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State Regulation and Class Struggle in the Beedi Industry of Post-Colonial Malabar, 1947–1970

Bibliographic Data

ID11212965
AuthorsSuramya Thekke Kalathil (0000-0002-7439-2997, Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume103
Pages274-291
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Labor and Working-Class History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0147-5479 • E-ISSN: 1471-6445
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0147547922000205
OpenAlexW4321453652
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

In post-independence India, as in many developing post-colonial nations, the capitalist class was dependent on the state to discipline the laborforce, and the rapid uptake of capitalist production methods prompted the new government to intervene aggressively in industrial labor relations. The main goal of postcolonial labor policy was to maintain peaceful labor relations at any cost in order to foster economic development. The newly elected government failed to help capitalists increase their profits through productivity growth, so the way forward was to impose restrictions on labor. Pro-capital labor legislation initially enabled capitalists to curb the mobility and resistance of workers. In due course, however, irrespective of how consistently or effectively labor regulations and repressive measures were enforced, the reaction of the working class heightened its political consciousness, and thus aggravated frictions between capital and labor. When the state resorted to labor welfare laws as a new strategy to reduce these conflicts, employers often fragmented production among smaller units (such as workshops and households) in order to dodge labor regulations. As a reaction to this production decentralization, the working-class movement created impediments to the process of continual capital accumulation

Capital (architecture · Class consciousness · Colonialism · Decentralization · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics · Labor relations · Labour economics · Legislation · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Production (economics · Productivity · Relations of production · State (computer science · Working class · Indian Economic and Social Development · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · Social and Economic Development in India

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Unique citing works1
Citations per year1
Citation span2025 - 2025 (1)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1

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