Who among the following created the first All India Trade Union Congress in 1920?
- (a)B. P. Wadia
- (b)S. A. Dange
- (c)N. M. Joshi
- (d)B. T. Ranadive
Correct — C, N. M. Joshi. Narayan Malhar Joshi, a member of the Servants of India Society, is the organiser among these four names behind the founding of the All India Trade Union Congress. Preparations began on 16 July 1920, when a convention in Bombay resolved to hold an all-India trade union congress, and the founding conference opened on 31 October 1920 at the Empire Theatre in Bombay with 101 delegates from 64 unions representing 1,40,854 members. Joshi was among the founders and went on to be the trade union movement's steadiest institutional presence, sitting in the Central Legislative Assembly as a labour representative and pressing for factory legislation. Two names worth attaching to the same conference are not in the option list at all: Lala Lajpat Rai was the founding president, and Dewan Chaman Lall the first general secretary.
- (a)B. P. Wadia — Wadia belongs two years earlier and further south — he founded the Madras Labour Union in April 1918. He attended the founding conference of the AITUC but did not create it.
- (b)S. A. Dange — Dange was a founder of Indian communism, tried in the Kanpur conspiracy case of 1924 and later a leading figure in the AITUC, but he came into its leadership after its founding, not at it.
- (d)B. T. Ranadive — Ranadive was born in 1904 and belongs to a later generation of communist trade unionism altogether. He was a schoolboy in 1920.
The AITUC was created in 1920 for a specific reason: the International Labour Organisation had been set up in 1919 and India needed a recognised body to nominate a workers' delegate to its conferences. It was formed at a moment of unusual labour militancy — a great Bombay textile strike in 1918 that spread until 1,25,000 workers were out by January 1919, and 200 strikes involving fifteen lakh workers in the first half of 1920 alone. It is India's oldest trade union federation and has been associated with the Communist Party of India since the splits of the 1940s, but at its founding it was a broad front.
The safest way through this item is to date each name. Wadia is 1918 and Madras; Dange is the 1920s communist movement; Ranadive is later still; only Joshi is squarely a 1920 organiser of an all-India body. The item is also a reminder that the best-remembered name at an event is not always the organiser: the founding conference was presided over by Lala Lajpat Rai and addressed by Motilal Nehru, M. A. Jinnah and Annie Besant, none of whom built the organisation. When a stem uses a word like created, look for the person who did the work rather than the person on the platform.
- The AITUC's founding conference opened on 31 October 1920 at the Empire Theatre, Bombay.
- Lala Lajpat Rai was its founding president and Dewan Chaman Lall its first general secretary.
- 101 delegates from 64 unions, representing 1,40,854 members, attended; a reception committee of 500 was chaired by Joseph Baptista.
- It is the oldest trade union federation in India and is now associated with the Communist Party of India.
- The immediate spur was the founding of the International Labour Organisation in 1919, which required India to send a workers' delegate.
- 1918 — B. P. Wadia and V. Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar found the Madras Labour Union, the first union in the modern sense
- 1918 to January 1919 — the Bombay textile strike spreads until about 1,25,000 workers are out
- 1919 — the International Labour Organisation is founded, and India must send a workers' delegate
- 16 July 1920 — a convention in Bombay resolves to hold an all-India trade union congress
- 31 October 1920 — the AITUC's founding conference at the Empire Theatre, Bombay: Lala Lajpat Rai presides, Dewan Chaman Lall is general secretary, N. M. Joshi among the founders
A union first, then a federation. Wadia belongs to the first step and Joshi to the second, which is what separates the two names in this paper.
- Choosing B. P. Wadia because his name is attached to India's first union. First union and first federation are different milestones two years apart.
- Assuming the presiding figure created the body. Lala Lajpat Rai presided in 1920 and is not among the options.
- Placing Dange or Ranadive in 1920. Both belong to later phases of communist trade unionism.
As a founder-and-year item on the AITUC, or as a matching item pairing trade union federations with their founding years and political affiliations.
Consider the following statements: 1. The Factories Act, 1881 was passed with a view to fix the wages of industrial workers and to allow the workers to form trade unions. 2. N. M. Lokhande was a pioneer in organizing the labour movement in British India. Which of the above statements is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
The generation before this one. Lokhande organised Bombay mill hands in the 1880s, when the Factories Act still dealt only with hours and child labour and no legal right to combine existed — which is why a federation had to wait until 1920 and legal recognition until 1926.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The first president of the All India Trade Union Congress, at its founding conference in 1920, was which one of the following?
- (a)N. M. Joshi
- (b)Lala Lajpat Rai
- (c)Dewan Chaman Lall
- (d)Joseph Baptista
Answer(b) Lala Lajpat Rai — he presided over the founding conference at Bombay, with Dewan Chaman Lall as general secretary.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The immediate external reason for founding an all-India trade union federation in 1920 was which one of the following?
- (a)The need to nominate India's workers' delegate to the International Labour Organisation
- (b)The passing of the Trade Unions Act
- (c)The Non-Cooperation Movement
- (d)The Rowlatt Act
Answer(a) The need to nominate India's workers' delegate to the International Labour Organisation, which had been founded in 1919.