Undervalued Dissent

Manjusha Nair

Description

Honorable Mention, 2018 Global Division Book Award presented by the Global Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems

Historically, the Indian state has not offered welfare and social rights to all of its citizens, yet a remarkable characteristic of its polity has been the ability of citizens to dissent in a democratic way. In Undervalued Dissent, Manjusha Nair argues that this democratic space has been vanishing slowly. Based on extensive fieldwork in Chhattisgarh, a regional state in central India, this book examines two different informal workers' movements. Informal workers are not part of organized labor unions and make up eighty-five percent of the Indian workforce. The first movement started in 1977 and was a success, while the other movement began in 1989 and still continues today, without success. The workers in both movements had similar backgrounds, skills, demands, and strategies. Nair maintains that the first movement succeeded because the workers contended within a labor regime that allowed space for democratic dissent, and the second movement failed because they contested within a widely altered labor regime following neoliberal reforms, where these spaces of democratic dissent were preempted. The key difference between the two regimes, Nair suggests, is not in the withdrawal of a prolabor state from its protective and regulatory role, as has been argued by many, but rather in the rise of a new kind of state that became functionally decentralized, economically predatory, and politically communalized. These changes, Nair concludes, successfully de-democratized labor politics in India.
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. The Shifting State-Labor Relations in India

2. Mining for the Nation: Inclusion and Exclusion in the Mining Township

3. Determined to Win: The Mine-Workers’ Success

4. The Neoliberal Developmental State in Chhattisgarh

5. Molding Lives in the Steel City

6. The Taming of Dissent: The Industrial Workers’ Failure

Conclusion
Notes
Glossary of Indian Words
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Labor Relations
• Trade Unions
• Movimiento sindical
• Sociology
• Industrial relations
• Political economy
• 20th century
• Trade union
• History of Asia
• Central
• National

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 17 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438462479
• Langue: English

Extrait

UNDERVALUED DISSENT
SUNY series in Global Modernity

Arif Dirlik, editor
UNDERVALUED DISSENT
INFORMAL WORKERS’ POLITICS IN INDIA
Manjusha Nair
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Emily Keneston
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nair, Manjusha, author.
Title: Undervalued dissent : informal workers’ politics in India / Manjusha Nair.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2016] | Series: SUNY series in global modernity | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016014401 (print) | LCCN 2016007285 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438462479 (e-book) | ISBN 9781438462455 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Labor movement—Political aspects—India—History—20th century. | Labor unions—India—History—20th century. | Industrial relations—India—History—20th century. | Labor policy—India—History—20th century. | India—Politics and government—1977–
Classification: LCC HD8686.5 (print) | LCC HD8686.5.N25 2016 (ebook) | DDC 322/.20954—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016014401
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my maternal grandmother
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Shifting State-Labor Relations in India
2 Mining for the Nation: Inclusion and Exclusion in the Mining Township
3 Determined to Win: The Mine-Workers’ Success
4 The Neoliberal Developmental State in Chhattisgarh
5 Molding Lives in the Steel City
6 The Taming of Dissent: The Industrial Workers’ Failure
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary of Indian Words
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Map
Map of Chhattisgarh and the Research Sites
Figures
I.1 Explaining Movement Success and Failure
2.1 Statue of the “Brave Worker”
5.1 Chick Sellers in a Minidoor
6.1 Bicycles in Front of the Union Office
6.2 Street Play in a Village
Tables
1.1 Distribution of Employment between Formal and Informal Sectors in India
1.2 Estimate of Informal Employment in India
1.3 Growth of Registered Trade Unions and their Membership, 1996 to 2008
4.1 Development Indicators of Chhattisgarh
5.1 Average Daily Wage Rate of Workers in Bhilai
List of Abbreviations ACC Associated Cement Company AITUC All India Trade Union Congress BEC Bhilai Engineering Corporation BJP Bharatiya Janata Party BMS Bharatiya Mazdur Sangh BSP Bhilai Steel Plant, not to be confused with Bahujan Samaj Party CMM Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha CMSS Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh Congress Party Indian National Congress CPI Communist Party of India FDI Foreign Direct Investment INTUC Indian National Trade Union Congress SAIL Steel Authority of India Limited
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the kind support of a myriad of individuals and institutions. I am grateful to József Böröcz for his mentorship for over fifteen years. I was a naive graduate student when I joined Rutgers University and József has inspired me to be a rigorous academic and to produce scholarship that is original. Gay Seidman has supported my professional life in manifold ways. Ethel Brooks’s enthusiasm has enlivened my graduate life experience, and Robyn Rodriguez has skillfully balanced her roles as mentor and friend. Paul McLean has been a genuine supporter of my academic efforts. I thank all of them wholeheartedly for molding me into a mature scholar.
During my graduate student life at Rutgers, I have been fortunate to have interacted with numerous individuals in New York, New Jersey, and the wider United States. Associations with Charles Tilly, Ann Mische, Mahua Sarkar, James Jasper, A. Aneesh, Jayeeta Sharma, Phaedra Daipha, Tarini Bedi, Vikash Singh, Elizabeth Williamson, Vanina Leschziner, Sunchul Kim, Sarah Rosenfield, and Dmitry Khodyakov have been profoundly rewarding. John Levi Martin has influenced my thinking more than he knows through the theories of class I read with him. Friendship with Erka Kosta, Bijita Majumdar, Shruti Devgan, King-to Yeung, Alena Alamgir, Bariş Mucen, Saurabh Singh, Shilpa Shanbag, Arpita Chakrabarty, Wenbo Lu, Maria Islas, and Dianne Yarnell has been the best I could ask for. Indrani and the late Manabendra Chowdhury provided an extended family home in New York. I am grateful to all of them.
The International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council and summer research and travel grants from Rutgers and Princeton Universities made the fieldwork for this book possible. Many institutions and individuals in India and elsewhere assisted in this research, and I am able to name only a few of them here. I specifically thank the librarians and administrators of Jawaharlal Nehru University library, the Central Secretariat library, Ministry of Steel at Udyog Bhavan, Communist Party of India office at Ajoy Bhavan, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and the V. V. Giri National Labour Institute. I am grateful to Sudha Bharadwaj, Jonathan Parry, Praveen Jha, Ajay T. G., Arindam and Sanghamitra Chakravarty, V. Kumari Sunitha, Abdul Rahman P. K., Bino Paul, A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Rehana Ali, Sunil, and Reti for helping me at various stages of this research.
I thank Andrew Kenyon, my editor at SUNY Press, for finding value in this book. Two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript gave valuable suggestions to improve the book. I have presented parts of this book at the Market and Modernities Workshop at the University of Toronto, the Contentious Politics Workshop at Columbia University, the Politics and Protest Workshop at CUNY Graduate Center, the Asia Research Institute, and the Longue-durée Comparisons workshop at the National University of Singapore.
Since I moved to my first academic job at the National University of Singapore, I have been lucky enough to find a new intellectual community in Singapore. Interactions with Prasenjit Duara, Vineeta Sinha, Chua Beng Huat, Rahul Mukherji, John Harriss, Gyanesh and Medha Kudaisya, Jean Yeung, Suriani Suratman, and Subrata Mitra have been helpful to my scholarly and professional life. Kurtuluş Gemici has been a perfect friend, ally, and listener to ideas. I have learned many a writing skill from the workshop organized by him and Qiushi Feng. Annu Jalais and I continue to mirror each other’s hearts. Kelvin Low, Noorman Abdullah, and Indira Arumugam remain my faithful triad. Anne Raffin, France Borel, Anjali Mukherji, Emily Chua, Ho Swee Lin, Xiaohong Xu, Xiang Biao, Ivan Kwek, Jeong-Hwa Ho, Sooyeon Kim, Vincent Chua, Malini Sur, Daniel Goh, Ali Kadri, Linda Matar, Kankana Mukhopadhyay, Maunaguru Sidharthan, Subhashish Ray, Kriti Vikram, Arnab Roy Chowdhury, and Himanshu Jha have made life in Singapore pleasant. I extend my gratitude to them.
I thank my family for their unconditional support. My parents-in-law Biren Das and Mira Raha Das and sister-in-law Debjani Das have always encouraged my research and undertook their own kind field visits to cheer me up. My parents Sasidharan Nair and the late Bhavani Amma made the wise choices that have shaped my life. My sister Priya S. Nair has been a flawless partner in crime. My maternal aunt Ambika Devi, uncle Sreekantan Nair, cousin S. Srikanth, and stepmother Soudamini Kutty have been considerate and affectionate. My maternal grandmother Aravindakshy Amma taught me that politics is good and encouraged me to cross boundaries. I dedicate this book to her.
Dhiman Das and I have been together throughout this project, and I cannot delineate what is his and what is my contribution to this book, let alone find words to show gratitude. I can thank him nevertheless for the many services of incalculable value through these years, such as sharing of newsfeeds, twenty-four-hour technical help, and, finally, drawing the map of Chhattisgarh for this book. Our children Aniket and Aditi have added more meaning and purpose to writing books. I love them deeply and think of this book as as much theirs as mine. I thank Ofelia Sible for caring for my children and keeping the household functioning while I was writing this book.
Finally, I am grateful to the people in Bhilai and Dalli-Rajhara. I would like to name a few, such as Kousalya Bai, Ghasneen Bai, Ramadheen Sahoo, and Hemchand Devangan who have been generous with their time and help. This work would not have been possible without the quotidian support that I got from them and many others in the form of a cup of tea, a ride behind a bicycle, a plate of food, and a place to sleep. These were not always easy things to come by in their lives, but still they offered them to me with dignity.
Introduction
In 1977, the contract workers of the state-owned iron ore mines in Dalli-Rajhara Township, in the Chhattisgarh state in central India, unsettled the entire town with an insurgent strike. These workers were predominantly Chhattisgarhiya , or natives of Chhattisgarh, with cultural and linguistic characteristics separat