333 
CHAPTER XVIIL.—INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES. 
At this stage of India’s industrial history it is unnecessary for us 
to emphasise the importance of taking all reasonable measures to promote 
industrial peace. The loss occasioned by industrial disputes to employers, 
employed and the public at large has produced a general anxiety to find 
methods of preventing the occurrence of strikes and lock-outs and secur- 
ing their speedy termination when they occur. We propose first to trace 
briefly the course of industrial unrest in India and thereafter to attempt 
50 analyse the causes of industrial strife. We shall then review the 
methods already adopted for the prevention and settlement of disputes 
and make our recommendations in this connection. 
Emergence of Strikes. 
Prior to the winter of 1918-19, a strike was a rare occurrence in 
Indian industry. Strikes took place occasionally on the railways and in 
other branches of industry ; but to the majority of industrial workers 
the use of the strike was probably unknown. Lacking leadership and 
organisation, and deeply imbued with a passive outlook on life, the vast 
majority of industrial workers regarded the return to the village as the 
only alternative to the endurance of hard conditions in industry. The 
end of the war saw an immediate change. There were some important 
strikes in the cold weather of 1918-19; they were more numerous in 
the following winter and in the winter of 1920-21 industrial strife became 
almost general in organised industry. The main cause was the realisa- 
bion of the potentialities of the strike in the existing situation, and this 
was assisted by the emergence of trade union organisers, by the educa- 
tion which the war had given to the masses and by a scarcity of labour 
arising from the expansion of industry and aggravated by the great 
epidemics of influenza. 
Statistics of Disputes. 
After that winter industrial unrest slowly subsided, but the strike 
weapon remained and since that date strikes have been a concomitant 
of Indian industry. The following figures of reported disputes involving 
stoppages of work for the period 1921-30 have been furnished by the 
Government of India :— 
(ear. 
$ 
1921 
1922 
1923 
1924 
1925 
1926 ve wt oe 
1927 “s we "e 
1028 wy iv nt 
[929 .e 
1930 
» 
.e 
ve 
» 
Number of | 
stoppages 
geginning 
luring the 
vear. 
376 
272 
209 
32 
33 
bi 
29 
90 
“0A 
in 
Number of 
workers ~ 
involved 
thousands). 
300 
135 
301 
2 
70 
RY 
132 
507 
<2] 
Number of 
working 
days lost 
(in 
lakhs). 
| 
70 
40 
51 
vi 
Loa 
110 
202 
316 
122 
or