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State Regulation and Class Struggle in the Beedi Industry of Post-Colonial Malabar, 1947–1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2023

Suramya Thekke Kalathil Open the ORCID record for Suramya Thekke Kalathil [Opens in a new window]
Suramya Thekke Kalathil*
Affiliation:
Max Plank Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Hansaallee 41, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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Email: suramyaraji@gmail.com
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Extract

In post-independence India, as in many developing post-colonial nations, the capitalist class was dependent on the state to discipline the laborforce, and the rapid uptake of capitalist production methods prompted the new government to intervene aggressively in industrial labor relations. The main goal of postcolonial labor policy was to maintain peaceful labor relations at any cost in order to foster economic development. The newly elected government failed to help capitalists increase their profits through productivity growth, so the way forward was to impose restrictions on labor. Pro-capital labor legislation initially enabled capitalists to curb the mobility and resistance of workers. In due course, however, irrespective of how consistently or effectively labor regulations and repressive measures were enforced, the reaction of the working class heightened its political consciousness, and thus aggravated frictions between capital and labor. When the state resorted to labor welfare laws as a new strategy to reduce these conflicts, employers often fragmented production among smaller units (such as workshops and households) in order to dodge labor regulations. As a reaction to this production decentralization, the working-class movement created impediments to the process of continual capital accumulation.

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Article
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International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 103: Precarious Labor, Capitalist Transformation, and the State , Spring 2023 , pp. 274 - 291
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Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc., 2023

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References

Notes

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7. Previously a district of Madras presidency, Malabar became part of the state of Kerala after the state reorganization of 1956. Located in the northern part of Kerala, Malabar comprises six districts: Palakkad (Palghat), Kozhikode (Calicut), Malappuram, Wayanad, Kannur (Cannanore), and Kasaragod.

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11. The beedi is an indigenous variety of cigar. It is produced by rolling tobacco in tendu leaves.

12. A caste group placed in the highrarchy between Nairs and Pulayars in Kerala.

13. Government of Kerala, Report of the Tripartite Committee for Beedi and Cigar Industries (Thiruvananthapuram, 1958), 4.

14. Kalathil, S. Thekke and Abraham, S., “Regulation and Resistance: Defactorisation in the Beedi Industry of Colonial Malabar, 1937–1941,” Labor History 61 (2020): 658–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15. Similar tendencies were present in other sectors and regions in India. See Haynes, D. E., Small Town Capitalism in Western India: Artisans, Merchants, and the Making of the Informal Economy, 1870–1960 (Cambridge, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chandavarkar, R., “Industrialization in India Before 1947: Conventional Approaches and Alternative Perspectives,” Modern Asian Studies 19 (1985): 623–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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17. C. Kannan, Smaranakal [Memoirs – Tobacco Workers Union 50th Year Souvenir] (Kannur, 1984), 29.

18. Kannan, Smaranakal, 27.

19. Report of the Tripartite Committee, 13.

20. As per the Public (General) Department Files, Government of Madras, workers at the Yogi Beedi Company at Kondotty (FOC no. 2327/Crime/53), T. P. K. Beedi Factory at Badagara (RC no. 1804 – 3/Crime/53), Raja Beedi Company at Chawghat (RC no. 2707/Crime/53), and Lion Beedi Factory at Perinthalmanna (RC no. 2179/Crime/53) struck work in 1953 for various reasons. The year 1954 witnessed strikes at the Raja Beedi Factory at Talikulam (RC no. 276/Crime/54) and Pakshimark Beedi Company at Kollaengode (RC no. 277/Crime/54). Files are collected from the Kerala State Archives, Calicut.

21. B. V. N. Naidu, Report of the Court of Enquiry into Labour Conditions in Beedi, Cigar, Snuff, Tobacco-curing and Tanning Industries (Madras, 1947).

22. RC no. 1804 – 3/Crime/53.

23. Satyagraha is a nonviolent form of protest conceived and popularized by Mahatma Gandhi during the Indian independence movement.

24. An anna is equal to one sixteenth of an Indian rupee. One rupee is equal to 100 paise.

25. Letter from the District Superintendent of Police to the Inspector General of Police (September 16, 1953). Kerala State Archives, Calicut.

26. Letter from the District Superintendent of Police to the Inspector General of Police (October 16, 1953). Kerala State Archives, Calicut.

27. Letter from the District Superintendent of Police to the Inspector General of Police (November 22, 1953). Kerala State Archives, Calicut.

28. Writ Petition in the High Court of Judicature at Madras. No. 476 of 1954, February 20, 1956.

29. R. Venkataraman, Labour Law Journal: Part 1 (reprint) (Allahabad, 1975), 746–47.

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31. Lieten, G. K., “Progressive State Governments: An Assessment of First Communist Ministry in Kerala,” Economic and Political Weekly 14 (1979): 29–39Google Scholar.

32. Lieten, “Progressive State Governments,” 34.

33. Karshaka Sangham is an agricultural workers’ organization.

34. The Communist Party of India's Palghat congress of 1956 had clearly reaffirmed that a peaceful achievement of fundamental goals was possible. In fact, nearly one-third of the delegates in the Congress advocated the formation of a national front, in alliance with the Indian National Congress. By 1957, a directive from the CPI Politburo went on to affirm that Parliament and state legislatures were the most important forums for fighting for the people and the country. In the Kerala context, the theory of “peaceful transition to communism” was put forward as a suitable strategy for the communist government. The demand for “cooperation between workers and capitalists” in Kerala was raised by Ajoy Ghosh, the national secretary of the CPI. Although the number of strikes in Kerala increased during the period, their duration shortened considerably, as strikes were often initiated in order to orchestrate government mediation. Industrial peace nonetheless deteriorated due to increased lockouts initiated by industrialists who felt threatened by the government's political orientation and political agitations launched by noncommunist trade unions. See G. K. Lieten, “The Scope for People's Democracy in Indian States – The Case for Kerala,” Journal of Contemporary Asia 8 (1978): 513–30; Lieten, “Progressive State Governments.”

35. Industrial unrest increased and “the number of man-days lost increased from 204,730 in 1956–57 to 1,222,378 in 1957–58.” See Heller, The Labor of Development, 175. “While at the time of the installation of the communist regime, on April 5th 1957, Kerala had only 499 pending labour cases, in the course of mere one year, until March 31, 1958, the number of new unsettled disputes shot to 6,285. This was a considerable increase of 1,175%.” See M. Victor Fic, Peaceful Transformation to Communism in India 1954–1957: A Comparative Study of Kerala (Doctoral dissertation, Indian School of International Studies, JNU, n.d.), 697–98. This massive increase in strike activities and labor disputes was part of the CPI's plan to promote class struggle. See Heller, The Labor of Development, 174.

36. Lieten, “Progressive State Governments.”

37. This happened in the district of Quilon as a result of a clash between a group of workers affiliated with the CPI and noncommunist workers who were conducting a sit-in strike at the Chandanathope Hindustan Cashew Nut factory on the same day. About forty police officers were injured by stone throwing. As the situation became a law-and-order issue, the police opened fire, killing two workers. See Proclamation in Relation to Kerala (1958), Rajya Sabha Debates, 1551.

38. International Labour Organisation Report on India (July 1958). Minimum Wages in Beedi Industry: Kerala Government Proposes Inter-state Talks. CeMIS Digital Archives, 10.

39. Report of the Tripartite Committee, 2.

40. Proceedings of the Kerala Legislative Assembly (KLA), July 13, 1957. Question no. 603 [42], 619–20. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

41. Proceedings of the KLA, December 19, 1957, 356. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

42. Proceedings of the KLA, December 19, 1957. Question no. 252 [14], 598. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

43. ILO India Report (July 1958), 10.

44. Proceedings of the KLA, March 24, 1959, 2213–14. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

45. T. M. T. Isaac, R. Franke, and P. Raghavan, Democracy at Work in an Indian Industrial Cooperative: The Story of Kerala Dinesh Beedi (Ithaca, NY, 1998), 60–61.

46. Proceedings of the KLA, 1959. Calling attention under rule 66, July 2, 1958, 214–15. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

47. Proceedings of the KLA, 1960. The Kerala Beedi and Cigar Industrial Premises (Regulation of Conditions of Work) Bill. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

48. Ibid.

49. Ibid.

50. The Indian Labour Year Book of 1965 (Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, 1967).

51. Kerala Beedi and Cigar Industrial Premises Act, 1961. Government of Kerala.

52. Lok Sabha Debates, November 22, 1957. Lok Sabha Digital Library, Government of India.

53. Ibid.

54. A. K. Gopalan, in the Lok Sabha debates on the Beedi Cigar Bill in 1966, pointed out the loopholes of the bill: “as soon as the Bill is passed big factories can say the factory is closed and they can have some contractors or have out-door work” (Lok Sabha Debates, November 1, 1966, Columns 189–90).

55. A central legislation, like the Beedi and Cigar Workers Act of 1966, had to be formally ratified by each federal states before it could be implemented.

56. See Thekke Kalathil and Abraham, “Regulation and Resistance”.

57. Proceedings of the KLA, 28 July 1967, 3304–12. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

58. “Beedi Vyavasayam Mysoorilekku Mattilla: Government Vendathu Cheyyumennu Thozhil Mantri” [Beedi Industry Won't be Shifted to Mysore: Labour Minister Gives Assurance], Mathrubhumi, October 16, 1968.

59. Mohandas, M. and Kumar, P. V. P., “Impact of Co-operativisation on Working Conditions: Study of Beedi Industry in Kerala,” Economic and Political Weekly 27 (1992): 1333–38, 1333Google Scholar.

60. Mangalore Ganesh Beedi Works and Others vs Union of India and Others. See Mohandas and Kumar, “Impact of Co-operativisation,” 1333.

61. See Mohandas and Kumar, “Impact of Co-operativisation,” 1333; P. Rustagi et al., Survey of Studies on Beedi Industry: With Special Emphasis on Women and Child Labour (New Delhi, 2009), 6.

62. Proceedings of the KLA, November 27, 1968, 2845. Digital Archives of KLA, Government of Kerala.

63. A. K. Gopalan, “Ganesh Beedi Kuzhappam: Thohzilalikalum Governmentum Vittuveezhcha Cheyyanam” [The Issues at Ganesh Beedi Company: The Workers and Government Must Compromise], Mathrubhumi, October 30, 1968.

64. Gopalan, “Ganesh Beedi Kuzhappam.”

65. In this system, passbooks are issued by employers to home-based workers in their name. The workers are then provided with raw materials and the employers, by means of middlemen, collect the beedis by paying the workers pre-agreed wages for the number of beedis they have rolled. See Mohandas, M., “Beedi Workers in Kerala: Conditions of Life and Work,” Economic and Political Weekly 15 (1980): 1517–23, 1517Google Scholar.

66. The RSS is a Hindu right-wing organization. It was established in 1925 with the objective of fostering broader Hindu unity.

67. We Accuse: An Anatomy of the CPI(M)-CITU Murder Politics in Kerala (Cochin, 1988).

68. Isaac, Franke, and Raghavan, Democracy at Work, 65.

69. Isaac, Franke, and Raghavan, Democracy at Work, 67.

70. Panikkar, G. K., Thrilling Story of Kerala Dinesh Beedi: A Look Back on Working Various Facets – Problems and Achievements (Kannur, 1998)Google Scholar.

71. Isaac, Franke, and Raghavan, Democracy at Work, 75.

72. Isaac, Franke, and Raghavan, Democracy at Work.