The First Trade Union and Trade Unionist 

On 24 April 1890, the Race Course Ground in Bombay witnessed a massive public meeting of more than 10,000 workers, organised by Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, considered the Father of Indian Trade Union Movement. This meeting, in which many women workers were reported to have made very interesting speeches, is said to be the most notable public gathering mobilised by Lokhande, who established the Bombay Mill Hands Association (BMHA)—the first labour organisation in the country in 1884.

Born in 1848 in Thane, Narayan Lokhande started his career with the railways and the postal department. Afterwards, he joined the Mandavi Textile Mills as Store Keeper in 1870. This mill-life experience provided him ample first-hand exposure to the exploitative nature of factory work, and the miserable living conditions of the mill hands, prompting him to organise them for their basic rights.

Till the enactment of Factory Act in 1881, there was no legislation that protected the workers, who toiled in appalling conditions in Indian factories. As regular work commenced very early in the day, workers had to assemble at dawn; many of them even slept outside the mill gates to avoid reporting late. Workers were allowed hardly any rest. Contrary to the stipulation of a recess of half an hour for meals, the de facto break was often only for 15 to 20 minutes. In several cases, workers had to have their meals while at work because the machines had to be in operation without a break. The workplaces were unhygienic, ill-ventilated and without proper sanitation facilities. To top it all, the temperature in the factories was excruciating due to the constant running of machines. Such arduous work, without any weekly off, literally burned out the workers who could not continue working beyond 5-6 years. Except for a very few Hindu festivals, the factories functioned throughout the year. The exploitation in the factories assumed greater gravity on account of the considerable presence of women and children in the workforce. As per the Census Report of 1881, the share of both female and child labourers (below 15 years) stood at around 23 per cent each in Bombay textile mills, and the working time ranged from 10 to 14 hours.

The growing concern about this exploitative nature of work in factories impelled the government to enact the Factory Act of 1881, despite organised resistance from the mill owners. The Act (which was applicable to factories working for more than 4 months a year and employing more than 100 workers) contained some protective provisions for child workers. It banned the employment of children below 7 years and fixed a ceiling of 9 hours work for children between 7-12 years. Further, it was stipulated that these child workers must be given a break of one hour during their daily work, besides allowing one holiday per week. Despite the protective provisions for child workers, the Act invited intense criticism because it grossly ignored the concerns of adult mill workers, thereby paving way to the appointment of the Factory Commission in 1884.

The appointment of Factory Commission was viewed by Lokhande (and his supporters in the newly formed BMHA) as an opportunity to formally place the grievances of the workers before the government. They gathered thousands of signatures of mill operatives, submitted memoranda and gave valuable evidence before the Commission, highlighting the exploitative work conditions that prevailed in the textile mills of Bombay.  Lokhande’s petition to the Factory Commission as the President of BMHA is considered prophetic, as many of the concepts used in contemporary labour welfare literature (such as accident relief and compensation, death gratuity and family pension) seem to have been envisioned by the leader in this seminal document.

The Association organised a public meeting of mill workers at Parel on 23 September 1884, which was the first ever meeting of industrial workers in the history of the region. The resolution passed in the meeting demanded a weekly holiday for workers on Sunday; half-an-hour recess for lunch every day; the stipulation of working hours (from 6.30 a.m. to sunset); compensation for injury and so on. Though these demands remained unmet for years because of the adamant stance of the mill owners, this episode in history denotes the origin of working class consciousness and organised collective bargaining in India.

In 1890, BMHA started an agitation against the arbitrary decision of the mill owners to close down the mills two days every week, citing the dwindling demand for cloth in the market as the reason. Lokhande organised the remarkable gathering of mill hands on 24 April 1890 in the Race Course Ground at Mahalaxmi in connection with this agitation. The organised strength of workers got its first victory when the mill owners’ association accepted the right to a weekly holiday (Sunday) in their meeting of 10 June 1890.

When the Factory Labour Commission was constituted by the Government of India in 1890, Lokhande was included as an Associate Member for the Bombay Presidency. The contributions of Lokhande were considered significant in forming the provisions of Factory Act passed in 1891 and which came to existence from January 1892. The Act, made applicable to all factories employing more than 10 employees, included several welfare provisions such as measures for ventilation and sanitation; banning of work by children below 9 years; stipulation of working hours (9 for children aged 9-14 and 11 for women workers) and a provision of 4 holidays per month for women and children.

Labour Mobilisation for Social Action 

For Lokhande, trade unionism was a means for addressing social issues and injustice. He considered economic betterment and social justice as the dual goals of worker collectivity. An ardent follower of Jyotirao Phule, a renowned social reformer in Maharashtra, Lokhande was highly influenced by the activities of Satyashodhak Samaj, and devoted his life in fighting social ills and improving the status of the downtrodden.

He served as Editor of the first labour journal in the country, Deenbandhu (`Friend of the Poor`), in Marathi from 1880 till his death in 1897.  The journal, which was started in 1877 by Bhalekar (a colleague of Jyotirao Phule), had been discontinued when Lokhande took over the editorship. With the help of financially well-off friends, Lokhande published the journal without any interruption throughout his tenure. Besides labour and social issues, he also wrote influential editorial notes for Hindu-Muslim unity.

Lokhande also organised different occupational groups and marginalised segments such as barbers, rickshaw pullers, women workers and so on. All these mobilisations were unique in the compassion they showed to social issues alongside labour concerns.  Lokhande was a pioneering leader, who spoke openly against atrocities on women. He organised a unique meeting of about 500 barbers in March 1890, in which the participants passed a resolution that thenceforth they would not practise the ‘barbaric’ act of shaving the heads of widows! Documented evidence reveals that the first protest of women workers in India was organised by Lokhande at the erstwhile Jacob Mills in Bombay on 25 March 1895. The demands raised in the protest included equal wages for equal work, paid weekly holidays and an eight-hour working day. By successfully mobilising women workers and involving them in organisational activities, he provided a strong base to link women in India’s freedom struggle at the grassroots. In 1893, immediately after the communal riots, Lokhande organised an all-religion get together, attended by more than 60,000 people. Lokhande also started a hospital to provide medical facilities to the poor and the under-privileged. He was actively involved in relief work when Bombay and its suburbs were in the grip of plague in 1896. This tireless work itself led to his death due to plague on 9 February 1897.

The interventions of Narayan Lokhande apropos the mobilisation of factory labour in Bombay region and his fight against social evils represent a unique phase in the labour history of India, in which workers’ grievances were represented mainly in the form of constitutional agitation and petitions appealing the government. Lokhande’s initiatives ensured a strong foundation for the Indian labour movement to fight for betterment of conditions at work and for social causes. Despite all these, the contributions of Lokhande remain largely overlooked and unsung. An exception to this neglect is the recent release of a commemorative postage stamp on Lokhande (in May 2005), as a mark of respect to the renowned trade unionist.

[Major Sources: Pandit, Nalini (1997):‘ Narayan Mekhaji Lokhande: The Father of Trade Union Movement in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, February 15; Vishwadev (2007):  India`s First Labour Leader: Narayanji Lokhande, The Working Journalist, September]