Working class struggles, labour elites and closed shops: the lessons from India’s trade unions and experiences of organisation

This paper will reflect on the history of the India’s trade unions of unskilled labour, their origins under colonial rule, transformation during the first decades of Independence, and decline with the crises of the old colonial industries. While referring to studies on trade unions elsewhere, the paper will focus on the fate of trade unions in and around Calcutta, particularly – drawing on historical and contemporary work by both authors – of the colonial jute industry and the industrial neighbourhoods in which large numbers of migrant workers from different parts of India came to work.