Class Conflict and Modernization in India ― The Raj and the Calcutta Waterfront (1860-1910)

The port of colonial Calcutta was amongst the great trading centers of Asia. Indians exported vast quantities of grain, cotton, tea, and opium, and imported armaments, textiles, and other manufactured items through this port. Thousands of men and women helped load and unload cargoes facilitating this trade.

This book is a study of state power, technological change, and class conflict at the port of colonial Calcutta. It explores the period between 1860 and 1910 in order to recast historical understandings of the relationship between the colonial state, science and technology, and labor. In this period, the British Raj made significant investments to this port in order to support the shift in global shipping from sail to steam. This included the building of warehouses and railroads, jetties and wharves, and the Kidderpore wet dock system. It also involved a transformation in labor management. Examining how the port’s modernization affected the port workforce, the author examines in particular its impact on class formation that emerged as laborers resisted through acts of everyday resistance and organized strikes. He analyses how these workers and the process of their class formation, in turn, affected the port’s managers and influenced their decisions. Drawing on research based on primary sources collected from archives located in India, this book sheds light on a history of class conflict and modernization as it unfolded in the premier port city of British India. It will be of interest to academics of Modern Indian history, labour history, and the histories of science and technology.

Aniruddha Bose is Assistant Professor of History at St. Francis University, US.