Who of the following was sent as representative of labourers by Indian Government in the Washington Summit of I.L.O. in the year 1919 ?
- (a)V.P. Wadia
- (b)N.M. Joshi
- (c)C.F. Andrews
- (d)Joseph Baptista
Marked answer per the official UPPSC key — (a), V.P. (B.P.) Wadia. Flagged honestly: mainstream and authoritative sources instead document N.M. Joshi (option b) as India's workers' delegate to the first International Labour Conference held at Washington in October–November 1919. The ILO's own history and the Government of India's V.V. Giri National Labour Institute credit Narayan Malhar Joshi — founder of the All India Trade Union Congress (1920) — as the labour representative, and standard answer keys to this exact question also give N.M. Joshi. B.P. Wadia (founder of the Madras Labour Union, 1918) was a leading labour figure of the period, but no source records him as the 1919 delegate. Option (a) is retained only because the answer is fixed by the commission's key; it is not supported by the historical record.
- (b)N.M. Joshi — Marked wrong by the official key — but this is in fact the answer most sources support: N.M. Joshi is widely documented (ILO history; Govt of India's VVGNLI) as India's workers' delegate to the 1919 Washington ILC, and he went on to found the AITUC in 1920. Students should be aware that the key and mainstream sources disagree here.
- (c)C.F. Andrews — C.F. Andrews ('Deenabandhu') was an English priest and Gandhi associate who campaigned on indentured-labour and welfare issues, but he was not India's official workers' delegate to the 1919 ILO conference.
- (d)Joseph Baptista — Joseph Baptista was a Bombay-based nationalist and Home Rule leader who was also active in trade unionism, but he did not represent Indian labour at the 1919 Washington ILC.
The ILO was created in 1919 under Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles as an autonomous body affiliated to the League of Nations, built on a tripartite structure in which each member state's delegation includes government, employer and worker representatives. British India was a founding member and had to nominate a workers' delegate to the first International Labour Conference, held at Washington in October–November 1919. Identifying that first labour representative is the point of this question.
The real choice is between two labour pioneers — B.P. Wadia (Madras Labour Union, 1918) and N.M. Joshi (founder of AITUC, 1920). The ILO's own history and the Government of India's V.V. Giri National Labour Institute name N.M. Joshi as the 1919 workers' delegate, so option (b) is the historically supported answer; the official UPPSC key nonetheless marks (a) Wadia. Treat this as a flagged key discrepancy rather than proof that Wadia went.
- ILO founded 1919 under Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles; tripartite structure (government–employer–worker); HQ Geneva
- First International Labour Conference: Washington, Oct–Nov 1919; British India was a founding member
- ILO records and the Govt of India's V.V. Giri National Labour Institute name N.M. Joshi (founder of AITUC, 1920) as India's 1919 workers' delegate
- B.P./V.P. Wadia founded the Madras Labour Union (1918); the official UPPSC key marks him (a), which mainstream sources do not support
- Confusing B.P. Wadia (Madras Labour Union) with N.M. Joshi (AITUC / ILO delegate)
- Assuming C.F. Andrews — famous for indentured-labour work — was the official ILO delegate
- Reading the official key as historical proof; here the key conflicts with mainstream sources
UPPSC/UPSC pair an institution (ILO) with an Indian personality or a founding year — memorise ILO 1919 + its tripartite structure + N.M. Joshi/AITUC together.
International Labour Organization's Conventions 138 and 182 are related to
- (a) Child labour
- (b) Adaptation of agricultural practices to global climate change
- (c) Regulation of food prices and food security
- (d) Gender parity at the workplace
Answer(a) Child labour
Both test knowledge of the ILO — this UPPSC question on India's role at its founding 1919 conference, the UPSC one on the ILO's core child-labour conventions (No. 138, minimum age; No. 182, worst forms).
- practice — not a real PYQ
Narayan Malhar Joshi is best remembered as the founder in 1920 of which organisation?
- (a)All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)
- (b)Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)
- (c)Servants of India Society
- (d)Madras Labour Union
Answer(a) All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), 1920 — INTUC came in 1947, the Servants of India Society was Gokhale's (1905), and the Madras Labour Union was B.P. Wadia's (1918).
- practice — not a real PYQ
The International Labour Organization (ILO), set up in 1919, is distinctive for being based on which principle of representation?
- (a)Bipartite — only governments and workers
- (b)Tripartite — governments, employers and workers
- (c)Unitary control by the host state
- (d)Employers-only representation
Answer(b) Tripartite — each delegation combines government, employer and worker representatives.