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Trade Unionism and Caste in South India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

E. A. Ramaswamy
E. A. Ramaswamy
Affiliation:
University of Delhi
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Extract

Studies of Indian organized labour have followed the beaten track for three decades. In their obsessive concern with the political links of trade unions and their control by middle-class intellectuals and professionals, the students of Indian labour have barely paused to consider the social consequences of unionization. The origin of the labour movement in India goes back to the turn of the century, and over five million workers are now unionzed. A movement of this proportion cannot be without consequence for the attitudes and behaviour of workers. In the specifically Indian context the crucial question is how a trade union movement whose very cornerstone, at least ideally, is a sense of camaraderie among a socially diverse workforce interacts with a traditional society whose foundation is the caste system.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , July 1976 , pp. 361 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

This paper is based on fieldwork done for a doctoral thesis. My thanks are due to Professor M. N. Srinivas who supervised this research. I am grateful to B. S. Baviskar and P. N. Mukerji for their comments on this paper.

1 This figure relates to the year 1968 and applies only to registered unions submitting returns to the labour ministry. See Ministry of Labour, The Indian Labour Year Book 1970 (Simla: Labour Bureau, 1972), p. 102.Google Scholar

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