Working class: Structure, Growth and mobilization ( Sociology Optional)

Introduction

  • Modern powered industries, based on western technology, came to India in the mid-50s of the nineteenth century.
  • Railways were constructed around Bombay and Calcutta; the former linked Bombay and Baroda in Gujarat and the latter Calcutta and Raniganj.
  • The first textile mill started production in Bombay in 1855. Almost simultaneously, a jute factory was established in Calcutta, industrialization was mainly confined to cotton and jute industries till the beginning of the twentieth century.
  • Large-scale tea plantation also began during this period, but the workers employed therein were generally treated as non-Industrial workers.

Definition of Working Class

  • The working class(or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts.
  • Working-class occupations include blue-collar jobs, and most pink-collar jobs. Members of the working class rely exclusively upon earnings from wage labour.
  • The working class is not a cohesive entity and it has numerous differences and contradictions. The difference further extends in terms of skill, sex, age, income and caste.
  • Hence the working class is a complex, contradictory and constantly changing the composition, the size and the character of a class changes over a period of time.
  • Therefore the requirement is of a series of definitions, which have to change in accordance with the changes in social structure.

Thinkers Perspective

  • In the Marxian scheme, the capitalist society is characterised by two principal classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat. Bourgeoisie owns the means of production and proletariat or the working class sell their labour for wages in order to live.
  • M. Holmstorm (1991) puts it ‘people commonly refer to industrial workers, and sometimes other kind of wage-earners and self-employed workers, as the working class’.

Growth of Working class

  • The modern working class came into being with the rise of capitalist mode of production. This mode of production brought with it the factory type of industry.
  • In other words, rise of factory system of production and working class happened simultaneously.
  • Conversely, without a factory industry there can be no working class but only working people.
  • In 1914, there were 284 cotton mills employing 2,60,000 workers. In Bengal, 60 Jute mills employed 2,00,000 workers in 1912.
  • By 1914 the railways employed about 8,00,000 persons.
  • The iron and steel Industry at Jamshedpur, which began in 1910, was a major landmark in industrial development.
  • Besides this, by 1910, about 1,50,000 workers were employed in mines, and 7,00,000 were employed in plantations.
  • According to the survey of industries there were 281 lakh workers employed in private and public sector industries in 1999. This covers both urban and rural areas and includes those employed in plantations, mining, construction, utilities, transportation and communication.

Traditional Indian economy and encounter with colonialists

  • In India, till the middle of the 19th century, there were working people but not the working class.
  • As per Marx, ‘small and extremely ancient Indian communities are based on the possession in common land, on the blending of agriculture and handicrafts, and on the unadulterated division of labour, which serves, wherever a new community is started’.
  • The colonial rule and exploitation of British Imperialists completely ruined the system of production of these traditional and self-sufficient societies.
  • The process was fastened with forced introduction of British capital, wherein the old economic system and division of labour was completely shattered.
  • The surplus generated through the old system fell into the hands of the colonialists who then started direct plundering and exporting of the wealth of India to
  • Indian raw material was an indispensable item for the development of British manufacturing industry. Hence, the colonialists maintained the constant supply of Indian raw materials and agricultural products to England.
  • As per Sukomal Sen (1997), India was transformed into an agrarian and raw material adjunct of capitalist Britain, simultaneously preserving feudal methods of exploitation. The result of this process was that ‘Indian craftsmen were forced out from their age-long profession.’

Phases

The formative period

  • The forced intrusion of British capital in India devastated the old economy, but it did not create a modern capital economy.
  • The millions of ruined artisans and craftsmen had no alternative but to crowd into agriculture, leading to deadly pressure on the land.
  • Subsequently, with the introduction of railways and sporadic growth of some industries had been plodding through immense sufferings and impoverishment in village life

Emergence of working class

  • With the growth of modern factory industries, the factory workers gradually shaped themselves into a distinct category.
  • The concentration of the working class in the cities near the industrial enterprises was an extremely important factor in the formation of the workers as a class.

Consolidation of working class:

  • The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th was marked by the organised national movements and consolidation of the working class.
  • The national movement, especially in Bengal and Maharashtra had already assumed a developed form which exerted a great impact on the later national awakening of the country.
  • The partition of Bengal in the year 1905 aroused bitter public indignation and gave rise to mass national upsurge.

Trade Unions

  • In order to defend themselves from the collective might of the employers and the state, the working class organised themselves into trade unions so that they could increase their bargaining power through unity.
  • Therefore trade unions emerged from the spontaneous efforts of the working class.

Formation of AITUC

  • The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the first national federation of trade unions in India was formed in 1920.
  • It was a result of realisation by several people linked with labour that there was a need for a central organisation of labour to coordinate the work of trade unions all over India.
  • Bal Gangadhar Tilak, N.M. Joshi, B.P. Wadia, Diwan Chamanlal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Joseph Baptista and many others were trying to achieve this goal.
  • The formation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) acted as a catalyst for it.

Nature and Structure of the Working Class

  • Due to the existence of multi-structural economy and effects of primordial affiliations, a variety of forms of the working class exists in India.
  • On top of all the differences, the differences in wage is also the basis of divisions among the working class.
  • Not only is there wage differential among the working class, there is also variation in the terms of working conditions.
  • Hence, better paid labour has also much greater job security, working conditions for the low paid workers are uniformly worse than for high paid workers.
  • The situation worsens further with regard to women workers. For example, women are not allowed to work in the steel plants for safety reasons, but are not prohibited to be employed on the same site as contract labour.
  • A study by Deshpande (1979) of Bombay labour found the reverse to be true. That is, around 87 per cent of the regular employees, who had changed their jobs had started as regular employees and only 13 per cent had started as casual labour.

On the basis of wage, there are four types of workers:

  • First, those workers who are permanent employees of the large factory sector and get family wage. They are mostly employed in the public sector enterprises and modern sectors of petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and engineering.
  • Second, there is a large and preponderant section of the working class that does not get a family wage. This includes workers in the older industries like cotton and jute textiles, sugar and paper. Even the permanent workers in the tea plantation come in the same category because the owners refuse to accept the norm of family wage for an individual worker.
  • Third, there is a section of the working class at the bottom of the wage scale — the mass of contract and sometimes casual labourers in industry, including construction, brick making and other casual workers.
  • Fourth, below all these lie a reserve army of labour, who work in petty commodities production in petty trading, ranging from hawking to rag-picking. They are generally engaged in the informal sector and carry on for the want of sufficient survival wage. There is more than one wage earner per household. As Das Gupta (1986) mentions both men and women work in the plantation or Bidi manufacturing.

Mobility of Working Class

  • Mobility of workers means the capacity and ability of labour to move from one place to another or from one occupation to another or from one job to another or from one industry to another.
  • It refers to alternative employments. Indian labour is less mobile because of ignorance, conservatism, caste considerations and due to lack of cheap and quick means of transport and communication.

Types of mobility

  1. Geographical Mobility: Geographical mobility is that when a worker moves from one place to another within a country or from one country to another.

For example: The movement of labour from Bangalore to Delhi or from India to U.S.A. is geographical mobility.

  1. Occupational Mobility: Occupational mobility means the movement of workers from one occupation to another. This mobility has been further divided into the following two types:
    1. Horizontal Mobility: Horizontal mobility is that in which there is the movement of labour from one occupation to another in the same grade or level. For example: A bank clerk joins as an accounts clerk in a company.
    2. Vertical Mobility: When a worker of a lower grade and status in an occupation moves to another occupation in a higher grade and status, it is vertical mobility. For example: A mistri becomes an engineer or a teacher in a school becomes a professor in a college. This type of mobility is rather difficult. It requires superior intelligence, financial backing and a social or political push.
  1. Mobility between Industries: This mobility is the movement of labour from one industry to another in the same occupation in industrial mobility. For example: A fitter leaving a steel mill and joining an automobile factory

Factors affecting mobility

  • Education and Training
  • Outlook or Urge to rise in life
  • Social Set-up
  • Means of Transport
  • Agricultural Developments
  • Industrialisation
  • Trade development leading to spread of office
  • Advertisements of jobs
  • State help
  • Peace and security

Trend of working-class mobility in India

  • In general one expect mobility among the workers that a worker would start as casual or contract labour in a firm and then would move to permanent employment either in the same or other firm. However, a study by Deshpande of Bombay labour found the reverse to be true.
  • Around 87 per cent of the regular employees who had changed their job, had started as regular employee and only 13 per cent had started as casual labour.
  • Harris, who conducted study in Coimbatore, reported that 'Individuals do not move easily between sectors of the labour market.’
    • Among the 826 households surveyed there were only less than 20 cases of movement from unorganized into organized sector.
    • Many in the unorganized sector had the requisite skills, experience and education for factory job.
    • But they lack the right connections or they do not belong to the right social network.
  • A study of Ahmadabad by Subramanian and Papola found that 91 percent of the jobs were secured through introduction by other workers.
    • It was a blood relation in 35 per cent of the cases.
    • They belonged to the same caste in 44 per cent.
    • They belonged to the same native place in another 12 per cent.
    • Friends helped in 7 per cent of the cases.
  • K. L. Sharma in his five studies of Pune, Kota, Bombay, Ahmadabad and Bangalore covering large number of industries found that 61 per cent of workers were upper caste Hindus.

Challenges

  • There are many factors which hinder mobility of labour such as differences in climate, religion, caste, habits, language, customs, tastes, etc.
  • Deshpande points out to the 'pre labour market characteristic' such as education and land holding affects mobility. Those who possessed more land and education ended up in higher wage sector.
  • But then if upper and lower caste people own comparable levels of landholding and education, the upper caste worker will get into higher segment of the wage than lower caste worker. This is because of the continuing importance of caste ties in recruitment.
  • According to Nathan, caste also serves the function in ensuring the labour supply for different jobs with the fact of not paying more than what is necessary.
  • The other factors are ignorance, indebtedness, attachment to property and place, poverty, economic backwardness, lack of means of transport and communications and employment opportunities, etc.

Importance or Advantages of Mobility of Labour

  • To Worker Himself: As it has been said that nothing can be achieved without showing an advantageous spirit of life, trying one’s luck in foreign land gives one an opportunity to raise their economic as well as social standard.
  • Helpful and Useful for Improving the Structure of Industry: If labour is mobile, they will be withdrawn from decaying industries and can be diverted to expanding industries.
  • Mobility of Labour Checks Unemployment: Labour moves from places where it is not wanted to these where it is wanted.

Disadvantages

  • Lack of training
  • Lower productivity
  • Flexible labour markets create greater job insecurity and stress
  • Rising inequality
  • Higher search costs for workers needing to find new jobs

Mobilization or Movement of Working Class

Introduction

  • By labour mobilization or labour movement we mean the organized efforts of wage-earners directed towards the advancement of their economic interests.
  • Labour mobilization is different from labour labour mobility. While mobility refers to the rise or decline in the layers of stratification, mobilization refers to the labour movements and agitation.
  • An allied long-term objective of the movement is to secure social and political leverage for the working class people. The urban labour movement is closely related to the trade union movement.

Thinkers’ views on workers movement

  • J.Dunlop provides a model based on wage maximization through union activities. He argues that political factors may have short-term relevance, but long-term union activities are influenced by economic forces that determine wages and employment.
  • M. Ross: His main argument is that among all the participants in the economic process, “the trade union is probably least suited to purely economic analysis.” The union leaders are obliged to mediate and compromise between divergent interests of the members for their maintenance in power and to have impacts on movements and mobilisation.

Growth of Workers' Movements

  • The labour movement in India had its beginning in the colonial period. The labour movement grew under the influence of freedom struggle.
  • No clear socialist ideology permeated the struggle, the labour movement in India, unlike that in the continent, did not envision a new social order.
  • The growth of the labour movement in India reflects the country’s industrial as well as political process. In the beginning the movement was confined mostly to textile industry, as this was the first major industry set-up in the organized sector.

Ramaswamy classification

He classifies strikes into following categories.

  1. caused by the dispute over rules;
  2. the wildcat strike, which is without the sanction of the union;
  3. the rite of passage strike which is for demanding recognition of the union;
  4. the inter-union dispute;
  5. the tedium-relieving strike;
  6. the political strike; and
  7. the 'bread-and-butter -strike.

Characteristics

  • India’s labour movement is the absence in it of a conspicuous class orientation, notwithstanding a clear anti-imperialist posture. This is partly because of the influence of the national movement under which India’s labour movement grew.
  • This movement emphasized accommodative politics in order to set up a united front against the powerful colonial regime.
  • India’s labour movement is its close connection with political parties. At the apex of the union structure there are several national federations, most of which are formally affiliated to one party or the other.
  • India’s labour movement is the absence of autonomous growth. The movement is significantly dependent upon outside forces.
  • The movement is confined to only big cities of the country such as Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore and Kanpur. This is because industrial development in India has a marked regional bias.

Few Instances of Strikes

  • Bombay resorted to major and minor strikes between 1918 and 1929. Around one-fourth of the strikes were over the issue of wages. Two general strikes during this period were 'preceded by a cluster of demands for cost-of-living bonuses, and followed by a claim for strike pay'.
  • Newman observes, it was seldom that a whole mill could be united by a pay claim, unless this was for a dearness allowance or strike pay'.
  • Kannan points out that the demand for more wages was the main issue for toddy tappers and bidi workers.
  • The workers of TISCO, Jamshedpur, went on strike in 1920, protesting against 'manhandling of workers' by the officers.
  • Victimization, wrongful dismissal and improper disciplinary fines, were some of the important issues in the railway workers' strike in 1929.
  • Women workers of Ahmedabad and Tamil Nadu struck work 1990s against discrimination and ill treatment.
  • According to S.D. Punekar, the Madras happenings were not mere accident, but were an inevitable reaction to the grave post-war economic and social conditions of the Madras factory workers. The strikes succeeded in days of economic prosperity and failed in days of economic depression.

Social Background of Indian Working Class

  • In higher income jobs, upper castes dominate. Whereas, Dalits and adivasis have preponderance in low wage jobs.
  • The middle castes are concentrated in middle to bottom ranges.
  • Even in public sector, the representation of backward castes, schedule castes and tribes is not up to their proportion in the population.
  • The upper castes get a privilege in the labour market.
  • Caste is not only a matter of marriage, family and kinship but it also plays a dominant role in maintaining the social relation for the supply of labour for the capitalist mode of production.
  • The dominant position of the workers from upper caste was brought out in a study of Kerala.

Evaluation

  • Most of the studies on working-class movements look at workers as an economic category, and their social as well as cultural aspects are not sufficiently explored.
  • However, the studies by Chandavarkar, Dipesh Chakrabany, Nandini Gooptu deal with historical material. These opens up new paradigms of understanding the ‘working class’ and their struggles.
  • Sociologists and political scientists have to explore such paradigms to comprehend struggles of the contemporary working class in the era of globalization.

Conclusion

  • The working class, which is the product of capitalist relations of production, came into being with the industrial revolution and subsequent industrialisation in England in particular and Europe in general.
  • In this relation of production, unlike other epochs, they did not own anything except the labour, which they sold for survival.
  • At the other spectrum, there were capitalists who not only owned all the means of production but also appropriated all the surplus generated out of these relations of production.
  • The coming into being and consolidation of the working class in the world as well as in India, has been affected by local and international events of both economic and political nature.
  • So for carrying out further studies on the working class, these peculiarities have to be taken into account.