Known as ‘Motaben’, Gujarati for ‘elder sister’, she was born in 1885 into the affluent Sarabhai family of Ahmedabad. Its major activity apart from welfare was to indoctrinate the workers and convince them of this.For the ideological control to be effective, Gandhi’s intervention was also necessary. Anasuya or Anusyabehn Sarabhai (11 November 1885 – 1972) was a pioneer of the women’s labour movement in India. In the period immediately succeeding the one under study, this resistance took a more militant form and the ideological control of Gandhi and the TLA was greatly threatened. This section will attempt to elucidate how the TLA and Gandhi contributed in ensuring this submission.The mill-owners in Ahmedabad sought to portray themselves as benevolent and different from industrialists elsewhere by not only encouraging the growth of a union but also officially recognising it. There was however, a doubt whether the mill-owners could proceed with unity and a “mill group” was formed.On 2 February, Gandhi was told that the workers would go on strike thus “endanger[ing] the peace of the entire city” and was invited, this time, by Ambalal Sarabhai, to intervene.However, a few days before the arbitration board was to meet, the workers in a few mills went on strike. In 1920, Gandhi also formed Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association (Majoor Mahajan Sangh) with her support. Gandhi’s views on the relationship between capital and labour, on the strike, on what is justified and what is not, during this periodMoreover, his intervention in the struggles between 1918 and 1920 ensured that they remained non-violent to a large extent and did not last very long. In the context of growing labour unrest across in the country resulting in loss of working days and the destruction of property and machinery, especially in Bombay, Gandhi’s leadership, was not only acceptable but also favourable to the majority of mill-owners.Thus, for the mill-owners, the TLA and Gandhi provided the means for maintaining ideological control over the workers and in the process maintaining the existing relations of production. The essential features of this mahajan pratha were the organization of different workers into “mahajans”, non-confrontational relations between labour and capital and the disputes between two parties being resolved amicably by a board of arbitration. Anasuya Sarabhai also helped Mahatma Gandhi in setting up the infrastructure of Sabarmati Ashram along with Shankarlal Banker and Narhari Parikh. Apart from this, the TLA with its particular mode of organisation and functioning also contributed to the control of labour in a number of ways.First, the TLA was known as the Majoor Mahajan in the city and this had a number of implications. Copyright © 2020 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. In 1920, she founded the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association (Majdoor Mahajan Sangh).
Ahmedabad: Majoor Office, 1920. Between December 1917 and June 1920, in a fashion similar to other industrial centres in colonial South Asia, there was an increase in labour unrest in the Ahmedabad cotton textile industry. The choice of the word mahajan for a union sought to locate it within the “traditional” commercial culture of the city. However, in spite of the action of these concerted and coordinated forces there were instances at which this control seemed weak, albeit for short moments.