Working Class Movement: AITUC, Trade Union Act 1926 and Meerut Conspiracy Case

At a Glance

• AITUC 31 October 1920; Lajpat Rai president; Dewan Chaman Lal general secretary
• Trade Union Act 1926; unions recognised as legal
• Trade Disputes Act 1929; compulsory inquiry; limits on strikes
• Meerut case March 1929; 31 leaders arrested
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Press, Education, Peasants and Workers

Where Does It Fit?

This is the tenth and last topic of the category on the press, education, peasants and workers. The previous topic covered the All India Kisan Sabha and peasant activity in the 1930s and 1940s. This topic covers the working-class movement. The next category begins with the first days of independent India. Previous topic: All India Kisan Sabha and Peasant Activity in the 1930s and 1940s.

How Did a Modern Working Class Arise?

The start of the second half of the nineteenth century brought modern industry to India. The thousands employed in building the railways were the harbingers of the modern Indian working class, and further industrialisation followed with ancillary industries, then coal, cotton and jute. The workers suffered the same exploitation as in Europe and the West: low wages, long hours, unhygienic and dangerous conditions, child labour and no basic amenities. Colonialism gave the movement a distinctive touch, since the working class faced two opposing forces, imperialist political rule and economic exploitation by both foreign and Indian capitalists, and so its movement became bound up with the political struggle for national freedom. The industries are in Late Development of Modern Industry and the early labour laws in Administrative Policies: Divide and Rule, Zamindars, Social Services and Labour Laws.

What Were the Early Efforts?

The early nationalists, especially the Moderates, were indifferent to labour’s cause. They distinguished between labour in Indian-owned and British-owned factories, believed labour laws would weaken the competitive edge of Indian-owned industry, did not want the movement divided along class lines, and for these reasons did not support the Factory Acts of 1881 and 1891. Early efforts to improve workers’ conditions were therefore philanthropic, isolated, sporadic and aimed at specific local grievances.

Nationalist leaders such as Bipin Chandra Pal and G. Subramanya Aiyar demanded better conditions for workers. During the Swadeshi upsurge, workers took part in wider political issues, with strikes in government presses, railways and the jute industry organised by Ashwini Coomar Banerjea, Prabhat Kumar Roy Chaudhuri, Premtosh Bose and Apurba Kumar Ghosh; Subramaniya Siva and Chidambaram Pillai led strikes in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli and were arrested; and the biggest strike followed Tilak’s trial, as in Vernacular Press Act, 1878 and Later Press Laws.

What Did the First World War Change, and What Was the AITUC?

The war and its aftermath brought a rise in exports, soaring prices and large profits for industrialists, but very low wages for workers, causing discontent. The emergence of Gandhi led to a broad national movement that stressed mobilising workers and peasants, and there was a felt need to organise workers in trade unions. International events, the socialist republic in the Soviet Union, the Comintern and the International Labour Organisation, added a new dimension.

The All India Trade Union Congress was founded on 31 October 1920. The Congress president of the year, Lala Lajpat Rai, was elected its first president and Dewan Chaman Lal its first general secretary. Lajpat Rai was the first to link capitalism with imperialism, saying that imperialism and militarism were the twin children of capitalism. C.R. Das presided over the third and fourth sessions, and the Gaya session of the Congress in 1922 welcomed the AITUC and formed a committee to assist it. Das held that the Congress should take up the cause of workers and peasants and include them in the struggle for swaraj, or they would be isolated from it. Other leaders close to the AITUC included Nehru, Subhas Bose, C.F. Andrews, J.M. Sengupta, Satyamurthy, V.V. Giri and Sarojini Naidu. At first the AITUC was influenced by the social democratic ideas of the British Labour Party and by Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, trusteeship and class collaboration. Gandhi had helped organise the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association in 1918 and, through a protest, secured a 27.5 per cent wage rise, which an arbitrator’s award later made 35 per cent, as in Ahmedabad Mill Strike and Kheda Satyagraha, 1918. The Gaya session is in Swarajists and No-Changers.

What Did the Trade Union Act of 1926 Provide?

• It recognised trade unions as legal associations.
• It laid down conditions for the registration and regulation of trade union activities.
• It secured immunity, civil and criminal, for unions from prosecution for legitimate activities, but put some restrictions on their political activities.

What Were the Developments of the Late 1920s?

A strong communist influence gave the movement a militant and revolutionary character. In 1928 there was a six-month strike in the Bombay textile mills led by the Girni Kamgar Union, and the whole of 1928 saw unprecedented industrial unrest. Communist groups crystallised, with leaders such as S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, P.C. Joshi and Sohan Singh Josh. The government, alarmed at the growing strength of unions under extremist influence, passed the Public Safety Ordinance (1929) and the Trade Disputes Act of 1929.

In March 1929 the government arrested 31 labour leaders in the Meerut Conspiracy Case. The trial, which lasted three and a half years, resulted in the conviction of Muzaffar Ahmed, S.A. Dange, Joglekar, Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley, Shaukat Usmani and others. It received worldwide publicity but weakened the working-class movement. The communists are in Spread of Socialist and Marxist Ideas, Youth Activism and Trade Unionism.

What Happened From 1930 to 1947?

Workers took part in the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930, but after 1931 the movement dipped because of a split in which the corporatist trend led by N.M. Joshi broke away from the AITUC to form the All India Trade Union Federation. In 1935 the communists rejoined the AITUC, and the left front now comprised communists, Congress Socialists and leftist nationalists like Nehru and Subhas Bose. In the 1937 elections the AITUC supported Congress candidates, and the Congress governments in the provinces gave a fillip to trade union activity and were generally sympathetic to workers’ demands, with many favourable laws, as in Congress Ministries: Labour Policy, Social Welfare and Evaluation.

In the Second World War, workers at first opposed the war, but after the Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941 the communists called it a people’s war and supported it; they stayed away from the Quit India Movement and advocated industrial peace. From 1945 to 1947 workers took an active part in the post-war upsurges: in 1945 dock workers of Bombay and Calcutta refused to load ships taking supplies to troops fighting in Indonesia, in 1946 workers struck in support of the naval ratings, and in the last year of foreign rule there were strikes by workers in posts, railways and many other establishments. After independence the working-class movement became polarised along political lines. As an analytical point, the working-class movement shows the two currents of the period: a labour movement fighting for its own economic aims against employers and a national movement that wanted workers’ support, and the relation between the two often shaped what the unions could do. The post-war strikes are in ina-trials/" class="maargx-auto-link" data-preview="At a Glance Release of leaders June 1945 New British government Labour under Attlee, July 1945 First INA trial Red Fort, Delhi,…">INA trials Second 11 February 1946, Calcutta, against Rashid Ali’s seven-year sentence…">The Three Upsurges of Winter 1945-46.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• AITUC Founding date, president and secretary are Prelims facts
• Trade Union Act and Trade Disputes Act Provisions are frequently asked
• Meerut case A major trial in the history of the left

What Came Next?

The next category begins with the first day of independent India and the first government. Next topic: First Day of Independent India and the First Government.

Key People and Terms

• AITUC The All India Trade Union Congress
• Trade Union Act 1926 The law recognising unions
• Trade Disputes Act 1929 The law restricting strikes
• Meerut Conspiracy Case The 1929 trial of 31 labour leaders
• Girni Kamgar Union Union that led the 1928 Bombay textile strike
• All India Trade Union Federation Set up by N.M. Joshi’s group in 1931

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about the working-class movement and its link to nationalism. These points add depth.

• Context Dual exploitation
• Organisation AITUC and communists
• Repression 1929 laws and the Meerut case