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