The Indian Trade Union Movement- An Account and An Interpretation (An Old and Rare Book)

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Shiva Chandra Jha (Born-1929) has already a number of good books including "Studies in the Development of Capitalism in India" which forms the first volume of a project of Dr. Jha to study the modern Indian economic scene at depth. The present study is the second volume of his project.

After his graduation from Patna College in 1948, Dr. Jha did his higher studies in the U.S.A. He is very much in active politics and is a sitting M. P. on S. S. P. ticket.

It was before the middle of 1966 when the actual writing of this book was completed. I had planned to add two more chapters, one on the trade union movement in Indian agriculture and another on the history of the Indian labour press. But after the main writing of the manuscript I was lost in the whirlwind of electioneering. And since 1967 being Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) I have found it very difficult to afford that spare time. The upshot is that the book is as it was originally written in the first draft. Furthermore, its printing was unusually slowed down but despite that I find it has remained not devoid of typographical and proof-reading errors. Although it is mentioned in the book that an Appendix would be added at the end. I have dropped the idea now

Thus in data presentation one would find them relating to the period for which they were available to me then in 1966. And since then new developments have come into the picture which need little narration. But that was not my aim in writing this work. Although the sub-title of the book is "An Account and an Interpretation", it is less an account and more an interpretation of the Indian trade union movement. And this was the main objective in the presentation of the developments.

In the first volume of this series Studies in the Developments of Capitalism in India, my conclusion was that capitalism in India which has developed under and because of the Five Year Plans is caught in the great contradictions of the growing public sector and the growing private sector. In other words, capitalism in the present stage of its development in India has become the "weakest link" in the chain of world capitalism. Now in this volume my efforts have been to find out how far and in what ways the Indian proletariat by its past history is capable of performing the historic role of breaking this "weakest link" in India. And this historic role the Indian proletariat will perform only by being fully consistent with its historical characteristics.