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Although the book is entirely about Kanpur, it sets out to tell a larger (more theoretically oriented?) story and in the process the title does not have the word Kanpur and the reader is not sure what it is until one delves in.

But once one does, one comes face to face with a fascinating history of the emergence of Kanpur as an industrial city. The book covers three phases:

1. The growth of Kanpur since 1800, starting with artisinal work making clothes and hats for European consumption; (ch.1)
2. the beginnings of organized industry after 1857, along with increasing migration from nearby areas; (ch 2-4)
3. the resistance among the labour groups and an increasing politicization(ch.5-8)

Particularly well-narrated is the story of the 52-day mill strike in 1938, led by the Kanpur Mazdoor Sangh. It was primarily a protest against low wages which had been lowered during depression-era cuts, and had not been lifted for years. An official inquiry committee gave its report which condemned the employers' practices while also castigating the workers. The report was rejected by the mill owners, leading to the huge strike. Eventually, 46,000 workers participated in the general strike, giving kAnpur the moniker of lAl kanpur. Women participate actively in the strike and strike-breakers faced social opprobrium. Eventually most of the workers' demands were accepted and the KMS was recognized by the mill owners.

However, after this, overall industry in kanpur faltered, and KMS also lost its power. Why this came about is not adequately discussed in the text.

Why did Kanpur decline?

One often hears (from wealthy people) that the industrialists were scared of investing in Kanpur industry after the labour troubles. At the same time, one hears (from the workers and leftists) how the owners have made the most of the cash they had and withdrawn from the day-to-day business.

Also one wonders if the fire sale by the British owners in the years before independence may have lowered interest in running the firms; indeed, all across India, one finds a history where many flourishing firms went from British to Indian ownership immediately before independence, and sank shortly thereafter. Did the erstwhile owners maximize their cash situation, before executing the sale, or did the new owners deliberately let the companies run down?

The British India Corporation, along with a number of other firms such as the flourishing Jessops & Co., was purchased by Calcutta-based businessman Haridas Mundhra, who got LIC to loan funds to his companies in an underhand manner. Despite Nehru attempting to softpedal the issue, his son-in-law, the firebrand Feroze Gandhi raised it in parliament: Parliament must exercise vigilance and control over the biggest and most powerful financial institution it has created, the Life Insurance Corporation of India, whose misapplication of public funds we shall scrutinise today." p. 75, Speech in Parliament, December 16, 1957

In the end, Nehru's trusted Finance minister had to resign, and Mundhra went to Tihar jail.

But British Indian Corporation (and all the other firms bought up by Mundhra) have never been the same again. They were nationalized and eventually, most of them were closed.

It would have been nice if this story were told, but as it is, the book is definitely worth reading.

Excerpts

1: Barracks, Bazaars and Bastis

The history of every working class is tied up with the history of its
location.

Settlements of artisanal and labouring population had come up in Kanpur long
before factory industries.  By the 1840s, there were more than 16,000
artisans, leather workers, weavers, tailors and other miscellaneous labourers
in the city and cantonment.
	- [R. Montgomery, Statistical report of the district of
	Cawnpore, Calcutta 1849, app. xxvii]

1820s: Economic growth.  While other urban centres in North India declined,
Kanpur became commercially more important.  p.1

1830s:
Large numbers came in also with the influx from the countryside during the
famine years in the 1830s, working in relief works.
	[Surya Kant Tripathi and Narayan Prasad Arora,
	kAnpur kA itihAs, Kanpur 1940, p.75.
	Also: Sanjay Sharma: Famine, Philanthropy and the
	Colonial State, Delhi 2001 p. 63-4, 75-7, 144-5]
5
[A series of famines, culminating in the great famine of 1837 - doab
region from fatehpur to agra.  Nearly a million deaths (one in ten).
(wiki: Agra famine of 1837-38).

The migrants, arriving in waves, stayed on in Kanpur, providing artisanal
labour or as coolies.   While other urban centres in N India decline, Kanpur
became commercially more important.  A number of small enterpriss came up.
[Montgomery 1849] lists:
	- 474 tailors			- 175 hackerymen
	- 420 prostitutes		- 113 haberdashers
	- 401 barbers			- 91 dyers
	- 353 butchers			- 21 hatmakers
	- 320 palkibearers

Gradually the old settlement of Kanhpur with its bathing ghats, temples, and a
palace dating back to early 18th c., became the 'Kanpur kona', a small corner
of the western margin.

In 1778, when Company troops were transferred from Bilgram in Hardoi district
and encamped in Kanpur, the plan was to set up a Company trading factory
along with the military camp.  By the turn of the c. merchants of varied
origin - Greek, French, Portuguese and Swiss - congregated here. [Montgomery p.94]

The growth of this European population created new consumption demands.
Amongst India's European inhabitants, Kanpur soon acquired a reputation for
its rich supplies of a wide range of foreign goods.  An inventory of the
goods marketed by John Price (d. 1801) included cocked hats, ladies
garters, men's black silk gloves, Smythe's lavender water, gilt chit-paper,
black ink powder, violet hair powder, silver tongue scrapers, souchong tea,
and mounted pistols.  [Zoe Yalland, Guide to the Kacheri cemetery and the
early history of Kanpur (London 1983) p. 38] p.16

Peake Allen and Company specialised in English tooth powder and later
diversified into medicines, surgical instruments, veterinary stores and
implements, aerated waters and perfumes.  [Yalland, Boxwallahs p.220]

The desire for familiar goods among Kanpur's europeans seemed
insatiable. Wives waited anxiously for the arrival of their boxes from
England and exchangedd excited letters with friends about the goods coming
in.
	[My box which Bob ... so kindly brought out for me arrived some time
	ago, with some very nice things, a pretty bonnet and two nice cold
	weather dresses besides frocks and hats for Willie.  Have you got
	your box yet? [Yalland, Boxwallahs p.112]

[Local production stepped up to meet such demand. ]
By the 1830s, Kanpur's milliners, dressmakers and glovemakers were famous.
In the mid-19th c., a young bride in Kanpur no longer had to wait for her
bridal trousseau to arrive from England: she could buy almost everything
locally. [Yalland, Traders and Nabobs, p. 223]

English farmers settled in the cantonment reared poultry, game and pigs, cured
ham and bacon.  With the exception of English broad beans, almost all European
fruits and vegetables were grown on local farms.  [Emma Roberts, Hindostan: The
shores of the Red sea, v. 11 (London no date) p.44]
Much before the large-scale factories, leather was prepared locally to meet
military demand for carriage, harness and saddlery.  These were sold all over
India; as was cured meat.  Furniture was supplied to neighbouring districts,
esp. Lucknow.  [Montogomery p. 110] 17

Even local village markets were affected.  Reports from 19th c.: Extensive sale
of English cloth at Akbarpur, Shahpur, Bithur.  Baripal markets sold cloth and
other goods from England. [Atkinson: statistical and descriptive account of NW
provinces v. VI (Allahabad 1881)]

Boats coming up from Calcutta with Soda water or other merchandise sailed back
with indigo seed and cash crops.  [Nevill, Gazetteer, p.82] p.18

Indigo cultivation was introduced in Najafgarh near Kanpur by Claude Martin, an
officer serving the Awadh govt, who built many vats and a large processing
factory towards the end of the 18th c. [Atkinson p.107, see also
	Rosie Llewellyn-Jones: A very ingenious man: Claude Martin in early
	colonial India (Delhi 1992) p. 163-7]
Subsequently, indigo was cultivated in Narwal tehsil by Adam Maxwell, son of
John Maxwell by an Indian mother.  John Maxwell, who left his indigo estates in
Tanda and settled in Kanpur in 1806 as an agent to army contractors, set up a
rum distillery in Jajmau to supply the troops.  But indigo remained a major
concern of the Maxwells.  Their extensive estates in the Kanpur region were
acquired by John, who evaded restrictions on property rights for Europeans by
using the legal title of his Indian-born son Adam.  The Maxwell legacy in
Kanpur, controlled by Burnett & Co after John Maxwell's death, was almost wiped
out in the speculation boom of the 1820s, and it took almost two decades to
revive the family concerns.  After 18567, the Maxwell enterprises were
re-established in partnershi w a Dr. Begg, as Begg Maxwell and Co.
	[Dr Begg came originally as a planter's doctor in the 1830s.  Like many
	other Europeans in India, he took advantage of the Company's lucrative
	trade and built a vast trading network himself.] 18

Leather entrepreneurs like William Cooper started work in India on indigo
estates in Bihar and later moved to the Maxwell estates at Etah, and from there
to Kanpur.  The Gavin Jones family came originally from Wales, settled in
Calcutta, from where the pater familias moved west to Jaupur and acquired a
vast Indigo estate.  The Jones' fortunes fell with the Union Bank collapse of
1847.

In the mid-1820s Kanpur was second only to Farrukhabad in indigo production in
the Ceded provinces.  [Asiya Siddiqi, Agrarian change in a N Indian state 1973 p.142]
But with the collapse of the Indigo boom in the 1830s, business contracted
drastically, now being limited primarily to the supply of seed rather than
finished produce.  Eventually, indigo was displaced by cheap synthetic dyes
around the turn of the century.

Cotton: cultivated and marketed here from earlier times.
The years after the Napoleonic wars were particularly profitable for the cotton
trade, and parganas like Ghatampur, Akbarpur, Bhognipur and Derapur came to
specialize in the crop.  [Siddiqi, p.64]  It was bulk-sold in the cotton mandis
of Kanpur, together with cotton from Bundelkhand, and sent on to Mirzapur.
However, cotton, like indigo, suffered the vicissitudes of the export market in
the 1830s, and it was only in the 2nd half of the century, esp after rail
links, that the trade was rejuvenated.  Indigenous merchants controlled some
important networks in the trade, but were later displaced, e.g. by Cooper Allen
& Co, who at a later point obtained a contract for the entire cotton supply to
Muir Mills, displacing the earlier indigenous supplier. [Yalland Boxwallahs
p.461] 19

Opium trade

Traders dealing in indigo and cotton were often connected with the opium trade
of Kanpur.  The period of decline of indigo and cotton were when the Co started
business in opium.  In the 1830s, opium cultivation was introduced under official
supervision.  The collector, E.A. Reade, directed the setting up of opium
kothis in Kanpur, Bilhaur and Akbarpur.  P. Maxwell, (another member of the
family), acted as sub-deputy agent of the Company.  [Montgomery, app.ii]
Large tracts were brought under poppy cultivation, despite resistance from
local peasants and zamindars and, in 1877, 14,877 maunds of opium were exported
from Kanpur.  [Atkinson, 1881, 147] p.19

In value terms, grain constituted 43% of the goods imported into Kanpur in
1846-7, the cantonment and city population providing a large urban market.
Grain was brought into kanpur by bullock cart.
Kanpur was also a bulking centre importing grain and sending it upriver to
up-country districts and downriver.]

As Kanpur grew into a trading centre, indigenous traders also flocked to the
area. [see C.A. Bayly: Rulers, Townsmen, and Bazaars: N. Indian society in the
age of British expansion, 1770-1870, 1988.  esp chapter 6-8]
Merchants from declining centres of trade arrived at Kanpur and built up trade
networks around the camp-bazaar establishement. During the depression of the
1830s,  old centres of trade were more severly affected than Kanpur.
[Montgomery p.110.  With the construction of the E.I. Railway this process was
accelerated.
Gavin Jones: "Farruckhabad, through with the trade of Rohilkhand passed
down the Ganges, likewise yielded to the superior advantages of Cawnpore
and Oudh, the "garden of India", abandoned the waterway of the Ghagra for
the ironway for Cawnpore".
["Rise and progress of Cawnpore", in S. Playne and A. Wright, The
Bombay presidency, the UP and the Punjab, 1920.]

Indian families:
  - the Marwari banking family of Baijnath Ramnath, which like many such
	families, settled in Chatai Mohal in Kanpur, and traded in cotton,
	grain and flour, apart from being bankers and general merchants.
  	Offshoots of the afmily were involved in setting up flour mills, sugar
	works, cotton ginning factories, oil mills and the later famous
	Juggilal Kamlapat enterpises in Kanpur [Playne and Wright p.422]
  - Tulsi ram jia lal
  - Nihal chand baldeo sahai
  - Janki das jagannath : all combined grain trade with banking.
		[Nevill, Gazetteer p.73, 269]

By the 1830s, some wealthy and notable families, prominent among them Nawab
Mutumad-ud-Daulah (ex-minister of Awadh), moved to Kanpur (Nawabgunj was named
after him). [Tripahi, itihAs, p.172,176)
This was followed by large no of wealthy Lucknow families.  Etawah
Bazaar had a clustering of merchants from Etawah.  Along with these migrant
gentry came a large body of artisans and retainers who settled in
neighbourhoods like Gwaltoli and Khalasi lines.  [Cawnpore expansion committee,
UP Mun Progs., 1918 de no. 1(a)]
When attempts were made to clear out working-class settlements a century later,
the ihabitants protested and asserted their links with the royalty of old
times.  Many of these met the large demand for coolie labour, others were
engaged in producing ropes, leather pouches, saddles, bung leather for barrels
etc for the army.  By the 1840s, there were 308 households engaged in leather
production and trade. [Montgomery Statistical report p.110] p.21
The inflow of coolie labour into Kanpur flucutated - some months like Nov, the
numbers crossin Pandu bridge into Kanpur numbered over a thousand; but in
June/July the number would be less than half.

By the 1870s, banking families were making large investments in land.  They
acquired substantial property in villages in and around Kanpur.  Hindu bankers
and 'wealthy muhammedans' are said to have acquired one-third of the district
by the 1880s. [statement of property mutations, Montgomery app. xii, Atkinson p.115]

1870s: rapid and extensive changes in land-ownership in Kanpur -  Hindu
bankers and 'wealthy Muhammadans' were said tohave acquired one-third of the
district by the 1880s. [Montgomery / Atikinson] p.21

Kanpur's trade grew at the expense of Fategarh and Mirzapur, and it drew away a
subtantial part of the wholesale business from Lucknow.  Railways accelerated
the process.  Metalled roads also connected Kanpur to Bundelkhand, Lucknow and
Rae Bareilly before the 1850s.   As old river routes lost their significance,
port towns became deserted:
	- Kalpi on the Jumna, which used to receive the trade in cotton grain
		and oil-seeds from Bundelkhand.
	- Farrukhabad on the ganges, through which trade from Rohilkhand has
		passed

By the 1870s, Kanpur was possibly the most important trade center in NW
provinces.  p.22
	The roads leading to [Kanpur] from all sides are lined with what
	appears to be unending streams of carts, and its market-place at
	Collectorganj, exhibits a scene of bustle and commercial activity not
	often seen in Indian cities. - CS Fuller [cited Atkinson, p.147]
The fourteen parganas around Kanpur consolidated into a district of
Kanpur by the mid-19th c.
[this probably happened in March 1803, not quite mid-19th c.]

While earlier Kanpur had been part of Jajmau tahsil, by the turn of the 19th
c. Jajmau was a moribund town in Kanpur tahsil.  23

In 1778, the company was granted 12 villages stretching along the riverfront
from old Kanpur on the west to Jajmau on the east.
	[according to treaty of Faizabad: the brigade of troops for the
	protection of Awadh were initially stationed at Bilgram but
	transferred to Kanpur in 1778.  Montgomery p.1]
	As per the treaty, the Nawab of Awadh would pay Rs. 2.6 lakh per
	month to maintain these troops.

[Initially served from tents - "campoo" Kanpur or cantonment, distinct from
Kanpur kona - the settlement of old Kanpur.  The name Campoo Kanpur
survived even after the camp colony had become a cantonment town. p.23

Emma Roberts: "one wide waste of sand" [Hindustan, v.ii p.44]
	This morning we made one of our grand entries into Kanpur, or rather
	on to it; for there is no particular Kanpur visible.  But we drove
	over a miniature plain to our tents. 24

Life in Kanpur

Early travellers found the region desolate:
Fanny Eden: "ugliest" of all Indian stations.  "dead flat of course but not one
	single blade of even brown grass to be seen -- nothing but loose brown dust
	which rises in clouds upon the slightest provocation.

cantonment filled with large bungalows with 'splendid suites of apartments',
'well-fitted interiors' and 'well-kept gardens', and circular driveways with
separate entry and exit gates.  "all English vegetables,
with the exception of broad or Windsor bean, come to great perfection in the
cold season. [Emma Roberts p.44]

An young official: Ball after ball, dinner after dinner is all the go here.
	Late hours and fearfully hot weather begin to tell on our complexions
	and sickly faces in the morning appear on parade.
			[cited in Yalland, Traders and Nabobs p.167] p.27

in 1870s thatched roofs were prohibited due to risk of fire. p.24

mid-19th c. : The cantonment covered 90% of the space: 6477 acres, whereas only
690 acres were under civilian control.  The cantonment grew by displacing the
old residents who had inhabited the riverfront in the Jajmau area; these were
now pushed back, further away from the river, to Patkapur, Kursawan, Sisamau,
or westwards towards old Kanpur and Nawabganj. [Tripathi, itihAs, p. 164-8]

Conflicts between civil and military authorities : civil courts and offices
shifted to Bithur in 1811, and then to Nawabganj in 1819.  After 1857, civil
authority strengthened by adding two tracts from the western part of the
cantonment, one from old Kanpur to the Harness factory [Civil Lines area], and
the other around Sadr Bazar.


Armymen composed ditties; a popular one went:

	Civil servants who've come [from] all parts of the country
	Boldly avow, indeed one of them swore,
	For dancing, and dressing, for sky, and caressing,
	No Indian station can vie with Cawnpore.
				 [from Traders and Nabobs]

Woerkers' names for factories:

   * Harness and Saddle factory - located in the now broken-down Cawnpore
	Magazine - was referred to as kila (fort).
   * Cooper Allen works: Hazari Bangla or "military bungalow" - "hazari" =
	head of a thousand troops. 34
   * Elgin Mills : purana putlighar [oldest mill]
   * Cawnpore Cotton Mills : Couperganj-putlighar
   * Woollen mills - Kambal putlighar
	[putli = rural, artisinal machines for weaving cotton]

Cotton Mills

Kanpur, which had been a trading centre for cotton since the 18th c.,
suddenly had more raw cotton flowing than it could handle. [Playne,in
Bombay Residency]

The glut in raw cotton and the need to meet the army's need for tents and
uniforms led to plans to produce textiles locally.  Elgin Mills, named
after the ruling viceroy, was set up.  Eventually this company had to be
auctioned because it ran out of credit, and Hugh Maxwell, from the same
family that had long business links with Kanpur was the only bidder and
became the proprietor.  Indian merchants and bankers played an important
role in financing Elgin Mills.

The name of Lala Ishaq Lal and Lala Guneshee Lal figure among the directors
of the company though as a proportion of total shareholders Indians
constituted only ~12%.  Technical expertise was provided by Europeans,
among whom was Gavin Jones, celebrated as a hero of 1857 in contemporary
European accounts.  He had trained as an engineer after the decline in the
indigo fortunes of the family.  His shift to the textile industry, as
manager of Elgin Mills, was related partly to his family ties with the
Maxwells.  Elgin Mills made succssful inroads into markets supplied
formerly by imported products and towels, drills, tents, and dhotis, and
the Elgin trademark became famed for quality and durability. [Boxwallahs] p.37

Till the 1920s, there were no Indian-owned textile mills in Kanpur.
Bankers like Juggilal advancedd loans to Elgin mills etc..;  Shiv Prasad
Baldeo Choudhary and Harnandrai Ram provided credit to Muir Mills.

Marwari trading families controlled the trade in raw cotton and ginning /
pressing. 38

The Singhanias, descendants of a Farrukhabad merchant family, Baijnath
Ramnath, settled in Kanpur for many decades, set up JK Cotton Spinning and
Weaving Mills (1921), JK Cotton Manufactures (1933), JK Jute Mills (1931),
and JK Iron and steel company (1934).
They also collaborated with Ram Ratan Gupta in setting up Laxmi Ratan Cotton
Mills (1934) in the post-depression boom.

1888: Upper India Chamber of Commerce: for European capitalists - opposed
cotton duties (no exemption for handlooms), restrictive factory laws.  Indian
merchants such as Juggilal were included, but marginally. 38
[In the 1890s, handlooms were a major competition for the domestic market
p.44]
production of dhoties dropped by 42% from 1910 to 1918 [p.48].

1914: UP chamber of commerce established - an organization of Indian
traders and industrialists - set up in the changed context of pressures
generated by the swadeshi movement.   The two organinizations had largely
similar policy objectives
[The creation of the UP chamber] "can be of valuable assistance to our
common purposes", UICC report 1914]. 39

First World War: A dramatic spurt in textile production.
1917: total outrun of 17.8m yards of cotton.
Woven goods / Yarn increased by 35% from 1908 to 1916.

Blankets - some were subcontracted to village weavers - supply of yarn to
the weavers and collection of woven blankets were organized through
syndicates.

Profits for New Victoria Mills / Muir Mils went from a base of 100 in 1911
to 1100+ in 1920/21. [fig. 11 p.47]

Europeans ran their mills in largely absentee fashion, frequenting their
clubs and summer houses in Shimla.  Atherton West, who started Victoria Mills
with the help of Juggilal was from a workman background, and supervised his
mills punctiliously, and came to be known as "White Marwari". [Boswallahs 194]

Indian Merchant groups fractured on religious lines.  Muslim merchants were
opposed the politics of the Hindu-dominated Municipal Board as discriminating
against the leather industry, e.g. high octroi duty on babul bark, a tanning
agent. p.43

Racial ties to the army administration helped European merchants. 40

Kanpur textile industry expanded in the context of campaigns the NW
frontier and Africa.  UICC presidential address, 1897:
	There can be no doubt that Kanpur is prepared to cooperate both
	heartily and effectively in the propagation of that spirit of
	imperialism." 44

Post WW1 depression years : mills reduced workers wages through idle days
and reduced production, but dividends of 40% at Muir.  49

Artisinal and Coolies created their own bastis along Gwaltoli, Khalasi
Lines, and the Parmat area.

Parmat (from "permit") housed the famous Customs house that issued permits
to merchants. 51

Others who worked in the cantonment (leather workers, porters) made small
encampments near the cantonment bungalows - eventually as mills came up,
became labour colonies - paide a small fixed rent to the municipality for
the "nazul land" they occupied. 52-53
["nazul" - not in OED]

[“Nazool land" means : (i) The land situated beyond two miles of the Municipal
	limits, which has escheated to the State Government and has not
	already been appropriated by the State Government for any purpose.
  (ii) such other land as the State Government may make available for
	being transferred under these rules ;-
http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/nzruls(1).htm - rules for transfer to
scheduled castes, etc.]

1900 - plague epidemic - these areas seen as 'blots', sources of 'danger'
and 'disfigurement'.
1918: Ledgard committee on land reform: To allow these bastis to remain in the
middle of the extended civil lines is out of question." 52
European property speculators also argued against these bastis, since the
working-class-tainted space lowered its social value and "letting" power.

"There can be no question that the presence of a native village, no matter
how sanitary the general arrangement may be, in the close vicinity of
European house will be a very serious nuisance and must affect its letting
value." Allahabad Commsr H. Darzah, 53

Civil Lines - bungalows for elite whites - those working in factories at
salaries of rs 300-800 were excluded - vs. whites drawing over rs2K.

Native areas had high popn densities (1918):
	Butcherkhana - 578 per sq mile
	Coolie Bazar - 562

"In Cawnpore the sewerage is conveyed in open channels along streets and
lanes to decompose and undergo foetid fermentation throught at least 3/4ths
of the area of the city."  [NWP Mun. Progress 1890] 56

Ch.2: The village and the city

population of kanpur: 203K in 1901 to 487K in 1941 (+140%) p.63

Skilled workers were very much in demand.  As cotton mills came up in Delhi
and elsehwere, many workers migrated from Kanpur.

system of badlis - temporary workers, not on permanent payrolls.  if the
factory showed X employees, they actually employed 2X people, and the factory
inspectors were pliable about such matters.

Breach of Contract act 1859:
compelled workers to abide by their tenure of contract.

Indarjit a carding mistri had entered into a contract for three years on 22
March 1888. He gave a 24 hour notice quitting the job no 1 Nov 1888.  The
notice was not accepted.  He applied for leave which was refused.  He
therefore threw down his keys and left service.  The employers filed a case
against him.  He was convicted and his petition against the applicatin was
rejected. [UICC report 1895]

ch 5: Confronting authority

1919 Nov : first general strike in kanpur.  started sporadically but
eventually came to involve 20,000 workers.

22 Nov, Saturday: Weavers of the Woollen Mills.
	Other departments of WM from Monday
25 Nov Tue: Muir Mills (morning), Victoria Mills (PM) [total abt 17K]
later: Ganges Flour mills, Dwarka Das Jute Mills, Cooper Allen & Co, etc.

The strike continued for eight days and the strikers won substantial
concession - increase in wages (mostly 15 to 25%, some 100%), bonus, and an
improvement in working conditions.

A strike committee was set up at Elgin Mills around 1919.  Possibly this
sabha eventually became the Kanpur Mazdur Sabha, whose origins are somewhat
unclear, but is likely to date to after the 1919 strike.

By the 1930s, the KMS was associated wit a red flag bearing a hammer and
sickle.186

Contents

1 Barracks, Bazaars And Bastis 15
  Campoo Kanpur 23
  The Brutal City 30
  Industrial Kanpur 32
  Rhythms Of Industrial Expansion 43
  The Politics Of Space And Sanitation 50
2 Between Two Worlds: The Village And The City 62
  Workers In Kanpur: Numbers 63
  The Question Of Supply 69
  Caste And Community 78
  Of Women And Children 84
  Linkages 90
3 Family Strategies And Everyday Life 100
  Families: Structures And Strategies 100
  Identities, Images, Experiences 107
  Cruel Habitations 121
  Workers' Earnings 126
  Patterns Of Consumption 139
4 Work Culture 143
  Power At The Workplace 143
  The Experience Of Work 155
  Everyday Practice 165
  Rules Defined 169

Part II

5 Confronting Authority 177
  Representing 1919 178
  The Question Of Organisation 185
  Exercising Power 191
  Disciplining Labour 202
  6 Lal Kanpur 208
  Solidarities 208
  Order And Disorder 217
  Images Of Radicalism 225
7 Ties Of Community 237
  Religion, Ritual And Everyday Life 237
  Mobilising The Community: Assertion Of Caste 245
  Conflicts And Confrontations 256
  Crime, Violence And Communal Riots 265
  Communal Politics 269
8 The Politics Of Labour And The Languages Of Nationalism 277
  Ambivalences Of The Nationalist Self 278
  Radical Rhetoric Of The 1930s 288
  The Paradoxes Of Power 292
  Visions Of The Nation 301
9 Despair 313.

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