The role of Madras in establishing the first workers union in the country is a matter of record. The Madras Labour Union was set up in 1918, and in just a couple of years, it mediated in a stand-off with the management of an industrial unit. Over a century ago, to the month, the city witnessed what could arguably be called the fiercest battle that union workers fought in Chennai.
On August 29, 1921, a woman worker, along with six others, fell to the bullets of the policemen who fired on the striking workers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills (B&C Mills) in Perambur.
“Will Chennai create a memorial for the woman who was known for her bravery,” wrote labour leader Singaravelu Chettiar, narrating the funeral procession of the bodies in Chennai. Another prominent union leader and Tamil scholar Thiru. Vi. Kalyanasundaranar (Thiru. Vi. Ka.) cited this article and said it belongs to history.
What had happened in 1921 was the continuation of the unrest and the first strike in the mill, which was then known as Binny Mills. A European official had entered the mill with a revolver on October 20, 1920. It shocked the workers and caused an intense argument. One of the workers snatched the revolver from the official. The next day, the company announced a lockout and brought in workers from the outside. The mill workers, to protest, threw stones on the lorries carrying the outsiders, leading to violence and police firing.
The 1920 police firing
“Two youth were killed and a few were injured in the police shooting on December 9, 1920. They were the first to lay down their lives for the sake of the trade union movement,” writes Thiru. Vi. Ka., who was the leader of the Madras Labour Union.
Thiru. Vi. Ka. was one of the 10 members of the lockout committee, who were prohibited by the Madras High Court from addressing any meeting. The others were B.P. Wadia, G. Ramanjala Naidu, Vedachalam, S. Natesa Mudaliar, Varadaraja Nayakar, Kesavalu Naidu, Saitjalal, K.M. Nadesa Nayakar and Namasivayam Pillai. The case of the management was that the leaders had instigated the workers and the strike had caused financial losses to the company. It demanded ₹75,000 as compensation. Noted lawyers, including C.P. Ramsamy Iyer, Alladi Krishnasamy Iyer, and S. Durasamy Iyer, represented workers in the Madras High Court presided over by Justice Philips.
The Making of the Madras Working Class, a book by D. Veeraraghavan, gives a detailed account of the story of the disputes and the Buckingham Mill Co., owned by Binny and Co., an old and reputed business house. The mill itself was registered on August 17, 1876, with the objective of working a spinning and weaving mill, buying cotton, wool, and other fibres and spinning and weaving the same, and marketing the materials so manufactured. The mill commenced working on the site in Perambur in January 1878. Soon, Binny and Co. started a sister mill known as the Carnatic Mills in 1884, and the property came to be known as B&C Mills.
D. Veeraraghavan, who has drawn on the memoir of Thiru. Vi. Ka., says the unrest had its roots in some disagreement over interpretation of the recommendations of the Madras High Court.
“The management declared on March 23, 1920, that they would not grant gratuity to men with less than 10 years’ service and that the 4-annas rice allowance would take effect only from March 15. The union, which had accepted the award of the Court of Enquiry of March 8, 1920, insisted that the rice allowance be paid from February,” writes Veeraraghavan.
As an agreement could not be reached in the meeting with the management, the workers went on strike on March 23. Arundale, the well-known theosophist and the president of the Union, did not approve and sought to persuade them to return to work and offered to represent their case to the Governor. The Labour Commissioner took a similar stand. After holding out for three days, the workers withdrew the strike on March 27 and agreed to accept the interpretation of the Labour Commissioner.
“It was the first strike in the B&C Mills after the union was formed. This strike indicated many features that were to become prominent during the later ones.” writes Veeraraghavan. There were also rumours that the Congress had provided financial help in a big way and it has been recorded in Veeraragahavan’s book. The Madras Mail alleged that Thiru. Vi. Ka. had received a lakh of rupees as aid to the workers on strike. Thiru. Vi. Ka. denied the report and threatened to sue the daily for libel.
Attempt to divide workers
In 1921, when the mills witnessed a second strike, a considerable section of the workers belonging to the Adi Dravidar community did not join. Veeraragahavan says that although the caste leaders and the Assistant Commissioner of Labour played a great part in influencing the decision of the Adi Dravidars, the experience of the workers during the three-month lockout must have weighed in equally in their decision-making process. “The Adi Dravidars were not prepared for another long period of unemployment and suffering,” he writes. Thiru. Vi. Ka. describes it as an attempt to create division among the workers along caste lines.
“There was a campaign that the Adi Dravidars would get a lot of benefits. Some listened to the management while a lot of others decided to stand by other workers. It gave me immense happiness,” he says. Despite the efforts of the union leaders to unite the workers as a class, the mill areas witnessed a communal conflict between strikers and strike-breakers. There was burning of houses and violence.
The police came out with an announcement that personnel would be posted in sensitive areas, and the government proposed to recover the cost of the punitive police stationed in the disturbed area from the taxpayers of the locality. The Hindu also has reported about the stand of the Madras Labour Union on October 14, 1921. The police firing had killed seven workers, including a woman.
“Binny and Co. succeeded in crushing the union with the assistance of the State, by promoting communal divisions among the workers. The Madras Labour Union and the labour movement in the city in general took considerable time to recover from this catastrophic defeat,” writes Veeraraghavan.
It is another matter that the fortunes of the B&C Mills also dwindled and for years the mill complex provided the backdrop for fight scenes in movies. The buildings were razed in 2017, and the private land, worth crores of rupees, was finally sold to a real estate developer for property development.
