Growth and decline of central government influence in the Indian trade-union movement: a political analysis

Abstract

Studies of trade-union movements in the "new states" By "new states" is meant those states in Asia and Africa that have recently been decolonized by the European powers. of Asia and Africa have, until recently, concentrated on their colonial origins, organizational characteristics and economic functions. Recently several studies have appeared which focus specifically on the political involvement of trade-unions in the new states. See e.g. Bruce H. Millen's "The Political Role of Labour in Developing Countries". Brookings Institute 1963; Everett M. Kassalow, (Ed.) "National Labour Movements in the Postwar World". Northwestern University Press 1963; N. Pattabhi Raman, "Political Involvement of India's Trade Unions". Asia Publishing House, London, 1967; also Ornati, Iskander, Waldstein Pye. The political involvement of trade-unions in these countries has received scant attention, reflecting a belief, particularly among Western scholars, that such involvement is an aberration, a temporary departure from an assumed norm. Harold Crouch makes this point in the Preface of his "Trade Unions and Politics in India", Manaktalas: Bombay 1966. The term "trade-union" has come to mean in the industrialized countries of western Europe, workers collectively organized for the purpose of protecting and advancing their interests as producers within the economic system. The right to exist as legal entities that trade-unions enjoy today was won from a reluctant political order, which imposed upon them an essentially economic role. From the Western standpoint, therefore, it has been natural to regard trade-unions as basically economic institutions. In the new states of Asia and Africa on the other hand, trade-unions radically different from the west-European model have emerged. There, trade-unions were created by nationalist politicians for use as a political weapon against entrenched foreign capital in the anti-colonial struggle. As a consequence trade-unions formed part of the political fabric of the new states from their inception.