The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism: Workers, Unions and the State in Chota Nagpur 1928-1939 9788173040368, 8173040362

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THE POLITICS OF LABOUR UNDER LATE COLONIALISM Workers, Unions and the State in Chota Nagpur 1928-1939

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THE POLITICS OF LABOUR UNDER LATE COLONIALISM Workers, Unions and the State in Chota Nagpur 1928-1939

Dilip Simeon

MANOHAR

ISBN 81-7304-036-2 First Published 1995 © Dilip Simeon Published by Ajay Kumar Jain Manohar Publishers & Distributors 2/6, Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi - 110002 Lasertypeset by A J Software Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. 305, Durga Chambers, 1333, D.B. Gupta Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi - 110005 Printed at Rajkamal Electric Press G.T. Kamal Road Delhi

For my mother, Georgina (Pinto-Lobo) Simeon, who taught me to read and write; my father, Eric Joseph Simeon, who taught me meticulousness and discipline; and for both of them, for upholding throughout their lives the values o f human dignity and compassion.

Foreword Dilip Simeon has done me an honour by asking me to write the preface to his book The Politics o f Labour under late Colonalism: Workers, Union and the State in Chota Nagpur, 1928-1939. His reason for doing so is the lingering m em ory o f w hat he describes as an "innocent encounter" o f a group o f students including him self w ith me in 1 9 6 7 .1 still have a vivid recollection o f the students, m ilkfaced, excited, fired with idealism, who cam e to the fam ine-stricken district o f Palam au to serve and offer relief. I was glad to learn later that the spark of idealism that led him to Palamau had turned into a flame, as he fought to uphold the values that moved him. His researches in a relatively unknown area of Jharkhand are a testim ony to the pursu it o f his ideals, w ith understanding and penetration. The spirit o f the 1960s that inspired many of us in various ways to serve people is not dead. It lives on. A merit o f this work is obviously the critical use o f the prim ary data including the documents from the Tata archives, w hich the author obtained indirectly first and saw later, in Jam shedpur. He has also conducted extensive interviews with a num ber o f people who have been witness to the m om entous developm ents in the area o f labourmanagement in Jam shedpur. I still cherish the pleasant memory o f my interaction with two o f them , late K edar Das and M ukutdhari Singh, particularly the latter who gave m e a copy o f his autobiography, which is a significant contribution to the history o f Chotanagpur. I spent a good part o f m y life w orking in various capacities in Chotanagpur. I would be inform ed by people from all walks o f life that the Tatas had achieved healthy labour-m anagem ent relations, a model also for other industrial m anagem ents in C hotanagpur. The author's researches suggest that this was achieved only after years o f protracted struggles on the part o f w orkers to w hose dem ands the T ata management did not react with prom ptitude and sym pathy during the early phases. The author has been able to piece to gether the very fascinating story o f the rise o f w orkers’ unions and their interaction with the national and leftist m ovem ents, the attitude o f not only the Tatas but also o f the other industrial capitalists tow ards their workers, the reaction o f the provincial governm ent and finally, the chain of strikes from 1928 onwards and the settlem ents through which relations

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The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism

between m anagem ent and labour evolved to a point o f m ature, mutual understanding. As a student o f C hotanagpur history, I have been able to acquire through this book a new insight into the various processes at w ork in the formation o f the industrial working class in Chotanagpur, o f which the tribals w ere a strong component. The new w orking class em erged from a w elter o f ethnic identities based on region and language, which were often in conflict in the new m ilieu. I read som ewhere that the local people p articu larly the tribals responded o nly g radually to the opportunities for em ploym ent provided at the factories or in the mines. There were workers from all over the country, the H industanis, the Punjabis, the Oriyas, the C hhattisgarhis, the B iharis and the Santals which was a generic term for the Hos, M undas, Oraons, and so on. There was a great deal o f inter-ethnic rivalry over many issues relating to differentials in wages between indigenous and outside w orkers, and opportunities for prom otion. A pathetic picture is presented o f how these people were exploited and fleeced o f their earnings in coal mines, in the rather poetically titled chapter 5. However, gradually, at moments o f crises and through com m on struggles, the identity o f the w orking class also em erged and workers from all parts o f the country cam e together to dem and the redressal o f their grievances and forced the acceptance o f their rights. It is not known how the tribals reacted to the rise o f the first steel city - which was also the first planned city - out o f the village Sakchi situated in the Sal forests during the period 1907-11. We have folklores on the tribal perception o f the rise o f Ranchi as a town in the latter half o f the 19th century. The rise o f Jam shedpur must have been a traum atic experience for the tribals, if the B astar experience o f a much later period is any pointer. The two rivers, the S ubarnrekha and the Kharkbai, were dam med, the mines w ere opened up, sal trees w ere felled, and a new railway station was established. All this happened before the labour politics o f the kind the author describes, em erged. However, it is interesting to note that the tribal w orkers did form a considerable number o f the workers not only in m ines but also at the various factories established in Jam shedpur and elswhere. The author describes how the presence o f a large w orking tribal populaton within the burgeoning industrial prolatariat was used by the management to break the workers’ movement, for example, in course of the T atanagar Foundry strike (1939). There is som e circum stantial evidence on this aspect, too. The rising star in the tribal w orld o f Chotanagpur, Jaipal Singh, chose to stay at Jam shedpur. He w as a

Foreword

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personal friend of Shri N arendra Nath Rakshit, M anaging D irector of the Tatanagar Foundry. R akshit moved the first resolution on the formation of an Adivasi state at the Haripura Congress presided over by Subhash Chandra Bose. It appears that Bose entered the w orld o f Chotanagpur though the labour politics o f Jam shedpur, the course of which he steered, albeit briefly, as President of the Jam shedpur Labour Association. Both Jaipal Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose interacted at least on one occasion as mentiond by the author. As Netaji, Bose is a living legend in this part o f Chotanagpur. It was around this period that the idea o f an Industrial State to be formed out o f the mineral rich regions of Bihar was mooted, a concept which was the forerunner o f the notion o f the Jharkhand State. Jaipal Singh did em phasise the separateness o f Adivasi workers, the special nature o f their demands and the need for a separate union of tribal workers. Jaipal Singh called upon the Adivasi workers o f the Foundry to break the strike called by the Congress-led union in 1939, which they did. W e do not know to what extent the Adivasis were entirely weaned away from the militant leftist or Congress-led unions, though we know that the tribal workers did som etim es join hands with non-tribal w orkers to secure the acceptance o f their demands, for example, in the TISCO strike of 1928. The tribals took the initiative in many such situations. The Adivasi women workers, called Rezas, were particularly active because they were humiliated by the "Hindustanis", the upcountry workers. Of particular interest was the rise of tribal ethnicity as part o f the tribal w orkers’ movement during this period. It is a matter o f record that the tribal workers o f Jamshedpur played a major role in the Adivasi movement and in the emergence of the Jharkhand Party. The demands articulated by tribal workers became a part o f the agenda of the tribal movement. This again is one of the aspects that needs to be explored further. The author has presented an absorbing account o f labour politics during a crucial eleven-year period o f Chotanagpur history. He should continue this story, bring it upto 1965 when the last Tata strike occurred, and even go beyond it, in a second accompanying volume. He owes it to the tribal and working class scholarship and to the rapidly emerging modern historiography of Chotanagpur, to which the present book undoubtedly makes a signal contribution. K.S. Singh Former Director General of the New Delhi Anthropological Survey of India September 1994

Acknowledgements This book, an extensive revision o f m y doctoral dissertation, has been many years in the making, and my obligations are so extensive that it would be im possible for me to nam e all the friends, colleagues and teachers who have contributed to it. W ith apologies to those whom I have not mentioned, I set out these acknow ledgem ents to those directly associated with its contents, and with the m otivation to com plete it. Professor G hanshyam Shah, as D irector o f the C enter for Social Studies, Surat, made possible a V isiting Fellow ship for m e in 1992-93 during which tim e I did m ost of the re-w riting w hich produced this work. Profound thanks are due to him and to the C entre’s faculty and staff, including my friends in the com puter room . T he D irector o f the Bihar State A rchives Patna, Shri T ara Sharan Sinha, and its staff, in particular Srikant Babu, M uham m ad Sharif, and Paulus, helped me with the crucial jo b o f data collection and the reproduction o f m aterial. W ithout their friendliness and labours this book w ould not have been written. I w ould also like to thank the staff o f the N ehru Memorial M useum and Library, and the N ational Archives. Professor Blair Kling o f the D epartm ent o f History at the U niversity o f Illinois, USA, was generous enough to give m e a copy o f his m icrofilm o f the labour related docum ents in TISC O ’s file collection. T his enabled me to fill in an important gap in my research, and I am greatly indebted to him. M r H Raghunath, M anager o f the T ata Steel A rchives was generous with his time, and I must thank him for the m aterial m ade available to me. Since the m ajor part o f this book had been drafted before these private Archives had been opened, I was unable to m ake fuller use o f its excellent docum entation. The Singhbhum D istrict C ouncil o f the C om m unist Party o f In d ia allow ed m e to m ake a copy o f the photograph o f Hazara Singh. I thank them for their kindness. Salaams are due to Shri KB Saxena, IAS; N irmal Sen Gupta, Arvind Narayan Das, V ir Bharat Talwar, Rabindra Ray (Lallu), Jagdish Babu, D ilip Hota, Viju, Jogin, M anm ohan Pathak, R anjan G hosh, (w hose insightful dissertation on Jharia I obtained very recently, and o f which I hope to m ake better use in future), A shok Singh, Ram lal and other friends who aided and abetted my m eanderings in, and enriched my scanty understanding of, the wondrous and incom parable province o f

Acknowledgements

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Bihar. My first visit there was in February 1967, as part o f a student’s famine-relief team. A part from the im pressions o f rural life in C hota Nagpur that this visit afforded me, it also brought about a lasting acquaintance with D r Kumar Suresh Singh, then D eputy Com m issioner of the district o f Palam au. It is not only on account o f his lasting contributions to anthropological scholarship, but also in memory o f that innocent encounter betw een naive students and a com m itted young district officer, that I requested D r Suresh Singh to w rite the preface to this book. I am indeed honoured that he has agreed to do so. A three month fellow ship in 1990 at the Institute o f D evelopm ent Studies at the U niversity o f Sussex, m ade possible by the C harles Wallace Foundation, the IDS, and the B ritish C ouncil, N ew D elhi, and a Rockefeller Residency Fellow ship for the spring quarter, 1993, at the Institute on Culture and Conciousness in South A sia at the U niversity of Chicago, offered me unique opportunities for study and reflection. I must record my debt to com rades Sadhuram Sharma, Khushi Ram, and Charan Singh, retired metal workers o f Tatanagar, and Salahuddin Bari, of Patna for the tim e they spent answ ering my questions. Khushi Ram’s keen memory and reflections helped flesh out my ideas about shop-floor activists; and Sadhuram gave m e a rare detail about H azara Singh’s death in 1939, to w hich tragic event he w as an eyew itness. Comrade Kedar Das o f the CPI supplied an extensive and analytical account of events in the thirties. M r M P Palam kote, who worked as a supervisor in TISCO for 47 long years, had m any things to say about managerial practices, and the incarceration o f M aneck Homi. In the coalfields, I spoke at length with Jogindo, Chetu Bauri, Janki Chamar, Jhannu Sardar Bhuiyan and Ritan B huiyan, all o f w hom had retired after a lifetime of digging, cutting and loading coal. They m ade me realise the enormity o f the m iners’ lot. To my old fre n d G yanendra Pandey, w ho supervised my Ph.D , I offer heartfelt thanks for pushing me tow ards the com pletion o f my dissertation, and for other acts o f kindness. His com m ents, criticism s, and suggestions were m ost valuable, as w ere those o f Professors AR Desai, DN Dhanagare, and Peter Reeves. I would like also to record my debt to Professors Parthasarathy Gupta, Sum it Sarkar and Sunil Kumar Sen; as also to C hitra Joshi, N eeladri B hattacharya, R ana Behai, Bhagwan Josh, Jairas and Rohini Banaji, Sum it G uha, Praful Bidwai, Purushottam Agrawal and M adhu Sarin, for their contributions to the thought processes, whatever be their w orth, which have gone into this book. Madhu’s persistence and stamina with regard to her own work, as well as her encouragem ent, acted as a catalyst. Prabhu M ohapatra

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The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism

rendered research assistance and advice at crucial moments. I thank him for being available when I m ost needed his help. On that note, I would like say thank you to G urdip Singh and Tani for sustaining a recluse with their generosity. A nd to M ukul M angalik for doing an ‘edit jo b ’ at short notice. Being written belatedly, this book has becom e a different docum ent from what it would have been had I worked according to an earlier schedule. Certain events o f the 1980’s contributed both to its delay and to its conceptual shape, and so I m ust record my debt to Ram jas College, at the University o f Delhi, w hich taught m e m ore about Indian politics (and human nature) than I could have learnt in a dozen libraries. To the Subjects o f that Saga, or should I say, com rades in that struggle starting with Sitaram M ali - a salute,. To those w ith w hom I shared the radical utopianism o f the late 1960’s, I owe the basic inspiration for this research. I have given up many o f the ‘positions’ o f those days, but the ideals remain, one among w hich is the aim o f rendering transparent, as far as possible, the conditions o f w age-labour and the circum stances within which those condem ned to a lifetim e o f physical exertion have to struggle for a better life. To my uncle Rikhi Jaipal, who passed away on 4 N ovem ber 1991, while I was writing the final passages o f my dissertation, I offer my last respects. And finally, lal salaam to beloved friend and com rade Devapriya Sen - Rana, who died in 1985, and who at tim e o f passing, was still as convinced as we were in our youth, o f the inevitable self­ emancipation o f the working class. Dilip Simeon. Department o f History, Ramjas College, University o f Delhi. August 1994.

Abbreviations (Relating to source materials) AICCP BLEC COI IESHR I&L FR GOI GBO MNRP NAI NMJP PTP RPP RCL TFL TSA

: :

: : : : :

All India C ongress C om m ittee Papers. A t the N ehru M emorial M useum and Library (N M M L). Bihar Labour Enquiry C om m ittee. Census o f India. Indian Econom ic and Social H istory Review Industries and Labour. Fortnightly Report. Government o f India. Government o f B ihar and Orissa. MN Roy Papers. N M M L. National A rchives o f India. NM Joshi Papers. N M M L. Purshottamdas Thakurdas Papers. NM M L. Rajendra Prasad Papers. Royal C om m ission on Labour. Tata Files on L abour.(See the explanatory note in the Bibliography). Tata Steel Archives.

(Of official and executive titles , nam es o f Trades Unions and miscellaneous) ASP ADM BNR CID CME CS DC DIG EIR GEP GM

: : : : : : : :

Assistant Superintendent o f Police. Additional D istrict M agistrate. Bengal N agpur Railway. Criminal Investigation Departm ent. Chief M ining Engineer. Chief Secretary. Deputy Com missioner. Deputy Inspector G eneral o f Police. East Indian Railway. Great Indian Peninsular (Railway). General M anager.

frc

The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism GS ICEA ICOA ICS IGP IMA IMF PF RI SB SDO

General Superintendent. Indian Colliery Em ployees A ssociation. Indian Colliery O w ners Association. Indian Civil Service Inspector General o f Police. Indian M ining Association. Indian M ining Federation. Provident Fund Rigorous Im prisonm ent. Special Branch (o f the CID). Sub-Divisional Officer.

Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1 : INDUSTRY AND W O RK FO RCE IN CHOTANAGPUR 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The Steel Zamindary. 1.3 The Specific Features o f Coal M ining. 1.4 The Structure o f Capital - TISCO. 1.5 Demographic Features o f the M etallurgical W orkforce. 1.6 Demography and Caste Com position o f the Coal Belt. 1.7 Forms of Recruitment in M ining. 1.8 The Instability o f the M ining Proletariat. 1.9 Metallic Ore M ines. 1.10 Coolies and their B etters. 1.11 Capital, the Production Process, and the W orkforce. Chapter 2 : THE GREAT TISCO STRIK E A N D LO CK -O U T O F 1928 2.1 The Immediate Background. 2.2 The Departmental Strikes, 1927-28. 2.3 ‘Pucca Bolshevism’ in Tatanagar. 2.4 The Partial Lock-Out and its Afterm ath. 2.5 ‘An Amazing Bit o f C heek’. 2.6 The General Lock-Out o f 1 June. 2.7 First Attempts at Negotiation 2.8 The Attempted Re-opening. 2.9 Sniping from the Trenches, or W ho Flung D ung ?. 2.10 An Ultimatum and the Search for a New M ediator. 2.11 The Advent o f Subhas Chandra Bose. 2.12 A General Strike in Tatanagar.

1

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Xvi

The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16

The End G am e and the Settlement o f 12 September. A Divided Consciousness. W hose Victory ? The Politics o f M ediation.

Chapter 3 : THE GOLM URI TIN PLA TE STRIK E O F 1929 3.1 Background to the Strike. 3.2 Divergent Initiatives. 3.3 Reasons for the Strike 3.4 Emerging Battle Lines, 3.5 The Political Turn. 3.6 Assessment o f the Official View, 3.7 Struggle against a Foreign M anagement, 3.8 The Last Revival. 3.9 Decline Am idst National Upheaval. 3.10 M anoeuvres in Retreat. 3.11 A Prolonged Epilogue.

81

TL 19 Ba Pr< the Ra anr

^ I^e j jjg,

Chapter 4 :

THE M A NAGERIAL OFFENSIVE IN THE YEAR OF PURNA SW ARAJ 4.1 Aftermath o f Defeat, 4.2 The Deployment o f Interests. 4.3 Independence Day and the Unions. 4.4 The Right Direction. 4.5 The Giridih Colliery Strike. 4.6 ‘Napoleon’s ’ Last Phase. 4.7 H om i's Trials and the W orkers' Resistance. 4.8 “If he be convicted.. labour would settle dow n.” 4.9 Reconciliation ?

115

j

|

arc inti inti in I Inc;

of I

Chapter 5 :

“WORK A LITTLE, SING A LITTLE, SM O K E A LITTLE.” 5.1 Life in the Coal belt. 5.2 Sub-contracted Work and Subtracted W ages. 5.3 Man-made Disasters 5.4 The "Plight o f the Industry. ”

Chapter 6:

145

THE YEARS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION 172

Section J : The Politics o f Protest in 1931. 6.1 A Critical Time for Labour.

Contents

xvii

6.2 National Issues in Labouring localities. 6.3 Activist Styles and the Growth o f Tensions. 6.4 Of Hooligans, Treachery, and Decline. 6.5 The Decline o f the JLA.

Section 2 : Mining Labour in the mid-thirties. 6.6 Introduction. 6.7 The Jamadoba strike o f 1932. 6.8 The Railway Board and the M iners.

Section 3 : Jamshedpur Workers in the mid-thirties. 6.9 Setbacks for W orkers and Profits for Tata Sons. 6.10 “What Now Remains in Our H eart....” 6.11 W orkers’ Struggles and C o m m u n ist Intervention, 19331934. 6.12 The Staggered Release o f M aneck Hom i. 6.13 A Good Dressing Down. Chapter 7 : DEMOCRACY A N D R ESU R G E N C E 7.1 The Surge in W orkers’ O rganisations. 7.2 Recompense for Homi Sahib. 7.3 The Tatanagar Foundry in 1937. 7.4 The ISWP Strike o f 1937. 7.5 “Not a single hand would be reinstated.” 7.6 Ensuring Industrial Peace. 1938 - THE LA BO U R M O V E M E N T ON TH E OFFENSIVE 8.1 Prologue to a Hot Summer. 8.2 Working Conditions in 1938. 8.3 The Tata W orkers' Union. 8.4 A Responsible Congressman. 8.5 “A lot of disturbance ” - The C apitalist C om bine. 8.6 The Bihar Labour Enquiry Com m ittee. 8.7 Negotiations and Settlements. 8.8 Resistance in Respectable Collieries. 8.9 The Political Repercussions o f Language. 8.10 Political Cross Currents in Badruchak. 8.11 A Policy of Reason in the Cable Com pany 8.12 Transparent Transgressions. 8.13 “Unt ke muh mein jira.” 8.14 Labour and Political Conflict W ithin the Congress. 8.15 Happy Terminations ?

217

Chapter 8 :

236

The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism

xviii 8.16

Jam shedpur’s 'G oondaism ’ problem.

Chapter 9 :

THE LA BO U R M O V EM EN T IN CHOTA N A G PU R IN 1939 283 9.1 The Tata Centenary Controversy. 9.2 Congress Leaders and TISCO workers. 9.3 Indians vs Englishm en : the C opper Corporation in 1939. 9.4 The Labour M ovem ent and the Politics of Identity. 9.5 Governm ent, the State and the D ivine Right o f Management. 9.6 A ccidental Death o f a Communist. 9.7 Socialists in Action. 9.8 Return to M oderation. 9.9 “Bengalis are a brainy race” : Tatanagar Foundry Revisited. 9.10 The Adivasi Question and the D ecline of Abdul Bari. 9.11 Jharia M iners and the C hota N agpur M azdoor Sangh. 9.12 Epilogue.

Conclusion : W ORKERS AND TH E POLITICS OF LABOUR 322 C. 1 The W orking Classes and the Labour M ovement. C.2 The Question o f M ediation. C.3 Class Formation and Class Resistance. C.4 Subordination, Discipline and the Elem ental Properties of Labour. C.5 Questions o f Identity. C.6 Leadership, Populism and A rticulation. C.7 The N ature o f M otivations. C.8 The Historical Activity o f the W orkers Movement. LIST OF TABLES : Table I : Num ber o f TISCO Em ployees, 1922-39 Table n : W age and C oal-Price Indices for Jharia, 1926-1941 Table HI : Availability o f Tubs in Representative Collieries, c. 1938 Table IV : Accidents in Coal M ines from 1900 to 1940 Table V : Coal Production (All India) in Million tons Table VI : Index o f Current M oney, Real Wage, & Cost o f Living in TISCO Table VII : Tata S o n ’s Commission for Selected Years Table V I I I : T IS C O ’s Net Profits, 1920-1921

14 153 155 163 189 200 202 215

Contents

xix

LIST OF APPENDICES :

Appendix to Chapter 2 :

346

Extract from letter dtd 21/8/28 from Gaganvihari L M ehta to Sir Lalubhai Samaldas.

Appendices to Chapter 3 :

348 Appendix 3.1 : Extracts from the GD Birla - TISCO correspondence in 1929. Appendix 3.2 (with footnotes): The Curious Affair Concerning Maneck Homi, Subhas Bose, TISCO, and Handwriting Experts. Appendix to Chapter 4 : 355 H om i's Farewell Leaflet, 1930. Appendices to Chapter 6 : 356 Appendix 6.1 : Memorials by Workers. Appendix 6.2 : Selected TISCO correspondence JL Keenan to AR Dalai, 29 October 1934. JRD Tata to JL Keenan, 1 November 1934. Appendices to Chapter 8 : 359 Appendix 8.1 : Extracts from M N Roy - JN Mitra letters in mid 1938. Appendix 8.2 : Demands of the striking miners, Jharia, 1938. Appendix 8.3 : Terms o f Settlement for collieries of Messrs Bird & Co., as announced by Mukutdhari Singh, on 25/12/38. Appendix 8.4 : Extract from Abdul Bari’s speech on 25/10/38. Appendix 8.5 : Extract from Abdul B ari’s speech on 10/11/38. Appendix 8.6 : Extract from Abdul B ari’s speech on 20/11/38. Appendix 8.7 : Letter o f ex-employees of Tinplate Company to R ajendra Prasad, (undated); circa D ecem ber 1939; to Subhas C handra Bose, (21/12/38); and to A nugraha N arain Singh, (20/7/38). Appendices to Chapter 9 : 375 Appendix 9.1 : Extract from Subhas B o se’s Press Statem ent on the Tata Centenary boycott in March 1939. Appendix 9.2 : Extract from letter o f Tatanagar Foundry Works Manager to Bihar Government, 27/10/39. Appendix 9.3 : Extracts from letters o f M ukutdhari Singh to Rajendra Prasad on 4/11/39 and 6/11/39. Bibliography

379

Glossary

387

Index

389

Introduction Chronicling the Labour Movement This book exam ines the history o f the labour m ovem ent in C hota Nagpur, an administrative division in the southern part o f the province of Bihar. It is a distinctive region, w hose population is currently asserting the ‘Jh a rk h a n d i’ id e n tity . T he study is a rran g e d chronologically, beginning in 1928, a year o f significant political changes and w orkers’ m ovem ents in India as a whole. It covers the period of the Depression and its aftermath, the advent o f suffrage-based politics and the first elected Congress ministry, and concludes with the onset of the Second World War. The study focusses on the districts o f Singhbhum , (the pre-1956) Manbhum, and to a lesser extent, Hazaribagh; an area which was the location of the heaviest concentration o f m etallurgical and m ining enterprises in colonial India. The core zones were the belts around the Tata Iron and Steel Company in Jam shedpur (TISCO), and the Jharia coalfields in the Dhanbad subdivision o f Manbhum. Several ‘associated companies’ were engaged in engineering and m etallurgical w ork in Singhbhum, w hich was also the site o f m etallic-ore mines. These included the Tinplate Com pany, the Tatanagar Foundry, the Indian Steel Wire Products Ltd, the Cable Company, and the mines and works of the Indian Copper C orporation at Ghatsila. Jharia and its environs contained the richest seams o f superior-grade coal in India. There were also coal and mica mines in neighbouring Hazaribagh. Some 1 to 1.25 lakh workers were employed in the production and despatch of coal, the most crucial energy commodity in the colonial economy, for which the chief customers were the Railways, the m erchant M arine, metallurgical industries, and industries running on steam -driven engines, including various mills. The history of the labour m ovem ent in Chota N agpur brings to life the social impact of industrialisation, and the process M arx called the primitive accum ulation o f capital. It also illustrates the nature o f nationalist political interv en tio n , and the in te ra ctio n o f state, managements, unions and workers, during a period w hich witnessed the

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The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism

advent o f elected m inistries in the provinces and the decline o f colonial power. The im pact o f contem porary political upheavals upon workers may be discerned in the detailed records and accounts left by officials, m anagem ents, new spapers, political parties and union activists, apart from the m em ories o f the participants. I have presented the material in the form o f a chronicle, with the political history o f the labour m ovement serving as a frame for observations about the ideological and organisational articulation o f social interests and the structural features o f industry. The assessm ent that “all o f m odern society seem s to have been designed to keep objects and persons in ‘their place’,” 1 is a singular and thought provoking representation o f m odem history. The em ergence of modern society has how ever, also been a process o f gigantic social disruption, w ithout w hich the construction o f industrial capitalism w ould h a v e been u n th in k a b le . E m p la c e m e n t fo llo w s upon displacement, ordering is really a re-ordering. M odern workplaces, such as steel cities and coal m ines, are founded upon the existence o f uprooted people. The places w hence the w orkers cam e w ere rich in symbolic co-ordinates, but the chief characteristic o f the new place they occupied was subordination - a condition requiring the acceptance o f drudgery and humiliation. During the eventful decade o f the thirties, the workers o f C hota N agpur underw ent a painful learning process, in the course o f w hich em ployers great and sm all, began reluctantly to concede a m ore dem ocratic system o f labour relations. The limits and param eters o f ‘their place’ in industrialised society becam e a subject of negotiation. Such negotiation w as neither a peaceful nor gradual process, and its vicissitudes form part o f the subject m atter o f this book. In a com m ent on the authoritarian nature o f the m anagerial regim es then prevailing, Professor Radhakam al M ukerjee, a m em ber o f the Bihar Labour Enquiry Committee had this to say : even the form ation o f the trade union... provokes intim idation and victimisation on a large scale from the m anagem ent. W orkers want to... secure the rights o f collective bargaining. But the agents whom they elect or choose are dubbed ‘ou tsid ers’... and treated w ith indifference and scorn... It is the m anagem ents’ deliberate policy o f non-recognition o f unions and persistent refusal to deal w ith (their) accredited representatives... that is one o f the most frequent causes 1 Bernard Cohn, An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays Delhi, 1990, p. 40.

Introduction

3

of strikes in India, and a labour union hardly ever gets recognition without the ordeal o f a strike....2 M ukerjee also h ig h lig h te d w hat he called ‘the V ogue o f Intensification.’ Distinguishing between this and rationalisation (the increase in the technical composition o f capital), the professor remarked on the tendency among Indian managements not to undertake technicalcapital inputs, but to “simply renovate” existing plant and increase the speed of the belt line. Thus, he said, “intensification is coming in the guise of rationalisation in India.”3 These two observations provide an important insight into the ‘place’ occupied by labour in the industrial system of late colonial India. The struggles for dem ocratic industrial relations and against intensification were central to the history of the labour movement in C hota N agpur, and had their own political expressions and consequences. Thus, the p lain t that ‘lab o u r’ was becom ing insubordinate was the most obvious signal on the part of managements, that som ething was wrong. In the context o f a national m ovem ent committed to displacing the colonial bureaucracy, the insubordination of the proletarians seemed at certain moments to resonate with, and at others to diverge from that o f the Indian elite, who were at pains to stabilise their own rule over labour even as they challenged the political authority of the British.

On Interpretation A historical narrative is both the precondition for as well as a mode of performing, an exercise in comprehension. One may not, for example, understand the bitter tone o f the letter w ritten to the C ongress leadership by the unemployed workers o f the Tinplate factory in 1938 without an awareness o f their experiences in the Golmuri agitation of 1929. Nor may one appreciate the irony of Subhas Chandra B ose’s pleas for the proper celebration o f the Tata Centenary in 1939 without knowledge o f the events in Jam shedpur on September 20, 1931; or the poignancy o f the election victory o f N atha Ram in the G hatsilaJam shedpur labour constituency in 1937, w ithout know ing why

2 Radhakamal Mukeijee, The Indian Working Class, Bombay, 1945; p. 307. 3 Radhakamal Mukerjee, The Indian Working Class, p. 206. On pp 208-211, Mukerjee illustrates this phenomenon with references to the metallurgical industry in Chota Nagpur. See ch 8.2 below.

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The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism

Maneck Homi spent five years in rigorous im prisonm ent. And if we try t0 adduce a reason why underground fires in the Jharia coalfield were not simply an act o f God, we may have to link together diverse features o f mining, from the structure o f m anaging agencies to the demography o f re c ru itm e n t and e m p lo y m e n t. T he re c o u n tin g o f certain developm ents in detail therefore, is a way tow ards grounding our historical judgem ents. The m ovem ent o f labour was a com plex social process, which incorporated ideologues, law yers, forem en and clerks (am ongst all of whom som e doubled as union leaders), shopkeepers, and even officials and policem en with varying degrees o f neutrality or hostility, into the lives and struggles o f workers. A lthough the account w hich unfolds below may appear full o f unnecessary detail, only a close attention to m icrological developm ents may, I believe, elucidate hypotheses about the nature o f plebeian nationalism, the system o f production relations, and the struggle for hegem ony in late colonial India. K now ledge of these developm ents also raises questions about the formation o f interest groups and the nature o f motivations. As regards themes such as forms o f resistance, perceptions o f w ork, standards o f living, w orking conditions, cultural life, political aw areness and official attitudes, I should say that these have not been outlined and interpreted separately. The validity o f such a m ethod w ould, in my view rest upon prior acquaintance with the sequence o f events. For what they are worth, my patterns o f com prehension have gone along with the story, the telling o f which is an effort at doing justice to a movement which has suffered historiographical neglect. This broader view o f the labour m ovem ent gives rise to the question o f boundaries : the locations and definitions o f events, the outlining of classes and groups, the observation o f structures o f control and dom ination, the p erceptions o f social and p o litical in terest, the discernm ent o f rupture; in short, to the entire problem o f ‘continuity a°d discontinuity’. The m iners’ sardar for exam ple, was h im self a w orker, and also part o f the hierarchy o f control at the p o in t o f recruitm ent and at the workplace. A union leader could be the scourge o f m anagem ents as well as their m ediatory instrum ent. N ationalist p o litic s c o u ld in v o lv e c o n fro n ta tio n and c o lla b o ra tio n w ith m anagem ents in different factories at the same time in the sam e city. W orker activists could be linked with com m unists as well as retired policemen. Indian capitalists could work towards sm ashing unions and yet rem ain in a subaltern position vis-a-vis the state. W orkers could acquiesce in a settlement one day and turn upon the leader who effected

Introduction

5

it the next. Leaders and politicians could instrum entalise w orkers’ struggles, but w orkers could no less, instrum entalise their leaders and/or reject them. (I m ust stress that these are not presented as binary opposites). Treating such m atters as if one were observing a spectrum, makes it easier to observe distinctions w ithout being tied to precise lines of demarcation, which can be left to emerge and dissolve within the account. In the vocabulary o f colonial society, ‘labour’ possessed certain essential properties, and for officials, managers, and political leaders alike, it was an object upon w hich they acted. The nationalist interventions in the unions involved a struggle for control over ‘labour’. Some of the cited remarks will make this clear. Analytically however and this is w here my use o f the word diverges from official and political discourse - 1 treat the labour m ovem ent as a social movement involving oth er social groups besid es w orkers. T he w o rk ers’ predicament was part of a social and political situation, in which the actual work process was one nodal point. (Politics in this context does not refer merely to the work of leaders and political cadre, but is used to signify the range of activities concerning the formation and dissolution of collective interests, including the ideological intepretations of such interests. In this sense it could include group rivalries w ithin an ostensibly non-political union). Information about the covert activities of leaders, officials, managers and capitalists, serves to draw our attention to the kind of opaque structure that the workers had to contend with. Did they know what propaganda was, or how comfortable some of their representatives were with the outlook o f the capitalists ? Did they guess that the state was deliberately nurturing this or that union leader ? W hile remaining less than sympathetic to an emphasis upon conspiracies, I could not help but notice hidden interventions (or politic failures to intervene), in specific situations; as well as the contrived appearance of counter-picketters and musclemen at pickets and meetings. Employing Leninist vocabulary without its political im plications it could be argued that there was indeed an ‘outside’ and an ‘inside’ related to the workers’ struggles. The two spheres related to each other through a kind of social and political osm osis, and yet the ‘outside’ was the universe o f the ‘controllers’, the ‘inside’, that of the controlled. Along with the rest of the stoiy, I have tried to understand the activities o f the ‘outsiders’. The extent to which they influenced the course o f events is open to inteipretation. In this welter o f ambiguity it is easy to succumb to the notion that

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The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism the culling o f any pattern or story whatsover, is a dubious gesture. Such criticism w ould be ju stified if the search w ere for inform ation to buttress stereotypes. It is possible to discard such an outlook and still write a story with no apparent ending (its beginnings are m yriad), but based nevertheless, upon extant records and m em ories. The conflicts and the joint endeavours were vested with m eaning by those engaged in them. W hat did the actors think o f their own activities ? A lthough the men in pow er left behind far more by way of personal impressions than did the workers, the latter w ere by no means silent. A reading of their subjectivity through the available accounts is always possible. One way o f doing this is to keep in m ind the ceaseless alteratio n s and im perceptible shifts w hich define and re-define interests, political stances and structures o f pow er. The follow ing pages will I hope, substantiate such an approach.

90

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