The Making of the Madras Working Class

Title: The Making of the Madras Working Class

Author: D. Veeraraghavan

Publisher: LeftWord Books, 2013 (First)

ISBN: 9789380118161

Pages: 358

The transition from feudalism to capital took place in India under British vigil. A large labour force was required to operate the industries set up by white and Indian capitalists. This void was readily filled by ruined peasants and artisans whose way of living was devastated by the socio-economic changes the country was undergoing. The workers experienced a whole new life in the factories and the squalid nearby slums where they had had to put up with unhygienic living space and fatal diseases. Unorganised as they were, they could not present any opposition to exploitative practices followed by the factory owners and their cautery. Eventually, they organised themselves and resorted to industrial action such as strikes. Trade unions developed later and provided much needed influence on people who mattered and extended coordination with workers in other industries. As the class consciousness grew among the labourers, the trade unions were co-opted to serve as mere appendages of the political parties. This book encapsulates all the trade union movements in diverse industries in Madras city (now Chennai) and its environs from their origins in 1918 to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Dilip Veeraraghavan obtained BA, MA, M. Phil and PhD degrees and joined IIT, Madras as faculty in history. What makes this a unique achievement is the fact that he was the first visually challenged person to acquire a doctoral degree in Tamil Nadu. He suffered from retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease known to afflict the offspring of close-kinship marriages from an early age. This incurable ailment snatched the faculty of vision away from him while in school. Veeraraghavan remained a staunch supporter of the left till the end.

The early phase of industrial work was characterized by long working hours. However, the claims of 20-22 hours in rice mills and 22 hours in printing presses are doubtful. The Factory Act of 1911 limited the daily hours to 12 and the legislation in 1934 further cut it down to 9. It is also to be kept in mind that until the Factory Act of 1891 came into effect, a seven-day working week was the norm. Remuneration was preferential and followed racial lines. European and Anglo-Indians were paid two to three times higher than Indian workers. Much heartburn and resentment brewed on the shop floor due to such racial discrimination. As a prologue to the main discussion, the book presents the cases of pre-Union strikes in Madras industry. The first ever strike took place in the Buckingham Mills in 1878. The strikers’ demand was to close the mill at noon on Sundays. In 1889, the striking workers at nearby Carnatic Mills wanted a weekly holiday. However the management imported outside labour and broke the strike. The collective action before the entry of unions was marked by sudden outbursts of violence and destruction, when the system lacked the institutional safety valves of grievance settlement procedures. On that count, trade unions ushered in an era that was conducive to healthy relations between the owners and workers of the factory. Agitations became more disciplined after the formation of trade unions making it better for the management to deal with the workers.

The First World War crafted great changes in society and the stage was set for something radical. The frenzy of war-time production gave immense profits to the industrialists and handsome dividends to equity holders. However, the wages inched up just a little while the commodity prices shot up through the roof. Madras city saw food riots taking place in its streets. Nationalist fervour in the newly rich Indians found expression as new factories. The October Revolution acted as a catalyst for organisation and unity among workers. The Madras Labour Union was formed in 1918 among the textile workers of B&C Mills under the guidance of Selvapathy Chettiar and Ramanjulu Naidu. Its first president was B P Wadia of the Home Rule League. The trade unions were formed for the specific industry or trade and not craft-based. Early worker movements did not go beyond economic demands specific to each factory. Social or national revolutions were not at all in the picture. The unions differed from trade guilds. As industry developed on capitalist lines, the guilds declined and a need arose for workers to combine separately from their masters. The growth of trade unions was attested by the Presidency-wide labour conference held in 1920 in which 13 unions participated.

Veeraraghavan lists out some anecdotes of labour relationships which we find difficult to conceive in this age of vigilant labour. Early delegations of workers were not given seats in the discussions with the factory bosses and were forced to present the case in individual capacities. The dearness allowance (DA) which is now an integral part of any pay package was unheard of when the workers were disorganised. The DA compensates for inflation and casts a safety net around workers from ever rising prices. It made its appearance in 1907 to keep up with the rising cost of living. During World War I, many companies opted to pay a ‘rice allowance’ to its workers. A curious case is that of the nationalist newspapers like ‘The Hindu’ which sided with the workers when they went on strike in other industries. But when their own employees downed tools, these newspapers fought them tooth and nail.

Trade unions and strikes were inalienable tools of the working classes to wrest their rights from the capitalists. While this fact is proven beyond doubt, the rise of militancy and irresponsible activism are evident in the 1920s itself. The tramway workers obtained higher pay by strike. This infuriated the employees of Madras Electric Supply Corporation who were inured to the belief that they were entitled to a higher pay than their brethren who drove trams. Their strike was so violent that the city plunged into darkness. Sabotage and intimidation of strike-breakers were rampant as were tampering with overhead lines, removal of fuses from public mains and damaging the insulators. Bus workers once resorted to action when the police started to book them for traffic violations. Demands to reinstate workers who were dismissed for stealing or assaulting their supervisors were common. However, the author treats such action as quite natural and essential for development of the class spirit.

Political parties are known to encourage feeder organisations among labour. This book traces this influence from its origins. The 1919 Amritsar session of the Indian National Congress decided to involve itself in the labour movement. The first umbrella outfit, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) came into being on October 31, 1920. The author accuses the Congress leaders of not belonging to the working class. However, this applied brakes on labour militancy. Labourers were used in the mainstream political agitations of the Congress. However, the sudden withdrawal of non-cooperation movement in 1922 resulted in a period of lull and quiescence in the industrial sector till 1933. This was also on the heels of the collapse of big strike actions. After the provincial legislative elections were held in 1937, the Congress assumed power and the noted trade union leader V V Giri assumed office as labour minister. This emboldened the workers to resume militancy and increase their bargaining power. However, the author takes the few cases when the government had to intervene to preserve law and order to claim that the Congress government was anti-labour. This might be a politically motivated allegation. Support of political parties helped the workers to coordinate with their colleagues in other factories. When the employees of Madras University and SPCK press went on strike in 1920, the printing jobs were assigned to the government press, but its compositors refused to take up work which originally belonged to other presses.

A crucial milestone in the labour movement is the appearance of Communist parties which sought to assume the role of fighters of the proletariat. Veeraraghavan makes the event to be of profound significance, but nothing much seems to have occurred in the brief time period the book covers. Early work in this direction by Singaravelu and his Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan (LKPH) founded in 1923 are described. Amir Haider Khan, with his strong ties to the Communist International is another noted figure. His Young Workers League of 1932 unified young revolutionaries of South India. With Khan's arrest, P. Sundarayya assumed leadership of the socialists which was another moniker used by the Communists. The Great Depression of 1929 was a troubled period for capitalism. The communists ‘almost’ celebrated the fall of capitalism, raking up outdated predictions in Marxian theory. Industrial activity fell around the world leading to widespread retrenchment and wage cuts. It was also the time when Soviet Union was riding high on the wings of its false propaganda of the success of the Five-Year plans. Nobody knew about the horrific pogroms and wholesale human rights violations taking place in that country and Communism could parade its first colony as a haven for the world's proletariat.

The book sports a good foreword by A Venkatachalapathy which gives a synopsis of the author's life and brief carrier. He died at the age of 51. A very comprehensive list of the strikes taken by workers in various industries is included. A separate chapter to describe the legislative action which took place in the period would have added much value to the narrative. It also includes brief biographical accounts of prominent leaders of the trade union movement.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

The Untold Vajpayee

Title: The Untold Vajpayee – Politician and Paradox

Author: Ullekh N P

Publisher: Viking Penguin, 2017 (First)

ISBN: 9780670088782

Pages: 272

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born as the son of a primary school teacher in rural India and went on to become the country's first non-Congress Prime Minister who lasted the full term of office. A born orator and moderate by conviction, Vajpayee commanded respect across party lines. His admirers and well-wishers in other parties described him as ‘a good man in a bad party’. He built bridges across national boundaries in a genuine bid for rapprochement with neighbouring countries. His love of poetry, unconventional family life and a flair for material comforts marked him out as a different kind of politician who is honest and down to earth. After the tenure of six years as prime minister, Vajpayee retired from active public life in 2005. That was a descent to oblivion as he developed Alzheimer's disease and suffered a stroke in 2009 which took away his power of speech. He was removed from public view as well and passed away peacefully on August 16, 2018. His death is an unforgettable memory for me on a personal level. It was the day on which a devastating flood ravaged Keralaand thousands of people, including me, had to leave their homes with the rising water level. I noticed Vajpayee’s obituary on a restaurant television while waiting despairingly for food in a corner, hungry and exhausted. This book is a critical review of Vajpayee’slife by Ullekh N.P., who is a journalist and political commentator. He has worked for almost two decades with some of India's biggest news publications.

Vajpayee began his career by joining the RSS in 1948, atthe ‘late’ age of 24, and became associated with the Jana Sangh after his mentor Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s unexpected and mysterious death in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir police. He fought in a by-election to Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, but came third with 28% of the votes. In the second general election in 1957 he contestedin threeLok Sabha seats simultaneously. He won in Balrampur, came second in Lucknow and lost deposit in Mathura. The Jana Sangh ended up with only fourseats in the House, while the Communist Party of India became the foremost opposition with 27 seats. However, Vajpayee proved himself as a leader of the masses and his oratorical skills mesmerized the audience in public rallies and meetings Jana Sangh would have remained a marginal party in Indian politics had Indira Gandhi not went ahead with her populist economic policies that polarized the economy. The financialmeltdown caused by on-the-spur nationalisation of crucial businesses evoked strong opposition to the ruling Congress, spearheaded by the veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan known as JP. Jana Sangh’s affiliation with the JP movement proved the crucial turning point. With the help of his trusted colleague L K Advani, Vajpayee firmed up their bid to align with the JP movement as part of a grand strategy to transform the Sangh into a larger political entity attractive to people outside its core constituency. They met JP and impressed upon him that their party was not ‘fascist and bigoted’, but a disciplined entity with upright and selfless workers (p.72).

Parliament provided the opportunity to Vajpayee to understand his and his party’s limitations and then go beyond them. It smoothened his sharp edges as an aggressive Hindu nationalist to a statesman. Though he ruthlessly cut down rivals in verbal duels during parliamentary debates, he obtained friends even from the opposing political spectrum. Ullekh notes down instances when the Jana Sangh and even the CPI made political alliances. The Sangh’salliance with the CPI to form the SamyuktaVidhayakDal to unseat the Congress was a case in point. Strange it may seem, but opposition to such analliance came from the Sangh, the hardliners of which viewed the Communist Party as a plague in Indian politics. This alliance was repeated in 1977, 1989 and 1991 as well. This book presents a case on the other end of the political divide as well. Rajiv Gandhi's soft-Hindutva line is said to have found favour with the RSS who would secretly meet him to offer tips in politics (p.143). It must be remembered that Rajiv openedthe gates of the disputed structure at Ram Janmabhoomiin Ayodhyato the Hindus for worship and himself kick-started his 1989 election campaign from Ayodhya.

Ullekh comes from a family of Marxist politicians in Kannur, Kerala and his continuing contact and influence in the top echelons of CPM is an open secret. This book seems to have a hidden agenda to malign respected figures of the nation. The author does this by attacking the persons Vajpayee adored. He was in awe of the Arya Samaj foundedby DayanandSaraswati and so, Ullekhdigs up a few allegations against Saraswati himself. Vajpayee was under the spell of RSS leader Golwalkar, and hence some irrelevant facts derogatory to Golwalkarare squeezed into the narrative. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and DeendayalUpadhyaya are also made victims to this bout of mudslinging that finds its origin in communist propaganda material. A reference he takes is from the People's Democracy magazine run by the CPM (p.22 footnote 5). Then come snippets from political blogs and dubious online news services like ‘thewire.in’(p.57 footnote 8). Remarks made by noted leftist painter Chittaprosad Bhattacharya are couched in decorated attire to look like impartial opinion. Books written by Jose Kuruvachira, a Catholic priest and evangelist who indulges in religious conversions, are cited as source material for the strange criticism against Saraswati’sShuddhi movement that worked to take converted people back to the Hindu fold (p.26).

The first part of the book makes mean and baseless allegations against Vajpayee which keeps the reader wondering about the author’s true intentions in writing the book. However, the treatment is kindlier after he reached the national centre-stage. In the early period, Ullekh takes great pains to belittle Vajpayee on every count of political stock-taking. The leader is accused to nurture a public persona very different from his real one and a vaulting ambition. Counterfactual claims hurled by leftist propaganda find mention in the book such as RSS’ collusion with Indira Gandhi during Emergency. This is ironical as the organisation was banned during that period and its leaders put in jail. It was the Communists who shared power with Indira and supported the Emergency as directed by its political bosses in the Soviet Union. Then again, the book drops a hint that Vajpayee was behind the hawala scam that sidelined Advani at a crucial point in his career. Completely taken in by a remark made by Congress leader M L Fotedar, he argues that Advani's public declaration in 1995 that Vajpayee would be the party’s prime ministerial candidate was made under the influence of M L Fotedar! The author caps it up with a summary of Vajpayee’s personality as having a weakness for highly anglicized affluence-tinged personal style and elitist bearing. Needless to say, these accusations are made without the least burden of proof.

The book’s analysis is slightly more objective in the latter half of Vajpayee’s life. The 1977 elections changed the course of Indian politics and he became the minister for Foreign Affairs in the Desai cabinet. The author grudgingly concedes the foreign policy achievements made by Vajpayee’s candid approach to long-term enemies. Rapid improvements in ties with China and Pakistan became possible during his tenure. A unique accomplishment for Ullekh is his exemplary description of Vajpayee’s style of public speaking on page 112. I think nobody has expressed this in a better way. Several chapters are earmarked for his years as prime minister, of which the pride of place is given to the nuclear testing in 1998 which subjected the country to economic sanctions imposed by the US. The only thing on which the Indian Left and the US converge is their opposition to India's testing of nuclear devices! Both condemned it to the hilt and the author suggests that it was unnecessary because China, supposedly in its goodwill, had declared a unilateral ceasefire in 1962 (p.190). Release of terrorists in response to the hijacking of a passenger plane in 1999 may arguably be the lowest point in his career.

This book clarifies two aspects of Vajpayee’s career over with much have been argued. The author confirms that he had not praised Indira Gandhi by comparing her to Goddess Durga in the aftermath of the 1971 War. What he had done was to laud her resilience in the face of grave challenges (p.82). Also, in 1984 when Delhi was burning in an anti-Sikh riot stage-managed by the Congress party with the implicit approval of the government, Vajpayee rescued a few Sikhs by bravely interposing between them and a riotous mob trying to get their hands on them. He held his ground till the police arrived.

The book displays a typical leftist propensity to pass spiteful comments on national leaders whose lives are not even linked to the narrative. A list of such eminent men was given earlier and the names of the Rani of Jhansi and Nana Sahib are to be added here. The author slyly suggests that the Rani fought the British for personal motives than patriotism as the annexation of Awadh in 1856 had deprived her and Nana Sahib of their status and income (p.11). This needless remark comes when Vajpayee’s life in Gwalior is mentioned. The book is poorly researched as there is not much description on Vajpayee’s early life in the RSS and Jana Sangh. But the author somewhat makes up for this with a good description of the post-1977 years.

The book is recommended only to those who can see through the political purpose and left-leaning of the author.

Rating: 3 Star

Lucky Planet

Title: Lucky Planet – Why Earth is Exceptional and What that Means for Life in the Universe

Author: David Waltham

Publisher: Icon Books, 2014 (First)

ISBN: 9781848316560

Pages: 225

The earth’s atmosphere is slowly warming up by the increasing contribution of carbon dioxide in it. Scientists are justifiably worried by this global warming because of the uncertainties associated with its causes and mechanisms. The greenhouse effect which drives global warming is a very dangerous thing as we can witness on the Venusian surface. Its atmosphere is almost fully constituted by carbon dioxide (96%) and the associated warming has escalated the surface temperature to a blistering 460 degrees Celsius. Compare this to earth’s 15 degrees C. How come our planet turned out to be an ideal ‘cold spot’ for life? Analysing the earth’s past buried in rocks and ocean sediments bring out the picture of a habitable planet for most of its existence. This book examines the reason for this life-friendliness of earth. All parameters that control the weather are free to swing in any direction that can cause havoc, but we have been able to stave off disaster till now. This book investigates the idea that good fortune, or plain luck, infrequently repeated elsewhere in the universe, played a significant role in allowing the long-term habitability of earth and shows why it is unlikely to find similarly complex life elsewhere in the universe. David Waltham is a lecturer at the University of London, which he joined after a stint in the oil industry as a geologist. He is basically a physicist with an immense background in handling various aspects of geology.

Ancient societies gave our planet a prime position in their mythology and thought that other heavenly bodies revolve around it. Modern religion presumed it to be a special creation of God for the benefit of mankind. Primacy began to erode in the Renaissance period when thinkers postulated about the likelihood of numerous planets very similar to our earth in the new worlds they were observing with their newly made telescopes. Early thinkers attributed earth’s privileged position to divine providence, whereas the author puts it down to good fortune: a good fortune that is inevitable somewhere in a big enough universe. As scientific knowledge grew, earth became just a chance composition that occurs in a very, very rare moment. Waltham hints that it has become scientific heresy to question Giordano Bruno’s insight of the mediocrity of earth's position. He reproduces the story of Bruno which makes us believe that his execution was caused not by the beliefs, but by his bothersome proclivity to make enemies of everyone he came into contact with. This book then claims that we need to return to a geocentric cosmology in the sense that the earth may be the most interesting place in the observable universe.

A good discussion on the greenhouse effect and its influence on warming and cooling the planet is included. Carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane are effective greenhouse gases that trap infrared rays escaping out of the ground and heat it up like a blanket. It is to be remembered here that water vapour is a greater greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and it is present in huge quantities in the atmosphere. Why then are we concerned only with carbon dioxide, whose share is a minuscule 0.04%? The author does not answer this question. However, greenhouse effect is not all evil. Without it, earth’s surface temperature would be directly related only to the amount of heat it received from the sun and how much it reflected back. Its temperature would then plummet to -18 degree Celsius from the cosy +15 degrees at present. Without this 33 degree temperature rise due to greenhouse effect, higher forms of life would not be possible. At this point, Waltham reminds us that global warming on much larger scales have occurred in the past when carbon dioxide doubled and mean temperature shot up by 8 degree Celsius 250 million years ago. This event is called Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction and was caused by volcanic eruptions that covered much of present-day Siberia. It killed off 95% of marine life and 70% of terrestrial species. Luckily, evolution had only reached the level of trilobites by that time. Five such events have occurred in the history of life. In each disaster, a substantial fraction of existing species died out to be replaced over the next 5 to 10 million years by new animals and plants that evolved from the survivors. Temperature is claimed to have oscillated from -50 degrees Celsius to +50 degrees Celsius – a change of 100 degrees in all. Anyhow, in the last 500 million years when visible life proliferated on the face of the earth, the swing has been a more modest 10 degrees.

Waltham worked in the oil sector in his professional career and confesses to receive funding from oil corporates for his research. One would then naturally conclude that he would cast aspersions or question global warming. He does nothing of the sort. Not only that, he lends support to calculational models used by climate change speculators and declares that he is not able to find much flaw in the software models employed by global warming proponents. There are great uncertainties in the prediction of future temperature changes but even very optimistic assumptions predict major difficulties ahead. So, global warming is here to stay!

We are now obsessed with carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and the temperature spikes it can cause. This book presents a lot of astronomical issues that can wreak great disasters. Earth's axis is wobbling in space and its orbital elongation is sometimes affected by the gravitational pull of other planets. There are definite astronomical cycles that contribute to periodic heating and cooling of the planets. These have typically large periods like 41000 or 100000 years. It may come as a surprise to know that throughout the majority of earth's history, our planet has been much warmer than today and almost completely free of any sea ice. We are now living through a slightly warm inter-glacial period that separates one ice age in the past, around 11000 years ago and another ice age in the future.

Any discourse on climate balancing by the biosphere would not be complete without a mention of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory. Lovelock postulated a complex interaction between earth’s life forms and its climate using feedback mechanisms that help to stabilize the weather. However, Waltham is not very enthusiastic about it, blaming the hypothesis of its lack of unambiguous observational support and significant theoretical difficulties. An attack on a more fundamental level is made when the author warns that Gaia proponents might have got the cause and effect totally wrong. Instead of theorising that life contributes to a stable climate, it might well be possible that life became viable only due to environmental stability.

Waltham has incorporated a very long discussion on cosmology in which the physical laws and constants support life in this universe. This rakes up the issue of whether multiple universes or multiverses are possible, which is a favourite topic of popular science authors. But this won't further our ideas on the subject matter because what is known is so few and most of the ideas are only intelligent guesses at best or mere conjectures at worst. This narrative goes nowhere. The author asks the readers to make use of the internet for viewing pictures of other planets and stars mentioned in the book rather than looking through available telescopes which are of much poor quality then we expect. The book is easy to read but no point is made by the author because he claims that all life on earth is due to nothing but luck or good fortune. This is an extension of the anthropic principle. The saving grace is that he does not attribute divine intervention at any stage. Even then, it is to be doubted that he has left that final step in the argument for the readers to make out between the lines.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star