LABOUR MOVEMENTS IN INDIA
The beginning of the second half of the 19th century heralded the entry of modern industry in India. The presence of colonialism in India gave a distinctive touch to the Indian working-class movement. The Indian working class had to face two basic antagonistic forces-an imperialist political rule and economic exploitation at the hands of both foreign and native capitalist classes. Under the circumstances, the Indian labour class movement became interlinked with the political struggle for national emancipation.
CO-ORGANISATIONS RELATED TO LABOUR MOVEMENTS
There were many people and organisations involved with labour movements
- In Bengal, Sasipada Banerjee initiated welfare activities among workers in the early 1870s. He tried to educate them and to voice their grievances. For this purpose, he founded the Working Men’s Club in 1870 and started publishing a monthly journal in Bengali entitled Bharat Shramjibi in 1874.
- The Brahmo Samaj formed the Working Men’s Mission in Bengal in 1878 to impart moral education among the workers. It also established the Working Men’s Institution in 1905. In Bombay, Narayan Meghaji Lokhande was actively involved in welfare and organisational activities among the cotton mill workers since the 1880s.
- In 1890. Narayan Meghaji Lokhande established the Bombay Millhand’s Association and in 1898, he started publishing a journal entitled Dinbandhu in Marathi. Besides him, Sorabjee Shapoorjee Bengalee was also actively propagating for improving the conditions of the workers since 1878.
- Some other important active organizations among the Bombay workers were the Bombay Millhands Defence Association formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1908, the Kamgar Hitwardhak Sabha formed in 1909 and the Social Service League established in 1911.
- These aforesaid bodies were primarily interested in welfare activities and did not have much organizational base among the workers. Worker’s protests in this period were basically organized by the jobbers, and other informal leaders or by the vocal and active sections among the workers themselves. There were some organizations in this period that resembled trade unions.
- The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants of India and Burma formed in 1897, the Printer’s Union in Calcutta and the Postal Union in Bombay were among these. But they could not maintain any continuity in their functioning and were in existence for a short period only.
EMERGENCE OF TRADE UNIONS IN INDIA
The Madras Labour Union, formed in April 1918, by Behman Pestonji Wadia, is generally considered to be the first trade union in India. It was mainly an organisation based on the workers of Carnatic and Buckingham Mills in Madras. For the first time in India, there was a regular membership and the members were to contribute one anna as a monthly subscription. Around the same time, labour agitation had started in Ahmedabad where the workers were agitating for a bonus to compensate for the rise in prices.
Gandhiji stood by workers’ side and demanded that workers should be given a 35 per cent bonus.
On the refusal of millowners, he called for a strike and insisted that the principle of arbitration should be accepted on the basis of struggle and arbitration.
In 1920, the Textile Labour Association, also known as Major Mahajan Sangh, was established in Ahmedabad by Gandhiji. This union worked along Gandhian lines and became very strong over the years.
The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed in 1920. The First Session of AITUC was held in Mumbai and attended by Chittranjan Das, Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subash Chandra Bose, Sarojini Naidu, Satyamurti and Charles Freer Andrew. Lala Lajpat Rai became the first President of the AITUC, Joseph Baptista their Vice-President and Diwan Chaman as its secretary. The AITUC received a lot of support from the Indian National Congress. There were about 107 unions, which were affiliated or sympathetic to the AITUC. Soon after the formation of the CPI, the communists became active in the labour movements.
The communists organised the workers in the cotton mills of Bombay and jute mills of Calcutta, besides many other industries and led militant struggles. Due to their commitment to the cause of labour and their devotion to the organisational work, they were soon able to organise many new unions and gained ascendancy in the old ones. DIVISION ere the lak in Service As soon as vision In 1928-29, they were able to gain a marginal majority in the AITUC.