Which one among the following was India’s first trade union in the proper sense of the term?
- (a)Bombay Labour Union
- (b)Ahmedabad Labour Union
- (c)Madras Labour Union
- (d)Allahabad Labour Union
Correct — C, Madras Labour Union. It was founded on 13 April 1918 by B. P. Wadia together with V. Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar, among the textile workers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills, and it is treated as India's first trade union in the proper sense because it was a permanent organisation with office bearers, a subscription and a continuing life, rather than a strike committee that dissolved when the dispute ended. That is the distinction the phrase in the stem is pointing at. Earlier bodies such as N. M. Lokhande's Bombay Mill Hands Association of 1890 were welfare and petition associations without membership dues or a formal constitution. The other three names in the option list are not historical organisations at all.
- (a)Bombay Labour Union — Bombay was the centre of Indian industry and of the 1918 textile strike, which makes this the most plausible-sounding option, but no body of this name holds the first place. Bombay's early organisation was the Mill Hands Association of 1890, which was not a union in the full sense.
- (b)Ahmedabad Labour Union — Ahmedabad's landmark body is the Textile Labour Association, the Majoor Mahajan Sangh, founded by Gandhi in 1920 after the 1918 mill strike — two years after Madras and under a different name.
- (d)Allahabad Labour Union — Allahabad was a centre of nationalist politics and of the Servants of India Society's work, but not of organised industrial labour, and no such union holds this place.
A trade union in the proper sense is a permanent combination of workers formed to regulate the terms of their employment, with a constitution, elected officers and members who pay subscriptions. India had labour agitation for decades before it had unions of that kind: strikes were common from the 1880s, and philanthropic associations spoke for workers, but the organisations dissolved when the immediate cause passed. Legal recognition came only with the Trade Unions Act of 1926, which gave registered unions immunity from certain civil and criminal proceedings.
The phrase in the proper sense of the term is doing all the work in this stem, and it is worth pausing on. Without it, Lokhande's Bombay Mill Hands Association of 1890 would be a reasonable answer. With it, the question is asking for the first permanent, constituted union, and that is Madras in 1918. The founding also cost Wadia dearly: the mill owners obtained an injunction against him and sued for damages for inducing breach of contract, and it was that litigation, which left union organisers personally liable, that made a protective statute necessary and led to the Act of 1926.
- The Madras Labour Union was founded on 13 April 1918 by B. P. Wadia with V. Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar.
- Its members were workers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills at Madras.
- Wadia was a theosophist associated with the Theosophical Society at Adyar before he turned to labour organisation.
- The Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association, the Majoor Mahajan Sangh, was founded by Gandhi in 1920, after Madras.
- The Trade Unions Act, 1926 gave registered unions legal recognition and protected office bearers from suits of the kind brought against Wadia.
- Reaching for Bombay because it was India's industrial capital. The first constituted union was in Madras.
- Confusing the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association with a body called the Ahmedabad Labour Union.
- Forgetting the qualifier in the proper sense of the term, which is what excludes the earlier welfare associations.
As a first-of-its-kind item on the labour movement, or as a founder-and-year pairing across the early unions.
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
Sets up exactly the distinction this CDS item turns on. Lokhande pioneered labour organisation in the 1880s, but the Factories Act of 1881 neither fixed wages nor allowed combination — which is why a permanent union had to wait until Madras in 1918.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Madras Labour Union of 1918 was founded among the workers of which industry?
- (a)Railways
- (b)Textile mills
- (c)Dock and port
- (d)Coal mines
Answer(b) Textile mills — its members were the workers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills at Madras.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Textile Labour Association at Ahmedabad, known as the Majoor Mahajan Sangh, was founded in 1920 by which one of the following?
- (a)B. P. Wadia
- (b)Mahatma Gandhi
- (c)N. M. Joshi
- (d)Lala Lajpat Rai
Answer(b) Mahatma Gandhi — he built it after the 1918 Ahmedabad mill strike, on the principle of arbitration between mill owners and workers.