The Indian Railway Workers and the Crisis of 1974

Abstract

1974 was the year of a momentous crisis in India as well as the year of the general strike by the railway workers in the country. This was in a sense the last of the classic general strikes in India, and certainly the last general strike in the railway industry. The article discusses as the backdrop to the strike the crisis in Indian economy and politics, and then moves on to the response of the working class to the crisis. If this is the general theme, the article in particular discusses the role of the rank and file in railway workers' resistance. The article traces the events of 1973, and shows how through the year of 1973 the mood of the working people had become defiant and shifted fundamentally to the left. Significantly, vital sectors of economy, the infrastructure and logistical industry in particular, experienced more unrest and work stoppages, with consequences and chain reactions spread all over. The defiant mood the workers proved scant respect and obedience of the people toward the forces of authority, law, and order. The crisis devoured the workers' own traditional organizational form and style also. In the context of all these, the article suggests a return to a discussion on the classic question of the meaning of crisis. It argues that for an analysis of the historical process of labor mobilization in the time of a crisis, the development or nondevelopment of rank and file becomes a matter of fundamental importance.