Hidden in Hides: The World of Calcutta Tannery Workers, 1905-1996

This thesis explores the multi-layered world of Calcutta tannery workers from 1905 to 1996. Historically, leather works in India were practised by two occupational and untouchable castes—the Chamars and the Muchis. Their untouchability stemmed from their handling of certain substances considered unclean and pollution-transmitting in a ritualistic sense. Before 1905, the leather industry in Bengal mostly existed as a small-scale home-based industry and tanning depended on the traditional knowledge and skill of the Chamar tanners. The arrival of the Chinese tanners in the late eighteenth century however complicated this story. From its revival and modernisation in 1905 under the banners of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement, to its relocation to Bantala in Calcutta in 1996, the fate of this industry and its workforce has been deeply entwined with the socio-political and economic realities of the time. Amidst the turbulent political climate of Bengal in 1905, as Bengali middle-class educated gentlemen found themselves out of employment options, Bengali national capitalists and scientific intelligentsia came together under the aegis of Swadeshi industrial endeavours to revive the leather industry and modernise it to provide employment opportunities for the educated bhadralok. The First World War and the military demand for leather goods helped these modernisation efforts. The modernisation of leather production in Calcutta therefore occurred in tandem with efforts to destigmatise the industry and make it more attractive to the Bengali bhadralok. In the end, it deepened the hierarchy of the workforce.

From 1905 onwards notions of ‘modernity’ had infiltrated the language of leather production in Calcutta, and this thesis examines the conundrums of this modernity. It argues that the project of modernisation of the Calcutta leather industry and the concomitant efforts to introduce technical education in leather production created three very distinct social groups associated with this industry—the outcaste Chamar tanners, the migrant Chinese tannery owners and the educated Bengali gentlemen. Chapter 1 spans from 1905 to 1911. It traces the story of modernisation of the leather industry and the birth of the National Tannery in 1905. It shows that modernisation did not guarantee a linear process of professional and social mobility for the Chamars and the Chinese. Rather, through social stigma and spatial segregation in the Dhapa area of Calcutta, they struggled with their marginalised and conflicting identities. Chapter 2 follows the ramifications of the modernisation project through its related project of technical education between 1911 and 1940. It explores how by keeping the Chamars and the Chinese excluded, these projects maintained and preserved the inequality intrinsic to this industry and added a further dichotomy between skilled and unskilled workers. This further cemented the hierarchical positions of the three social groups associated with this industry. Chapter 3 traces the skilled-unskilled dichotomy to explore the nature of this industry, union leadership and the process of formation of working-class consciousness among the tanners of Calcutta. While the industrial proletariat in Calcutta aligned their grievances with nationalist struggle for independence in the 1940’s, tanners of Calcutta were struggling to organise themselves as ‘workers’. Chapter 4 examines the reasons for and consequences of the relocation of Calcutta tanneries from Dhapa to the Bantala Leather Industrial Complex in 1996. In the aftermath of this relocation, the new factory setting became the sphere within which managerial authority imposed new restrictions on the tanners. Therefore, working-class neighbourhoods became alternative spaces for workers to articulate their identity and attempt to invert managerial authority. By questioning the modernisation project, this thesis explores the complex relationships between the three social groups associated with this industry. Drawing theoretical insights from a wide array of South Asian labour history, this work draws attention to the previously understudied Calcutta tannery workers. This thesis contributes to the debates regarding caste-class dichotomy that South Asian labour history has been mired in. It asks if workers can be seen as a homogenous group or if we can accommodate fluidity and plurality of workers’ identities within the process of becoming class conscious. It concludes that the intersection of caste, ethnicity, class, and spatial politics constructed a multi-layered world for the workers of the Calcutta tanneries. They negotiated their consciousness within that space to construct multi-faceted identities. The unorganized nature of this industry resulted in archival marginalization of its workforce as well. So, this work faced serious challenges in finding archival sources on Calcutta tanners. To avoid writing a singular narrative that denies agency to the tanners, this work, in addition to archival sources, uses oral interviews with tannery workers as key primary sources.