The Labour Act of 1938 under the ‘Nationalist’ Government

In the history of the strikes in colonial Bombay, the strike of November 1938 was significant for its organisers and the forces who broke the strike. It was the first time that ­B R Ambedkar’s political party—the Independent Labour Party (ILP)—and communists came together to strike against the ­Industrial Disputes Bill that the Indian National Congress’s provincial government in Bombay Presidency had introduced only two months earlier. Conventional labour historiography has not given impor­tance to non-leftist organisations contributing to the lab­our movement. Workers’ involvement in the events of 1938 reveals that the ILP was one of the strongest labour and anti-caste org­anisations in the history of Bombay’s labour movement.

This paper focuses on debates between the Congress and the ILP on the Trade Disputes Bill (TDB) of November 1938. It examines the Congress government policies on working-class issues. The ­paper argues that the contradictions in the Congress’s ideology and practice suggest that the nationalists were not just simply protecting capitalist class interests, but the ideology also kept changing under the domain of caste, class hegemonic nationalism. By looking at the November 1938 strike and its larger context, this paper examines how the Congress government justified and supported the violence on workers under the framework of their nationalistic agenda. Also, this paper exa­mines how Ambedkar analysed the importance of labour rights to protect democratic values.