Tag: India

Labour History Review

The Spectre of Communism: Print Surveillance in the Working-Class Movement of Late Colonial Calcutta (1920–1947)

Author:  Manaswini SenThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2025), 90, (3). Read this article. This paper examines how the empire’s hysteria against militant trade unionism and its anti-colonial essence lay at the root of the colonial state’s proliferation of surveillance apparatus in late colonial Bengal. It primarily focuses on how the state censored, proscribed, and surveilled the literary output of trade unionists and other … Continue reading The Spectre of Communism: Print Surveillance in the Working-Class Movement of Late Colonial Calcutta (1920–1947)

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Srajit M Kumar (Heidelberg) on time and the working-class movement in 20th century North India

My dissertation focuses upon the various intersections between time and working-class politics through a study of the North Indian industrial city of Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in the early 20th century. I interpret time here in two ways. First, in its objective sense, as in its interpretation as linear time, represented through the ‘tyranny of clock time’. In other words, how time played a central role … Continue reading Srajit M Kumar (Heidelberg) on time and the working-class movement in 20th century North India

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Events, Grants

Roundtable report: the politics of overseas labour migrations from India

Pritam Singh reports on the roundtable event ‘Freedom and Whatever that Means: A History of the Politics of Overseas Labour Migrations from India c1833-1967’. Following the abolition of slavery in 1833, colonial India was the largest supplier of labour not just to the British but also to French and Dutch colonies. Whether as convicts, as indentured workers on five-year contracts, or under debt bondage to … Continue reading Roundtable report: the politics of overseas labour migrations from India

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Events, Grants

Roundtable: the politics of overseas labour migrations from India c1833 to 1967

‘Freedom and Whatever that Means: a roundtable discussion on the politics of overseas labour migrations from India between c1833 and 1967’ takes place on 23 October 2025 from 3pm to 6pm at the Graham Wallace Room, Old Building, London School of Economics. Attendance is in-person or online via Zoom. Please register using the links below. The event is supported by a grant from the Society … Continue reading Roundtable: the politics of overseas labour migrations from India c1833 to 1967

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 89 (2024), Issue 3

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. Siân Davies reviews Randy M. Browne, The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024, pp. 224, h/b, £36, ISBN 978 15128 25862 Andrew Frow-Jones reviews Vic Gatrell, Conspiracy on Cato Street: A Tale of Liberty and Revolution in Regency London, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 89 (2024), Issue 3

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Bursary reports, Grants

The Indian Factories Act 1881 and workers’ rights

Pressure to limit working hours in India’s textile factories came from a variety of sources, as Suramya Thekke Kalathil explains. I received a grant from the Society for the Study of Labour History to attend the European Social Science History Conference at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference was jointly organized by the International Institute of Social History and University of Gothenburg and took … Continue reading The Indian Factories Act 1881 and workers’ rights

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