Workers in the Swadeshi Movement

The Swadeshi Movement (1905–1911) expanded political participation beyond educated elites to urban industrial workers. Before 1905, labour strikes remained localized, sporadic, and focused strictly on economic demands such as wages and working hours. The anti-partition agitation provided an ideological backbone to worker grievances, linking economic exploitation directly to British colonial rule. Swadeshi leaders realized that targeting British capital required disrupting colonial trade, shipping, and industrial enterprises. Nationalist leaders entered industrial pockets in Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu, organizing trade unions, leading strikes, and involving factory workers in political rallies.

Prominent Leaders and Trade Union Pioneers

Several prominent nationalist leaders took active roles in organizing labour unions and guiding strikes during the anti-partition campaign.

Swadeshi Labour Leaders in Bengal

• Aswini Coomar Banerjee: A prominent lawyer who founded the Printers’ Union in 1905. He organized strikes in government presses and led jute mill workers along the Hooghly river belt.
• Prabhat Kusuma Roy Chaudhuri: Co-founded the Indian Mill Hands’ Union at Budge Budge in August 1906. He worked to protect workers from physical abuse by British managers.
• Apurba Kumar Ghosh: Worked alongside Banerjee and Roy Chaudhuri to organize transport and dock workers in Calcutta.
• Premtosh Bose: Founded the Railway Men’s Union and organized strikes across the East Indian Railway network.
• Subodh Chandra Mallik: Financed labour unions and provided financial relief to striking workers who lost their wages.

Regional Pioneers Outside Bengal

• V.O. Chidambaram Pillai: Organized the Coral Mills strike in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, in February 1908. He linked factory working conditions to colonial economic drain.
• Subramania Siva: Coordinated with Chidambaram Pillai in the Madras Presidency to organize mill workers, boatmen, and suburban railway staff.
• Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Mobilized textile mill workers in Bombay. His arrest in 1908 triggered the first political general strike by the Indian working class.
• Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh: Led railway workers and canal colony laborers in Punjab during the 1907 agrarian and industrial unrest.

Major Strikes and Labour Organizations

The Swadeshi period recorded a sharp increase in organized industrial action across government presses, railways, jute mills, and textile factories.

Government Press Strike (1905)

• In October 1905, over 200 workers at the Government of India Press in Calcutta went on strike against low wages and harsh working conditions.
• The strike lasted over a month, supported directly by Swadeshi leaders.
• This strike led to the formation of the Printers’ Union on October 21, 1905, one of the earliest organized trade unions in India.

Railway and Transport Strikes (1906)

• In July 1906, over 1,000 clerks and workers of the East Indian Railway (EIR) struck work at Asansol, Raniganj, and Jamalpur.
• The workers demanded higher pay, equal treatment with European staff, and better working hours.
• The strike paralyzed railway traffic across Bengal and Bihar, leading to the establishment of the Railway Men’s Union.

Jute Mill and Industrial Strikes

• Between 1905 and 1908, frequent strikes erupted in the jute mills along both banks of the Hooghly, including mill clusters at Budge Budge, Titagarh, and Howrah.
• Workers protested racial discrimination by European managers and demanded a reduction in 14-hour workdays.

The Coral Mill Strike (1908)

• In February 1908, workers at the British-owned Coral Cotton Mills in Tuticorin struck work under the leadership of V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Subramania Siva.
• The management surrendered to worker demands for higher wages and reduced working hours after a 10-day strike supported by local citizens.

Key Swadeshi Era Labour Organizations

Modes of Worker Participation and Impact

Workers adopted both traditional economic strikes and political demonstrations to express solidarity with the Swadeshi cause.

• Political General Strikes: On July 16, 1908, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was sentenced to six years of transportation to Mandalay. In response, over 110,000 Bombay textile workers launched a six-day political strike, one day for each year of Tilak’s sentence. Vladimir Lenin hailed this action as the awakening of the Indian proletariat.
• Financial Boycotts: Dockworkers and coolies in Calcutta and Chittagong refused to unload imported British cargo, including Manchester cloth, Liverpool salt, and foreign liquor.
• Sympathetic Strikes: When colonial police arrested nationalist leaders, workers shut down factories, tram services, and municipal works in protest.
• Support to Indigenous Enterprise: Workers actively promoted indigenous products. Boatmen in Bengal and Tamil Nadu refused to ferry passengers or goods belonging to British companies, prioritizing Swadeshi enterprises like V.O. Chidambaram Pillai’s Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company.

Decline and Limitations

The momentum of Swadeshi labour mobilization slowed after 1908 due to multiple factors.

• Colonial authorities used force to suppress strikes, deploying armed police and arresting union leaders under security laws.
• Nationalist leaders lacked a permanent organizational framework for long-term trade unionism, treating labour actions as temporary tools for political pressure.
• Factory owners replaced striking workers with blackleg labor, exploiting rural poverty.
• The Surat Split of 1907 fractured the Indian National Congress, leaving the labour movement without central political direction.

Essential Facts on Labour in Swadeshi Movement

The Bombay Textile Strike of 1908 was the first purely political strike by industrial workers in Indian history. Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin commented on this event, noting that the Indian working class had matured enough to conduct a conscious political struggle. The Printers’ Union, established on October 21, 1905, in Calcutta, was among the earliest trade unions managed by Indian leaders with a written constitution. Aswini Coomar Banerjee served as its first president. During the Coral Mill strike in Tuticorin, local citizens raised funds to feed striking workers, showing community support for industrial strikes linked to nationalist goals. The strike forced European management to grant a 50% wage increase and reduce working hours. In 1907, workers at the Clive Jute Mill in Risra struck work after European supervisors assaulted an Indian worker. This incident turned an industrial dispute into an anti-colonial struggle across the Hooghly industrial area.