Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Rural-urban migration, caste, religion, and class : situating workers; politics in the Bengal Jute Industry 1890-1937. 3. The manager Raj and local elites : collaboration and confrontation in the administration of mill towns, 1880-1930. 4. Strikes, riots, and Swadeshi unions, 1890-1908. 5. Price rises, protest, and nationalist mobilization : the Khilafat and non-cooperation movements, 1918-1922. 6. Labour politics and the rise of the socialist movement in Bengal, 1923-29. 7. The coming of provincial autonomy : labour militancy and changes in Bengal politics. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.
"Labour history in India has often compared the working class in India with its counterpart in the west, describing it as a version of the migrant peasant. As a result, a consensus on the issue of class has been difficult. Also, the issue of working class organization and resistance has often been analysed as being sporadic and temporary.
"Against this background, the book explores the interaction between workers' politics, nationalist movements, and the colonial state at various levels in the period between 1890 and 1937. Focusing primarily on the politics of the jute workers, who constituted the core of the industrial work-force in the mill towns located around Calcutta, Basu defines the turn-of-the-century industrial working class not as migrant peasants but as a force motivated by local circumstance to organize themselves on issues relevant to their working life. He investigates the wider aspects of workers' politics ranging from the social organization of the working class neighbourhood, to the institutional politics of trade unions and political parties. In doing so, Basu demonstrates how workers have played an active role in defining their own politics. This book argues that it was also such action from below that radicalized and broadened anti-colonial struggles in Bengal.
"Through a study of new sources derived from municipal archives, Basu shows how solidarities among workers were produced and dismantled in the process of political mobilization in a particular historic conjuncture. He also links labour politics in Bengal with global contexts of struggles between different types of socialism and capital interest groups. Given the shifts in the political process in South Asia, which constantly affect the working class and their rights, this book will be important for those who are interested in the history of the labour movement, including student of labour history, and general readers interested in issues relating to the working class." (jacket)
