Read the passage and answer the following questions.
Factory production began in India in the early part of the 1860s. The general pattern of trade set up by the colonial regime was one under which raw materials were procured from India and goods manufactured in the United Kingdom were marketed in the colony. The factories were established in the port town of Calcutta (Kolkata), Bombay (Mumbai) and later in Madras (Chennai) also. Tea plantations in Assam were established as early as 1839. Labour was cheap as the colonial government did not regulate either wages or working conditions. Though trade unions were established later, workers did protest for increase in wages. For example, jute workers in Calcutta and textile workers in Ahmedabad. The first trade union was established in April 1918 in Madras by B. P. Wadia, a social worker and member of Theosophical Society.
During the same year Mahatma Gandhi founded the Textile Labour Association (TLA). In 1920 the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed in Bombay with people from diverse ideologies. The main ideological groups were the communists led by S. A. Dange and M. N. Roy, the moderates lead by M. Joshi and V. V. Giri and the nationalists which involved Lala Lajpat Rai and J. L. Nehru. The colonial government became cautious in dealing with labour and passed the fourth Factories Act in 1922. And in 1926, the Trade Unions Act was passed which provided for registration of trade unions and proposed some regulations. In 1966-67 the economy suffered a major recession which lead to a decrease in production and consequently employment. The confrontation between the state and trade unions become active. During emergency in 1975- 77 the Government curbed all trade union activities. The worker's movement was very much part of the wider struggle for civil liberties.
The act that provided for registration of trade unions and proposed regulations:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Trade Union Act
Option (1) Factories Act — Incorrect. A Factories Act regulates the conditions of work inside factories. The fourth Factories Act of 1922 reduced the working day to 10 hours; it did not provide for registering trade unions.
Option (4) Trade Union Act — Correct. After the AITUC was formed, the colonial government became more cautious in dealing with labour. In 1926 it passed the Trade Unions Act, which provided for registration of trade unions and proposed some regulations.
Note: The lines on the fourth Factories Act of 1922 and the Trade Unions Act of 1926, in the section ‘Class Based Movements’ of the chapter ‘Social Movements’, were there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This portion has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter and its account of the workers’ movement are still there.
NCERT (2025-26): “Workers’ Movements … The first trade union was established in April 1918 in Madras by B.P. Wadia, a social worker and member of the Theosophical Society. During the same year, Mahatma Gandhi founded the Textile Labour Association (TLA). In 1920, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed in Bombay. The AITUC was a broad-based organisation involving diverse ideologies. The main ideological groups were the communists led by S.A. Dange and M.N. Roy, the moderates led by M. Joshi and V.V. Giri and the nationalist movements which involved people like Lala Lajpat Rai and Jawaharlal Nehru.…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “Workers’ Movements … The formation of the AITUC made the colonial government more cautious in dealing with labour. It attempted to grant workers some concessions in order to contain unrest. In 1922 the government passed the fourth Factories Act which reduced the working day to 10 hours. And in 1926, the Trade Unions Act was passed, which provided for registration of trade unions and proposed some regulations. By the mid 1920s, the AITUC had nearly 200 unions affiliated to it and its membership stood at around 250,000.” |