Though many had expected that industrialisation would lead India to both a modernisation of production and a universal 'freeing' of labour, this has not happened. Instead new forms of tying labour are emerging. Simultaneously, labour relations are in a process of radical change because, though impoverished labourers may still be tied by debt, tied relations today are very largely economic in content. They are increasingly bereft of the extra- economic control and coercion that rural employers used to exert over their labour forces. For this reason it is argued that, rather than a process of 'deproletarianisation', it is a very slow and uneven process of the self-won emancipation of labour that is under way. These emancipatory processes are greatly endangered by policies that seek to deregulate labour, and for this reason the World Bank's uncritical endorsement of deregulation is found to be deeply flawed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Avachat, A.1978. Bidi workers of Nipani. Economic and political weekly13, 29-30: 1176-78, 1203-5.
2.
Banerjee, N. ed., 1991. Indian women in a changing industrial scenario. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
3.
Brass, T.1997. Immobilised workers, footloose theory. The journal of peasant studies24, 4: 337-58.
4.
Breman, J.1974. Patronage and exploitation: Changing agrarian relations in south Gujarat, India. Berkeley: University of California Press.
5.
—. 1978. Seasonal migration and co-operative capitalism: Crushing of cane and of labour by sugar factories of Bardoli. Economic and political weekly13, 31-33: 1317-60.
6.
—. 1985. Of peasants, migrants and paupers: Rural labour circulation and capitalist production in West India. Oxford/ Delhi: Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press.
7.
—. 1988. The renaissance of Social Darwinism. Lecture on the Occasion of the Dies Natalis, Institute of Social Studies. The Hague. Subsequently published in 1990 in summarised format as: Agrarian change and class conflict . In G. McNicoll and M. Cain, eds., Rural development and population: institutions and policy. The Population Council. New York : Oxford University Press.
8.
—. 1994. Wage hunters and gatherers: Search for work in the urban and rural economy of south Gujarat. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
9.
—. 1996. Footloose labour: Working in India's informal economy . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.
—. n.d. Labour in the informal sector of the economy. In V. Das, ed., The encyclopedia of sociology and social anthropology. Delhi: Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
11.
Chandra, B.1966. The rise and growth of economic nationalism in India: Economic policies of Indian national leadership, 1880-1905. New Delhi: People's Publishing House.
12.
Crook, N.1993. Labour and the steel towns. In P. Robb, ed., Dalit movements and the meanings of labour in India, pp. 338-54. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
13.
Das, A.N.1983. The Indian working class: Relations of production and reproduction. In A.N. Das, V. Nilkant, and P.S. Dubey , eds., The worker and the working class: A labour studies anthology, pp. 161-80. Delhi: Public Enterprises Centre for Continuing Education.
14.
Government of India (GOI).1969. Report of the National Commission on Labour. New Delhi : Ministry of Labour.
15.
Harriss, J.1986. The working poor and the labour aristocracy in a South Indian city: A descriptive and analytical account. Modern Asian studies20, 2: 231-83.
16.
Hart, K.1973. Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana. Journal of modern African studies11, 1: 61-89.
17.
Holmström, M.1976. South Indian factory workers: Their life and their world . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18.
—. 1984. Industry and inequality: The social anthropology of Indian labour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19.
Joshi, H. and V. Joshi.1976. Surplus labour and the city: A study ofBombay. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
20.
Kanappan, S.1970. Labour force commitment in early stages of industrialisation . Indian journal of industrial relations5, 3: 290-349.
21.
Kapadia, K.M. and S.D. Pillai.1972. Industrialisation and rural society: A study of Atul-Bulsar region. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.
22.
Mohandas, M.1980. Beedi workers in Kerala: Conditions of life and work. Economic and political weekly15, 36: 1517-23.
23.
Omvedt, G.1981. Capitalist agriculture and rural classes. Economic and political weekly 16, 52: Review of Agriculture, A 140-A159.
24.
Ornati, O.A.1955. Jobs and workers in India. Institute of International Industrial and Labour Relations. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
25.
Pant, S.C.1965. Indian labour problems. Allahabad: Chaitanya Publishing House.
26.
Papola, T.S., P.P. Ghosh and A.N. Sharma, eds. 1993. Labour, employment and industrial relations in India. Delhi: The Indian Society of Labour Economics and B.R. Publishing Corporation.
27.
Patel, B.B.1988. Workers of closed mills: Patterns and problems of their absorption in a metropolitan labour market. New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing Co.
28.
Ram, K.1983. The Indian working class and the peasantry: A review of current evidence on interlinks between the two classes. In A.N. Das, V. Nilkant , and P.S. Dubey, eds., The worker and the working class: A labour studies anthology, pp. 181-86. Delhi : Public Enterprises Centre for Continuing Education .
29.
Ramachandran, V.K.1990. Wage labour and unfreedom in agriculture: An Indian case study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
30.
Ramaswamy, U.1983. Work, union and community: Industrial man in south India . Delhi: Oxford University Press .
31.
Rudra, A.1978. Class relations in Indian agriculture—I, II, III . Economic and political weekly, 13, 22-23, 24: 916-23, 963-68, 998-1004.
32.
Rutten, M.A.F.1994. Farms and factories: Social profile of large farmers and rural industrialists in West India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
33.
Sharma, R.N.1982. Job mobility in a stagnant labour market. Indian journal of industrial relations17, 4: 521-38.
34.
Singh, M.1990The political economy of unorganised industry: A study of the labour process. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
35.
Streefkerk, H.1985. Industrial transition in rural India: Artisans, traders and tribals in south Gujarat. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.
36.
Thorner, D.1980. The shaping of modem India. New Delhi : Allied Publishers.
37.
Van Der Loop, Theo.1996. Industrial dynamics and fragmented labour markets: Construction firms and labour markets in India. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
38.
Venkata Ratnam, C.S.1996. Tripartism and structural changes: The case of India. Indian journal of industrial relations31, 3: 346-78.
39.
World Development Report.1995. Workers in an integrating world. Washington, D.C./ Oxford: The World Bank and Oxford University Press.
