Non-Cooperation Movement and Non-Plantation Labour Strike in Assam

 

[10] UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN ASSAM FROM 1921 TO 1947: Non-Cooperation Movement and Non-Plantation Labour Strike in Assam.

 Besides the tea garden workers of Assam in another field also a number of strikes took place. The Railway workers in the state struck work during 1920-21. But even before that, in 1918 an instance of a strike by the Assam Government Press Employees struck work.  The strike continued for 29 days and all the printing works of the Government came to a halt and all official publications had to be suspended. Important Government notifications like postings, transfers, and appointments of officials had to be communicated by wire as the State Gazatte could not be published¹.

The next strike was that of the workers of the Dibru-Sadia Railways. About 500 employees of the Dibru-Sadia Railway workshop at Dibrugarh struck work on the 21^st April 1922.²

The workers of the said railway struck work demanding a fifty percent increase of pay and also for entitlement of some allowances which the supervisors and the middle management cadre employees were.‘The strike continued until the 12^th May 1922’.³ The authorities were compelled to come to terms. The worker’s salary was increased by thirty to thirty-five percent; in the case of those receiving wages below rupees one hundred⁴. The workers of Assam- Bengal Railways and the Steamer Workers of East Bengal resorted to an indefinite strike to protest against the oppression of the British Government towards the plantation labourers of Chandpur in Assam in 1921. The railway workers had their grievances too. They unionized on 5^th May 1921, under the banner of “ The Assam Bengal Railway Workers’ Union” under the presidentship of Jatindra Mohan Sengupta. They tried to ventilate their grievances through this union to the authorities against inadequate pay, discrimination in leave rules, non-sanctioning for free passes, wrongful dismissal, and non-allotment of quarters to the Indian employees etc⁵. Hartal was observed in protest of  Gurkha outrage at Chandpur and in a number of places in East Bengal and Silchar and Sunamganj⁶. In Sylhet district, there was a strike at the Bhanga Saw Mills owing to the manager’s refusal to take back a dismissed man⁷.

Dibru-Sadia Railway Strike (1928) : The working of  Dibru-Sadia Railways’ who went on strike in 1920 and succeeded in getting their pay increased by thirty to thirty-five percent, again went on strike in 1928 demanding a wage increase About four hundred and thirty (430)  workers had been involved in the strike and the company had to concede to the worker's demands. The management ultimately declared a fifteen to twenty-five percent increase in the wages on different categories of labour and only then on the sixteenth day since its beginning, the workers called off the strikes⁸.

Assam Match Factory Workers’ Strike: The workers of the Assam Match Company- Dhubri went on strike in 1928. The Swedish-owned company had a working force of nearly five hundred heads⁹. The Company was making huge profits since its beginning but the workers were ill-paid. Not only that, as time rolled on wage reduction became a regular feature of the company's administration¹⁰. The worker of the factory had the support of local citizens. The Conference of the Goalpara Youth Association which was being held at Dhubri under the presidentship of Nripendra Chandra Banerjee at the same time, expressed its sympathy to the workers at the factory.¹¹  The case of match factory workers was also taken up by the local Congressmen and also the revolutionaries of Goalpara under the banner of social workers. The management of the factory was firmed in their stand and they did not yield to the workers’ pressure. The strike ultimately did not succeed. Fifteen men were discharged. Other workers were joined from 9 November evening¹². That fifteen discharged men were hired houses in the Dhubri Bazar and they shows their protest by hoisting a Swaraj flag and placards inscribed “Be men again” – “ Independence for India”. They were financially assisted by the daughter of Goalpara Zamindar¹³.

All the 350 workers of the match factory of Dhubry were again on a 57 days strike, in protest against retrenchment in 1935-36. The strike was led by Bipin Chandra Chakravarty of Bengal. The workers won this time almost all their demands¹⁴.

Again for the third time, Dhubri Match factory workers struck work on 14 December 1936. The strike was lasted for more than one year.  But the Swedish authority did not compromised with the worker's demands and the strike totally failed. A Board of Conciliation set up by the Government failed to achieve settlement¹⁵. Sayed Saadulla adopted one novel method of compromise to deal with the strike Committee was to make twenty of their activist special constables for maintaining peace.  Defected workers at the end of the year, December 1937,  drifted back to work¹⁶.  

Jorhat Police Strike: The Constable of Assam Police went on a strike at Jorhat in 1929. The strike attracted the serious attention of the British Government as never before had such a strike taken place in the police department in the province. The trouble started when some policemen numbering about twenty-two, physically assaulted some people in the Kengapatti area of Jorhat in the evening of 16^th August, 1929.¹⁷  A general strike was observed in Jorhat on 19^th August, protesting against the police action and demanding punishment for the constables involved in the incident. The Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police visited the place for on-the-spot enquiry.  Four constables were arrested and sent up for trial. This action led to discontent among the armed constables. They called a meeting on 22^nd August, where they decided for a strike against their authority.¹⁸   The Deputy Commissioner immediately called on the Assam Valley Light Horse for aid which took possession of the police line in the following morning ¹⁹. Ninety constables were dismissed from the service and other offenders were given departmental punishment.  The strike were dismissed and arrested.²⁰   Thus the first strike of armed police personnel in Assam came to an end.

 The period 1936 - 39 opened in an atmosphere of labour unrest in Assam. The Congress Socialist Party had been active in probing for grievances both among industrial labour in the oil fields collieries and tea gardens and among tenants of certain Zamindars. The idea of a no-rent campaign was abroad in connection with the local Board Elections, which returned a substantial number of Congressmen.²¹  The period also saw a way of strikes in the plantation, oil, match and other small industries as well as among the other wage-earning population of the state. These movements were clearly anti-imperialist orientation.²²   At the same Dibrugarh came into the limelight when a strike of the steamer ghat workers there was successfully led by Kedernath Goswami, Congressman at that time.²³  The labourers working in a Cotton Godown of a Marwari merchant at Dhubri, who had struck work demanding an increased rate of wages, resumed only when the merchant acceded to their demands.²⁴  

Strike and Lockout at Digboi.

The most  serious strike was organized by the 10,000 oil workers of Digboi in 1838-39.  They were mobilized byChowdhuryChowkha Singh of Jamsedpur, who came to Tinsukia( then in the Lakhimpur district) for the purpose of starting Labour Unions and foment strikes among the employees of the Assam Oil Company at Tinsukia and Digboi. A meeting was held on 25^th September 1929 at Tinsukia for the purpose.²⁵  The workers were also impressed by the speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru, delivered during the visit to labour areas of Upper Assam, including Digboi and Doom-Dooma in 1937, talk of capitalist exploitation with reference to the Assam Oil Company and the British Plantation Companies. Subhas Chandra Bush who was at that time with the strikers of  JamsedpurTinplat Company, Came to know the miserable condition of the labourers of Digboi Oil Company and sent Saw Karim and Swami Jitanada to Digboi to organize the Oil Company workers. The oil Company workers were agitated over the questions of law wages, the retrenchment and the non-recognition of Bunglow servants as company employees. On February 22, 1938, the workers held a general meeting and formed the AOC Labour Union, which was registered subsequently on August 7, 1938, under the Trade Union Act, of 1928. The workers under the leadership of Sudhindra Pramanik, a trade unionist from Bengal, formed a strike committee and submitted to the company a 14 days strike day along with a twelve-point charter of demands(Guha, pp 237-246). The heroic struggle that they launched against the company and the Government to get their demands fulfilled brought not only retrenchment or loss of jobs to many but even loss of lives of four workers Praneswar Choudhury, Saiten Chakraberty,  Chandi Ahir and Birbam Keot.²⁶

The struggle ended with triumph on the Government side, which in its prolonged and tireless endeavours to suppress the movement declared the Digboi – Tinsukia area a protected one under the Defense of India Rule, promulgated in Assam in 1939, and cancelled the registration of the Union on January 10, 1940, on technical grounds(Guha). The Digboi Oil workers  organization was so strong that it was only on 25^th May 1939,  that the company was able to resume production” .²⁷  

The Digboi Oil Company strike had a great impact all over Assam. Everywhere the workers, including the drivers and mechanics of Shillong and those serving under the Municipal Board, were forming their unions and striking workers for periods of varying lengths causing “a good deal of trouble” to the Authorities(Guha). The workers of Lidu tea garden came to Tinsukia with groups and protested against the stop of water supply by the Company. In these strikes, the brain persons were Kedar Nath Goswami, Binoy Chakravarty and Nilmani Borthakur.²⁸  

The outburst of the Second World War (1939) created some new problems for the labourers. The labourers became discontented with the hike in the price of the commodities and the increase in workload for the war. They also demanded extra payment for overtime work. Under the Indian Defense Act, many works leader were imprisoned. Many worker's leaders were punished for their participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement. The All India Trade Union also failed to accept a definite programme. During the period The Trade Union Congress played the same role as the Indian Communists.

This is how the people of Assam from both plantations and no plantation sectors rebelled or protested against the British in conjunction with the freedom struggle.

 

    References:

        

• 1     Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947,  New Delhi, 1977, p-107) .

• 2.      Confidential, Demi-official no. 807-c. dated Shilllong, the 1st May 1922, From A.W. Botham, Esq., Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Assam. To TheHon’ble Mr. S.P.O’Donnel, CIE, I.C.S., Secretary to the Govt. of India, Home Department, Simla.

  3.      Confidential , Demi-official no. 807-c. dated Shilllong, the 1st May 1922, From A.W. Botham, Esq., Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Assam. To The Hon’ble Mr. S.P.O’Donnel, CIE, I.C.S., Secretary to the Govt. of India, Home Department, Simla p-36.

  4.       Assam Labour Enquiry Committee Report No. 2, PP 7-8.

  5.      Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-32 op. cit.  The Statement,  5 June , 1921  .

  6.      P. Saha, History of Working  Class  Movement in Bengal, New Delhi, 1978, p-48. 

  7.      Home Poll. File No. 18, Confidential, 1922,  P-12

  8.      Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947, op. cit, p-188

  9.      Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-32 op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika ,  November 9, 1928  and  September 6, 1929. 

  10.   Assam Police Abstract Intelligence , File No – 106, February 1936.

  11.  Home Poll. File No-1,  Fortnightly Report for Second Half of November 1928.

  12.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-41 ,op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika, 14 November, 1928, p-6 .

  13.  Home Pol., File No-17, Poll.F.R.for the second half of November 1928.

  14.  Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947,  New Delhi, 1977, P-189 .

  15.  Administrative Reports 1925 - 1926, File No. – 81, Year 1937-38

  16.  Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947, op. cit, p-188

  17.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P- 42 op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika, 1stSeptember , 1929,

  18.  Assamiya, Saturday, 24th August and 31st August, 1929) . 

  19.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-43 op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika, 1stSeptember , 1929, p-6 .

  20.  Assamiya, Saturday, 7th September, 1929, p-5 .

  21.  Report on the Administration of Assam for the year 1938-39

  22.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-50 .

  23.  Sarma, Golak Chandra, ShramikAndolanarDhara, Dibrugarh, 1990,  PP. -73.

  24.  Abstract of Inteligence, Assam police, File No. 18, year 1935, 1936 and 1938, State Archive, Guwahti.

  25.  Home Pol., File No-17, Poll. F.R.for the second half of September 1929.

  26.  P.H.A. File No. 171, Labour Movement in Assam , State Archive, Guwahati.

  27.  P.H.A. File No. 171, Labour Movement in Assam , State Archive, Guwahati.

  28.  Sarma, Golak Chandra, ShramikAndolanarDhara, Dibrugarh, 1990,  PP. -79.