Chapter-1

Introduction

On 31 December 1959, eminent cinema personality and noted Bengali stage actor, Utpal
Dutt staged for the first time a mind blowing play named Angar. 1 The significance of
this play was that for the first time, the real picture of life in a colliery was represented
before the Calcutta public. The intellectual world was stunned to know about the lives of
miners and their woes. This play portrayed the foreign coal mine owners as the symbol
of capitalism. In the mines accidents were a regular affair, causing innumerable deaths.
Yet, the mine owners were indifferent to the sad state of affairs. Their only aim was to
make profit. Poisonous gas made work impossible inside the pit. Colliers were not ready
to work inside the pit under such circumstances. But the colliery owners were indifferent
to the situation. They ordered continuation of work. Therefore, the miners took resort to
cease work. It continued for forty five days. The miners were faced with food shortage.
The owners started to conspire against the workers. Some of them were even arrested.
When all the intimidating tactics failed, the owners started luring the miners. Some of the
poor miners in the play gave in under the circumstances. Disregarding the orders of the
leaders they went underground. They got trapped inside the pit when explosion occurred.
The owners took no measures to rescue the trapped miners. To save the mine, the
underground water barrier was broken. The pit became water logged. It drowned the
trapped miners. No rescue measures were undertaken by the owners. This play portrayed
the character of Mahabir Singh, a muscleman (Lathial), who was used as a strike
breaking agency by the owners. Mahabir died along with the poor entrapped miners. The
audience was kept spellbound by the representation of the grim realities about the
conditions in coal mines. It was for the first time that the conditions of colliers and the
collieries were brought to the forefront and it shocked the people of all strata of the

1
Pal, Shibananda, Bangla Chalachchitre Khoni Anchal Ebong Angar Natak, in Das Chandallya Somnath,
Hazra, Tarapada (ed), Koyla Shilper Katha: Raniganj Khoni Anchaler Itibritta, Durgapur, 2008, pp.259-
261

Before the staging of Angar a number of films were made on the collieries in Raniganj. Among them,
Patalpuri was released on 23 March 1935, Desher Mati was released in September 1938. The films that
were released were Dikshul in 1943, Chorabali in 1947. But none of these films were able to make so
much of an impact like that of Angar.

1
society. This play acted as an eye-opener. The greedy private mine owner, the hapless
poor miners, the gaseous mines and the character of Mahabir Singh as the mine owners
muscleman were actually pen-portraits of coal mines in Bengal in the colonial period.

This work seeks to examine the typical labour conditions and the problems in the coal
mining industry in late colonial Bengal. At the time when coal mining industry
underwent accelerated development in the western countries like Great Britain, USA and
Germany, the coal industry in India was still in its early childhood. Coal mining like the
plantations during the British rule, fully manifested all the symptoms of colonial
experience viz., private investment, involvement of indigenous capital, import of labour
from other parts of the country to build up a reserve of capital labour and a low level of
technology. Coal mines were essentially the secondary enclaves meant to serve the
primary metropolitan enclaves located in Calcutta, within a vast area of subsistence
agriculture. Coal mining in India until the independence in 1947 was restricted almost
entirely to the eastern part. Raniganj in Bengal was the birth place of the coal mining
industry in India since the late eighteenth century. The Raniganj-Jharia-Bokaro region
had collieries that began in colonial times. It was however, in the late nineteenth century
that coal mining gained pace in Bengal and with the expansion of railways the coal fields
of Jharia in Bihar were opened up. The necessities of fuelling the industrial-urban engine
during the British Raj, encouraged coal mining in Raniganj and Jharia. Here, coal was
first struck by Mr. Suetonius Grant Heatly and John Summer, two employees of the East
India Company in 1774. But coal mining in India continued to be sporadic in nature. The
pressure of the British capitalist community led to the slow growth of the industry in
India. However, the contemporary world situation and the realisation of economic needs
generated much enthusiasm in opening new collieries at random. The British emerged as
the main investors by the second half of the nineteenth century when, coal mining gained
momentum in the region in spite of immense difficulties. Transport of coal to the main
market in Calcutta was the main problem as, the Damodar and Ajoy rivers were not
navigable in dry season and were flood prone during monsoon. It often upset transport
schedules. Koilaghat on the river Hooghly in Calcutta was the focal point of this riverine
coal transport.

2
The Early Days of the Industry
Three factors provided the initial stimuli for growth of coal mining industry viz., the
abolition of East India Companys trading monopoly in 1813, opening of the Raniganj
mine under European supervision and the introduction of railways in 1855 to facilitate
coal transport to the market in Calcutta which, was the capital of British Empire in South
Asia till 1911.2 Till then, Bihar was an integral part of the Bengal Presidency. These two
coal fields of Raniganj and Jharia are geographically closer to each other and therefore,
have common characteristics and problems. The present work considers the socio
economic problems and conditions of living among the colliers of the Bengal coalfields
including Jharia and Giridih. The time period of our study falls within this period when
Jharia and Giridih was still a part of the Bengal Presidency. Not only Jharia, but also the
coal fields of Giridih, Daltonganj in Bihar are focused upon in the study. It traces the
chronological development of the coal industry in colonial Bengal. It considers the
colliers social organisation, job specialisation, social habits and forms of protest before
the development of trade union politics in the Bengal collieries. The work primarily
concentrates on the migrant workers in the collieries, the method of labour procurement
from the catchment areas viz., Chhota Nagpur and districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
and the role of the various private coal companies in dealing, with the colliers in
Raniganj and Jharia as well. The study also probes the living and working conditions in
the collieries and the governments initiative to improve the conditions in the mines at
various levels between 1870 and 1947, the position of women called kamins and children
and the form of exploitation prevalent in the collieries.

In 1774, when Heatly had opened his first mine, he brought in some experts from
England. Rupert William Jones, one of the early British entrepreneurs to invest in coal
mining in Bengal, was the first to employ local adivasi and lower caste labour around the
middle of nineteenth century. Peterson reported in his District Gazetteer of Burdwan in
1910, that two-thirds of the total workforce in the mining industry was locally born. Of
the different local adivasi and lower caste groups, the Bauris were the first to bring their
women into the collieries. Their contribution to the early development of Bengal coal

2
Lahiri-Dutt, Kuntala, Kamins building the empire: class, caste and gender interface in Indian collieries,
in Gier, Jaclyn and Mercier, Laurie (eds), Mining Women: Gender in the development of a global industry,
1670-2005, New York, 2006, pp. 71-87

3
mining industry was quite significant. The Bauris henceforth, came to be known as
traditional coal cutters though their traditional occupation had been agriculture-related.
The Santhals, Kols, Koras and Bhuiyas also joined the mining workforce along with their
women. Other low caste categories such as Beldars, Mullahs and Jolahas worked in
mines with their women. Upper caste women usually stayed away from the dirty, heavy
work in the collieries. Women of different local castes and communities worked in
varying proportion in the collieries. By the 1930s, women miners were employed in a
variety of operations in collieries. As steam engines phased out gin girls, in the
collieries and more and more collieries came under the Indian entrepreneurs, women
found themselves working as kamins on the surface as well as underground. In the early
days of the industry, there existed only one technique of coal production called ginning.
Till the early part of the twentieth century, shafts were sunk every few hundred feet and
quarries were often opened below the high water mark whenever, an outcrop was found
near a water way. Coal was brought from the face to pit bottom in head baskets by
women usually. There it was put into larger baskets (6-7 maunds or about 250 kg) and
wound to the surface by a winding engine called a gin. Women worked the gins
sometimes in groups of more than twenty. Small beam engines were occasionally,
employed to do the combined work of pumping and winding and were manned by three
women.3 However, eventually the women workers came to specialize as loaders- lifters
and transporters of coal cut by their male partners- father, brother or husband. This
family labour system was suitable in view of the primitive techniques used in the
shallow open caste mines, locally called pukuriya khads as well as the inclines. Two
British visitors A.A. Purcell and J. Hollsworth4 mentioned that such a family system of
labour appeared entirely different from that in our collieries (English collieries)
where, miners as an industrial working class had already been formed. Indian coal
miners collectively were not yet an industrial class. Their traditional rural roots and
occupations were still strong. The family system went on well for several social reasons
viz., the adivasi sentiments of family attachment and the unwillingness of women to

3
Lahiri-Dutt, Kuntala, From Gin Girls to Scavengers: Women in Raniganj Collieries, Economic and
Political Weekly (hereinafter EPW), November 3, 2001, p.4215
4
Sinha, Pabitrabhaskar, Development of the Mineral Industries of Bihar-Muzaffarpur, Calcutta, 1975
4
carry coal for men of another caste. This system proved economically sound, as it
provided uninterrupted maintenance of work schedule.

Indian entrepreneurs mainly landlords, eventually came to dominate coal production. As

many as thirteen of the seventeen companies were owned by Indian operators in the early
part of the twentieth century.5 Prince Dwarkanath Tagores Carr, Tagore and Company
was merged with Gilmore Humphrey and Company to form the Bengal Coal Company
in 1843. It soon became the largest operator. Carr, Tagore and Company started coal
production in Kumardihi village in Raniganj in the year 1836.6 In course of time, there
emerged some collieries in Raniganj coalfield under indigenous entrepreneurs like
Nilratan Sircars Pit No.11, Roy-Dutta, Dutta-Samanta, Goenkas Dhobabagan and
Haribagan collieries.7 These collieries were mostly unplanned wells where production
was unscientific in nature. At the face of the chanak i.e. the area on ground above a pit
where a structure of lift mechanism is located, there lay either a Kali or Hanuman
temple, so that the poor miners remained busy placing their fate upon some supreme
power. The adivasis who worked in the collieries had tough luck. They had to work
under extreme conditions. Their monthly income was restricted to Rs 5 or Rs 7. They
sought recreation in drinking liquor. From the very beginning of the industry, local
shopkeepers opened shops in the dhowrahs and bustees that sold country liquor. The
colliers sought entertainment during the festivals by drinking liquor and singing:
Chol Bhadu Chol, Kheilte Jabo
Raniganjer Bottala,
Omni Pothe Dekhai Aainbo,
Koyla khader Jol tula.8
This situation remained unchanged till the days of nationalisation of the coal industry in
1975.

5
Bhattacharyya, Harashankar, Zamindars and Patnidars: A Study of Subinfudation Under The Burdwan
Raj, Burdwan, 1985
6
Bagdi, Shyamal, Koylakuthir Prantojoner Katha, Das Chandallya, Hazra (ed), op.cit., p.174
7
ibid., p.174
8
It is a very popular Bhadu song. It means:
O Bhadu Come,
Let us play beneath the banyan tree in Raniganj
While playing we will also observe the activities in the colliery.

5
The 1870s witnessed the boom phase of the coal mining industry in Bengal. With the
expansion of railways upto Raniganj from Howrah in the 1860s, Raniganj became a hub
of mining activities. In the later years i.e. on 10 December 1906, a loop line from Andal
to Sainthia in Birbhum,9 led to expansion of coal business in Birbhum. Asansol, now a
major urban town, had then just started to develop. Barakar was the western terminus for
the East Indian Railway, whereas Andal had a large railway siding.10 Collieries located at
a distance from the railway transported their coal by bullock carts across dirt tracks. Only
those adjacent to the railway lines had sidings, which in rail terminology is a low-speed
track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch
line. Sidings often have lighter rails, meant for low speed or less heavy traffic and few
signals. Sidings are meant for loading and unloading of coal. Eventually, the Bengal
Nagpur Railway extended the subsidiary lines to the less accessible collieries after the
1930s. Thus, an intricate network of company roads grew up around the collieries.
With the problem of transport eliminated, labour procurement became easier, production
increased and the Raniganj coal found a ready market not only in Calcutta but also in far
and wide areas. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the colliers received little
support from the colonial government regarding better working conditions, higher
wages, hours of work, living and medical facilities. The concept of collective protest was
altogether absent among the colliers. The colonial government on the other hand, turned
a blind eye to the colliers problems. It was in the 1890s that the government for the first
time, set up a committee to look into the various problems of the coal industry in India.
Accordingly, an Inspector of Mines on the line of the English collieries was appointed,
for the first time. The turn of the century however, saw some government initiative that
led to the passing of a number of mining legislations starting with the Indian Mines Act
1901. Even at the turn of the century, political awareness and collective protests were
absent among the colliers in Bengal. Although in the Swadeshi11 (self-sufficiency)

9
Bagdi, Shyamal, opcit., p.174
10
Barakar and Andal were two important railway routes as also coal despatching centres.
11
The Swadeshi Movement was a part of the anti-imperialist struggle. It was an economic strategy aimed
at crippling and ruining the British Empire and improving the economic condition of the country.
Strategies of the Swadeshi movement involved boycott of the British manufactured goods and revival of
the domestic- made products and production techniques. The Swadeshi Movement started with the
partition of Bengal in 1905 and continued upto 1908. It was the most successful of the pre- Gandhian
movements. It involved a large number of people.
6
period, nationalist politicians joined hands with a segment of labour to put pressure on
European-owned mills and factories, strangely the coal sector remained strangely outside
this form of protest.

Idea of Peasant-Worker
Historians in Western Europe question linear theories on the process of proletarianization
of the English working classes.12 Historians of India project the Indian workers as
ignorant, simple minded and lacking commitment to work in industries.13 Like the jute
mill labour force, the colliers too were mostly migrants from the nearby districts and
were peasants at heart. They had one foot in their rural homelands and the other in the
coal mines. That is why, they ran to their native places at every single opportunity. The
same characteristics are noticeable among the textile workers too. Here too, one found
that the local labour was gradually displaced by workers from distant districts of Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa.14 This was perhaps, one of the root causes for the pressing
problem called absenteeism. Indeed, absenteeism was a serious issue and it continued
to be so for long among the colliers of Raniganj and Jharia. This phenomenon was also
prevalent among the Kanpur textile labour. It has been seen by some as a reflection of a
lack of commitment of the workers.15 The stereotype of the Indian worker was
characterised by irregular work habits, high rates of absenteeism and lack of a work

12
Ray, Rajat Kanta, Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal 1875-1927, Delhi, 1984;Broomfield,
J.H., Elite Conflict in Plural Society: Twentieth Century Bengal, Berkeley, 1968; Gordon, L., The
Nationalist Movement 1876-1940, Delhi, 1974; Basu, Subho, Does Class Matter? Colonial Capital and
Workers Resistance in Bengal, 1890-1937, New Delhi,2004, p.4
13
Broomfield, J.H., ibid; Chakraborty, Dipesh, Communal Riots and Labour: Bengals Jute Mill Hands in
the 1890s, Past and Present, 91, May, 1981, pp.140-169

Only exception to such historiography is Sarkar, Sumit, Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903-1908, New
Delhi, 1973 and also The conditions and nature of subaltern militancy: Bengal from Swadeshi to Non-
cooperation in Guha, Ranajit (ed), Subaltern Studies III, New Delhi, pp,271-320 in ibid., p.4 and 30ff
14
In Bombay too it had been observed by Morris D Morris that there was a trend towards recruitment of
labour from distant places
15
Moore, W. E., The Impact of the Industry, New Delhi, 1969, p.40

He defined commitment involves both the performance of appropriate actions and the acceptance of the
normative system that provides their rules and rationale, quoted in Joshi, Chitra, Kanpur Textile Labour.
Some Structural Features of Formative Years, EPW, Special Number, November, 1981, p.1837ff

7
ethic.16 Unlike the English coal miners, the Indian colliers were ignorant, simple minded
who lacked commitment to work in the mines. That was why the colliers often migrated
from one colliery to another in groups for some simple reasons or at the slightest
opportunity. Some historians have attributed the same characteristics to the industrial
labour especially the jute labour.17 It is a common belief that workers were actually
migrant peasants. Therefore, most historical accounts of Bengal and nationalist politics
dismiss workers as an insignificant political force wholly dependent on bhadralok
leadership.18

The migrant labour had been painted as hapless victims of colonial capitalism. Rural
Connections of the workers accounted for the absence of trade unions in Bengal.
Workers were still tied to their native villages, where they went back every summer to
look after their families and lands. There was therefore, no question of their undergoing a
thorough process of urbanization and losing their traditional rural identities.19
Chandravarkar on the other hand argued that rural connections strengthened workers
collective bargaining power in Bombay.20 Rural bases enabled workers to prolong their
strike action in urban areas. It has thus been taken for granted that the jute industry in
Bengal, controlled by a British dominated cartel, and the cotton textile industry in

16
Evidence of Watson, of Cooper, Allen and Co. & S. H. Freemantle, Indian Industrial Commission
1916-17 volume I, pp.66, 106 in ibid., p.1832
17
de Haan, Arjan, Unsettled Settlers: Migrant Workers and Industrial Capitalism in Calcutta, Rotterdam,
1994, p.28

This portrayal presents the picture of a highly idealised peasant worker unwilling to resist retrenchment in
the factories as he did not have a notion of life-long work. Yet de Haan fails to mention that the general
strike of 1937 was actually a protest against the continued practice of large-scale dismissal of workers
18
Ray, Rajat Kanta, op.cit., Broomfield, J. H., op.cit., Gordon, L., The Nationalist Movement 1876-1940,
Delhi, 1974
19
This argument has been forcefully observed by Rajat Kanta Ray. He dismissed the workers as an
insignificant political force that showed themselves incapable of any combination. Ray Rajat, op.cit., p.38

Ray locates the cause of the absence of trade unions in Bengal in the rural connections of the workers.
According to him, workers were still tied to their native village, where they went back every summer to
look after their families and lands. There was therefore no question of their undergoing a thorough process
of urbanisation and losing their traditional rural identities.
20
Chandravarkar, R. S., The Origin of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business Strategies and the Working
Classes in Bombay 1900-1940, Cambridge, 1994

8
Bombay owned primarily by Indian industrialists, followed contrasting courses.21
Undoubtedly in the industrial and mining areas, migrants depended upon their fellow
villagers, members of the same caste, religion, linguistic group for support and help. This
trend was most noticeable in the Bengal coalfields. Here bustees and dhowrahs i.e. living
quarters of the colliers, not only acquired their names from the dominant inhabitants, but
also demonstrated regionalism. For example there emerged Oriya Dhowrah, Nunia
Bustee etc. The colliers worked a little, made some earnings and went back to their
native villages during festivals and marriages. They went home in the harvesting months
also.

However, it cannot be said that these rural people directly transported their rural social
structure in the mining areas. Most of these colliers i.e. male migrants had spent their
childhoods in the villages and their adult working lives in the coalfield bustees and
towns. They made brief annual periodic visits to their rural bases. While the adivasi
colliers had moved in with their families, the upcountry labour came in singles.
However, unlike the jute mills and other industrial areas, single female workers were
seldom found. As the adivasis brought their female partners with them, there was no
question of complex conjugal partnership. The single upcountry labour on the other
hand, sought entertainment by visiting the prostitute quarters. Prostitution in the colliery
areas emerged as a parallel industry in the inter-war period with the influx of upcountry
labour and female refugees from eastern Bengal. Many of these female refugees who got
rehabilitated in the Raniganj coalfield ultimately took to prostitution for a living.22

Affiliation of caste, religion and region led to violence among the workers. Such trends
were common among the industrial workers and such violence could not be divorced
from wider political currents. However, such political currents developed late in the
Bengal coalfields. Actually, the worker received very little support of the colonial
government. In the absence of formal government and employer supported social
security programmes, securities and insurance against uncertainties and vulnerabilities,

21
Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, The Private Investment in India 1900-1939, New Delhi, 1980, pp.117-57

Bagchi has drawn attention to the contrast between Calcutta and Bombay in terms of industrial growth and
investment pattern.
22
Interview with Narayan Chandra Modak at Ningah on 14 April, 2007

9
the workers, according to Claude Meillassoux, had to rely on another comprehensive
socio-economic organisation to fulfil (their) vital needs.23 In most of the third world
countries complex and multiple social, political, and ritual ties prevailed. These ties
helped to provide security, insurance and subsistence. The peasants and rural artisans
were turned into industrial and mining workers and they carried these ties into their
working places. Despite the erosion of these ties to a noticeable extent, extended family
cohesion and rural networks, customary rules and practices, moral principles and
community norms and social control provided protection at the household as well as
collective or community level. In early 1930s, an important official of the Bengal
Government observed:
(There was) an enormous gap...between the typical western and
eastern...worker. The central fact of the western workers life is that he
has only one home, the home in the town where he works. In this home he
or his family are born, live and die. In India the worker has a family
home, in a village.24

Class Concept in Coal Mining Historiography

Cultural identities like ethnicity, caste and religion exerted powerful influence on social
and gender relationships within, the formal industrial labour force in India. Here, class
was inextricably intertwined with gender and ethnicity.25 The relationship between the
politics of class and community had been noted by historians. Ranajit Guha opposed the
Marxist notion of a working class having universal validity in India. In classical Marxian
terms, class signified a social group with a common relationship to a means of
production, common means of surplus product and a common relationship to those who
sell their labour to earn their livelihood. Marx himself argued that when a class becomes
aware of its interests vis-a-vis other classes, it becomes a class for itself i.e. possessing
the willingness and the capacity to pursue its interest.26 Marxist historians analysed the
emergence of industrial working class in terms of recruitment, wage structure, patterns of
23
Dasgupta, Ranajit, A Labour History of Social Security and Mutual Assistance in India, EPW, March
12, 1994, p.617
24
ibid., p.617
25
The twin identities of gender and ethnicity, necessitates that the assumption of a singular, monolithic
working class be rethinked.
26
Marx, K, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, in Marx and Engles, Selected Works Volume
III, Moscow 1969, p.479

10
unionization and assumed that the workers were naturally solidaristic. But this analysis
had serious flaws. The analysis neglected the everyday social organisation of workers
both in work places and in the neighbourhood.27 Most industrial conflicts occurred when,
management made attempts to tighten work discipline by changing everyday work
practices, in order to meet fluctuations in the market or to increase the profit margin.
Thus, industrial conflicts occurred when management tried to change working hours,
moved from multiple to single shifts or tried to curb certain privileges enjoyed by skilled
workers, or threatened to terminate jobs.

The political economy of coal mining in India had traditionally been characterized by
caste, class and gender. In coal mining, a specific cultural group of people participated
traditionally. The adivasis or the indigenous people and the lower castes together formed
that vast amorphous mass whom the Indian officialdom called weaker sections of the
society.28 In the collieries, labour from lower castes and adivasi groups formed the
initial labour force. The role of caste at one level helped to build allegiances. At another
level it also provided the means to exclude and subjugate some sections of the society.

In such cases the question that arises is how far was the definition of a working class
valid? Dipesh Chakraborty has shown that in India such universal categories of Marxist
thought as capital and labour were not valid in defining the industrial working class.
In the Bengal collieries, the labour process or the choice of technology was rooted in the
culture of the company owners as well as the labourers. The deeply entrenched
mercantilist outlook and the cultural milieu of the British Raj in India continued even
after 1947. It played a significant role in excluding some groups and sections of the
women folk in the Indian coal mining industry.

Gradually, caste divisions played a major part in actual social interactions and ideals.
Members of different castes were upto a certain point expected to behave differently. In
ancient India, birth in a particular caste fixed not only ones ritual status but also political
and economic positions. Gradually, this rigidity vanished. Now, it is possible to achieve

27
Basu, Subho, op.cit., p.9
28
Risley, H. H, The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Volume I & II, Calcutta 1891. He described caste as the
smallest endogamous groups of people in Indian society, Lahiri-Dutt, Kamins building the empire: class,
caste and gender interface in Indian collieries, op.cit., p.7ff

11
a variety of economic and political positions irrespective of caste, although caste still sets
limits for choices. Some historians have termed these indigenous populations of India as
tribal, untouchables, adivasis, dalits (the oppressed) and Harijans (children of god). Of
these terms tribal is considered by some to be a colonial construction. The term dalit is
often used generically to include members of the scheduled castes and tribes, neo-
Buddhists, the working people, the landless and poor peasants, women and all those who
are being exploited politically, economically and in the name of religion.29 In the
collieries of Bengal, ethnic division of labour was a notable characteristic. There existed,
different local adivasi and lower caste groups such as the Bauris, the Santhals, Kols,
Koras, Beldars, Nunias, Mullahs, Jolahas, Pasis, Ruidas, Doms, Telis, Goalas etc.

As coal began to be mined, the social fabric of the colliery communities went through a
process of transformation. The physical and social isolation of the adivasi lands of
Jungle Mahal was more or less complete before mining began in the region. Since the
local adivasi and semi adivasi labour left the collieries during cropping season to work in
the agricultural fields, the mining operations were hampered severely. Therefore, the
colliery owners were interested in building up a captive labour force. They began to
employ upcountry labour from north India since early twentieth century. Thikadars
(contractors) were entrusted with the task of procuring labour from the villages of north
India. The thikadars lured and brought hardworking able-bodied males from the remote
villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Madhya Pradesh. Initially, the intra-
state voluntary migration was comparatively smaller in volume, possibly due to frequent
bargi (Maratha raiders) attacks from the western states of India.30 To maintain a steady
supply of labour to the Bengal coalfields and coal mines elsewhere in India, a statutory
body called the Coalfield Recruiting Organisation (the CRO) was introduced. The labour
procured through this organisation was called the CRO Labour. They were procured
mostly from Gorakhpur district, hence were also called the Gorakhpuris. These labourers
were kept in chains in the coolie-barracks under sub-human conditions. It has now
become a part of the folklore in Raniganj. They had to work at least for twelve hours and
received a cash wage which was meagre in comparison to the kind of work the agrarian

29
ibid., p.8
30
Guha, R, Bengal District Records: Burdwan, Calcutta, 1955, ibid,., p.10

12
people did in the collieries. Many of the upcountry labour left the mines for ever after
their eleven month contract period was over. The colliery owners maintained lethel
(armed guards) to regulate and control the new recruits.31 The Gorakhpuris and
Bilaspuris (labour from Bilaspur in Central Province and Gorakhpur in North India)
were brought into work in collieries and kept in labour depots. The manager used to
send the sardar to a depot to get, a few additional hands in case of a labour shortage. The
organisation received commission from the companies in return. In course of time,
Bilaspuris and Gorakhpuris began to live in Raniganj-Jharia-Bokaro collieries
permanently as working conditions improved after 1947. As there was a large influx of
labour from the adjoining parts of India, the number of adivasis and lower caste workers
declined. These people, in order to maintain their family units of production opted, for
plantation work or in construction of roads or railways where both men and women
could work together. The adivasi labour had exchanged the plough for the pick32 but
still continued to prefer the plough from which they were displaced by the first wave of
colonisation. Gradually, a large segment of the workers in the collieries became typically
immigrant and male, caste Hindus from north or central India. During the years 1891 to
1931, the out bound migration was almost double than the inbound migration in the
colliery tracts of eastern India.33 The abolition of slavery led to a search for new sources
of labour supply for plantations all over the world. India provided a ready and steady
labour market. Moreover, Burma was colonised in the second half of the nineteenth
century. Therefore, demand for labour developed. Migration to Burma was encouraged
by the colonial government in India. In 1881, 174,000 people had migrated from upper
India.34 However, the high rates of outflow of local labour subsided over the years and
inbound migration grew rapidly as more collieries were opened. The collieries had a

31
Dasgupta, Priyabrata, Lathial Theke Mafia Notun Chithi, Sarad Shankhya (autumn number) 5, 1997

32
Read ,Margaret, The Indian Peasant Uprooted, London ,1931
33
Ray Chowdhury, Rakhi, Gender and Labour in India: The Kamins of Eastern Coalmines 1900-1940,
Calcutta ,1996
34
de Haan, Arjan, Migration in eastern India: A segmented labour market, Indian Economic and Social
History Review (hereinafter IESHR) 1995, p.59

13
heterogeneous local labour market, where unskilled local labour force was abundantly
available.

The Bengal collieries were the typical example of hierarchical structure. At the top was
the Managershaheb. Under him was the Burrababu, who was usually an educated
Bengali middle class man. He translated the bosses instructions and in case of trouble
controlled the situation. Besides, there were several other babus. At the bottom were the
adivasi labour who cut coal and their women loaded it in baskets. But the workers had
job insecurities. It meant that they competed with each other for jobs. However, the sense
of solidarity was yet to develop among the colliers. Although, in the 1920s stray
meetings were held in the dhowrahs that was not enough to unite colliers from distant
collieries under one political banner with prolonged meetings. Any idea of solidarity was
foiled with the help of lethels or hired musclemen of the colliery owners.

The colliers entered into some complex arrangement with grocers, slum owners, sardars
and moneylenders who were an essential part for survival of the colliers. These people
provided the colliers with jobs, shelter, low priced food and loans. Among these, the
sardars enjoyed a powerful authority. In some collieries, several mining sardars were
employed but only a few enjoyed powerful positions in the neighbourhood by entering
into alliance with the burrababus or the hazirababu. Some of them even went to act as
moneylenders. In the absence of any unions till the 1920s, the workers voiced their
grievances through the mining sardars. But here too, some of the mining sardars acted
as the representatives of the management. The poor, uneducated, disunited colliers were
not only victims of fate but also victims of the various tricks played by the management.
They were encouraged to have liquor so that they could forget about the reality of their
working conditions and nature.

Representatives of the Colliers or Trade Union Politics

In 1946, Mr. S.R. Deshpande had expressed surprise at the lack of political organisation
in the Raniganj coalfield. S.R. Deshpande was an employee of the Labour Bureau,
Simla. He was entrusted, with the task of conducting survey on the socio-economic
conditions of the labouring class in jute and coal by the Government of India. But
Deshpande was not wholly correct. There were, some trade unions that cropped up
during the non-violent Non-Cooperation Movement called by Gandhi in the 1920s. A
14
series of strike waves swept all over Bengal and the collieries could not remain aloof
from it. Another strike wave had swept Bengal in 1905-06, during the anti-partition
Swadeshi and Boycott movement. But strangely enough the collieries remained
undisturbed.

The question that needs to be addressed is the actual purpose of the trade unions? Trade
unions could be used to produce particular forms of stable industrial relations and to
restrain wider expressions of grass root level labour democracy. 35 Lenin associated trade
union consciousness with the spontaneous consciousness of the working class. He
categorized this as a lower level of political consciousness. Lenin argued that the
socialist consciousness of the working class constituted the higher level of political
awareness.36 Echoing Lenin, Eric Hobsbawm observed that:
Without either, (trade union consciousness and socialist consciousness)
the workers may, for political purposes, be completely negligible, indeed
invisible, like the very substantial mass of Tory working men who have
always existed in Britain, without affecting, in more than the most fleeting
and marginal way, the structure, the policy and programme of the
Conservative Party, which could not win a single election without them.37
In the industrial towns, the manager raj integrated conflicts and tensions within the work
place with tensions related to the issue of urban governance. Tensions developed
generally between the workers, mill managers regarding sanitation, epidemic control
measures and general living conditions. Tensions also developed between the workers
and local landlords over arbitrary destruction of slums. The general body of workers
were often excluded from the political management of the town. During long industrial
strikes, managers dominated over local self governing institutions. These industrial
conflicts at the work-place created a confrontation between the town administration,
police and workers. In the workers perceptions the colonial state often became the
protector of the interests of capital rather than a neutral umpire of industrial conflicts.38

35
Basu, Subho, op.cit., p.14
36
Lenin, V.I., What is to be done? (Originally published in 1902), translated into English by Joe Fineberg
and George Hanna, London 1988;ibid., p.14
37
Hobsbawm, E.J., Notes on Class Consciousness in Works of Labour: Further Studies in the World of
Labour, London, 1984, p.27
38
Basu, Subho, op.cit., p.15

15
Strikes thus became politically explosive particularly, when they coincided with anti-
colonial upsurges. Soon after the First World War, it was the labour offensive that
transformed the Non-Cooperation Movement into formidable Civil Disobedience in
Calcutta. In this era, the Gandhian nationalists preached the ideology of cooperation
between capital and labour and also sought to isolate labour from the nationalist
movement.39 They remained opposed to militant industrial action, which limited their
influence on the labour movement in Bengal. Workers rejected their attempts to restrain
them from joining nationalist politics or organising their collective political actions.
Under such circumstances, socialist ideologies gradually made headway in the form of
communist and socialist groups.

Political movements that articulated the empowerment of the workers appealed to their
sense of dignity and provided impetus for them to participate in anti-colonial mass
upsurge. Against such a background, alliances were formed between workers and
socialists. However, the coal mine workers failed to gain any sense of solidarity. In the
1920s, three leaders were active in the Raniganj collieries and Jharia collieries.40 They
took the task of uniting the colliers under one banner. Special mention must be made of
the seven collieries of the MacNeill Berry group in Raniganj field that went on strike,
though of a short duration. However the trade unions existed for a shorter period and
disappeared, when the Non Cooperation Movement was called off. Actually, the very
geographical position of the coal mines proved to be a constraint for the development of
labour movement. The coal mines were located in remote areas and the difficulty of
transport led to late development of the trade unions. But their attempt was transitory.
With the calling off of the Non Cooperation Movement, the Congress activists lost any
sense of interest to unite the colliers. Moreover, there were the pressures of the Chaprasi
Raj i.e. orderlies and the private musclemen, who took utmost care to break any form of
organisation of the colliers. Chaprasis were messengers or office workers who carried
out junior tasks, especially carrying messages in the colliery offices. In course of time,
some of these messengers received so much importance from the mine owners that they
began to rule the roost. At the Jharia coalfield, some colliery labour unions remained

39
ibid.,p.16
40
The leaders were Swami Dashananda, Swami Viswananda and Swami Satyadeb.

16
active, but were organisationally weak. Initially, at the initiative of Subhas Chandra
Bose, trade union politics gained momentum but that too was transitory. It was not until
1936, that trade unions in any proper sense became active in Raniganj. Initially, it was a
confrontation between the Indian entrepreneurs and the British entrepreneurs that led to
some labour agitations, but later on right after the provincial elections of 1936, trade
union politics swept the collieries. Frequent strike waves often kept the entrepreneurs,
both Indian and British, worried.

The Capitalists and the Politics of Capital

Prince Dwarkanath Tagore paved the way for the other Bengali entrepreneurs to venture
into coal business. He gave a stiff challenge to his contemporary fellow British
entrepreneurs. Thus, began a rivalry and competition that continued even at the turn of
the century, when the rivalry between Bengal Coal Company and the Malia family of
Searsole over transportation of coal became a myth in the area.

During the latter part of the 1830s and early 1840s, a bitter and violent struggle between
Carr-Tagore and the English owners of the nearby Naraincoory mine Gilmore,
Humphrey and Company continued for the hegemony of the emergent coalfield. Finally,
these two companies merged to form the Bengal Coal Company in 1843. Following the
financial crisis of 1847, all the original Indian shareholders were forced to sell off their
stock.41 A world wide commercial crisis occurred in 1847. It started as a collapse of
British financial markets associated with the end of the 1840s rail road boom. The Bank
of England had to request a suspension of the Bank Charter Act to end the crisis. By the
Bank Charter Act of 1833, the Parliament of England strengthened the bank as the prime
note issuing institution in England. It was caused by excessive monetary inflation due to
the Bank of England and fractional reserve banking. It fell particularly hard on the
commercial community of Calcutta. The Union Bank failed in December 1847. A
number of agency houses too failed. The greater part of the ownership and management
of the company passed under the British. By the turn of the century, the Bengal Coal
Company became an almost exclusively British concern. The Board of Directors retained
its European character until the termination of the First World War. At the same time,

41
Directors Minute Book of 1847-48, Simmons, C. P.,Indigenous Enterprise in the Indian Coal Mining
Industry 1835-1939 , IESHR, p.190

17
some indigenous concerns were also active in Raniganj coalfield. T. Oldham records that
there were nine other indigenously owned mines (of the total thirty seven mines) besides
that of Gobinda Prasad Pundit of Searsole.42 Even an Armenian firm, Apcar and
Company ventured into coal mining business.

The coal sector was perhaps the only sector where, the Bengalis ventured spontaneously.
It destroyed the myth that Bengali capital and enterprise was proverbially shy of
industrial ventures. The period between the early 1890s and the Depression of 1925 -
1926 witnessed, a flourishing interest in the coal industry by this section of the
indigenous public. With the penetration of the railways into the Jharia field in the early
1890s, sixty-two mines were opened up by Bengalis by 1897. In the older Raniganj field,
the Bengalis were overwhelmingly predominant entrepreneurs. Of the forty indigenous
collieries at work in 1897, thirty-eight were run by Bengalis.43 Among the notable
Bengali entrepreneurs, N. C. Sircar was the most prominent. He established the only
Bengali Joint Stock Company. He was even the moving spirit behind the creation of the
Indian Mining Federation (IMF) and he remained its chairman for the next decade. 44

The First World War period saw the development of industrial sector in India as some of
the Indian capitalists came to the forefront. The coal industry in Bengal too underwent a
profitable phase as the War demanded, more coal for the manufacture of arms and
ammunitions. The dominant Bengali entrepreneurs gave serious competition to the
European Managing Agencies. It was perhaps, the only sector where the Marwaris,
Punjabis and Sindhis made a late entry. From the mid-1920s, the balance of influence
within the indigenous community began to shift away from the Bengalis. 45 The slump of
1925 and the Great Depression of 1926, immediately thereafter, spelt bankruptcy for
many indigenous collieries and only a few dominant Bengali entrepreneurs managed to
survive. The vacuum thus created, enabled the new immigrant trading communities from

42
Oldham, T., A Report on the Raneegunge Coalfield with Special Reference to the Proposed Extension of
the line of Railway, Calcutta, 1859, pp.18-22
43
Sen, S. K., Studies in Economic Policy and Development of India 1848-1925, Calcutta, 1966, p.70
44
Annual Report of IMF, (1913-23)
45
First Annual Report of the IMF, (1913), pp.3-16

18
Marwar, Maheswari and Jhunjhunu districts of Rajasthan, Kutch in Gujarat, Sindh and
the Punjab to establish a foothold in the industry.

Like the Indian Jute Manufacturers Association (thereafter IJMA), an all powerful
cartel, the Indian Mining Association (IMA) enjoyed the close patronage of the colonial
state. The beginning of the twentieth century, saw a striking development of Indian
enterprises in the coal sector. It led to sharp conflict between European managing
agencies involved in coal mining and Indian colliery owners and coal traders. The Indian
Mining Association was affiliated to the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, which exercised
monopolistic control over the market, be it over production or in the pricing of coal or
supply of wrecks to the smaller collieries. It represented the collective interests of the
bigger European coal companies. These companies, naturally enjoyed close patronage of
the colonial government. They often had conflicts with the Indian colliery owners over
certain issues. Matters came to a head and turned into a confrontation, when the newly
formed Indian Mining Federation in 1913 promoted unity among Indian colliery owners
and was affiliated to the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce.

The situation became far more complicated in the inter-War period and the Great
Depression with the rise of the Marwari traders and mass nationalist movement. Some
Bengalis and then the Marwaris, made a gradual entry into the IMA. What became a
cause of concern was that some of the Bengali colliery owners made their voice heard in
the meetings of the IMA and some even held position within the executive committee.
The government was too busy with the nationalist movement. Therefore, it could not
intervene in favour of the British traders directly. The net result was, the formation of
two indigenous organisations of the colliery owners. At first, it was the Indian Mining
Federation (IMF) and then the Indian Colliery Owners Association (ICOA) that gave a
serious challenge to the IMAs Dominant position. The Marwaris not only made an entry
into the IMF but also went on to create a non Bengali dominated organisation, the Indian
Coal Owners Association (ICOA), and got all other Indian entrepreneurs united under
the banner of the ICOA. However, the Marwaris did not operate exclusively in a world
of their own. From the very beginning, they had interacted with the European Managing
Agencies viz; the business of buying jute or that of selling coal throughout the sub-
continent, which could not be done solely by the Europeans. However, they seemed well

19
aware of their position in the business hierarchy. They conducted business on behalf of
the sahibs, and quietly went their way. No British box-wallah46 (Box-wallahs were
small-scale travelling merchant peddlers in India. They were so called because of the
large boxes in which they carried their merchandise usually clothes and costume jewels.
The term was also used to refer any travelling peddler as opposed to babus and civil
servants), could have ever dreamt of a Marwari setting up a jute mill or a colliery and
taking over solidly European controlled firms in the years to come. Barring the tea
gardens, by 1950 the Marwaris were evenly poised to take over almost all the older
industries in the region. This enormous change poses an interesting problem that needs to
be addressed. When coal industry in Bengal started officially in 1824, a large number of
British concerns ventured into coal production. Among them, prominent was Alexander
& Company, an agency house of Calcutta. There were at least thirty such houses in
Calcutta in the second decade of the nineteenth century. These were large mercantile
houses established at Calcutta with a branch in London. There were several partners viz.,
retired civil servants, military men, doctors, London merchants etc. They possessed no
real capital, but established an agency and banking business.

With the establishment and growth of the agency houses, the importance of the banians,
who had formerly acted as agents and middlemen of the companys servants and free
merchants, diminished. By the Charter Act of 1813, the East India trade was completely
opened to private enterprises. Thus began a rush for establishing agency houses in India.
These new houses were mostly connected to Liverpool and other out ports in England.
Most of these houses ventured into banking, bill-broking, ship-owners and freighters,
insurance, indigo and also into coal. However, by the end of 1826, money became
scarce. The agency houses were placed in a difficult situation. They had to borrow
money at high interest, but even that was not easily available. The economic depression
in Great Britain at the time aggravated their distress. Moreover, the fall in the price of
indigo in 1829 at once affected the agency houses. The Indian capitalists began to
withdraw their money from the European agency houses. Under these circumstances, the
remaining principal agency houses of Calcutta appealed to Government for relief.

46
V.S. Naipaul defines box-wallahs as the business executives of foreign, mostly British firms, An Area
of Darkness, Picador USA, 2002, p.61

20
Accordingly, the loans were granted for six months. But the unexpected fall in the price
of indigo heralded the fall of the agency houses in 1830s. Between 1834 and 1847 a type
of business organisation recognisable as a managing agency took form. The managing
agency system came into existence when an agency house first promoted and then
acquired the management of a joint-stock company. This combination of events took
place in 1836, when Carr, Tagore & Company started promoting and managed six joint-
stock companies.

Since the days of the East India Company, the colonial government never trusted the non
Indian traders living in India. These traders represented the buccaneer free traders who
challenged the East India Companys monopoly in the early nineteenth century. The
English bureaucrats were so hostile to these traders that these traders were
contemptuously referred to as box-wallahs. In the nineteenth century context, the
organisational invention of these traders and the managing agency houses were such that,
when they could overcome the paucity of capital by raising funds from the public while
managing it through a small group of shareholders. A small percentage of the shares
would be under the control of the managing agency itself. The managing agents and their
trusted allies would constitute the board of directors. The affiliated companies would pay
large fees to the managing agencies for such management. Legally, these companies
were autonomous but managing agents would exercise control over them on every day
issues.47

In the twentieth century, such institutions faced a crisis, when Indian shareholders
demanded more voice in running the first unnecessarily bureaucratised and centralised
Managing Agency Houses. However, they expanded in the sectors like chemical, steel
and cement. By this time, conflict between European and Indian coal interests, however,
gave way to combination against labour agitation and political unrest at the First World
War. The Indian Mining Federation and the Indian Mining Association were, equally
worried over the industrial strikes which took place during the mass upsurge of the non-
cooperation movement and were determined. They even decided on a complete lock-out
if the colliers demanded increased wage. Despite trade feuds, it would be wrong to

47
Goswami, Omkar, Industry Trade and Peasant Society: The Jute Economy of Eastern India 1900-1947,
Delhi,1991

21
imagine that both Europeans and Indians wished to destroy their business rivalry totally.
Managing Agencies raised their capital in India. Most of this money came from the
Marwaris who acted as banias or brokers to these managing agents. They were given a
bulk of the share. As the twentieth century progressed, they made their presence felt in
the board room of these managing agents. The British members of the Indian Jute
Manufacturers Association (IJMA) were unable to prevent Marwari entry, as their
business operations depended upon the steady flow of finance from the Marwari traders.
The Marwaris even penetrated into the coal sector. There were thirteen Marwari directors
in the eighty two collieries listed in the India International Year Book (IIYB) which were
under European Managing Agencies. The Jatias, once a bania of the Andrew Yule, had
completely taken over the Parasia Colliery in Raniganj. Seth Sukhlall Karnani was about
to take over four collieries under H. V. Low. These were those four collieries which were
once taken over from N. C. Sircar by H. V. Low.48

Material Conditions, Technology and Environmental Impact on Coal Mining

Unlike the British coal miners, the coal miners of Bengal were a rather unfortunate class.
From the nineteenth century English literature, we come to know about the English coal
miners. D. H. Lawrences novel Sons and Lovers portray the typical condition of a coal
mining area in Nottinghamshire, England. Unlike the coal miners of Bengal the English
colliers were a much privileged class. They were provided with living quarters, shoes,
safety caps and uniforms for their duty in the pits.49 Set against the backdrop of the early
twentieth century, one can compare the conditions of the Bengal colliers, who lacked
living quarters in the proper sense of the term. Their living quarters were called
dhowrahs. These were single roomed, congested back to back and almost air tight

48
IIYB 1930-31, section on coal
49
D. H. Lawrence was born in Eastwood, a small mining village about eight miles from Nottingham. The
coal mines of Eastwood were run by B. W. & Co. Around 1820, the Company must have sunk the first big
shaft and installed the first machinery. In those days the Company supplied the colliers with thick flannel
vests or singlets and the moleskin trousers lined at the top with flannel. The colliers worked in these attires.
The Company had also built cottages and fragmentary rows of little four-roomed miners dwellings. These
dwellings were built in the eighteenth century when windlass mines were in function. Here the men were
wound up one at a time, in a bucket by a donkey. However in the nineteenth century, the Company erected
the New Buildings, or the square. These New Buildings consist of two great hollow squares of dwellings.
Little four room houses with the front and the back with a tiny square brick yard, a low wall, and a WC
and ash pit. Lawrence, D.H., Nottinghamshire and the Mining Countryside in Lawrence, D.H., Sons and
Lovers, Delhi, 2001, pp.440-441

22
quarters. Poor ventilation, poor light and sewerage system made the lives of Bengal
miners rather dreary. They lacked proper working clothes, shoes and equipments for
working in pits. A picture taken as early as in 1920 in Ningah Colliery in Raniganj
showed dhoti clad miners in pit head baths washing themselves after coming out of the
pit.

Figure 1. Picture of a pit head bath at Ningah colliery in 1923

Source: Report of the Chief Inspector of Mines, 1930

Besides, the mines in Bengal lacked any safety measures and legislation. It was in the
late 1890s, that a Chief Inspector of Mines was appointed to look into the safety
regulations. The turn of the century saw the passing of the first Coal Mine Regulation.
As it failed to meet the expectations of the colliers, subsequent regulations were passed
regarding days and hours of work, payment of wages, leave, sickness and medical
benefits. When the coal industry began, techniques of mining, mining appliances, tools
and methods were simple. Shafts were sunk every few hundred feet and quarries were
opened below the high water mark whenever an outcrop was found near a water way.
Coal was brought from the face to pit bottom in head baskets, by women folk. There, it
was put into larger baskets (6-7 maunds or about 250 kg) and wound to the surface by a
winding engine, called a gin (gin is also used in cotton industries). The gin was worked
by women, perhaps by more than twenty women. Small beam engines were occasionally

23
employed to do the combined work of pumping and winding and were manned by
women. Steel tipped curved pieces of iron were used as picks with shapeless wedges and
hammers and one inch round crowbars. This type of mining continued till about 1920s.
Initially, naked flames were used inside the pit for coal extraction. In course of time, gin
lamps and safety cap lamps came into use. The technology of coal production in India
began to change in response to greater demands by 1920s. They led to replacement of
open caste and inclined mines by deeper shafts.

Around 1920, various measures began to be taken to protect women from heavy
mining work. The Washington Convention (1919) provided for compulsory maternity
leave and benefit for women industrial workers. The Government of India pleaded that
such a law was unworkable in India. Therefore, the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) requested the Government of India to furnish information about the condition of
women workers. This prompted, for the first time, special and directed drives to generate
knowledge about women workers in industries. The ILO took several measures in this
regard. The 1913 Convention held at Berne on Night Work, restricted women miners and
children from working in night shifts. The 1935 Convention on Underground Work
banned women from working in underground mines. At the national level, the Indian
Mines Act, 1901 restricted the age of employment of children in mines. However, like
the mines in USA or Great Britain, children in the Bengal collieries did not play
significant roles. Most of the bigger coal companies in Bengal however, stayed away
from employing children in the underground work. Yet, employment of children in
underground works in the smaller collieries in Raniganj field continued in dubious
manner. The outbreak of the Second World War increased the demand for coal
production for varied needs of the military. It was at this time, that additional manpower
was needed for greater production. As the demand for manpower increased, the colliery
owners with the active support of the colonial government, re-employed women colliers
or kamins in underground mines. It was in utter disregard of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) Convention of 1935. Side by side, they started the Central Recruiting
Organisation (CRO) camp, which was nothing but a form of slavery or to be precise
slavery in disguise. Till 1947, nothing much was done to safeguard the kamins. Though a
sort of maternity act existed, the kamins failed to receive any of its benefits. Even after
1947, it was found that some smaller collieries kept women employees as temporary
24
staff. In some collieries, women were registered under male names so as to evade
maternity benefits in case of such situation.

As coal mining was a hazardous job, accidents were common. Yet, lack of first-aid and
medical treatment was one of the most noted negative features. Besides, the miners
suffered from many epidemics. Outbreak of cholera, dysentery etc. were a dominant
feature in the collieries of Raniganj and Jharia. It was much later, that the collieries took
initiative to supply safe drinking water to the miners. The Asansol Mines Board of
Health and the Jharia Mines Board of Health were created, to look after the hygienic
facilities and provide the same to the colliers. The colliers also suffered from certain
occupational diseases. These included: coal workers pneumoconiosis, nystagmus etc. but
in the colonial period there existed no proper treatment for these ailments. It was found
that the working capacity of the miners was drastically lessened, due to adverse physical
conditions. They suffered from several lung diseases. However, detection and cure of
such diseases started much later.

In the early days of the industry, the miners had no source of recreation. Drinking liquor
on the days of payment was their only source of fun. This was well depicted in one of
their two liners:
Santa Jabo Mod Kheitte
Ningah Jabo Jahaj Uddate50
It was this drinking habit that led to the increasing domination of the moneylenders. Not
only local grocers and shopkeepers, but also some mining sardars acted as
moneylenders. Even some Kabuliwallahs were found in these remote areas. The miners,
especially the adivasis considered this drinking as a part of their traditional custom. They
drank at every opportunity along with their women folk. Be it the local payment and haat
day or parab like Tusu puja, Bhadu puja, Baha, Chhata parab, the list was endless. The
caste Hindus drank during local Melas. With the entry of the upcountry labour, the mode
and method of recreation changed. These men too got habituated to drinking, as it was a
trick played by the colliery owners to hold back these labour for the arduous job. It was

50
Acharya, Nandadulal, Asansoler Lok Sanskritir Ekdik, Asansol Shilpobhumi: Kabi O Kobita, Asansol,
2005, p.14
It proved that drinking was a favourite source of recreation among the miners.

25
during this period that, the moneylenders became most active. Before the entry of the
upcountry labour their targets were the colliery babus. But later, it was the poor
upcountry men who became victims of the moneylenders. The moneylenders too, were
mostly migrants from north India and western Punjab51 who had come to the coalfield in
search of some living. As the upcountry labourers were single males, they sought
recreation in a number of ways. Thus, the colliery areas saw increasing number of
prostitute areas, gambling etc. However, there were some benevolent coal companies
that made arrangements for recreation and sports for their employees and their children.
Even prizes were declared for keeping the dhowrahs and their environment clean. As the
miners were mostly illiterate, very few benevolent companies thought of establishing
schools to give them and their children proper primary level education. Some bigger coal
companies, even started maternity benefit centre and crche for their women employees.
But these were too few in number.

Long before India attained independence, a number of committees were formed to

enquire about the Indian labouring class. Mention in this respect must be made of the
Royal Commission on Labour in India in 1929. This Commission, made a detailed
enquiry about the condition of coal miners especially in Raniganj and Jharia. They found
that the situation was indeed bleak. The miners were lowly paid, the wage structure was
inadequate. Their condition of living unhygienic, they suffered from various diseases,
epidemics were common in the coalfield areas. What was alarming was that the workers
were robbed off their basic rights and facilities. Rules and regulations existed on paper
only. They were never implemented. Some workers even expressed their fear that if they
uttered anything negative, they would be punished. Thus, what existed as benefits for the
colliers, existed on paper only. They were never implemented in reality.

Coal Mining Industry: Impact on Environment

Perhaps no other industry created a deeper impact on environment like the coal industry.
Unlike other fossil fuels, coal is less energy efficient and pollutes more. Since the
beginning of the industry in Bengal, mine fires, accidents and subsidence remained a

51
Interview with Mr Satbir Singh Tuteja on February 2011.
His Father was a shopkeeper turned moneylender at Sripur Colliery. He had migrated from a village in
Lahore in 1942 at a young age, following economic drying up of the area.

26
cause of concern for the coal mine owners. Instances were many of mine fires in the
collieries of Carr, Tagore and Company in Raniganj. Nimcha in Raniganj coalfield once
an active colliery for instance, was declared abandoned after extraction of coal was
completed. But due to lack of proper stowing, illegal mining activities endangered the
lives of the villagers here. The underground fire led to drying up of ponds and tanks in
the village. About 80 per cent of the villagers are agriculturist by profession. But the
underground fire, engulfed the agricultural fields in the village and the people had no
other alternative source of income. Nimcha was not a stray incident. Other coal mining
villages like Sarisatali and Rasunpur shared the same fate. Mine fires virtually destroyed
the forest land in Rasunpur. Illegal mining activity and mine fires created so much of
havoc that even the Howrah-New Delhi Grand Chord line, one of the busiest rail routes
of the country was at stake. The situation was bleaker in Jharia. Underground mine fires
not only engulfed the down town of Jharia but also affected the Dhanbad-Sindhri main
road. All these were the results of limitless unplanned slaughter mining by the private
mine owners.

Mine fires52 gave rise to several environmental problems besides, safety hazards and
economic losses. Apart from direct losses due to burning of coal, the other associated
hazards encountered were: gas poisoning, difficult geo-mining conditions, sterilization of
coal, hindrance to production, explosion, damage to structure and adjacent properties.

The important coalfields namely Raniganj, Jharia, East and West Bokaro all came under
the Damodar Basin. Since this basin was a repository of 46 per cent of Indian coal
reserve53 exploration of coal and related industries in this area exerted a great impact on
the environment of the basin. As a consequence of underground mining, huge volumes of
polluted water flooded in the mines were channelled into the river which in turn was

52
Singh, Gurdeep, Environmental Issues with Best Management Practice of Coal Mining in India,
Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Technology in Exploration and Exploitation of
Minerals, Jodhpur, 14-16 Feb, 2009 , p.192

The reason for mines fire presumably involves the phenomenon of spontaneous heating through two
interrelated processes viz; the oxygen coal interaction or oxidative process and the thermal process. If
remains uncontrolled the fire could spread further through inter-connected pathways and fissures in the
strata.
53
Tiwary, R. K and Dhar, B.B.,Environmental Pollution From Coal Mining Activities In Damodar River
Basin, India, Mine Water and Environment, Volume XIII, June-December Issue 1994, pp.1-10

27
chemically polluted. This affected the aquatic ecosystem and reduced biodiversity. Coal
mining in this basin caused significant degradation in ground water quality. As mine
water was found to be very hard, it caused acute shortage of drinking water especially in
summer seasons. All the surface water including Damodar River contained
bacteriological pollution due to coal mining and washeries.54 Other environmental
pollution was caused by high suspended particulate matters in active mining areas
especially in open-cast mining areas. It also included devegetation and presence of
noxious gases due to land subsidence and mine fires. A large portion of land under fire
enhanced noxious gases like carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide in the environment. After
introduction of heavy mining equipments, exhausts from these machineries increased the
level of carbon monoxide alarmingly. At many sites, especially in upper region coal
mine, spoils were dumped at the bank of the river which polluted river as far as the metal
contents were concerned.

With the development of technology, mining activities produced enormous noise and
vibrations in the mining area. Large diameter high capacity pneumatic drills, blasting of
hundreds of tonnes of explosives were identified as noise prone activities. Noise led to
loss of hearing; affected work performance and made communications more difficult.
The scenario was more or less the same in other regions of the world where coal mining
activities were undertaken. As the industry was much too prone to pollution, several
coalfields in the USA had reduced production activities. Some areas of northern Europe,
had even closed down the coal mines due to high level of pollution. Coal mining
invariably resulted in considerable land disturbance i.e. large scale excavation, removal
of top soil, dumping of solid wastes, cutting of roads, creation of derelict land etc.
Although, underground mining has considerably less impact than opencast mining on
land, yet it caused enough damage through subsidence in Raniganj and Jharia coalfields.

After the Indian Coal Mines Rule was passed in 1901, the Indian entrepreneurs ventured
into coal production after 1901. The foreign entrepreneurs were already active since the
mid nineteenth century. It was after 1901, that an unhealthy competition for the

54
Coal washing is a process of separation mainly based on difference in specific gravity of coal and
associated impurities like shale, sand, stones etc. so that we get relatively pure marketable coal without
changing the physical properties of the coal.

28
production of coal began in Bengal coalfields. No underground planning or scientific
methods were adopted in this regard. In 1916, the first mine fires was detected in the
history of Indian coal industry. In 1922, the Mining, Metallurgical and Geological
Institute of India appointed the First Subsidence Committee. The Second Subsidence
Committee of 1937 recommended steps to save mankind and property from the dangers
arising out of unscientific coal mining. Yet, very little was done in this regard. The rate
of unscientific methods of mining increased. The number of mine disasters, fires, gas and
accidents arising out of subsidence also increased. As a result, a number of working
mines were closed in course of time.

By 1954-55, the situation further deteriorated. By this time, the situation in Jharia turned
for the worse. Underground mine fires came to the surface and spread to 30 sq km. It
played havoc with human settlements, agricultural fields and the Dhanbad-Sindhri main
road, besides destroying the coal seam underground. Barakar town in West Bengal too
became subsidence prone. Subsidence occurred at the Begunia Colliery in Barakar
operated by Karamchand Thapar and Company. It led to destruction of the human
settlement. The Barakar bazaar became a vulnerable spot. In 1957, the Barakar
Subsidence Committee was formed which reported about the unscientific method of
cutting coal that, led to the subsidence and recommended rehabilitation of the residents
elsewhere.

As it was found that slaughter mining was rampant in the Bengal and Bihar fields, the
colonial government decided to set up a committee to find an alternative to the alarming
situation. Towards the close of 1936, the Coal Mining Committee was appointed by the
Government of India for the purpose of reporting on the measures necessary for securing
the safety of those employed in the mines and preventing the avoidable waste of coal. No
other industry was perhaps the subject of study of such a large number of committees
and commissions as the coal industry. Based on the earlier observations of the Treharne-
Rhees Report of 1919 and the Coalfields Committee of 1920 on the Raniganj and Jharia
coal fields, the Burrows Committee of 1936 recommended rationalisation of the coal
mines as has been done earlier in Great Britain earlier. Such measures were aimed not
only conserve coal but to also put a stop to evasion and violations of regulations. The

29
Indian Coalfields Committee under K.C. Mahindra of 1946 too recommended state
participation in coal mining. 55

As for the global scenario regarding environmental pollution and miners health,
although respiratory diseases had been medically documented in the nineteenth century it
was not until 1910 that research institutes, such as the Industrial Fatigue and Industrial
Health Research Boards were formed to offer recommendations for occupational health
diseases. Workplace regulation of some of the mines that produced asbestos56, began in
1931. Asbestos mines generated even greater pollution than other mines. Legislations
regarding disability payments for coal mines were not enacted until 1943. Many miners
and asbestos workers were reluctant to implement the use of safety gear as an assertion
of manliness, despite increasingly recognised health concerns and regulatory efforts
throughout the mid-twentieth century to improve workplace conditions. In 1919,
legislation was introduced to protect workers from silicosis. In late 1920s, scientific
investigations determined that coal mining could create a silicosis threat.57The South
Wales Miners Federation fought individual compensation cases in the 1920s and in the
1930s lobbied civil servants and legislations. By the late 1930s, the Medical Research
Council recognised increased claims of coal miners. Its report in 1945, provided a
significant reappraisal of respiratory diseases among coal miners.

In spite of significant improvements in occupational health and safety standards in

Scottish fields during the twentieth century, the underground working environment

55
Kumarmangalam, S. M., Coal Industry in India, Nationalisation and Tasks Ahead, New Delhi, 1973,
pp.29-30
He observed:
Though we do not advise State ownership and operation of the entire coal industry
immediately, we envisage that State participation in both will probably increase in the
near future. For instance, if situations detrimental to national interest cannot be remedied
by control, the State should intervene to acquire and operate the mines.
56
At present in India, more than thirty mines are in operation. It produces 2800 tons of asbestos per month
(mainly chrysolite and tremolite). The quality of asbestos produced in India is very poor. The mining and
milling process of asbestos expose the workers to cancer and a number of related diseases. Women are
more exposed to the lung and breathing related diseases due to their direct exposure with the industry.

Ramanathan, A. L., and Subramanian, V., Present Status of Asbestos Mining and Related Health
Problems in India- A Survey, JNU, New Delhi, May, 2001
57
Silicosis was a common occupational disease.

30
remained dangerous until the coal industrys ultimate demise. The nationalisation of the
coal industry in 1947 brought Great Britains small and privately owned pits under the
New National Coal Boards (NCB) control.58 The NCBs efforts for a production drive
led to increased occurrence of pneumoconiosis. 59 In the Asian front, China is the largest
producer of coal, yet, severe air pollution is a cause of concern in the bigger cities owing
to coal mining activities. Historically, coal mining has been a very dangerous activity.
Open cast hazards are principally mine wall failures and vehicle collisions. Underground
mining hazards included suffocation, gas poisoning,60 roof collapse and gas explosions.
All these could trigger the much more dangerous coal dust explosions, which could
engulf an entire pit. In the developing countries, many miners died annually, either
through direct accidents in coal mines or through adverse health consequences from
working under poor conditions. China in particular has the highest number of coal mine
related deaths in the world.

The Coal Mining Industry in Existing Historiography

In comparison to the jute mill or textile labour, the coal mine labour has attracted
considerably little interest from scholars and historians, especially in India. Unlike the
colliers of India, the coal miners of countries like USA, Great Britain etc have received
much attention. A number of scholastic works on the coal industry in the west have been
published. They include: Adams Sean Patricks, The US Coal Industry in the Nineteenth
Century. It is an overview of the condition of the coal industry in U.S.A in the nineteenth
century. Priscilla Longs, Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of Americas Bloody
Coal Industry is an authentic work on the coal mining industry in the USA. However,

58
Pneumoconiosis, a kind of lung disease, was another occupational disease.
59
Chronic Lung Diseases, such as pneumoconiosis (black lung) were once common in miners leading to
reduced life expectancy. In some mining countries black lung is still common.
60
Build ups of a hazardous gas are known as damps, possibly from the German word Dampf which
means steam or vapour.
Black damp: a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in a mine can cause suffocation and is formed as a
result of corrosion in enclosed space so removing oxygen from the atmosphere.
After damp: it consist of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen and forms after a mine explosion
Stink damp: so named for the rotten egg smell of the hydrogen sulphide gas. It can explode.
White damp: contains carbon monoxide, which is toxic, even at low concentration.
Fire damp: consist mostly methane, a flammable gas. ibid., p.5

31
coal mining in USA has been restricted in some fields wholly due to certain
environmental reasons.

In the late Tudor period, some deep mining took place in England. But in the late
eighteenth century deep shaft mining in the United Kingdom began to develop
extensively. The industry developed rapidly throughout the nineteenth century and early
twentieth century. The location of the coalfields helped to make the prosperity of
Lancashire, Yorkshire and South Wales. Northumberland and Durham were the leading
coal producers of the United Kingdom. They were the sites of the first deep pits in the
world. In the neighbouring Scotland, the Scottish coal miners had been bonded to their
maisters by an Act of 1606 called Anent Coalyers and Salters. A Colliers and Salters
(Scotland) recognised this to be a state of slavery and bondage and formally abolished
it.61 A lot of scholastic works have been produced on the British coal miners. Edward
Hulls, The Coalfields of Great Britain: their History, Structure and Resources: With
Description has discussed about the conditions and living of the coal miners in Britain in
the nineteenth century. A number of researches were also done on the Scottish colliers.
These works include: Anderson Johns Coal: A History of the Scottish Coal Mining
Industry in Scotland With Special Reference to the Camberley District of Lanarkshire,
Glasgow and Alan B. Campbells, Honourable Men and Degraded Slaves: a
Comparative Study of Trade Unionism in two Lanarkshire Mining Communities 1830-
1874 .

In the South Asian region, coal mining industry gained importance in countries like
China and Japan. Some notable works on the Chinese and the Japanese coal industry
include: Nimura Kazuo, Andrew Gordon and Terry Boardman (eds), The Ashio Riot: A
Social History of Mining in Japan and Elspeth Thomsons, The Chinese Coal Industry:
An Economic History.

Regarding the coal industry in Bengal not much research has been done. The existing
research works include: Rakhi Ray Choudhurys research on the Kamins of Eastern Coal
Mines. It is a gender study done on the women coal miners popularly called kamins in
Raniganj and Jharia between 1900 and 1940. Dietmar Rothermund and D. C. Wadhwas

61
This was made effective by a further Colliers (Scotland) Act of 1799.

32
edited book titled Zamindars, Mines and Peasants: Studies in the History of an Indian
Coalfield and its Rural Hinterland contains a series of essays on the coal mining
industry, the land owners, and the peasantry, the land system in and around Jharia and
also the structure and functions of the managing agencies. These essays are mostly based
on the collieries and the peasantry and the landlords of Jharia which has been referred as
an enclave. Reference to Raniganj is almost negligible in this book. Pabitra Bhaskar
Sinha made a detailed study on the Development of the mineral industries of Bihar-
Muzaffarpur. He discussed about the very socio-economic life of the coalminers, who
were basically peasants. These peasants ultimately turned to coal mining due to
economic inconsistency and food shortage. He also worked on the socio-economic living
conditions of the coal miners in Bengal coalfields in the early days. Shashank Sekhar
Sinhas essay on Patriarchy, Colonialism and Capitalism: Unearthing the History of
Adivasi Women Miners of Chota Nagpur in Lahiri-Dutt, Kuntala and Macintyre,
Martha (eds), Women Miners in Developing Countries, discussed about the root cause of
migration of adivasi women to the coal fields of Bengal leaving behind their traditional
profession.

John P Neelsen edited the book Social Inequality and Political Structures: Studies in
class formation and Interest Articulation in an Indian Coalfield and its rural Hinterland.
It is again a series of essays on the existence of social inequality among the colliers and
how it had an influence on the political structures that developed later. Dilip Simeons
work The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism; Workers, Unions and the State in
Chota Nagpur,1928-1939, focuses on the demographic and structural features of industry
and coal mining in Jharia in the second and third decade of the twentieth century. Here
again Jharia, is the centre of focus. Simeons paper Work and Resistance in the Jharia
Coalfield, in Contribution to Indian Sociology, is again on the same theme. In both
these works Raniganj merits as occasional reference. Women Miners in Developing
Countries: Pit Women and Others, edited by Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Martha Macintyre
probes the plight of women labour in pit mines of various countries ranging from India to
Japan, Kalimantan to South Africa and Peru, the women working in various pits ranging
from coal to gold. It is again a gender study on the women pit miners. Kuntala Lahiri-
Dutts essay From Gin Girls to Scavengers Women in Raniganj Collieries in Economic
and Political Weekly and Kamins building the empire: class, caste and gender interface
33
in Indian collieries are gender based studies on the women of the Bengal coal fields in
the early days of the industry. Here, Raniganj has received more attention in comparison
to the earlier mentioned works. Mention must be made of Ranajit Dasguptas work,
Labour and Working Class in Eastern India: Studies in Colonial History. This work has
drawn a comparison between the tea labourers of Dooars, jute labour of Calcutta and the
colliers of Raniganj. He discussed in details about their origin, social background, habits
and the nature of their politics. Dasgupta has shown that the Raniganj coal labour were
basically peasant migrants who had their own way of showing protest against repression
when there existed no trade unions in the collieries.

Apart from these works, there are several other articles and narratives on the coal
industry of India. These include Sobha Sadhan Kumars Mining and the Raj: A Study of
the Coal Industry in Bihar 1900-1947. This book has covered most of the aspects
relating to the industry and labour in Bihar. But it has excluded Raniganj. Coal Industry
in India, by S. Mohan Kumarmangalam has thrown much light on the industry and
labour in the private era. Renuka Ray wrote Women in Mines, in protest against sending
the women underground again during the Second World War, ignoring the international
Convention of 1929 that banned women from going underground in mines. However,
this book was a mere propaganda of The All India Womens Conference. Among other
books, Coal Industry of India by Anubhuti Ranjan Prasad gives us some valuable
information on the industry as a whole in India. The Indian Mines Maternity Benefit
Question 1919-1947, by Iftikhar-ul-Awwal discusses about the maternity benefit act in
Indian mines and how they were disregarded by the colliery owners.

Most of the existing research works on the colliers are centred round the workers of
Jharia, after Bihar was separated from Bengal. The study of the coal industry and its
workers in Raniganj, the very birth place of the industry has been neglected. Most of the
works have discussed some aspects of the coal industry. But one cannot ignore the socio-
economic condition of the workers and their living pattern which are very much
interlinked with the environment and the nature of working. The present work tries to
look into the coal industry during the boom phase, when coal industry in India meant the
Bengal coal fields. At first, it was only Raniganj alone but the turn of the century saw the
emergence of Jharia, Giridih etc which were still then a part of the Bengal Presidency.

34
The present work also studies the situation after Bihar was separated from Bengal in
1911. It tries to find the answer to the changes in the socio-economic fabric that occurred
after 1911 and up to 1947 when, there emerged a new independent nation. This work
also attempts to analyse the socio-economic working and living pattern of the miners
who were mostly migrants in Raniganj and Jharia, whether they remained basically
peasants at heart or whether they imported their culture and heritage with them. It studies
and addresses questions related to the changing pattern of their working, whether their
wages were enough to fulfil their basic needs, what happened to the adivasi labour when
they were replaced by the upcountry labour, and the changes in their living pattern
initiated by the introduction of the machines and the trade union politics.

Chapterization of the Work

This work consists of five main chapters after the introductory chapter. Chapter 2 throws
light on the nature and growth of the Bengal coal industry. It looks back at the early
history of coal mining in Bengal and structure of the industry till 1947. Chapter 3 deals
with the organization of labour. It attempts to discuss the nature of labour market, labour
catchment areas, the various castes and sub-castes of labour found in the mining area,
their social customs and caste taboos along with their method of recruitment. As the local
population was not willing to come into the job of mining therefore, the nearby districts
were tapped for recruitment of labour. Besides, the role of the kamins and children in the
industry has been probed. Chapter 4 deals with the material condition of the coal miners.
It examines the living facilities of the miners, housing and sanitation and conditions at
their work place, their occupational diseases, accidents and mine disasters. The nature of
treatment and the activities of the Asansol Mines Board of Health and the Jharia Mines
Board of Health have been discussed. Besides, some typical features like forced labour,
absenteeism have been discussed. Moreover, facilities, wages, and cultural habits along
with festivals, songs and dances that reflected the miners woes and happiness have been
examined. Chapter 5 discusses the role of capital and private owners. It discusses the role
of the Managing agencies, Indian and foreign coal companies that were active in the
Raniganj field in the said period. Besides, it examines the activities of the various coal
owners organization like the Indian Mining Federation, Indian Colliery Owners
Association have been examined. It also discusses about the politics of the colliery
owners in regard to coal trading and profit making. Chapter 6 deals with the development
35
of technology, the trade union activities that cropped up and became active during the
Non Cooperation Movement. The various mines acts that were passed in the subsequent
years have also been examined. The thesis is concluded in chapter 7. The major
arguments are summarized here. A glossary and a select bibliography are appended at
the end of the work.

36