Spectrum Summary: The movement of the working class

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Who constituted the working class?
3. Early efforts and attitudes of nationalists
4. Notable early initiatives
5. During the Swadeshi upsurge (early 1900s)
6. Impact of the First World War and international developments
7. Formation of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)
8. The Trade Union Act, 1926
9. The late 1920s: militant turn and legislative repression
10. Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929)
11. Working-class movement under Congress ministries (from 1937)
12. Second World War and the post-war period
13. After Independence
14. Significance and legacy
15. Concluding summary
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Introduction

The beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century heralded the entry of modern industry into India. Large-scale projects such as the construction of railways created the first concentrations of wage labour and became the harbingers of a modern Indian working class. Further industrialisation followed with the growth of ancillary industries along railway lines. The rapid expansion of the coal industry and the emergence of the cotton and jute mills produced thousands of industrial workers employed under factory conditions.

• The Indian working class experienced exploitation similar to that seen in the West during earlier phases of industrialisation: low wages, long working hours, unhygienic and hazardous working conditions, employment of child labour and the absence of basic social and civic amenities.
• Colonial rule gave the Indian working-class movement a distinct character. Workers confronted two interlinked antagonisms: political domination by an imperial power and economic exploitation by both foreign and indigenous capitalists.
• Consequently, the working-class movement in India often overlapped with the political struggle for national emancipation; labour demands were frequently articulated in a nationalist context.

Who constituted the working class?

The term working class (or proletariat) refers to wage-earning industrial and transport workers engaged in factories, mines, railways, docks, workshops and other organised establishments. In the Indian context, the early working class comprised railway workers, dock workers, mill hands in cotton and jute mills, coal-miners and employees in government-controlled establishments such as printing presses and postal services.

Early efforts and attitudes of nationalists

The response of early Indian nationalists to labour questions was mixed and often cautious. Moderate nationalists were generally reluctant to give prominence to class-based demands for two main reasons: they feared that highlighting class conflict would divide the national movement, and they believed that labour legislation might harm the competitive edge of Indian-owned industry.

• Many Moderates were indifferent to industrial labourers' grievances and differentiated between workers employed in Indian-owned and British-owned establishments.
• They thought labour legislation could adversely affect indigenous entrepreneurs and therefore hesitated to support reforms such as the Factory Acts of 1881 and 1891.
• As a result, early attempts to improve workers' conditions were largely philanthropic, isolated, or restricted to specific local grievances rather than systematic legal or political programmes.

Notable early initiatives

• 1870 - Sasipada Banerjea started a working-men's club and the newspaper Bharat Shramjeevi to voice labour concerns.
• 1878 - Sorabjee Shapoorji Bengalee tried to introduce a bill in the Bombay Legislative Council for better working conditions.
• 1880 - Narain Meghajee Lokhanday launched the newspaper Deenbandhu and set up the Bombay Mill and Millhands Association.
• 1899 - The first strike by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway took place and won widespread support; leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak used newspapers such as Kesari and Mahratta to campaign for the strikers.

During the Swadeshi upsurge (early 1900s)

When the Swadeshi movement broadened nationalist participation, workers joined wider political campaigns and organised strikes on political and economic grounds.

• Workers organised strikes in government presses, railways and the jute industry under leaders such as Ashwini Kumar Dutta (commonly cited as Ashwini Coomar Banerjea in some sources), Prabhat Kumar Roy Chaudhuri, Premtosh Bose and Apurba Kumar Ghosh.
• Attempts were made to form trade unions, but these early unions were often weak and short-lived.
• Subramaniya Siva and Chidambaram Pillai led militant strikes in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli and faced arrest, showing how labour protest intersected with anti-colonial politics.
• The largest strikes of the period were connected to political events such as the arrest and trial of Tilak, demonstrating how political repression could trigger mass labour action.

Impact of the First World War and international developments

• The First World War and its immediate aftermath produced higher export demand and rising prices; industrialists often profited while workers suffered low real wages, creating widespread discontent among labourers.
• The post-war period highlighted the need for organised labour representation; the growth of trade unions became a pressing demand.
• International developments affected Indian labour politics: the Russian Revolution, the establishment of the Comintern and the foundation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) provided new ideological and organisational models and inspired left-wing militants in India.

Formation of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)

• 31 October 1920 - The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded as an all-India organisation to coordinate trade union activity.
• Lala Lajpat Rai, who was also the President of the Indian National Congress for 1920, became the first president of AITUC; Dewan Chaman Lai served as the first general secretary.
• Lajpat Rai articulated an early connection between capitalism and imperialism, describing "imperialism and militarism" as twin consequences of capitalist expansion, thus giving a political-nationalist context to trade-union politics.

The Trade Union Act, 1926

The Trade Union Act, 1926 was a landmark legal recognition of organised labour in India. Its principal features included:

• Legal recognition of trade unions as legitimate associations capable of registration.
• Provision of procedures and conditions for the registration and regulation of trade union activities.
• Granting immunity to registered trade unions from certain civil and criminal liabilities for legitimate actions, while imposing some restrictions on overtly political or coercive activities.

The late 1920s: militant turn and legislative repression

• A growing communist influence in the labour movement gave many strikes and union actions a more militant and revolutionary tone.
• 1928 - A six-month-long strike in the Bombay textile mills was organised by the Girni Kamgar Union and became part of a year of unprecedented industrial unrest across urban centres.
• Communist leaders who emerged during this phase included S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, P.C. Joshi and Sohan Singh Josh.
• The colonial state responded with measures to curb unrest: the Public Safety Ordinance (1929) and the Trade Disputes Act (TDA), 1929.
• Provisions associated with the TDA, 1929 included:
  • Compulsory appointment of Courts of Inquiry and Consultation Boards to investigate and attempt to settle industrial disputes.
  • Prohibition of strikes in certain public utility services (such as posts, railways, water and electricity) unless individual workers intending to strike gave one month's advance notice to the administration.
  • Restriction on trade union activities that were deemed coercive or purely political in character, including limitations on sympathetic strikes.

Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929)

In March 1929, the colonial government arrested 31 labour leaders under allegations of conspiring to overthrow British rule. The long trial (lasting about three and a half years) led to convictions of notable left-wing activists and communist organisers such as Muzaffar Ahmed, S.A. Dange, Joglekar, Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley and Shaukat Usmani.

• The trial received international attention but had the immediate effect of weakening and disrupting organised communist activity in the labour movement.

Working-class movement under Congress ministries (from 1937)

• In the 1937 provincial elections the AITUC had supported Congress candidates and the subsequent Congress ministries provided official recognition and encouragement to trade union activities at provincial level.
• Congress governments were, in general, sympathetic to workers' demands and many provinces enacted labour-friendly legislation and policies during their tenure.

Second World War and the post-war period

• At the outbreak of the Second World War many workers initially opposed involvement in the conflict; however, when 1941 saw the Soviet Union join the Allies, communist groups described the struggle as a "people's war" and shifted to support the Allied war effort.
• Communists dissociated themselves from the Quit India Movement and promoted a policy of industrial peace, arguing that wartime production needs required industrial harmony.
• Between 1945 and 1947 workers played an active role in post-war national upsurges: in 1945 dockworkers in Bombay and Calcutta refused to load ships bound for Dutch-controlled Indonesia; in 1946 sailors and naval ratings staged strikes; and during 1946-47 there were significant strikes across ports, railways and other key establishments.

After Independence

• Following 1947 the working-class movement became increasingly polarised along political and ideological lines, with different unions and federations aligning with Congress, socialist, communist or independent political positions.
• Labour politics henceforth combined industrial claims (wages, working conditions, social security) with questions of party politics and the shaping of post-colonial labour legislation and welfare policies.

Significance and legacy

The movement of the working class in colonial India was important for three connected reasons. First, it articulated the social costs of colonial industrialisation and drew attention to the material conditions of millions of wage earners. Second, labour struggles frequently became intertwined with the national movement, thereby expanding the base of anti-colonial mobilisation. Third, the movement stimulated the development of labour law, trade union organisation and political ideologies that continued to shape independent India's industrial relations.

Concluding summary

The emergence of modern industry in India produced a distinct working class whose struggles evolved from philanthropic reformist responses to organised trade-union activity and, later, to militant and ideologically driven mobilisation. Key milestones include early reform initiatives in the late nineteenth century, the foundation of the AITUC (1920), legislative recognition through the Trade Union Act, 1926, state repression in the late 1920s and the Meerut Conspiracy Case, and the complex role of labour during the two world wars and the transition to independence. These developments laid the institutional and political foundations for labour relations in modern India.