Contested Workers & Peasants’ Representations. The Labour Movement - Industrial and Agrarian - In Bengal, 1905-1947

Who spoke for/about/of the workers? The history of representation of labour in India during the 19th and 20th century has often been limited to the history of trade unions, Indian “intelligentsia” (composed either by nationalist, communist or socialist leaders), their respective political parties, and the influence of external events such as the Russian Revolution (1917) or the International Labour Conference (Geneva, 1920). The persistence of traditional loyalties of the “masses”, in particular community ties of caste, “tribe” or religion, has however been raised by many historians as a factor explaining the fragmentation of the workers’ “class consciousness” and the “weakness” of the labour protest in India. And yet, the Indian labour movement was far from being irrelevant, especially during the interwar decades (notably strikes in Bengal jute and in Bombay textiles). Focusing on popular and particularly peasant “self-mobilization”, the Subaltern Studies highlighted the importance of cultural and religious dimensions in the life of workers, and foregrounded the persistence of elements of a rural culture. Basing itself on the analysis of archival materials relating mainly to the labour movement in Bengal, 1905-1947, this paper will provide a historical perspective on the different "representative claims" of the urban and rural workers. It will draw an overview of the “representation work” that political parties and unions, but also cultural and social associations were doing. This paper thus aims to contribute to a comparative and global history of the representation of workers.