VIII.
WORKERS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA
This course introduces students to the history and politics of workers’ movement in India. It
places the workers’ movement in the context of domestic and international factors
to explain its weaknesses and strength. It also introduces students to the dominant
political and ideological framework of workers movement, both current and
historical.
I. Introduction and Overview- Evolution of workers’ movements in India, its nature and
functions; ideological, political and legal context.
II. Leadership and Organizational Change - Role of leadership; process of leading
organizational development; Resistance and some landmark moments.
III. Politics of the Working Class and State- Labour politics in colonial India, politics of the
working class in post-independent period; state interventions; Inclusivity in trade unions
in relation to diversities across caste, gender, class, age, ethnicity, religion, and disability;
moments of cross-class coalitions, the struggle of informal workers.
IV. Social Movements, Trade Unions and New Workers’ Movement- Decline of classical
trade unionism (cooption, politicisation, patronization), new strategy choices, worker’s
incorporation in the global economy; interface with non-state actors- technology, market,
rise of trade unions in non-conventional sectors like IT, BPO, Call Centres etc; prospects
of transnational solidarity.
Readings:
I. Introduction and Overview
Essential Readings:
1. Chakrabarty, D. Rethinking Working-class History, Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1989.
2. Goswami, Dharani. Trade-Union Movement in India: Its Growth and Development,
Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1983.
3. Sen, Sukomal. The Working Class of India: History of Emergence and Movement, 1830-
1990 (with an overview upto 1995), Calcutta, K.P. Bagchi, 1997.
4. Sen, Sunil Kumar, Working class movements in India, 1885-1975, New Delhi, Oxford
University Press, 1994.
Further Readings:
1. Breman, Jan. ‘The Study of Industrial Labour in Post-Colonial India: The Formal Sector:
An Introductory Review’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol 33, Nos 1 & 2,
January-August, 1999 and ‘The Study of Industrial Labour in Post-Colonial India – The
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Informal Sector: A Concluding Review’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol 33, Nos
1 & 2, January-August, 1999.
2. Chandavarkar, Rajnarayan, The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business
Strategies and the Working Classes in Bombay, 1900-1940, Cambridge University Press,
2002.
3. Gupte, Vasant, Labour Movement in Bombay: Origin and Growth upto Independence,
Bombay, Institute of Workers Education.
4. Joshi, Chitra, 'Bonds of Community, Ties of Religion: Kanpur Textile Workers in the
Early 20th Century', The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 22, 3, 1985, 251-
280.
5. Karnik, V.B. Indian Trade Unions: A survey, Bombay, Manaktalas, 1966.
6. Morris, M. D. ‘Labor Discipline, Trade Unions, and the State in India’, Journal of
Political Economy, 1955, 63 293; and ‘Caste and the Evolution of the Industrial
Workforce in India’, 104, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1960.
Raghav, D. Veera. The Making of the Madras Working Class, Delhi: Leftword, 2013.
7. Rajimwale, Anil, Krishna Jha and Bobby Poulose. Oral History Documentation of
Indian Labour Movement, VVGNLI in collaboration with N M Joshi Centre for Labour
Research and Education.
8. Ramaswamy, E. A. Power and Justice: The State in Industrial Relations, Oxford
University Press, 1985.
9. Southall, R. (ed), Labour and Unions in Asia and Africa, London: Macmillan Press,
1988.
II. Leadership and Organizational Change
Essential Readings:
1. de Haan, Arjan, with Samita Sen. Working class struggles, labour elites and closed
shops: the lessons from India’s trade unions and experiences of organization. In Chen,
Martha, Renana Jhabvala, Ravi Kanbur, Carol Richards (eds.) Membership Based
Organizations of the Poor, Routledge Studies in Development Economics, Taylor &
Francis, 2007.
2. Rose, Kalima. Where Women are Leaders: The SEWA Movement in India. New Delhi:
Vistaar Publications, 1992.
3. Wersch, H van, Bombay Textile Strike 1982-83, New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1992.
4. Mazumdar, Indrani. Unorganised Workers of Delhi and the Seven Day Strike of 1988,
VVGNLI Publications, .
5. Reddy, D. N. Growth and Structure of Unions in Southern Railway, Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol. 15, No. 39, Sep. 27, 1980, pp. 1619-1626.
Further Readings:
1. Bhowmik, S., ‘The Working Class Movements in India: Trade Unions and the State’, in
Manoranjan Mohanty (ed.) Caste, Class and Gender, Delhi: Sage, 2004.
2. Ramaswamy, E. A. Worker Consciousness and Trade Union Response, New Delhi,
Oxford University Press, 1988.
3. Roy, Biren ‘Jute Mill-Owners’ Offensive against Workers’, Economic and Political
Weekly, 5 September 1992, pp.1893-4.
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4. Sanyal, B, 'Organising the Self-Employed: The Politics of the Urban Informal Sector',
International Labour Review, Vol 30, No 1, 1991.
5. Saxena, Kiran, ‘The Hindu Trade Union Movement in India: The Bharatiya Mazdoor
Sangh’, Asian Survey, Vol. 33, No. 7, South Asia: Responses to the Ayodhya Crisis, July,
1993, 685-696.
6. Sen, Iliana. “Feminists, Women's Movement, and the Working Class”, Economic and
Political Weekly, July 22, 1989.
III. Politics of the Working Class
Essential Readings:
1. Agarwala, Rina. Infomal Labour, Formal Politics and Dignified Discontent, Cambridge
University Press, 2013.
2. Ahuja, Ravi Working Lives and Worker Militancy: The Politics of Workers in Colonial
India, Tulika, 2013.
3. Chatterji, Rakahan. Unions, Politics and the State: A Study of the Indian Labour Politics,
New Delhi: South Asian Publishers, 1980.
4. Fernandes, Leela. “Culture, Structure and Working Class Politics”, Economic and
Political Weekly, December 26, 1998.
5. Harriss-White, B. India Working: Essays on Society and Economy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
6. Simeon, Dilip, The Politics of the Labour Movement: An Essay on Differential
Aspirations, VVGNLI.
7. Bhowmik, S., ‘State Intervention and the Working Class Movement’, Economic and
Political Weekly, December 28, 1996, 39-43.
Further Readings:
1. Ali, Subhashini Indians on Strike: Caste and Class in the Indian Trade Union Movement,
New Labor Forum, Volume 20, Issue 2, Spring 2011, pp. 32-39, The Murphy
Institute/City University of New York.
2. Bentley, Elizabeth. Struggle for Survival: Organizing the Paper Pickers of Ahmedabad.
Ahmedabad: Mahila SEWA Trust, 1988.
3. Fernanda, Leda. Producing Workers: the Politics of Gender, Class and Culture in the
Calcutta Jute Mills, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
4. Moghe, Kiran. ‘Organising Domestic Workers in Pune City’ EPW, Vol XLVIII No: 43,
October 26, 2013.
5. Ray, Raka, and Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Social Movements in India: Poverty, Power,
and Politics, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
6. Rudolph, Lloyd and Susonne Rudolph, In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of
the Indian State, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989.
IV. Social Movements, Trade Unions and New Workers’ Movement
Essential Readings:
1. Bhowmik, S., ‘The Labour Movement in India: Fractured Trade Unions and Vulnerable
Workers’, Rethinking Development and Inequality, Vol. 2, Spl. Issues, 2013, pp. 84-96.
2. Bieler, A. I. Lindberg and D. Pillay (eds.) Labour and the Challenges of Globalization:
What Prospects for Transnational Solidarity?, London: Pluto Press, pp. 23-44.
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3. Chakrabarti, Anjan, and Anup Kumar Dhar. “Labour, Class and Economy: Rethinking
Trade Union Struggle”, Economic & Political Weekly, May 31, 2008.
4. Hensman Rohini. Workers, Unions, and Global Capitalism: Lessons from India,
Columbia University Press, 2011 (republished by Tulika, 2013).
5. Mazumdar, Indrani, Women Workers and Globalisation: Emergent Contradictions in
India, Kolkata, Stree, 2007.
6. Panitch, L. and C. Leys (eds.), Working Classes, Global Realities, London, Merlin Press,
2000.
7. Noronha, E. and D’Cruz, ‘Organising call centre agents: emerging issues’, Economic and
Political Weekly, May 2006, 2115-2121.
8. Stevens, Andrew J. R., Call Centers and the Global Division of Labor: A Political
Economy of Post-Industrial Employment and Union Organizing, London, Routledge,
2014.
9. Tulpule, B, ‘Segmented Labour and Fragmented Trade Unions’ in T V Sathamurth (ed),
Class Formation and Political Transformation in Post-colonial India, New Delhi, Oxford
University Press, 1996.
Further Readings:
1. Bhowmik, S., ‘The Labour Movement in India: Present Problems and Future
Perspectives’, The Indian Journal of Social Work, 59, 1, 1998, 147-66.
2. Dutt, Rudra. Emerging Trends in Trade Union Movement, Mainstream, VOL XLVI,
NO 20, 2008.
3. George, Jose, Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra Ojha, Working Class Movement in India in the
Wake of Globalization, Delhi, Manohar, 2012.
4. Moody, K., ‘Towards an International Social-Movement Unionism’, New Left Review,
Vol. 1, No. 225, 1997, pp. 52-72.
5. Roy Chowdhary, Supriya, ‘Old Classes, New Spaces: Urban Poverty, Unorganised
Labour and New Unions’, EPW, 26 May-4 June, 2003.
10. Taylor, P., D’Cruz, P., Noronha, E. and Scholarios, D. ‘Indian call centres and business
process outsourcing: a study in union formation’, New Technology, Work and
Employment, 24.1, 2009, 19-42.
11. Teitelbaum, E. ‘Was the Indian Labour Movement Ever Co-opted? Evaluating Standard
Accounts’, Critical Asian Studies, 38, 4, 2006, 389–417.
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