Empire, Industry and Class: The Imperial Nexus of Jute, 1840-1940

285 Pages·2012·2.594 MB·English

by  Anthony Cox

Empire, Industry and Class
Presenting a new approach towards the social history of working classes in the
imperial context, this book looks at the formation of working classes in Scotland
and Bengal. It analyses the trajectory of labour market formation, labour super-
vision, cultures of labour and class formation between two regional economies –
one in an imperial country and the other in a colonial one.
The book examines the everyday lives of the jute workers of the imperial
nexus, and the impact of the Dundee School of Scottish Mechanics, Engineers
and Managers who ran the Calcutta jute industry. It goes on to challenge existing
theories of imperialism, class formation and class struggle – particularly those
that underline the exceptional nature of the Indian experience of industrialisation
– and demonstrates how and why the Empire was able to provide an opportunity
to test and perfect ways of controlling the lower classes of Dundee. These histor-
ical debates have a continued relevance as we observe the impact of globalisa-
tion and rapid industrialisation in the so-c alled developing world and the
accompanying changes in many areas of the developed world marked by
d e-i ndustrialisation. The book is of use to scholars of imperial history, labour
history, British history and South Asian history.
Anthony Cox is currently involved in teaching at the Centre of Continuing Edu-
cation at Dundee University, UK. His research interests include comparative
labour history and eighteenth century Scottish radicalism.
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Empire, Industry and Class
The imperial nexus of jute, 1840–1940
Anthony Cox
Empire, Industry and Class
The imperial nexus of jute, 1840–1940
Anthony Cox
Routledge
Taylor& Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2013
by Routledge
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© 2013 Anthony Cox
The right of Anthony Cox to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cox, Anthony.
Empire, industry and class: the imperial nexus of jute, 1840–1940/
Anthony Cox.
p. cm. – (Routledge/Edinburgh south asian studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Jute industry workers–India–Bengal–History. 2. Jute industry
workers–Scotland–History. 3. Jute industry–India–Bengal–History.
4. Jute industry–Scotland–History. 5. Jute industry workers I. Title.
HD8039.J82I4833 2012
331.7′6671309541409034–dc23 2012024223
ISBN: 978-0-415-50616-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07675-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Fir ma mither, Isobel, Helen, Wilson, Falconer
‘I’ll bury nae heid like an ostrich’s,
Nor yet believe my een and naething else.
My senses may advise me, but I’ll be
Mysel’ nae matter what they tell’s . . .’
Contents
List of figures and tables x
Preface and acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xiv
Introduction 1
1 The making and re-m aking of the imperial nexus of jute,
1840–1900 14
2 The coming of the up-c ountry men: labour conditions and
class formation in the Bengal jute industry, 1875–1910 40
3 The imperial nexus and the making of Juteopolis,
1875–1910 63
4 Working class militancy and labour politics in Juteopolis,
1885–1923 89
5 Challenging the jute wallahs: non-c ooperation,
communism and the Marwaris, 1918–30 113
6 The imperial nexus and labour politics in Dundee during
the 1920s 133
7 The breaking of the Dundee–Calcutta nexus, 1930–40 152
Conclusion 183
Glossary 194
Notes 197
Bibliography 242
Index 257
Figures and tables
Figures
1.1 Baranagore Mill Staff, 1862 21
3.1 The public notice referring to Dundee mill worker Mary
Devannah, charged under the Inebriates Act during 1905, gave
her age as 16, and her height as 5 ft (cid:1)(cid:74) in 87
7.1 Worker productivity in India and the UK, 1929–39 174
7.2 Indian exports, UK exports and the UK home market, 1929–38 176
Tables
1.1 Number of workers engaged at different machines in jute mills in
Dundee and Calcutta, c.1907 32
2.1 Growth of Bengal jute industry, 1877–8 to 1914–15 56
3.1 Wages of selected groups of workers in the Dundee jute industry,
for 1886 and 1904 67
3.2 The employment of children under 13 years of age in the Scottish
flax and jute industries 68
3.3 Infant mortality rates, 1901–20 74
3.4 Average weights of adult males in selected occupations in
Dundee, United Provinces and Bengal, 1905–8 80
3.5 Likeness and description of persons referred to in Dundee Police
Notices, April 1905 to January 1906 86
7.1 New jute machinery of different types sold to the Calcutta jute
industry, 1934–9 162
Preface and acknowledgements
I come from Arbroath, where jute, alongside fishing and engineering, used to be
a predominant influence. My maternal family arrived in the town in the eight-
eenth century when the Falconers arrived from their home in the Mearns to take
up hand-l oom weaving, and generations of my female relatives worked at the
jute and the flax. As a 15-year-o ld schoolboy, I was also sent by my school to
work amidst the stoor and din of the preparing sheds at ‘Franny Webster’s’
Burnside mill, but left after a few months on the advice of my grandfather who,
even in the late 1970s, knew the end was drawing near for the once mighty
staple industry. I was encouraged to become an apprentice engineer, but little did
I, or indeed my grandfather, suspect that time was also running out for this other
local staple industry.
In the early 1990s, after spending most of the 1980s as an activist and full-
time organiser with the Militant Tendency, jute very unexpectedly came back
into my life when I became a student at Edinburgh University. I quickly gravi-
tated towards Indian history, which was taught by Crispin Bates, an enthusiastic
young academic recently arrived from Cambridge, who encouraged me to
become an ‘Indianist’ despite my initial scepticism regarding my lack of obvious
qualifications. Without Crispin’s perseverance, and that of the other accom-
plished tutors on the exemplary ‘Rise and Demise of Imperialism’ history
course, this book would never have been conceived let alone written. It was
Crispin who first suggested the idea of doing a Ph.D. comprising a comparative
history of jute labour and who encouraged me to persevere with the project after
I left Edinburgh University without being able to secure funding. During this
time, I conducted research at the University of Dundee archives and was taken
under the wing of Professor David Swinfen who arranged funding for me and
who supervised my work during the first year of research. After many years I
have become re-a cquainted with Professor Swinfen who has again proved to be
methodical and constructive in his criticisms of various drafts of this work. In
my second year of research I transferred to Trinity College, Cambridge, where I
was supervised by the late Rajnarayan Chandavarkar. Before meeting Raj I knew
and admired him as a formidable historian of Indian industrial labour, and in the
course of being supervised by him my admiration for his keen intellect increased.
I know that if Raj were still alive that he would have been able to make this a