|
|
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as historical documents generated by the state and the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.
In
Amritsar and Punjab, textile workers helped growth of
other organisations. Both AITUC and INTUC had strong
unions in Amritsar region in the 50s. Textile Mazdoor
Union launched major strikes in the mid-50s having
implications for both Punjab as well as the country.
Struggle for better deals in the piece-rated system was
among the key points. Textile Mazdoor Ekta Committee was
formed. Embroidery workers were an important segment.
There was a historic strike in April 1955 in Amritsar
region and Punjab, where A.K. Gopalan (M.P.) also came to
help and address. Chheherta, near Amritsar, came up on the
map of all India labour movement.
Lot
of facts came to light about the oldest union in UP, the
Kanpur Mazdoor Sabha. This historic union was founded by
such outstanding personalities of the freedom movment as
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi and Maulana Hasrat Mohani. Suti
Mill Mazdoor Sabha is another of the historic
organisations, formed later on after the merger of several
unions. The unions have conducted several momentous
movements and strikes, eye-witness details of which were
described by the respondents.
Port
and dock workers: Interviews in Orissa, Bombay and
Calcutta revealed several features about the strength,
variety and distinctiveness of the port and dock
workers’ movement.
We met people who began working in the
pre-Independence period.
The subsequent stages of problems and organisations
present a kaleidoscopic, yet severe picture of the
attempts to organise the ordinary seamen and associated
workers. There was close cooperation between the port
& dock workers and the naval mutiny of February 1946.
For example, the union at the naval dockyard in Bombay
helped the mutinners of the British Indian navy to occupy
the yard and use its premises as a vantage point to fight
the British troops. The workers also helped to locate the
water supply points cut off by the British management, and
thus ensured supply of water to the naval ratings. One of
prominent figures of this movement at this particular
place was was Samuel Augustine, a unique and unusual
personality.
In
Mumbai, Puri/Bhubaneshwar, and elsewhere too, we talked to
a number of pioneers of the port & dock workers
movement belonging to the HMS, AITUC, independents, etc.
Prominent among them were Dr Shanti Patel, Manohar Kotwal,
Souribandhu Kar and some others. The various organisations/activities
of the sea-farers, port mathadis, on-ship employees,
wheat-loaders, port and dock hands, transporters,
water-borne and foreign-lands centred workers (and their
peculiar problems) and their aspects and features came up
to enrich the information. Of particular note is the
spontaneous and great movement of the Bombay port &
dock workers in 1955, when a worker was beaten mercilessly
with a hunter by the police simply because he drank water
from a place objected by them. He got bloodied all over
and there was a lightning strike.
The
port and dock workers organisations provided a highly
organised picture. They are a powerful force in the labour
movement in the coastal regions.
In
Calcutta as well as in Bombay, the port/dock workers’
movement, railway workers’ and the weavers’
organisations are peculiarly interlocked e.g. in
Khidderpore. They easily complement each other.
Some
other categories: Respondents narrated experiences of
their work among some other categories of workers eg.
Khadi, Lab (Laboratory) assistants, medical and govt.
staff, rickshaw, municipal, household workers (servants
and maid-servants),
teachers,
and some others.
Big
Khadi employees’ movement took place in Bihar in
the late 1950s and 1960s. In one of the interesting
incidents of Khadi workers agitations, women workers
collected huge amounts of sewage from sceptic tanks in
buckets, and not only littered it on the floors of the
establishments but threw it upon the fares of the
policemen, who had come to arrest the leaders of the
striking employees. This
is a unique incident of its own kind.
Lab
assistants and medical staff in Delhi and elsewhere
were a neglected category.
They struggled for their recognition in a tortuous
manner, and there are many notable achievements to their
credit. They
are on educated and qualified lot, having detailed
knowledge of chemical and biological processes. Therefore,
they have a psychology of self-confidence, and their
superiors cannot easily face or mislead them.
The lab assistants often consider the more
qualified as really less qualified in several fields,
which is not entirely wrong.
Doctors and professors have often to take the help
of the empirical knowledge of the lab assistants. T.
Sharma and others related interesting events and
activities
Talking
of medical employees, one must mention the great role
played by the workers, employees and staff of the
Sanatoria in Kasauli (present-day Himachal Pradesh) and
few other nearby places. There used to be an important
Sanatorium in Kasauli in the 1940s near the military base
of the British army. It was mainly for the T.B. patients.
Unionisation of the workers began in the 40s itself,
before and after the independence. It was not easy, as at
that time the entire area from Kasauli, Dharampur, Arki,
Shimla, Kalka, etc was dotted with small and big princely
states, while some other adjoining areas were
British-ruled. It is interesting to note that the patients
admitted in the Sanatorium became the main vehicle of
spreading the message of forming TUs and of their
importance. They used to receive handbills with aims and
demands of the employees. The patients would spread the
message when they went out. In fact, some of the future
leaders and activists were influenced and trained there
itself. A few even got themselves admitted or got their
stay extended in order to work for the union.
The Kasauli Sanatorium helped organise hospital and
other employees/workers in the entire area mentioned
above. That helped the labour movement in the regions
around the Kalka-Shimla road and other areas, in
particular Dharampur and Shimla. They contributed, in the
subsequent years, the labour activities in the roadways,
railways, small-scale industries, PWD, govt employees,
defence and so on.
Medical
representatives were an important segment of the
medical/pharma workers’ movement. They had to struggle
hard to get themselves recognised as the ‘workers’.
Not only this; they had to explain to those concerned as
to what exactly was this category of workers. Their
movement/organisations began at state and local levels,
leading ultimately to the formation of an all India
organisation. D.A. Rajimwale was the initiator of this
unique movement, an many others participated as poneers.
The
story of the salt workers is also both unique and
thrilling. They and their children worked deep in highly
salted and brakish waters even without semblence of
protection.
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.
Temple
workers: A few facts about Benaras, Puri and other
places have been mentioned further on. Interviews brought
to light fantastic facts about the temple workers’
movements in these places and in the southern states like
Kerala. Both the pandits and the sweepers were organised
in unions, and organised area-wise long marches and
slogan-shouting demonstrations as their conditions were
too pathetic. They ultimately got regular salaries and
social security.
Regional
Trade Union Movements
Though
the trade union movement all over the country has certain
commonalities, each area has its own distinctive features
also. The
labour movement in the north east, regions of Bihar and
Bengal and several other places have their own dominating
features and tribal influence is one among them. The tea
and plantation workers in the North-east, jute, oil, mines
and other industries in Bengal and Bihar had tribal and
local deprived sections employed and were oppressed
economically as well as socially. The tribals in these
parts were innocent about the money commodity exchange and
labour value. But once they were conscious of their
rights, they got organised strongly and their tribal sense
of unity played a great role.
The
tea plantations in Assam and Meghalaya had a considerable
supply of labour from Bihar and eastern UP. Jute and oil
industries have been the fields of many historic battles.
But introducing the idea of trade union in the north
eastern regions have not been easy as is evident from the
interviews.
Bihar
has been the centre of several militant labour movements.
The mine workers in coal, mica etc have formed important
part of the trade union struggles in the region, as the
respondents from the area informed. The mine workers from
Jharia, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Hazaribagh conducted several
struggles for their demands under the banner of various
trade unions like AITUC, INTUC and others that have their
own significance in the labour movement. Trade union
rivalries have also been sharp including on caste lines.
Talking
of mine workers’ movements, a definite picture emerges
from the interviews of the participants from Bihar,
Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, stone querries in Rajasthan and
Gujarat, mines in Goa and Karnataka, including that of
gold. In Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), a strike took place in
1945-46 for nealy two months. Th workers were treated as
the domestic servants of the Britishers. They were mostly
scheduled caste workers. They formed Sc Association and SC
Federation.
They
mine workers played a pioneering role in the formation and
consolidation of the trade union movement in the country
and even helped to organise workers in industries like
iron and steel etc. Tile workers constitute an important
segment of the working class and trade union movement in
Karnataka, Kerala and few other places. The tile workers
and factories originated during the British regime when
construction activities in these areas gathered momentum,
particularly to meet the colonial needs. The workers in
these factories worked and lived
in utterly appalling conditions. They formed
powerful bases for the trade union movement in the Dakshin
Kannada and other districts. Even today the large number
of workers are employed in these fctories though their
conditions have improved due to long struggles. Interviews
of leaders as well as of ordinary participants have been
recorded from these regions as well.
The
trade union movement in what was the huge Madras
Presidency, and later in its constituent parts was also
very strong. This was because of the spread of railways,
mining, textiles and some other industries and shipping.
Shipping
and port and dock constituted an important and
distinguishing feature in the industrial development
process in the southern region. Consequently, port and
dock workers’ unions were very stron and important.
Large proportions of the respondents who worked in trade
union movement in south India, were connected with the
trade unions of dock and port workers.
Besides,
some distinct and interesting features in the trade union
movement were found in these regions like temple workers
union and their movement in Kerala and Tamilnadu, toddy
tappers and inland water transport workers’ union and
the struggle launched by them. Number of repondents who
worked in trade union movement in south India, were
connected with the port and dock workers’ movement.
Besides some of the distinguishing features of the trade
union movement have been found in the southern regions
that have been reflected in the interviews granted and
recorded.
Pondicherry
and Goa represented two unique places ruled by the
colonial powers other than the British. They were under
French and the Portuguese rule respectively. Lot of trade
union activities in Pondy were conducted from Madras
province. Conditions in both the colonies were more
difficult than in British India, with virtually no trade
union rights. They remained under the foreign rule well
after India attained freedom.
Conditions
in Goa were particularly difficult. The labour movement
there was organised with the
help of those in Bombay and Karnataka. The trade
union movement in Goa became stronger after liberation in
1961. There was tremendous growth in industrial and
economic sector after liberation though the origins and
development of the labour movement has been closely
connected with the period under Portuguese rule, the
liberation struggle and the post colonial days.
Labour
movement in the region Bombay is wellknown and some of it
has found reflection in the interviews. Marathwada and its
border regions present some distinctive features because
of its being part of Nizam state at one time, and by
effects of the developments after independence. At one
time, the mainstream trade union had to fight against the
armed goons of the Nizam or the Razakar trade unions who
operated as the socalled “Yellow Flag” trade unions.
Some
sections of the trade union movement in Marathwada and
other parts of Maharashtra have tried to combine the urban
workers alongwith the rural workers especially in
sugarcane and construction industries.
The
labour movement in UP, Punjab and Haryana present a wide
veriety. UP and its regions have had trade union movement
since pre-independence period and have centres like in
railways, construction, transport, textile and many other
industries. The historical aspects of the movement in
Kanpur, Agra, Mussoorie, Dehradun etc have been reflected
in the interviews.
About
historic movements of textile, leather, railway etc in
Kanpur, Benaras and other places, the respondents provided
interesting details. The AITUC was able to
eliminate the hand driven rikshaws in Mussoorie and
replaced them by pedal driven ones.
Punjab
has its own share in the process of development of the
labour movement and the centres are still functional while
Haryana being a relatively new state has only recently
formed bases.
Region-wise:
The work was conducted zone-wise in the second phase of
the work: Northern, Eastern and Western. It brought out some important characteristics of the various
areas, cities, provinces, princely-states, etc.
Bombay
and Calcutta: The richness of the traditional working
class and industrial centres was clearly brought out in
the interviews, tales and documents.
Several unknown facts of local nature were also
brought to light.
In
Calcutta, some interesting movements took place, wherein
the rickshaw pullers and bullock carters played
invigorating role. In the pre-independence days, during a
general strike in the city, some enthusiastic leaders
decided that the advancing troops would be blocked by the
bullock carts! So, these carts began gathering in a
semi-circle to prevent the armed men. Of course, they were
beaten back and even shot at. Wife of Dr. Ranen Sen died
thus.
Any
movement or strike of the hand-pulled rickshaws in
Calcutta was a very difficult task to accomplish. But this
could be done in one of the movements in the
pre-independence days. The pullers at that time used to be
confined within a protected area. But Momin and others
made it possible to contact them and set them on strike
course.
Bankim
Mukherjee was one of the cool players during those
difficult days.
Tram
workers had to fight for such elementary facilities as
putting up a glass window at the front of the tram they
drove. Otherwise, it was very difficult in the conditions
of hot and cold winds or during the storms etc. This,
again, took place in Calcutta.
Incidentally,
K.L.Mahendra, the famous TU leader, began his labour
movement career from Burnpur in Bengal.
Benaras:
This religious and spiritual city comes alive during the
interviews as a city of workers’ struggles through the
decades: weavers, temple workers, railway, sweepers, etc.
Among the interesting persons talked to is the priest or pandit
Kanhaiya Lal Tiwari, who owns a portion of the religious
space but who participated in some unique activities
including hiding of bombs during the anti-British days. He
did much to help
the pandits get more facilities for their religious
worship activities and for their better conditions.
Orissa:
Despite being a backward region, the organisations and
movements display their own features.
Orissa had a rich and vibrant movement: press
workers, the workers in the glass industry, mining,
textiles, port and dock, and others.
One of the features in Orissa was its initial
division into several princely states.
This feature deeply influenced the labor movement
in the state. Orissa
had some big princely states, as well as very small ones.
T.U. movement and its leaders played no small role
in their struggles. Activities in Barbil is another
feature of Orissa. The
T.U and labor leaders in Orissa have had close
relationship with the literary activities.
It
was narrated during the interviews that Oriya workers
formed an important section in Calcutta, who mainly did
the jobs related with cleaning of drainage, sewage, lanes
and by-lanes and so on. Some of the leaders, particularly
of Orissa, started their TU life by organising these very
workers, who were among lowest rungs of their class
working and living in the most degrading and despicable
conditions imaginable.
Bihar
and Jharkhand: Bihar has had a variety of activities
of workers in mining, railways sugar, textile,
engineering, etc. the movement there has been far richer
than expected. One
of the interesting movements that took place was that of
Khadi Gramodyoga employees, which ultimately assumed
state-wide proportions. Bihar Rajya Khadi Gramodyoga Karmachari Sangh played a
leading role in the organised movements. It has been
mentioned elsewhere.
Events
of Jamshedpur struggles, including that of 1958, were
brought alive by the respondents. Stories of the famous
leader Kedar Das were narrated. Activities in Bokaro, Chaibasa, Dhanbad, and other places,
and in various industries like iron/steel, mining,
engineering, etc were described in detail.
The
problems of organising workers in the tribal belts also
came up, both in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. An important
interview in this context was that of the woman TU leader
Laro Jonko of Jharkhand. She gave lot of information about
Purnendu Mazumdar, and about mine workers’ struggles of
the 1960s and other times. Laro Jonko is a celebrity of
sorts with the famous Mahashweta Devi having interviewed
her, and the film-makers approaching her.
Tara Reddy in Maharashtra also worked among the
tribals. Roza Deshpande was another formidable woman
leader in Maharashtra.
Central
India: Struggles of the central Indian region are
well-reflected in the oral history work.
The entire region from Indore and Bhopal to Raipur
and Bailadilla (Kirandul) is full of activities of workers
in engineering, textiles, mining, etc. Normally, this is
considered a backward region; but country to the
expectations it was found to be highly conscious, active
and organised. Ordinary, illiterate masses have played
some glorious part in the saga of the Indian labour
movement. INTUC and AITUC leaders and others provided lot
of information about BHEL, NMDC, as also about IMWF, SKMS,
and such other unions.
In
an interesting tradition established in Indore region is
the badges given to the workers every year on the occasion
of Vijaya Dashmi after a huge prcession
to the union office. These badges are pinned by
Homi Daji, the former M.P. and prominent TU leader.
Textiles were an important industry in the region. B.K.
Gupta and others described their experiences of the
struggles in central India before and after independence
including under the princely state of Bhopal. Interviews
in the Indore-Bhopal belt reflected highly vibrant
workers’ movement.
Northern
Region: The oral history work for this region mainly
covered the railway workers’organisations and movements. Besides, there was lot of handloom industry.
The industrial growth and the consequent labor
activity in this region is closely related with the
demands of the second world war and the immediate
post-Independence needs. Reorganisation of states led to the emergence of new kinds of
industries and labor activities.
Coverage
of Trade Unions Organisations
The
respondents chosen belonged to the trade union
organisations of various affiliations, like AITUC, INTUC,
CITU, HMS, a section of Lohiaites, Shramik Sanghatanas of
Lal Nishan Party and Lal Nishan Party (Leninist), Majoor
Mahajan and independents and unaffiliated. From among the
AITUC members, we had the largest number of respondents as
it was the oldest organisation. Even some of the major
trade union centres were, at one time or other, affiated
to the AITUC.
Interesting
and unusual contributions have come from some of the
smaller and non-mainstream organisations. The
beginning of the trade union lives of these leaders
were relatively independent and many of them had taken up
fight against socio-economic discrimination and mobilised
the local workers forming their unions. They had formed
unions of laundry boys, gas leakage workers etc. They also
launched fight against beating of workers, like of those
who were known as Gorakhpur workers. However,these
Gorakhpur workers were also used as hired goons to teach
lessons to the rebelling workers and kept separately
especially in Bihar and that too in the colliery areas.
These leaders used to take up social/family problems of
the workers in places like Kottagudem, and came up with
organisations like those of temple workers in Kerala and
of women and child workers, that of Royal Household
Employees, workers in stone quarries etc.
The
respondents from major trade union centres have provided
huge amount of rich information on and their own analysis
of, the various well known and not so known facts. These
trade unions have different reasons and processes of
emergence and evolution. They have certain distinctive
characterstics , policies, methods, different bases in the
industries, trends and contributions and also perspective.
At the same time, they have a lot in common as trade union
organisations. Some of the aspects are covered in the
interviews recorded. The united AITUC also had various
political ideological and attitudinal trends as part of a
broad and flexible mass organisation. The trade union
centres do differ as to their mass bases within the
working class like railways, textiles, engineering,
cooperatives, public sector enterprises etc. They also
display differences regarding greater or lesser emphasis
on reforms, social improvements, mass struggles, long term
and short term activities etc.
There
was a wide variety among the wide range T.U. and labour
organisations covered. The Shiv Sena-led Bhartiya Kamgar
Sena (BKS) was an important addition. Talks with its
leaders provided lot of insight into the functioning,
structure, thinking and methods of the BKS and its
relationship with the S.S. One point that came up was that
its main functionaries were appointed directly by the Shiv
Sena “Supremo” i.e. Balasaheb Thackeray. Many of their
cases are referred to the local S.S. branches to deal
with. The respondents denied carrying politics they
practised in the S.S. to the BKS. The BKS has a
well-ramified organisation under strict central control in
the various industries. It is dealing with a section of
engineering, textile, middle class employees, and other
sections. It believes in keeping peace within the
industry. It also claimed it not only believed but
initiated joint actions with other trade union centres in
actions like the Maharashtra Bandh and observance of
all-India days. The BKS opposes what its leaders called
the “LPG” i.e. liberalisation, privatisation and
globalisation, and expressed itself against the policies
of the central govt. The BKS was relatively new
organisation, formed a little more thirty years ago.
It
is also interesting to note that all the respondents of
the BMS too pointed out the fact that they were assigned
by the RSS to work on the trade union front. They claimed
that after being so appointed, they functioned freely.
The
HMS leaders and activists were extremely useful in
providing information about the evolution of labour
movement and organisations in the railways. Similarly
about movement in other industries. They provided a wide
range of historical information about various incidents,
and about the role of the leaders like Peter Alvares,
George Fernandes, Khedgikar, JP and others, about whom
first-hand accounts could be had from them. Some of the
HMS leaders, such as Dr Shanti Patel, Jagdish Ajmera and
Manohar Kotwal, also others, described their experience
and eye-witness account of the formation of the HMS.
AITUC and HMS leaders in particular provided
important leads to the history of the labour movement in
railway, textile and other industires.
Important
leads about an interesting organisation known as Navjeevan
Sanghatana, little-known outside Maharashtra, were
provided in some of the interviews. This organisation was
established by a group of radical youth in January 1943 in
certain areas of Maharashtra e.g. Bombay, Poona etc. It
was a fallout of the 1942 movement. This group had
differences with the CPI on the question of participation
in the movement. Though an youth organisation, it worked
actively among the industrial workers; their work
ultimately led to the formation of several TUs among the
textile and other workers. For example, they organised the
silk workers of Bombay and led their strike lasting for
several days. Not only this; the Sanghatana led also to
the formation of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), the
Workers and Peasants Party (WPP), the Lal Nishan Party and
groups of congressmen and communists, who did active work
among the industrial workers. They have also done
considerable work mong the unorganised and decentralised
workers. Its leaders like Yashwant Chavan were
instrumental in organising All India Textile Engineering
Workers’ Conference.
Another
interesting union is the Kamgar Aghadi run by Dada
Samant, elder brother of Dutta Samant of the fame of the
textile strike of Bombay in the 80s. Dada Samant was
earlier a PSPer (activist of Praja Socialist Party), and
worked as such in the railway employees union. Since then
he worked in various unions, ultimately taking over his
brother’s TU. It has members among textile, stone
quarries, unorganised, etc workers. His union also exists
among the bus transport employees.
There
are several other independent or small splinter groups of
the TUs. Among them household-help workers (in Pune-Bombay),
AICP/UCPI-led groups, and some others.
Among
the well-organised but unaffiliated ones, mention should
be made of pharma workers, Crompton-Greaves, banks,
GIC-LIC, govt-employees, etc.
A
wide variety of TU and Labor organisations and centres
have been covered in the course of the present phase of
Oral Histoy program. All the national TU centres were
covered eg. AITUC, HMS, CITU, INTUC and BMS. Besides, in
various zones, regions and states, several other labor and
TU organisations were contacted. Notable among them are:
the Shiv Sena in Mumbai, Lal Nishan Party-led Shramik
Sangathana, various independent organisations led by CITU
leaders in Eastern and Western zones eg. Crompton Greaves
Workers Union led mainly by CITU but also by AITUC
leaders, mixed organisations participated in by various
TUs including the BMS, independent sanghathanas, sanghas,
associations, etc, government employees
organisations (non-affiliated), railway employees’ TUs
which did not attach themselves to any (loco, gangmen,
station master, etc), railway employees’ TU, led jointly
by HMS and INTUC-oriented leaders, TU leaders owing
allegiance to the UCPI, defence employees’ TU
organisation, railway leaders belonging to Samata Party,
independent teachers’ associations, and so on.
Besides,
within each major TU organisation, conflicting and
dissenting voices could be heard, who spoke openly against
or differing from other leaders. This was particularly
apparent in the railway segment. But not only in that. In
other segments also. There were re-evaluations,
re-appraisals, criticisms and even narration of inside
stories in several narrations.
Labour
Constituencies
This
subject has not found its due place in labour history. It
has almost been forgotten. But it was one of the most
glorius achievements of the workingclass movement. The
labour constituencies were created for the 1946 general
elections, when the franchise was limited. They were a
prelude and a training ground for the subsequent electoral
and constitutional participation of the labouring masses
in the post-independence India. S.A. Dange’s election to
the Bombay Legislative Assembly was a historic event in
many senses. His subsequent marathon speech in the
Assembly the same year, lasting several hours, is still
remembered by many people including the respondents.
It
is equally interesting to find out as to how exactly
workers and unions organised the election campaign those
days. The workers’ constituencies were separate and
several, e.g. textile, railway, etc constituencies.
Members of the unions in each industry constituted the
voters. Respondents in Mumbai, as elsewhere also,
described as to how they would line up the workers much
before the voting hours. Women were very active and
enthusiastic. The workers and leaders would go through the
chawls and bustees gathering the workers. They gathered in
the Kamgar Maidan and other places in the night itself.
They slept there and lined up early in the morning before
the sunrise. Thus they ensured the victory of their
favourite candidates. Preparatory meetings were held in
the chawls, and at factories and the mill gates, in the
maidans. Elaborate organisational preparations were made.
Those days, it was not easy for the trade unionists to get
elected. Hence the importance is all the greater.
We
also learned interesting details of workers’
constituency in Orissa. It is a little-known fact that
Baidyanath Rath was elected from the this constituency in
the 1946 elections. He had complicated battles with the
opponents. The small meetings of activists in the jungles
and villages outside Bhubaneshwar, formed the basis of
this work. The areas today are transformed into urban
outskirts, where Sh. Rath still lives recalling his olden
days.
The
1942 Movement and Workers
The
’42 movement turned out to be an important landmark from
the viewpoint of the history of the labour movement. AITUC
leaders like Tara Reddy worked actively for the movement
and mobilised the workers for the same. Thay also opposed
those in the movement who did not agree with the 1942
‘line’. The future HMS and INTUC leaders were among
the most active in the workers’ activities connected
with the ’42 movement. Workers participated in this
movement on a big scale in Bombay, UP, Orissa, Bihar and
other regions.
Working
class formed a huge mass of the people gathered at the
Chowpatty Maidan in Bombay when 1942 Resolution was
announced in August 1942. Workers struck work in several
factories in Bombay and other places. The ‘Satara govt’
had active contacts with the labour organisations. Railway
workers’ unions in the GIP and other railways played an
active role helping the ’42 movement, both underground
and overground.
Naval
Revolt of 1946 and Workers’ Movement
The
workers’ contribution to the RIN (Royal Indian Navy i.e.
the British navy) revolt, also known as the sailors’
revolt, of February 1946,is one of the obscure chapters of
the labour movement. Among the concrete facts thrown up by
the Oral History work is that of active day to day
contacts of the textile and other workers’ leaderships
with the leaders of the Naval revolt. For example, several
GKU leaders and activists (e.g. G.L. Reddy) used to
conduct the leaders of the revolt to various meetings and
then take them back to their hidings on the docks and the
ships.
Naval
Dockyard Employees’ Union is another organisation that
actively helped the naval ratings by helping the latter to
set up a kind of base for their activities in the
dockyards and by restoring the water supply that was cut
off by the Britishers.
The
GKU office at the Parel Naka in Bombay was a key centre,
fromwhere active contacts were kept up with the ships in
revolt. It was just nearby that two women textile workers
were shot at by the marauding British troops; one of them
died on the spot. The office and the bridge still stand as
witness to history.
Labour
Movement and Armed Struggle
The
welknown Telangana and little known Salaya (Gujarat/Saurashtra),
and several other struggles express the occasional
pressures built up by the working masses to express their
sentiments and articulate their demands. In Nanded, Sikka,
Travancore-Cochin, Pondicherry, Himachal, W. Bengal,
North-eastern regions, Marathwada, Nizam Hyderabad,
Nilgiri, Dhenkanal and several other places in the
country, the toiling masses had been organised in the
trade unions and even armed struggles were launched to
further the cause of their movement. Trade union movement,
Praja Mandal and anti-Nizam struggles in Nizam’s
Hyderabad, particularly in Telengana in late 40s, were
closely interwoven. The workers’ movement in the
railways, transport, mines, factories helped the
anti-feudal mass armed struggles. In their turn, the anti-Nizam
movement helped the growth of political/trade union
consciousness of the industrial workers in the region. The
interviews recorded bear testimony to this. The trade
unions and workers of Hyderabad did a great deal of
practical work to send and receive the help of the
underground period. This imparted greater militancy to the
trade union movement. The armed struggle for a limited
purpose and for a short time helped the trade union
movement to grow.
The
militant, and to a limited extent, armed,movement of the
workers of Salaya on the Gujarat sea coast was unique in
several ways. The workers of ports, factories, salt
workers and others alongwith rural population ‘captured
‘ the town for several hours and ‘liberated’ certain
pockets. They had hopes to stretch further in the wider
areas.
A
little-known fact that came up in the course of the
interviews is the Valsura Camp Revolt, near
Jamnagar in 1946. The RIN revolt of Bombay is wellknown,
but this one is hardly known. The leaders including labour
leaders like Vasa, Bhikubhai Vaghela and others
from Saurashtra and several princely states worked
in the military naval camps among the naval ratings and
other personnel preparing an armed revolt against the
British government. They planned a general strike.
The
wellknown and little-known struggles express the
occasional pressures built up by the working masses to
express their grievances as well as points of view. In
Himachal, W. Bengal, Marathwada, Nilgiri, Dhenkanal and
several other places in the country, the toiling masses
had been organised in the trade unions and even armed
struggles were launched to further the cause of their
movement. Trade union and Praja Mandal movements were
closely interwoven. The workers’ movement in the
railways, transport, mines, factories helped the
anti-feudal mass armed struggles. In their turn, they
helped the growth of political/trade union consciousness
of the industrial workers in the regions. The interviews
recorded bear testimony to this. The trade unions and
workers did a great deal of practical work to send and
receive the help of the underground movement. This
imparted greater militancy to the trade union movement.
The armed struggle for a limited purpose and for a short
time helped the trade union movement to grow, though in
the long run, unnecessary stretching of it and its
unrealistic use without taking into account the situation
greatly harmed the TU movement. Armed periods often tended
to ignore great potentials and possibilities of the open,
legal, constitutional and democratic methods, which were
more and more developing. Many unions/movements e.g. in
the railways are still to fully recover from the damage
done by this attitude.
The
respondents, therefore, generally refused to glorify the
long-drawn armed struggles and saw, in retrospect, the
faults involved. They have also drawn lessons from such
experiences.
Underground
Trade Union Movement
This
is an important aspect that has come to light during the
interviews. This is a period which is not well-recorded
and documented. Therefore, the importance of the oral
history and recording of the personal and wider
reminiscences becomes greater as they present several
facts not avaialble anywhere else.
The
1942 movement has already been mentioned. The movement was
helped greatly, in many secret and open ways, by the
labour organisations, including railway, textile, and
other workers. The socialists belonging to the CSP and
others played an active role in mobilising workers for the
success of the movement. This was particularly clear in
Maharashtra, C.P.-Berar, Northern regions, Orissa, etc.
In
fact, 1948-51 was the period when the AITUC decided to
take a more militant line and oppose the policies of the
government in a more aggressive way, including through
armed struggles. Even the establishment of a workers’
state consequent upon the struggle was visualised. INTUC
and HMS opposed this line. Later, AITUC withdrew this
line.
During
this period, the AITUC largely functioned
semi-underground, yet it organised some
important struggles in these conditions. The
interviews provided a number of ‘leads’.
Some
underground activities were also part of the 1974 railway
strike, as also of the 1960 and 1968 strikes. These
movements faced severe repressions. As result, the leaders
and activists of AIRF and other TUs had often to carry on
their work secretly. NCCRS and the various organisations
formed, wherever possible and necessary, a wide network of
semi-underground groups and individuals to carry on the
regular work contacting, exchange of messages and
instructions, transport of literature and materials,
organising meetings, keeping contacts with the Jail
Committee and the NCCRS, organising defence against police
attacks, keeping a check on the workers against police
provocations, help workers tide over long period of
strike, and other activities. The 1974 strike was a well
organised effort mainly due to countrywide network of
railwaymen’s organisations.
Strikes
and movements of cotton textile, jute, tramways, defence,
engineering, port and dock, salt, municipal, mines,
service sector and many took place during this period.
Interviews have yielded important facts. For example, the
railway and city workers of Hyderabad as also the bus
employees of the state provided transport for taking arms,
ammunitions, literature and other materials. They also
helped the cadres and leaders to remain underground and
function from their hideouts. The example of Kottagudiyam
(Kottagudem), Calcutta, Asansol etc are great examples of
how ordinary workers helped not only the trade union
movement but also the entire society.
Public
Sector Labour Movement
Largely
after independence, the emergence and growth of
public/state sector provided a strong impetus to the
growth of the modern workers and their trade union
movement. Central and state government employees, defence,
petroleum, steel, post and telegraph, railways, NCDC,
nationalised banks, GIC, and other nationalised sectors,
oil and numerous others emerge as actively new areas/bases
of the largescale trade union movement often leading to
broad based actions leaving a deep impact on the country
as a whole. Modern
working class emerges as an important factor. A number of
interviews emphasise these facts and add new dimensions to
the study of history of the trade union movement. Among
the very important
but little known or forgotten facts, is that the building
of the Vishakhapattanam Steel Plant was the result of the
huge mass movement in Andhra Pradesh, as a result of which
the Central Government had to concede the demand.
Small
Scale and Household Sector
The
interviews have yielded lot of information on the workers
and their organisations in the household sector
industries, often of a secondary and tertiary kind. They
bring to light, for example, several facts about the beedi
workers’ organisations/movements in Rajasthan,
Marathwada, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Bihar,
Haryana, M.P.and eleswhere. These workers, alongwith their
leaders as well as their organisations launched and fought
struggles for most elemenatary rights and demands, and
ultimately spread around the country as a largescale
movement. It matured to a point, where like in Aurangabad
in Marathwada region, they formed a housing cooperative of
their own, something unheard of till now.
Pune and
Mumbai, for example, have well-organised household
workers’ organisations.
Legal
Machinery
Among
the major achievements of the labour movement
in India has been the creation of a massive labour
/industrial legal machinary to address, deal and
channalise the problems/demands of the labour. This has
mainly been a post-independence
achievement due to both to the trade union
struggles and the changed favourable conditions after the
end of the colonial rule. Various acts, labour courts,
tribunals, awards, wageboards, committees/commissions,
consultative mechanisms, participation in government
sponsored and government bodies, cooperating with ILO,
workers’ education, leadership training and so forth are
now the part and parcel of the legal labour system.
Besides
the government representatives,
economists and scholars, various managements
etc, the labour leaders and the trade unions have
also made very important and historic contributions to
this field. Some of the tallest leaders have been
associated with it, who have left a deep and lasting
impression with their scholarly as well as practical
knowledge, study/research, suggestions, actual
contributions to the formulation and articulation of the
issues etc.
Some
portions and aspects of these endeavours are to be found
in the interviews, on rationalisation, questions of
DA/bonus, formulation of the various bills and acts, laws
and by-laws, suggestions on disposition of labour in the
context of upgradation and expansion of technology and
industry, and several others.
Gorakhpur
Labour Office
An
important contribution of the Oral History Project
has been some facts on the Gorakhpur Labour Office
(GLO) that have come up during interviews. Otherwise too,
very little has been said and written, and is known about
the GLOs. But the interviews yielded some details, which
need further study and elaboration. By themselves also,
they are undoubtedly a cotribution to the
subject.
Incidents
and facts about Gorakhpur Labour have been mentioned while
interviewing respondents in Kottagudam, Hyderabad, Patna
etc. These labourers were used as a different category in
the mines, factories, and railways during the second world
war, and were in existence till a few years after
independence. They were kept in isolation in paramilitary
form, were highly exploited, including physically as they
were kept in chains at some places like in mines in Bihar
and were often used to divide the workers and destroy the
trade union movements. However they got assimilated in the
mainstream trade union movement at the end.
Women
Workers
This
time several women respondents were interviewed, common
activists as well as leaders. They presented several
facets and sides that normally are not brought to light.
Women
workers and leaders constituted on important and militant
contingent of textile, mining, railway, small scale
industries workers’ and other movements. For example, as
some of the interviews showed, women workers were at the
forefront in several textile workers’ movement in Bombay
and elsewhere. The Girni Kamgar Union (GKU) and other
organisations owed a lot to them. It was stated that
India’s first ‘Gherao’ was organised in 1937 in the
Bitiya Textile Mills of Bombay; and this was done by the
women workers mainly. The women did not allow the owner to
go out for almost a day. Even his food was arranged by the
workers. It was only the next day when the negotiations
started that the gherao was lifted.
The
women workers contributed to the militancy of the struggle
by keeping up the tempo and often forced the men workers
to go into action. They were by means behind the menfolk
in picketing, slogan shouting, strikes, demonstrations and
so on. These mostly illiterate workers were a tremendous
source behind the militant actions. Some of the
outstanding leaders came out of them, including at
worker-cadre levels. Their histories have generally been
forgotten. The chawls of Parel, Prabhadevi, Girgam and
innumerable other places were their centres of activities.
They even fought off the police on several occasions. The
chawls would reverberate with the sloganeering, meetings,
processions and so on.
Besides,
the women workers saw to it that their family duties did
not come in the way of the movement. They would look after
their children and families and took care of any
disruptive activities. Thus, they functioned in double
capacity. They also looked after the children and families
of the leaders and activists, who could not spare time
during struggles for their families.
]
During
the textile struggles in Bombay in the ’30s and ’40s,
for example, in the Bitiya Mills strike, the women workers
refused to go home to look after their little children
home, lest the gherao was weakened and the owner got an
opportunity to escape! They had to be convinced
that they should be going home in batches.
Women
workers on the GIP and other railways were also very
active in movements and could be counted upon for support.
During the railway strikes of 1960, 1968 and 1974, the
families of the workers had to bear the brunt of
repression. The women members of the families and women
workers themselves took an active part in the movement and
organisation.
At
one time, there were more than 60 textile mills in Bombay,
before independence. Of the workforce, more than 40,000
were women. But they hardly sat in home, and were always
on the move.
Women
constituted overwhelming majority of the bidi workers in
Maharashtra and elsewhere. Among the respondents were the
leaders of the bidi workers. In one incident, the bidi
workers stopped the motorcade of the then prime minister
Indira Gandhi, and handed over a petition. Of course, a
large number of women were arrested and their court cases
dragged on for long years. This incident took place in
Bombay near a place called Haji Ali.
One
aspect that came up was that once decided, the women
workers would not backtrack from the battle, in contrast
to the men, who often hesitated. Women were more decisive
and forthright in their resolve, and it was not easy to
convince them to go back to work, once the situation had
changed. They displayed more involvement than men.
In
this context the information on pharma girl workers is
important. They constituted the main segment in the
unionisation of this section of workers. They were at the
forefront of several militant struggles. Not only this;
they did not hesitate to brave the lathicharges and police
attacks on several occasions. It all shows that their
militancy and energies could be channelised into the
process of unionisation with right approach. These girls
were also an educated and advanced section of workers,
conscious of their responsibility.
This
fact is important as it shows that even modern educated
workers, including women workers, can take clear-cut
decisions regarding TU activism and struggles. If needed,
they are prepared to forego their family interests in
favour of the primary interests in the factory.
Not
only Laro Jonko, Roza Deshpande, Tara Reddy, Malini
Tulpule, Mrs. Patnaik, Mrs. Vishwanathan and other women
repondents but almost all the men respondents highlighted
the tremendous contribution and fighting spirit of the
women workers.
Trade
Unionism among Artist
In
Bengal, Maharashtra and elsewhere, many people’s
or worker-artists came up out of the labor
movement. They were ordinary workers, who in the course of
time became artists and singers singing revolutionary
songs, performing popular street corner and stage plays,
and so on. They played particularly important role during
the upsurge in the movements. They became so popular that
they could match the professional stars in the appeal and
performance. (Late) Amar Sheikh was the most typical of
such a category; Narayan Surve is another, who also
composes songs and poetry. Their very names could attract
people in large numbers, which then would be a prelude to
a huge meeting.
But
their importance is not confined to only being exceedingly
popular. An entire generation or two and large numbers of
young artists and followers were produced all over
Maharashtra, who still carry on and enrich the traditions
established by these worker-artists. With the onset of the
use of electronic methods, they have also enetered the
world of cassettes and albums. Besides, they cooperate
with various other artists’ groups, both formal and
informal, in composing music and organising cultural
programs on particular issues.
Trade
Unionism during the Great Famine
The
role of the working masses cannot be forgotten in the
great famine that engulfed Bengal and Bihar in the 40s.
Grains were collected, food prepared and then distributed
day and night in the food camps organised by the simple
workers who worked either as coolies or otherwise. The
contributions of these common workers in such moments of
crisis empowered the labour movement itself. These
experiences were narrated in great details by persons
involved while recording their interviews.
Leaders
and ordinary cadres and workers did great work during the
1943 famine. From Punjab to Bengal, and from South India
to North, people flocked to help the victims. Leaders and
activists from as far as Punjab and Maharashtra went to
Bengal for relief work. Respondents from Punjab (e.g.
Parduman Singh, Satyapal Dang and others) related
first-hand experiences in this field. Some of them
actually went there to run relief kitchens and other kinds
of work.
Orissa
famine: One of the lesser known facts is that Orissa
was badly affected by the Great Famine of 1942-43. More
than 35000 people died due to the famine. Workers and
trade unions, along with other sections, did lot of relief
work for the affected people.
The
Days of Partitions
The
railway workers and trade unions played great role in
providing relief and shelter for suffering people of all
the communities during the communal holocaust in the wake
of country’s partition in 1947. They worked day and
night salvaging and helping the victims of communal riots.
In places like Panipat, Delhi, areas of Punjab, Calcutta,
Bombay, etc, golden chapters were written in this work.
The railway unions in the north-western and Bombay regions
had to struggle hard to keep the communal unity of the
workers and to see that their unions were not destroyed.
Similarly, the port and dock workers were also seriously
affected, and their organisations struggled tenaciously
against divisions.
The
days of partition can be cited in this connection when in
Calcutta, the tramway depots were the shelter for
suffering people of all the communities and the uniform of
these workers was accepted
as the symbol of peace. They worked day and night
salvaging and helping the victims of communal riots. The
leaders helped the workers to go to safe places. The TUs
worked day and night to guard and protect the workers of
various communities.
Places
like Amritsar and others in Punjab had traumatic
experiences. Partition brought about a change in the
composition of the working class and deeply affected the
TU movement and organisation. The leaders had to struggle
hard to see that they did not kill each other in the
communal frenzy, and that the workers of the respective
communities reach their assigned countries safely. The
pre-partition workers in Amritsar were mainly Muslims, but
after the partition, they were predominantly Hindus and
Sikhs.
To
Sum up
The
work on the oral history of the labour movement has been a
very satisfying experience. We have been able to uncover
and salvage considerable history. There have been several
important discoveries. The archaeology of labour is really
taking shape, to which valuable information is being
continuously added. It forms an important base for
research in the field of labour history. Lot of important
respondents have been interviewed, considerable
material/information/history has been retrieved that has
proved to be highly valuable, and otherwise would have
been lost. The personalities interviewed include some of
the most outstanding ones in the rich history of the
labour movement. Besides, several new repondents could be
located, who were not included in the original list. Many
younger persons were also talked to.
The
work needs to be carried forward. Many more important as
well as not so well known names will keep on being added
as the work proceeds and as we come across more facts. The
spatial coverage of this effort also needs to be enhanced
covering more states and regions. Further, this unique
exercise of tapping the memories of activists cannot be
postponed, as every delay would mean irretrievable loss of
valuable data.
|