BPSE - 212

10th Part

Block-6 (Unit -28)

Q. Describe the worker's movement in colonial times.

A. The modern working class made its appearance in India in the second half of the 19th century with the growth of modern industries, railways, post and telegraph network, plantation and mining. But the labor movement started in an organized way only after the Second World War. The organized workers’ unions are known as trade unions. The All India Trade Union Congress (A I T U C) was formed in 1920. Its objective was to coordinate activities of all organizations in all the provinces of India to further the interests of the Indian labor in economic, social and political matters. In the second half of the 1920s, there was a consolidation of left ideological forces in the country. In1928 the left-wing including the communists succeeded in acquiring a dominant position inside the A I T U C. The moderates started a new organization known as All India Trade Union Federation (AITUF). The 1930s was not a favorable period for the growth of trade union movement India. 

         The communists were implicated in the Meerut Conspiracy case and the Bombay Textiles strike of 1929 had failed. There was a lull in the activities of trade unions during this time. The serious economic depression of this period added to the woes of the workers further. It led to large-scale retrenchment. The main focus of the trade union movements during this period was maintaining wages and preventing retrenchment. To press for their demands, the trade unions resorted to strikes.

              The main issues which caused the worker's strikes to include wages, bonus, working hours, one day leave, accidental insurance, etc. The workers take recourse to various types of collective actions for getting their problems redressed. These are – strikes, satyagraha, hunger strikes, bandhs and hartals, gheraos, demonstrations, mass casual leaves, work to rule, cutting off the supply of electricity, etc. The most common form of workers’ collective action is the strike. There are examples of the railway, jute, plantation, mine and textiles workers strikes in the pre-Independence period. The centers of the strikes were Nagpur, Ahemadabad, Bombay, Madras, Howrah, and Calcutta. In 1920 Gandhi intervened in the strike the textile workers of Ahmedabad

and provided leadership to the workers.

Q. Describe workers movement in Independent India.

A. The National Level - The high hopes of workers were shattered after independence. There was hardly any improvement on the fronts of better wages and other service conditions. The workers had to struggle hard even to retain what they had achieved earlier. A series of strikes stirred the country. There were the highest number of strikes in 1947, i.e., 1811 strikes which involved 1840 thousand workers. The number of strikes and man-days lost had surpassed all the previous records. This declined in the 1950s, but the number of strikes and lockouts increased again in the 1960s-1970s. Another important development of the time period was the affiliation of workers with political parties led trade unions.                              According to the provisional figures released by the Chief Labour Commissioner in 1994 Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) which is an affiliate of BJP has acquired a total membership of 31.17 lakh workers has secured the top position. The INTUC a Congress affiliated body with a total membership of 27.06 lakh is on the second position. The third position is enjoyed by CITU affiliated to CPM with a total membership of 17.98 lakh. The fourth position is enjoyed by HMS(The Praja Socialist Party started the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) in 1948)

The Provincial Levels

Another remarkable development of the 1960s was the birth of trade unions of the regional parties like the DMK and AIDMK in Madras. The Shiv Sena was born in Bombay in 1967. It soon set up its labor wing called Bharatiya Kamgar Sena. It was generally believed that the Shiv Sena had the backing of the industrial houses in the Bombay -Pune belt to counter the strong influence of the Communists and Socialists in labor unions. It succeeded in achieving this objective and its trade union established its supremacy in the Bombay region by the mid -the 1970s.

The Trade Unions without Political Affiliations

The 1960s also witnessed the emergence of independent unions or “apolitical”. They were independent in the sense that they were not affiliated with any political party or federation. These kinds of “apolitical” trade unions emerged out of the dissatisfaction of the workers with the existing trade unions which were affiliated to the political parties. The leadership of these unions has largely come from the educated middle classes. Engineering Mazdoor Sabha led by R J Mehta is one of the earliest unions of this type. The demands of the workers included higher wages, making the badli (temporary) workers permanent, allowances for leave and travel and payment for house rent.

Limitations of the Trade Union Movement in India

1.  The Trade Union Movement in India is faced with many defects. Only a small fraction of the working class is organized. Even in the organized sector, a sizeable chunk of workers does not participate in the Trade Union Movement. Indian economy is largely agriculture-based. Small peasants and agricultural labor encounter the problems of seasonal unemployment and low income. They are forced to go to cities in search of employment. Most of these workers are illiterate, ignorant of rights, unorganized and have a migratory character. A large section of the workers does not

exhibit much interest in the trade union movement because city life for them is a temporary condition. So they do not realize the importance of unity among workers.

2.  Another major weakness of the trade unions is poor finance. This makes the trade unions dependent on external finance and influence.

3. Yet another weakness of the trade union movement has been the dominance of the leadership from outside. The main reason for this has been the lack of education among the workers. Mostly leadership is provided by professional politicians. Political leadership ignores the needs and welfare of the workers and tries to use the organization for the interest of the political party.

Q. Describe the response of the peasantry to the colonial rule in India.

A. The peasants reacted by revolting against the landlords, money lenders and agents of the colonial state. Leadership in the peasant movements was provided either by the rural intelligentsia or urban intelligentsia. Baba Ram Chand, the leader of the Oudh peasant movement belonged to the former. The Congress started mobilizing the peasants from the 1920s with the purpose to broaden its support base. The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, no- rent campaign were examples of such a merger. But the Congress did not encourage the conflict between the landlords and the peasants to get sharpened. The Congress had been more interested in forging an alliance between the landlords, peasants and other classes. Soon the need to evolve an independent peasant organization led by peasant leaders to safeguard the interest of the peasants were being felt by them.

                It was under these circumstances that the first all India peasant organization the All India Kisan Sabha was formed in 1936 in Lucknow under the presidentship of Swami Sahjanand Saraswati, the founder of Bihar Pradesh Kisan Sabha. N.G.Ranga the pioneer of the Kisan movement in Andhra became its first General Secretary. Very soon the branches of the All India Kisan Sabha were established in many districts of the country.

                  Different Congress Ministries formed after elections in 1937 introduced agrarian legislation to provide relief to the peasants such as for debt relief, restoration of lands lost during the depression, for the security of tenure, etc. But these measures did not affect the conditions of the peasants of lower strata. The dissatisfaction of peasants found expression in a number of protest meetings, conferences, and demonstrations. The outbreak of World War II brought the resignation of the Congress Ministries and launching of severe repression against Kisan Sabha leaders. In the year 1939, the national convention of the All India Kisan Sabha was presided over by Acharya Narendra Dev. In his Presidential address, he emphasized the need for separation of Kisan Sabha from Congress. According to him, a separate Kisan Sabha was necessary in order to put pressure on Congress.

Q. Discuss the characteristics and nature of farmers' movement in independent India.

A.     By looking at the different farmer's movement we can understand the nature and characteristics of peasant movements in India.

The Tebhaga Movement of Bengal - was one of such movements. The provincial Kisan Sabha of Bengal launched this Movement in 1946. Gradually the influence of the left in general and the communists, in particular, increased in the Kisan Sabha. In 1947 the leadership of the All India Kisan Sabha went into the hands of the communists. The communists led the provincial Kisan Sabha of Bengal also. This movement soon took the form of a clash between the share-croppers and the jotedars, the employers. The share-croppers began to assert that they would no longer pay a half share of their crop to their jotedars but only one- third. They also insisted that before division the crop would be stored in their khamars (godowns) and not in that of the jotedars. Poor peasants, middle peasants and also some sons of jotedars led the movement. The middle peasants provided the bulk of the leaders and they supported the movement up to the end. The rich peasants slowly detached themselves. When the government resorted to severe repression in 1947 the movement came to an end.

Telangana Movement - It was launched in 1946 in the princely state of Hyderabad ruled by the Nizam. This movement started as a protest against the collection of excessive revenue using force by jagirdars. In the beginning, the leadership was in the hands of the rich peasants and the movement was directed against the big absentee landlords allied to the Nizamsahi. But soon the initiative passed into the hands of poor peasants and agricultural labor that started occupying lands of landlords, and wastelands and started distributing it among them. By 1947 this movement organized a Guerilla Army mobilizing poor peasantry and agricultural labor many of which were tribal and untouchables. This army snatched a large number of arms from the zamindars and drove away from the local government officials. They established their control over an area of 15,000 square miles with a population of 40,000. The

administrations in these areas were run by peasant soviets. 

          The army of independent India succeeded in crushing the Telangana Movement in 1951. This indicates the nature (peasants etc.) & characteristics (violence) of peasants movement in India. Peasants and landless labor that got nothing from the government except promises and whose condition showed no signs of improvement and were suffering oppression at the hands of rural dominant sections. They found a ray of hope in this militant philosophy. This philosophy continues to inspire that segment of the rural population who has lived at the receiving end. At many places, they are fighting for the security of employment, minimum wages, rights over a share of produce and against sexual abuse of their women. There are instances of violence when they exercise their right to vote. Most of the time they have to resort to violence to protect their rights and dignity which is under threat from the landowning and dominant sections of society. Their faith in violence is strengthened because of the find that the state and the police always taking sides with the landowning dominant

sections of society.

Q. Comment on the Naxalite movement.

A.   In 1967 there started a peasant protest at a place called Naxalbari in the Darjeeling District of West Bengal. The land reform policy of the government had not succeeded in taking lands from zamindars and big farmers and distributing among poor peasants and landless labor in any significant way. There existed discontent among peasants. In such situation the leaders of peasant organization gave a call for establishing the government of peasant committees, organizing armed struggle to end the ownership of the jotedars on land and distribute it among poor peasants and landless labor. They drew inspiration from the Telangana Movement. The

Naxalbari movement reached its zenith by the third week of May 1967. There was violence on a large scale. Naxalbari got enormous publicity largely because it was fighting a state government wherein C.P.I.M. was a major coalition partner and also because China believed that the Naxalites were following the correct line. In July 1967, movement was suppressed by security forces.