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Ragi, Rice and Four-yard Dhoties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Enid Perlin
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Extract

Turning to the history of Indian industrial labour conditions from a first degree in British and European history, with their wealth of first class literature on the industrial revolution, was something of a disappointment. The majority of Indianist historical studies in this field concentrate on the more institutional sides of unionisation, or on economic aspects, while much of the sociology of industrialisation (especially the material produced in the 1960's) to which I turned appeared to consist largely of blueprints for the distortion of whole cultures in the name of modernity and progress.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 1978 , pp. 32 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1978

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References

Notes

(1) The first All India Factory Act came into force in 1882.

(2) The General Government has now decreed that workers retiring at this time should have three years added to their service records, for gratuity purposes. (Gratuities take the place of retirement pensions). Many mill operatives have, in fact, worked anything up to eighteen years longer than this.

(3) These consist of: a) ‘muster rolls’, snowing workers and fathers' names, some sixteen caste names, payment rates and actual earnings, attendances and thus absentee patterns; b) a ledger with the same data for non-manual staff; c) a collection of factory inspectors' reports and recommendations.

(4) The dwellings would have been mostly one-roomed, mud-floored with woven palm thatching. These ‘SALAIS’ were the typical South Indian poorer villager's house until quite recently.

(5) Dadar was a densely populated area of alleyways between tenements of several stories, often with open drains, almost totally devoid of light and air, where even today, several mill families share one room. From the main road, one can see a dozen mill chimneys from any vantage point.

(6) The basic feature of all houses in Tamilnadu is the front raised porch/verandah, roofed, which is used for sleeping in hot weather, for informal social gatherings, etc.

(7) This is a variety of grain of the millet family, which, lacking the social prestige attached to polished rice, in fact provides a healthier diet.

(8) Kerala State, as it is now, borders Tamilnadu only some thirty miles from Coimbatore town, and many Malayan's migrated into the town, and the mills from the Keralan town of Falghat and its environs. The mountains are the Western Ghats.

(9) My interpreter, ‘Satchi’, was a young student, more mature and flexible in his outloos than many of his middle class contemporaries. He was good humoured over the discovery that, where one section of the Indian population was concerned, he knew very little; he subsequently showed an enthusiastic and thoughtfull involvement in our work, far beyond the requirements of his interpreting work, and became a first class assistant as well as a good friend.

(10) …and those who had, perhaps, fancied a half-hour break from the machines! All, however, could give us useful information about childhood living standards, etc.

(11) Recording duties consisted of registering workers' identity numbers, for timekeeping and payments.

(12) By the time we came to our last mill, word had obviously spread around Kattor about who we were, and what we were doing. Thus Satchi's introductory speech was often cut short with: ‘It's O.K. We know all about her…tell her she can begin her questions.

(13) In State-owned mills, at least, the Deamess Allowance is a supplement to wages intended to compensate for the rise in prices of foodstuffs and other essentials like kerosene, over the past few years. It is now larger than the actual wages paid!

(14) With successive factory act amendments, the legal age tor adult full time employment was raised. Under-age children could oe legally employed on a half time basis only.

(15) ….by speeding-up machinery, or increasing the number of machines or machinesides to be worked by each operative.

(16) …and, he said, he was always hungry from the amount of running he had to do as Doffing Boy, with baskets of spindles.

(17) A jutka is a horse-drawn covered vehicle, still the cheapest kind of Indian taxi.

(18) This implies replacement of mud and thatch with bricks and tiles - cement floors — at least two rooms — and tap water ar least nearby, if not in the house.

(19) According to whether it is accompanied by ‘Conjam’, (a little) or ‘Romba’, (much/very) “Kashtam’ can mean anything from ‘It was a bit difficult/tiring/distressing….’ to ‘We had a terrible time making ends meet / working 12 hours a day / walking 5 miles each way ….’ etc.