The Indian Workers Association: workplace politics and migrant solidarity
A house in Coventry was the unlikely setting for the formation of a trans-local workers movement. The Indian Workers Association, founded in the late 1930s, fused anti-colonial agitation with workplace politics in interwar Britain, advocating in the lives of Indian migrants in affairs at home and abroad. The liberation of India from the clasps of British colonial regime was the long-term aim of the Association, whilst challenging the discriminatory labour practices embedded in 20th century Britain and creating a community amongst Indian migrants were its immediate focuses.
Subscribing to Marxist worker liberation theories, the early IWA offered a radical voice for Indian labourers in Britain against the backdrop of economic depression in the 1930s. Yet, it was not until after the end of World War Two, and after the decolonisation of India in 1947 (the devastating Partition), that the IWA achieved a truly significant political profile. The increase in Indian immigration the to the UK as a result of the 1948 British Nationality Act led the ranks of the IWA to swell. As Indian migrant workers came to fuel postwar industries and join the expanded welfare state, new branches were set up in industrial and migrant hubs across the nation. The Indian Workers Association of Great Britain was established in 1958 to unite and direct these various local groups, creating a strong network spread across the face of the country.
A significant part of the IWA’s work focused on contesting racist discrimination policies and the ‘colour bar’ that Indian migrants faced at work. The IWA notably supported several episodes of industrial action in the second half of the 20th century, particularly in the midlands and the south of England. An estimated £60,000 was also reportedly spent by the IWA on the campaign to overturn the ban on bus drivers wearing the turban, which played out between 1967 and 1969.
But the IWA went beyond workplace politics and the traditional role of a workers association and reached into the private and domestic lives of its members. It acted as a support network for both new and more established immigrants and as an important cultural force. Historian Talvinder Gill highlights the IWA’s work in acting as translators for non-English speakers and offering pastoral support to newly arrived migrants. The IWA also encouraged celebration and enjoyment of Indian arts, films and culture, bolstering the emerging British Asian cultural scene.
The organisation began to decline in the final decades of the century, as its members melted into more conventional trade unions and the first and second generation to be born in the UK to Indian parents or grandparents identified less with the association and its specific brand of migrant politics. However, in spite of this the IWA remains an active political force and is an undeniable part of radical and workers’ history. Interweaving class and race politics, the IWA provided a unique voice amongst other labour organisations and advocated for a community left behind by more traditional unions.
Further reading: https://sharedculturalheritage.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/indian-workers-association-political-personal-and-social-struggles-in-20th-century-britain/
Ciara Garcha is a Director and Trustee at Amnesty International UK. She is also a writer for Our Shared Cultural Heritage , and a member of their South Asian Heritage Collective. She is studying History at the University of Oxford and sits on the history faculty’s Race Equality Action Group.
