The forgotten origins of India’s Labour Day

Long before May Day became a symbol of workers’ rights worldwide, India’s labour movement quietly sparked to life on Marina Beach, Madras, in 1923.

Transcript

00:00In a period of time, especially with the people of the communist ideas of the world, they said that workers of the world unite.

00:16May 1st International Workers Day, Labor Day, they say in India.

00:20Most people picture Chicago or Moscow, but India's labor story began on a dusty beach in Madras, Chennai, one century ago.

00:28Marina Beach, Chennai, 1st May 1923.

00:31A lawyer activist named M. Singaraveller climbs onto a bullock cart platform.

00:36Behind him flaps a rectangle of D. Crimson, first red flag ever hoisted on Indian soil.

00:42His newly minted Labor Kisan Party of Hindustan reads out a charter.

00:468-hour day for men, 6 hours for women and minors, paid maternity leave, accident insurance, old age assistance, short, sharp, revolutionary.

00:56Exactly what the colonial mills run by the British refused to grant Indian workers.

01:00Until then, labor rallies in India were scattered meetings.

01:03Singaraveller welds them into an internationalist frame, linking coolies of Chennai to Chicago's haymarket martyrs.

01:10For the British police, that's sedition wrapped in socialism.

01:13They shadow him for years.

01:15Three months later, Bombay's textile unions copy the format.

01:18Red flags, 8-hour chant.

01:20Within a decade, the 1935 Government of India Act legalizes trade union registration, unlocking collective bargaining nationwide.

01:27Coincidence?

01:28Workers will tell you otherwise.

01:30Fast forward.

01:31India's code of wages promises minimum pay.

01:33Gig drivers still wait for social security.

01:36Yet, every May day, factory sirens pause for 2 minutes at 8 am.

01:41A silent nod to the 8-hour dream born on Marina Beach.

01:44So, when you scroll past red flag emojis today, remember, they first caught the sea breeze in Madras, 1923.

01:51Raised by a lawyer who believed rest is a right, not a perk.

01:55Labor rights are still work in progress.

01:57The story is still being written.

01:59I'm Manish Harikari.

02:00Thank you for watching The Culture Project and more.