The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-18
Unemployment in India

TIE crisis of unemployment that has arisen
in India and has become especially acute
during the last year is direct result of the
intensification of mperialist exploitation since
the war. The problem has become particularly
serious among the educated and half educated
middle class and wide public attention has
been attracted to their position by the increas
ing cases of suicide among the unemployed
during the last few months.
Before the war when India was mainly
source of raw materials and food-stuffs and
a market for British manufactured goods, the
chief object of the imperialists in their educa-
tional policy was to create a sufficient number
of educated men to occupy positions as minor
employees in the Government service and in the
commercial companies. The whole school and
university system was based on this imperialist
need, and the education given was of more
or less literary character, no attention being
paid to industrial, technical or agricultural
subjects. But even before the war, there was
an overproduction in men of this type and there
was not sufficient room for them in the i'm
perialist administrative machinery. During
and for a short time after the war, there was
sudden development of industries primarily
for the supply of Great Britain's war needs,
and there was temporary outlet for the prod
lets of the schools and colleges.
But the situation has changed during the
last eight years, and industrial and agricultural
conditions have worsened. The already heavy
pressure upon the soil is increasing owing to
the influx of the unemployed and of industrial
workers on strike from the towns. Neither the
quantity nor the methods of agricultural pro-
duction have improved, industrial development
has been only as rapid as was needed for Brit
sh capitalist interests but has not been rapid
enough to provide employment for the surplus
population, of the agricultural areas or for the
educated middle class, and the depression in the
existing industrial and trade situation has led
to the dismissal of large numbers of commercial
employees and to reductions in wages.
The economic and political situation is best
reflected in the textile industry-the leading
industry of India. The Indian Textile mill
owners have made fortunes during the last
three decades by the direct plumber of their
wora - hut they are now faced with the seri-
Gus r,s,s in the industry. Their ignorance,
the se.s. .al inefficency of their factories,
the .a..,, roportionatey high salaries paid to
their manag r. and agents, the absence of an
efficient sales organization and their inability
to compete with Lancashire, Japan and Amer
lea, in spite of the low wages paid to their
workers, are forcing the millowners to seek
ways and means Of enhancing the profits. AS
these profits must naturally be squeezed out of
the workers directly and the broad masses of
the consumers indirectly, the millowners have
been resorting to naturalization, to attempted
reduction in wages, to legislation against the
trade union rights of workers, to attempted
anti-strike legislation and to demand for in
creased protection against foreign competition.
The inevitable conflict between the workers
and their employers has found expression dur
ing the last two years in the historic strikes
of hundreds of thousands of textile workers
under the leadership of the Girni Hangar
Union. In addition, thousands of employees
have been thrown out of work. A further in
crease in unemployment is bound to result in
the near future because of the fact that the
U.S.A. capitalists, who suffered very serious
blow owing to the recent collapse of the New
Fork stock market, are expected to go in for
a wholesale dumping of their textile and other
products