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