Delay would cause immense harm to the
work of collecting materials of history of labour
movement itself. Contacting such persons was the first
priority. Contacting persons in better health and the
younger persons was the next.
-
Record
personal history in the context of labour movement,
their share in it, alongwith their own personal
history, achievements, failures, experiences of
cooperation and conflict, their own assessment/review
of their lives and work past, review of the present,
their vision of the future, etc. It was also important
to know the purely personal experiences, problems,
agonies, difficulties, moments of happiness, role,
contributions, personal inhibitions, regrets and a
host of other aspects and factors.
-
Retrieve
all possible information about the relatively better
known facts/movements/organisations/individuals,
etc.
-
Retrieve
maximum information about totally unknown or lesser
known events and organisations and experiences
thereof.
-
Focus,
in its phase, on railway workers’ movements,
organisations and individuals. This was particularly
done keeping in view the 150th anniversary of the
Indian railways. At the same time contact important
respondents in the textile & jute, iron &
steel, coal and non-coal mining, unorganised and other
sectors of industries, so that other industries are
not ignored. Thus, the work of oral history in the
first phase was done, as far as possible,
industry-wise, with focus on railway; at the same
time, people doing alround and mixed work, those
working in the TUs in general, were also to be
covered, and the facts and documents relating to them
were not to be ignored.
-
Provide
more attention to the contribution of women activists
to the labour movement.
-
Highlight
the unique forms of labour activities/organisations/movements
e.g. palace employees in some princely states,
soapstone, salt works, backwater workers’ movement,
cine workers, rickshaw pullers, bidi workers, railway
staff, chaining of workers in the mines, temple
workers and ‘pujaries’, pickle-making
establishments, Gorakhpur Labour Office,
worker-artists, khadi, household workers, mathadi,
pharma/medical workers, railway stenographers, etc.
-
Retrieve
the details of the contributions, experiences and also
about the life of the interviewee in the context of
the labour/TU movement.
-
Trace
the origins and developments of various organisations
related with labour and also their contributions towards the process. This would enable us
research further in this field.
-
Situate
the roles of these activists in evolution of labour
and industrial laws and legal labour machinary.
-
Retrieve
facts about underground life, movements and
organisations. Quite often, date about such periods
are not documented for fear of official or police
action.
-
Retrieve
information about interconnections and spread of
movements. More often they emerge or are formed at one
place and then spread out to larger areas, industries
with their own inherent logistics and individuals play
a significant role.
-
Understand
the phases and problems of labour movement,
mobilisation of labour and worker education.
-
Gather
the respondents’ views on impact of new technology.
socio-economic, financial structural changes,
structure of labour and industry.
-
Document
the interviewee’s experiences and views on
relationship of past and present day workers.
-
Understand
the linkages between labour and social movements.
Keeping
the above, a tentative list of over 300 (three hundred
plus) respondents was prepared as the potential
interviewees and then the more important names were short
listed. In the course of work, the list has grown to
400-plus (four hundred plus). Two phases of work have been
completed, covering more than 120 respondents. They were
interviewed during 2001-02 and 2002-03 in two phases, each
lasting, in actual practice, for a little more than six
months.The present booklet is a sum-up of the main
experiences and observations, during the contact of the
study.
While
preparing the list of potential interviewees, due
attention has been given towards their advanced age and
experience, state of health, geographical spread, unique
trade union affiliations, contributions to trade union,
movement and so on. Later the following criteria were
adopted for short-listing the interviewees.
-
Advance
age and fragile health: Advanced age was the
primary criterion as also was the state of their
health. Most of the veteran participants and leaders
would not live long, being well into advance age. In
fact, some of them passed away unfortunately even
before the project started. Besides, many of the
respondents were in ill health and getting even worse
though they were not so advanced in age. It was alomst
imperative to include them in the list. The preference
was made according to age and state of health. We
interviewed as many as possible but many are still
left with valuable material at their disposal.
-
Unique
Biography and Contribution: The names were chosen
also on the basis of the contributions made to the
trade union/labour movement, in the way of novelty of
methods and ideas, pioneering work under adverse
conditions with steadiness and perseverence, knowledge
and direct experience of unknown and lesser known
pages of labour history, direct participation or
knowledge and experience of participating in famous
movements and organisations, and other factors. In
other words, these names were very important in their
own right and were often key links in the chain of
labour activities. Those, who are left, have to be
contacted in time, otherwise there is every danger
that a valuable part of labour history would be lost
alongwith them.
-
Industry-wise:
The Railways were given the primary attention,
particularly in the initial stages. Besides, focus was
concentrated on industires like textile/ jute,
iron/steel, mining, unorganised, etc. At the same
time, other industries were not ignored.
Simultaneously, the mixed and general trade unionists
were also included, who were not attached to any
particular industry. Thus, the respondents in other industries and movements were not ignored. Railway
unions were given more attention in the present phase.
-
Wide
Range of Trade Union Organisations: The lists also
took into account the coverage of a wide range of
trade union organisations. The names belonging to the
AITUC, HMS, INTUC, CITU, BMS, regional, non-affiliated
and independent organisations were included.
Independent individuals, not attached to any
organisation, were also interviewed. The list took
into account the fact that it is the history, not of a
particular trade union organisations, but of the
labour movement as a whole. Railway unions were given
more attention in the second phase.
-
Geographical
spread: The list covered all the important states
from the point of view of labour movement: from
Meghalaya to Gujarat, Himachal to Tamilnad,
metropolises like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi,
Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, central states like M.P.
and others, a large number of coastal regions of
Orissa, Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala, and so on. It
covers all the corners of the country, and has left no
important centre of the labour movement untouched.
Details have been given further on. During the second
phase of the work, the list covered basically three
‘zones’ e.g. Northern, Eastern and Western. As far
as possible, all the important states/areas, from the
point of view of labour movement, were covered. The
Northern Zone included Delhi, Haryana, Punjab,
Himachal, Rajasthan, etc. The Eastern: Orissa, Bihar,
Jharkhand, West Bengal. The Western Zone included
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, etc. This is
in addition to the states covered in the first phase,
the details of which are given elsewhere below.
-
Provision
for new names: It was foreseen while preparing the
list that
in the process, new names and new facts might crop up
in course of interviews in various places. Therefore
the list prepared and proposed was a tentative one.
New and important names would come up who would have
to be interviewed then or later in an opportune
moment. It may be possible that some of them have to
be interviewed even before those who have been placed
in the list submitted. As has been mentioned above,
names continue to added as the work proceeds and more
information and experiences gather.
Methodology,
and Scope
A
detailed questionnaire was prepared covering personal
history of the respondent in connection with the labour
movement. It also aimed to retrieve the important events,
highlights and experience of the respondent. The
questionnaire dealt with the reasons and circumstances in
which the interviewee joined the movement/organisation,
history of the organisationn main historical movements,
information on obscure movements, underground movements
etc. Another part of the questionnaire dealt with the
views of the respondent on various aspects and problems of
the labour movement, ongoing changes in industry,
movement, organisation, working class structure, views on
liberalisation, globalisation, privatisation etc. The
questionnaire also listed queries about the views on the
impact of world monopolies, market and science and
technology on the TU movement. It was also saught to
relate the differences between older and newer generations
of teh workers, unification and future of the trade union moveemnt etc. The questionnaire
was generally sent to the respondent in advance. But in
some cases, particularly if some new names came up, it was
given on the spot.The interviews were not confined to the
questionniare, which only served as a means of refreshing
the interviewws memory and systematise his/her thoughts.
Once the narration began, it was generally allowed to go
on except when intervention was necessary. Supplementary
questions were asked to enrich the replies.The interviews
generally went beyond the scope provided by the
questionnaire. Many new and unforeseen, unexpected facts
kept coming up after extending the interviews. Some
respondents gave systematic accounts on their own. They
came prepared, and did not need much prompting or
additional/supplementary questions. But many others had to
be helped in various ways, including asking repeated and
direct questions. Many respondents due to their advance
age or sickness, physical/mental incapacities, partial
loss of memories, needed prompting and repetition of
questions and
reminding of their own involvement in particular events.
They would often tend to forget or mix up events, dates,
incidents etc. They would often go into unnecessary
details and be repeatitive. Some of them were really
difficult interviews.
Since
it was decided that the work in the second phase would be
industrywise, a worshop to discuss separate quiestionnaire
for each of the industry was organised. This was in fact
one of first tasks in the second phase. A lot of
preparatory work was done in order to draft the
questionnaires to be put for discussion by the
participants. We studied the history of the labour
movement in far greater depth and scope. We went into the
details of the history of the labour movement in India,
industry-wise workers’ movement particularly in
railways, as also in the textiles, engineering, mining,
unorganised, general and so on. We collected more facts of
the biographies and contributions of the various
participants in the TU movement. We talked to many of them
individually, and for this purpose went to their offices
and venues of various meetings. We got lot of facts this
way. We studies various documents and journals to gain
more insight into the activities of the persons as well as
into the movements and organisations. All this of course
took lot of time, much more than expected. Besides, it
also took time to coordinate the timings of the
participants.
The
workshop discussed the draft questionnaires in detail. A
large number of valuable suggestions were given, on the
basis of which the questionnares could be improved.It was
decided that the main focus of the work during this phase
would be the railways, not to the exclusion of
other industries and sectors. This approach was quite
helpful in the work of the oral history, in most cases. At
the same time we do have, on the basis of our experience,
some suggestions regarding the questionnaires, which we
mention towards the end.
The
questionnaires, thus, covered personal history of the
respondent in connection with the labour movement. They
also aimed to retrieve the important events, highlights
and experience of the respondent among the workers of the
particular industry and in general too.
The questionnaires were generally sent to the
respondents in advance. But in some cases, particularly if
some new names came up, it was given on the spot. In some
cases, more than one questionnare had to be sent because
the respondent worked in the TUs of many industries or in
the general TUs.
The
interviews were tape recorded generally on 90-minute good
quality tapes using good-quality tape-recorders. The
recording generally lasted for four to five hours minimum
spread over whole day. It was not always easy to interview
the old and sick respondents , locating them, fixing up
appointments with them, and yet be prepared for a last
minute change in timings, postponements due to sudden
attacks of sickness, in some cases even fetal. Some time
the repondents were so feeble that their voices wwere not
even audible. For fixing an appointment and then to make
it materialise, quite often the stay in a particular
village or town had to be extended beyond the time budget
could permit. Some time even locating a person itself
became a problem due to vague
and contradictory informations since most of them
were away from the mainstream. As a result, we lost some
of them in the process. In some cases the respondents not
quite clear about the oral history and wondered what it
was all about despite being educated and enlightened otherwise.
In
many cases, the respondents took time to prepare
themselves, including recalling their memory. Their mental
and physical handicaps interrupted the process. Some of
them had to visit the doctor in between since they were
under treatment. Thus the interviews that were scheduled
to be over in one day, stretched over two to three or even
more daysUsually one of us, on may occasions even two
persons went to interview one respondent since it
facilitated other arrangements like preparing the
recorder, changing cassettes, taking down extensive notes,
checking up the recorder and accessories, asking
additional questions etc. One person managing all these
things alone and at the same time conducting the
interview, tends to miss certain things leading to some
mistakes that can be corrected only later. Thus, it is
found beneficial to entrust at least two persons go to
conduct one interview.
The
oral history project team of the N. M. Joshi Centre
visited almost the entire vast stretches of the country to
locate and interview the respondents, including the
remotest corners. While in certain cases the programme was
fixed beforehand through phone calls and correspondence,
in others it was not possible to contact and inform the
respondents as either their address was not known or they
did not have even a contact number.
The
questionnaires were sent beforehand, in cases possible, if
addresses were available or the person’s location was
known. In the Second Phase of the work (2002-03),
industry-wise questionnaires were prepared and sent.
The
states visited in course of the study include Uttar
Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal,
Assam, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab,
Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Chattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Orissa, and Delhi - making it a total of 23
states.
Within
each state, one had to go to different places, many of
them quite far from each other in terms of distances and
involving lot of time. The time spent in each state
depended on factors like number of interviews, contacting
the new ones that cropped up in course of the interviews,
the available transport facility to reach the respondents,
local assistance, distance from Delhi and several others.
Sometime one visit was not enough to cover the entire list
of the available respondents
scattered in the whole length and breadth of a
large state which needed sometime not only one more but
several visits, and still many of them are yet to be
covered. Several states and areas have been inadequately
or hardly covered, or nor covered at all. The Southern
states, for example, need proper work and coverage; so
also North-eastern states, U.P., Bihar, Orissa,
Chattisgarh and some others. Jammu & Kashmir and the
Andamans & Nicobar have not been covered at all. Many
important big areas in other states have been left
untouched.
In
the second phase of the project, the preparation of the
questionnaires took considerable time because of their
industry-wise nature. It needed study of the labour
movement in each of the industry, a check up on their
leaders and activists, their contributions, on particular
problems of each section, and so on. It took time time to
explain the nature and importance of work to many of the
respondents, some of whom were wondering as to what it was
all about. Of course, many others could at once understand
and cooperate. It may be pointed out that the entire
period of the project phase was highly packed, so much so
that there was hardly any time left for rest even in the
situations of sickness. We have continued working even
when there was no formal project going on, though with a
lot more difficulty. In fact the list was too demanding
and schedule, as a result, too packed. There were other
additional factors also, like spending more time with the
respondent than originally planned in order to retrieve
quantitatively and qualitatively more information,
collecting documents, etc. Undoubtedly the work of almost
one and half years, with formal gaps, was quite
satisfying, because a lot of important respondents have
been interviewed, considerable valuable
material/information/history has been retrieved, which
otherwise would have been lost, and lot of materials and
papers and documents have been collected.
The
team faced great difficulties in contacting and
interviewing the respondents. The names in the list, both
larger and that of the select few, are those of still
active leaders. They appeared to be extremely busy and
quite often complacent. It was almost impossible to fix
time with them. Since the city itself was their work
place, they were found to be always in some meeting or
movement. They were complacent in the sense that they
would be “available any time”, and therefore the
interviews would be postponed for the
“next time”. Cancellation of fixed programmes
were so often that an interview consisting of three to
four hours dragged for over four months with a sprinkling
of forty minutes to one hour in a sitting, upsetting our
other schedules. The team wants to make a special mention
of such problems especially faced in Delhi.
Unique
experiences and observations
The
interviews conducted and recorded under the Oral History
Project have their own invaluable significance in the
country’s labour history as well as for the movement
itself. The interviews may be used as primary source
material for research into the history of the working
class and the formation and functioning of their
organisations in the country as a whole as well as in
various regions. In the process of collecting such
material, we have been able to get many of the veterans in
time before it was too late. In the two phases of
six-months each, we covered a large number of the veterans
enlisted for interview, though a bigger portion remains
uncovered. The work has been going even outside the
prescribed project periods, before and after. Some
respondents have passed away just before or immediately
after we contacted them. We may mention here that at least
three or four of very important respondents could not be
contacted in spite of our best efforts,and passed away
without our meeting them. Some others have been lost
because of ill-health beyond repair. It is tragic to lose
such valuable persons, and it underlines the need for
further efforts in oral history documentation.
The
respondents have provided invaluable even unique material
and information for research into the labour history and
movement in the country. The interviewees themselves often
tended to understate or pass over their own contributions
while talking about their experiences out of modesty. They
had to be compelled by repeating the questions to talk
about themselves and about the trade union movement in
their times. They provided several inside stories, unknown
or little known facts, unique events, clues and missing
links of the labour history. The interviews helped clarify
several myths in the labour movement. The information
provided by them may prove to be the starting points for
the further and deeper research. Some of the features of
labour movement brought out in the course of Oral History
Project and interviews may be listed as follows:
Labour
Movement in Princely States and British India
A
very important feature coming out of the interviews was
the distinctive nature of the labour movement in the
former princely states and their difference with that of
British India. A number of interviews were conducted in
Gujarat, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, etc, and many
interesting features came to light in the process. A large
number of princely states were concentrated in these
areas, particularly in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Orissa.
Jodhpur, Jaipur, Ajmer, Jamnagar, Probandar, Kathiawad,
Hyderabad, Travancore, Cochin, Kolhapur, Dhenkanal,
Nilgiri, PEPSU areas, Bhopal etc were among those which
provided much valuable historical material. To work and
organise the working people in most of the princely states
was hazardous, difficult and arduous job as there were
almost no labour or civil rights of any kind. Even the
rights granted in British India were absent there. It was
in these extremely adverse conditions that the pioneers
built the labour and trade union movement in these states
before and just after independence (before their merger
with India) facing severe persecution and expulsions. They
could snatch some absolutely elementary rights, though
that too only gradually and very tortuously. The ordinary
activists and leaders we talked to, often narrated (Bamaiya,
for example in Porbandar) how they could see their
children only when they were “asleep”, as they had to
leave early in the morning and came back late. Thus they
never saw their children ‘vertical’, only
‘horizontal’, in bed. Praja Parishads, Lok Parishads
and Praja Mandals often played important roles as the initiators of the labour
movement, guiding them through difficult times as other
forums and rights to the workers were only marginally
available. In Jodhpur and Baroda, even the employees of
the royal palaces (described,
among others, by A.K. Vyas) formed some sort of union
among themselves to press for their rights. In many places
railways acted as the main source to initiate and spread
the trade union and labour movemnt in these areas.
In princely states of Jodhpur, Nizam’s Hyderabad
state, state in Orissa region, etc also it was the same.
In Jodhpur for example, the railway workers and their
unions actively helped and guided the stone quarries
workers in the formation of their union, and organising
their movements. Same was true about municipal workers,
nurses and compounders’ movement, shop assistants’
organisations and so on. Railway was an important factor
in the spread of trade union movement in Jodhpur state and
the nearby places. The Saurashtra region (now part of
Gujarat) presents some unique features of labour and
people’s movement not found elsewhere in India.
Saurashtra alone had about 245 or so princely states out
of 585 all over India, that is nearly half of them. They
ranged from the smallest to some of the biggest in the
country and posed serous difficulties in organising the
mass movements though they also had their own advantages.
The industries were in a formation stage and were scarce
and scattered. They had only begun to strike roots, but
largely remained at the elementary stages. The industrial
development was stunted because of the twin oppression by
the feudal princely rule and the British administration.
It was reflected in both the nature of the industries and
that of the labour movement. There were textile units in
Jamnagar and a few other places, salt workers along the
sea coast that is at Salaya etc., municipal, hospital,
loading-unloading, transport, etc. These were scattered
and largely unconnected due to feudal states’
boundaries. There were other limitations also. Textile and
every other category of workers had to battle very hard
for even most elementary human and workers’ rights. Here
it has to be explained that this part of history of labour
movement has in fact been hardly mentioned in the
available literature, not to talk of their documentation.
As a result, entire initiative towards labour organisation,
its struggles
and achievements in these parts of the country
remain hardly
known to the outside world, only the participants and
their close contacts have the facts. There were no labour
and industrial laws, not even the basic human rights.
Working under inhuman conditions, the workers had no
fixed working hours, and wherever they had obtained
it through pressure and struggles, the hours were very
long, almost following the ‘sun-rise-to sun set’
traditions or even longer. Even small children were not
spared from working hard and for long. The workers would
be dismissed at will as their fate depended alomst
entirely in the hands of those in the palace. Any small
crony from the royal palace could do anything to the
workers and their families and go unpunished.
The
story of the salt workers is also both unique and hair
raising. They and their children worked deep in highly
salted and brakish waters even without semblence of
protection till their limbs were eaten away by or
dissolved in the corroding waters. The workers and their
children got wounds, injuries, fissures, deformities and
sufferd. Upon being dead at work, their bodies would just
be thrown away into the deep sea. Now salt-works in many
areas e.g. around Mumbai, are being reclaimed for
construction, housing, industrial and other purposes. The
workers there are having to migrate or to look for other
jobs. The workers in other industries, if at all they
could be so called, too had no social, political and trade
union rights. Even writing and distributing handbills
would invite the wrath of the rulers and the activists
would be dumped into the royal dungeons. The example is
Jodhpur state, where the entire families including small
children were arrested and kept in captivity for months.
The trade unions had to fight for the most elementary
rights, and by the mid-40s, they got some of them
conceded. They also brought semi-underground and
underground newspapers. In case of search and persecution,
they could escape into the neighbouring princely states,
and in case of Rajasthan, into the ‘democratic’
non-princely British region of Beawar, which thus became a
centre of labour movement and nationalist and
revolutionary activities.
Orissa, Himachal, the former PEPSU areas,
Maharashtra, etc, provided many additional features of the
labour movement in the former princely states. The
following were the princely states, to name only a few,
where some labour activities took place with certain
distinct characteristics: Adgad, Dhenkanal, Kolhapur,
Nilgiri, Patiala, regions of PEPSU, Arki in Himachal and
so on. The present-day Orissa had 26 big and small
princely states, besides the usual British areas. Out of
these 26, forced or bonded labour could be first
eliminated due to pressure and movement including social
reform movement, in Adgad state. There was powerful
states’ people’s movement in Dhenkanal, Nilgiri, Adgad
and other places. They contributed a lot to the building
up of the workers’ struggles, and vice-versa. When the
Second World War broke out, the Japanese troops were
planning to land in Paradeep port and then advance upon
Adgad. Workers, along with students, did guard duty
against the imminent Japanese attack.
There
was big people’s movement in Dhenkanal against one of
the most oppressive states’ rulers in India, named
Shanker Pratap. In 1942, Murhee, a subdivision in
Dhenkanal, was “captured” by the famous people’s and
workers’ leader Baishtam Patnaik, and it was declared a
“Free Republic”. Another interesting development took
place in a small princely state known as Nilgiri, in
Orissa. Nilgiri was the first princely state to merge with
India 13-14 November 1947. Young students, peasants and
workers were the mainstay of this armed struggle, in which
regular fight took place. The ruler ultimately
surrendered. This movement contributed a lot to the
workers’ movement subsequently. Besides, many of its
leaders later became prominent labour and trade union
leaders. For example, Nand Kishore Patnaik was among the
direct participants and organisers of the Nilgiri
movement, who provided eye-witness account of the uprising
and who himself was also a prominent working class leader.
Bhopal: Bhopal also was a very oppressive
princely state. It had to face mass upsurge led by the
States’ People’s Conference, which had had Shakir Ali
Khan among the most prominent leaders. He was also known
as the ‘Gandhi of Madhya Pradesh’. The movement
included active workers’ and trade union contingent, and
was sought to be brutally crushed. Shakir Ali had to
undergo inhuman tortures at the hands of the rulers; for
example, he was tied to huge ice cubes throughout the
night and his back turned blue. He was later to become,
among others, one of the most prominent TU leaders of
Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh. BK Gupta was among those TU
leaders who narrated his story. He is since deceased.
During the interviews, the role of States’ Peoples’
conferences, variously known as Praja Parishad, Lok
Parishad and others have particularly come to the fore in
helping growth of the trade union movement in the princely
states. States’ Peoples’ Conferences were the mass
political organisations in the princely states during the
British period. Since generally speaking, no other
organisations or parties or trade unions were allowed to
function, the Peoples’ Conferences acted as the forum
for the struggle against the feudal rule, and for voicing
of demands of various sections of people. Consequently, in
many states, like Hyderabad, areas of what is now known as
Himachal Pradesh, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Marathwada,
Jodhpur, Nilgiri, Dhenkanal, Adgad, Bhopal etc, the Lok or
Praja Mandals (Parishads) helped to guide and build the
trade union movement and even supplied cadres ,
literature, materials etc. This forms an important aspect
of the history of the labour movement. Some of the trade
union organisations even reached inside the royal palaces
also like in Baroda, Jodhpur, Porbandar etc voicing the
demands of the royal employees themselves. In Himachal
areas, the borders of the princely states changed every
few miles, e.g. from Kasauli to Shimla.
Kolhapur
in Maharashtra contributed to the labour movement in its
own peculiar way. It was one of the enlightened states in
terms of education and social reforms. That helped give
rise to a more open labour movement, industrial
establishments and active leaderships. Arki in
Himachal saw several mass assemblies of ordinary workers
in front of the Palace gates in support of their demands.
Workers’
Movement in Railways
Among
the major areas of the work was the one related with the
workers’ organisations and movements in the railways,
both pre- and post-Independence. Those interviewed
belonged to the various all-India as well as local level
railway workers’ union, e.g. AIRF, NFRU, WERU, GIP Rly
Men’s Union, BN Rly, BB & CI, Railway Mazdoor Sangh,
and so on. Besides, the activities among the railway
workers of many of the princely states was also covered.
These included Jodhpur State Railway, Nizam Railway,
various lines in the central, northern, southern, eastern
and other areas, and so on. The organisations in the
railways belonged to various present-day affiliations like
the AITUC, HMS, BMS, INTUC, CITU and independent or
non-affiliated ones as well as to the category-wise
unions. We met some living legends and stalwarts of the
railway workers’ movement. The interviews reflect the
fact that the railway workers’movement was all powerful
in the pre-Independence days, and proved to be the
lifeline for many other categories of workers/movements eg.
Textiles. Mostly, illiterate gangmen were often the core
of the railway workers’ organisations. There were some
memorable and important movements of the railway workers
in the pre- and immediate post-Independence period. GIP
Rly Men’s Union fought some tough battles in 1940-46
period in Bombay and other western and central regions.
Their support for 1942 movement, textile workers’
strikes and for the RIN mutiny in 1946 played an important
role. Achievement of DA for the railwaymen in the 1940s
was a great victory won after long battles. Interesting
facts came up about railway workers’ movement in the
Northern Zone and Rajasthan. There were militant movements
in the early 1950s in Ambala-Kalka region in the early
1950s. Eyewitness account was heard from the respondents
about the firings and killings of railway workers in Kalka
firings of 1955. The organisations had a mixed and disparate character in the
pre-Independence period, as there were some princely
states e.g., in the Himachal and Punjab regions. Lot of
facts about the movements in the PEPSU region came to the
fore.
During
those days, it was not easy to present a Memorandum or
charter of demands in the railways, as the managements
were very tough. One of the respondents is a witness to
the Memo having been sent to the management through a
young boy, who then dashed back in fear to the
apprehensive but cheering crowd of railwaymen standing at
a distance. This incident took place in Delhi.
Another
participant in the railwaymen’s activities described the
locomen helping general workers (sugar workers, cement
workers, etc) strikes during winter, unloading hot coal to
the agitating workers to keep warm while on vigil. Such
incidents took place during the British times. Loco staff
used to have tough time, both working and getting
organised. Important aspects and facts came up about the
strikes of 1960, 1968 and 1974. The first two were also
participated in by the government employees and some other
sections of the workers. Some of the respondents were
themselves members of the various action
committees including at all India level. Lot of inside
stories could be had about the 1974 strike. As many
various as possible versions about the 1974 strike were
recorded, and it all makes an interesting story. Many
lesser known and unknown facts about the railway
workers’ movements also came to the fore. Some inner
details of the NCCRS (National Co-ordination Committee for
Railwaymen’s Struggle) of 1974 were revealed by some of
its members and other respondents. Viewpoints of various
TUs like the BKS, HMS, AITUC, CITU, category-wise unions,
and sections thereof were recorded. Interesting versions
on the roles and contributions of Peter Alvares, George
Fernandes, S. A. Dange and others were narrated by the
respondents. The leaders of the category-wise unions, for
example, were highly critical of the role of the national
T.U.s in the 1974 railway strike, as also in other
movements. They felt neglected by the national TU leaders.
The category-wise unions had their own opinions and felt
sidelined throughout. Among them, loco, stenographers,
gangmen, etc were important segments. They were of the
opinion that the national railway workers’ unions
deliberately ignored them and took their help only to
further their own interests, to the extent of forcing them
to dissolve themselves and merge with the national ones
against their wishes. The category-wise union leaders
appeared to be against the whole course of the 1974 strike
itself. The interviews of the independent and those nearer
the CITU and BMS, as also some others, gave clear opinions
against national unions in the railways. For example, the
talk with Ved Prakash Kohli of All India Railway
Stenographers’ Association (AIRSA), later of BMS and
BRMS, was unique in many respects, as also that of Bhangoo
of loco running staff. Some other interviews were also
important in this connection. According to one version,
the 1974 strike was helpful furthering the cause of the
railway workers’ movement. But according to another
version the strike did immense harm to the movement and
destroyed it.
Besides
the 1974 railway strike, the 1968 and 1960 movements were
dealt with in detail.
In
the context of the 1968 strike, the concept of one-day
token railway strike was considered by some as harmful for
the workers. The 1960 movement was taken as a challenge by
the government and dealt with severely. How could central
government employees, railway workers and those in the
infrastructure go on strike, it objected. The activists
and the leaders had novel experiences during this
movement.
An
interesting aspect that came up was the fact of the AITUC
and the BMS friends working in the same Baroda House
Railway Headquarters in New Delhi in the 60s organising
their respective activities, and yet they remain on the
best of personal terms to this day. They keep recommending
each other for information on railway TU movement.
Activities
in Other Industries
In
course of the Oral History recordings, labour activities
in the entire gamut or wide range of industries and
sections and sectors cover: textiles, railways, beedi,
snuff, port and dock, road transport, small and have
industries, stone works, wide range of mining, child and
woman labour, cinema, royal and princely estates and the
palaces, rikshaw, temples, laundary, newspapers, toddy,
cashew, tiles, hotel and tourism, tramways, British
government employees, electricity, water, auto and tonga,
tea and other plantations, public and private sectors,
drugs/phermaceuticals, medical representatives, gold,
household helps, inland backwater and river transport,
oil, steel, defence, shop assistants, municipal,
construction, salt, and many other industries/sectors,
areas and the workers employed in them. They all need
further interviews and study.
Some
of the important industries subsequent to the railways
covered in the study were: Textiles, engineering and
iron-steel, jute, bidi, unorganised, etc. Quite often it
became difficult to categorise the respondents, as they
have worked in a variety of unions. Their work is
‘all-round’ or mixed, particularly in the early
pioneering stages and late stages when they occupy high
positions, and in that capacity have to look after the
workers of several industries and categories.
Lot
of information could be gathered about the Girni Kamgar
Union (GKU) of Bombay, and about Textile Workers’
Organisations elsewhere in the country. A perusal of jute
workers’ activities in Calcutta and elsewhere shows
their rise literally from the ground levels of no rights
to acquiring several rights after prolonged and difficult
battles.
The
GKU was surprisingly well-organised union, which led many
crucial battles alone and/or with organisations and
workers’ of other sectors.
Women played an important role in the GKU
activities.
Textile
and other movements in the Bombay region, and all over
India, are inextricably related with the name of S.A.
Dange, the outstanding TU and workingclass leader. This
was corroborated by every respondent concerned of all the
shades, including his opponents.
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