CONGRESS MINISTRY AND LABOUR UNREST IN BIHAR,1937-39

This paper seeks to analyse the condition of labour in colonial Bihar during the tenure of the first congress ministry, 1937-39. Also, it tries to contextualise the work of the congress ministry, established under the Provincial Autonomy under the Government of India Act, 1935, with respect to the labour demands. The analysis finds that the congress ministry could not go too far in fulfilling the just labour demands because of (i) the limitation of the Act of 1935 and (ii) congress party’s unwillingness to compromise on the strategy of class ?collaboration instead of class-struggle.