Brief History: 1925 End of an Era

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The Social thing

During this era labor problems brought new angle to the industrialization. Affects of Russian revolution (1917) were clearly evident on the city. Wave of Socialism and Communism had hit the city strongly. Until now labor struggle was not recognized and activities likewise were considered as unpatriotic. But laborer’s had serious problems, which deserved attention. The Second phase of Industrial developments began from 1925, on one hand entrepreneur were finding way’s to maximize profits and on the other, thoughts like Humanity, Socialism and Independence were gaining ground.

On 17th July 1920 after numerous requests’ “Kanpur Mazdoor Sabha” was registered but the Government of State in “Upper India Chamber of Commerce” required certain conditions to be fulfilled before recognition. Mr. Gavin Jones blamed that “unions are being led by people who are not workers themselves (e.g. Ganesh shanker vidyarthi, Ganga sahai chaubey)” he said that “they are using this platform for achieving their political goals”.

This was true to an extent, infact it had become mandatory for the them to talk about the workers because of their sheer numbers. On 15 July 1920 Vidyaar Khan said “The number of Mazdoor’s is so huge that if they leave the city, the city will be veeran (empty)”. Circumstances also forced them to follow in footsteps of Gandhi, who was mobilizing masses of Ahemdabad in the same fashion. The whole uprising aandolan was presented by these leaders on two levels’…………….. Britisher’s v/s Indians………. & …………….Owner’s v/s Workers.

Numerous strikes on demands of good working conditions, increment in wages and independence were staged. Due to these strikes Cawnpore started losing its industrial charm & British lost their interest in the city. Some of them started pulling back their share of capital and sniffing the Indian independence, the remaining also started extracting as much profit as they could. They drained the mills, and left the business to the disposal of Indian Businessman, who supported them for maximum benefits in minimum time. As a result in 1924-38 many Indians took control of the business & started rising. People like Sir J.P.Srivastava, Japuria Group & JK group overtook the existing mills and established new one’s like JK Cotton Manufacturing Ltd (1933) & Laxmiratan Cotton Mill (1934). But all this process left the mills with virtually no money for technical up gradation. By 1935: 14 Cotton mills were in the city, with 455136 spindles & 8019 looms. On an average 30118 workers were working here. 19030 bales of Raw Cotton weighing 784 pounds were consumed everyday.