The Madras Labour Union, considered the first trade union of India, was founded in 1918 by
- A.Singaravelu Chettiar
- B.B. P. Wadia
- C.N. M. Joshi
- D.S. A. Dange
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, B. P. Wadia. Bahman Pestonji Wadia, a theosophist associated with Annie Besant, organised the workers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills at Madras in 1918 into the Madras Labour Union, the first body in India with members, subscriptions and office bearers, and therefore the first trade union in the modern sense. Option A is wrong because Singaravelu Chettiar is remembered for organising the first May Day in India at Madras on 1 May 1923 and for the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan. Option C is wrong because N. M. Joshi was a moderate trade unionist who led the walkout from the AITUC at Nagpur in 1929 and formed the All India Trade Union Federation. Option D is wrong because S. A. Dange was a Bombay communist of the Girni Kamgar Union, an accused in both the Kanpur and the Meerut cases.
Read the full article: Trade Unions and the Left Movement in British India: Notes
Practice Questions
View allWho among the following was NOT associated with the Kanpur Conspiracy Case of 1924?
- A.Muzaffar Ahmed
- B.Nalini Gupta
- C.Shaukat Usmani
- D.M.A. Ansari
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Ansari. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari was a physician and a Congress leader who presided over the Madras session of the Congress in 1927; he had nothing to do with the communist prosecutions and was never an accused in the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case.
Read the full explanation →The Bombay Mill-Hands Association, regarded as the first labour association in India, was founded in 1884 by
- A.Narayan Meghaji Lokhande
- B.Sasipada Banerjee
- C.B. P. Wadia
- D.Dewan Chaman Lall
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A follower of Jyotiba Phule and the editor of the Marathi paper Dinbandhu, Lokhande organised the Bombay mill workers in 1884 and placed their demands for shorter hours and a weekly holiday before the Factory Commission, which is why the body is called the first labour association in India.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first president of the All India Trade Union Congress, founded in 1920?
- A.Dewan Chaman Lall
- B.Joseph Baptista
- C.Lala Lajpat Rai
- D.V. V. Giri
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The All India Trade Union Congress was founded at Bombay on 31 October 1920 and Lala Lajpat Rai, the Punjab Congress leader, took the chair as its first president, linking the labour cause to the national movement.
Read the full explanation →The Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association, known as the Majoor Mahajan Sangh and founded in 1920, grew out of a strike led by
- A.Mahatma Gandhi
- B.Vallabhbhai Patel
- C.Indulal Yagnik
- D.Lala Lajpat Rai
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In 1918 Gandhi led the Ahmedabad mill workers in their demand for a wage rise and undertook his first fast as a weapon in an industrial dispute; out of that struggle grew the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association in 1920, which stood for arbitration between workers and owners rather than class…
Read the full explanation →Which Act first gave registered trade unions in India a legal personality and immunity from certain civil suits?
- A.The Factory Act, 1881
- B.The Trade Unions Act, 1926
- C.The Trade Disputes Act, 1929
- D.The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
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It allowed unions to register, gave a registered union the standing of a body that could hold property and sue, and protected its office bearers from certain civil suits and from the charge of criminal conspiracy for lawful union work.
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