10 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Bengal Railways and Inland Steamer Navigation workers' strikes in protest against tht brutal police firing on tea garden workers. As examples of sympathetic strike, these two movements deserve further serious studies. What interests us here, however, is not the details of these strikes but how they were reflected in the contemporary literature on labour. All the subsequent studies on Indian labour noted these strikes and unanimously expressed strong resentment against the Chandpur police action and deep sympathy for the workers. Simultaneously, once again the main point of debate and discussion centred around the causes that led to these movements : whether they were economic or politically motivated, instigated by the leaders and cadres of the ongoing Non Co-operation movement. Once again the ruling class (including planters) tried to put the blame on the Congress and Khilafat men, while Nationalist public opinion consistently refuted this charge. They explained the incidents in terms of workers' spontaneous protest against low wages, inhuman working conditions and oppressions in the gardens. D. Chaman LaPs book, cited earlier, reflects all these views along with a strong sympathy for the workers. ° As has been mentioned earlier, innumerable references, these strikes can be found in all the nationalist newspapers and journals. R.K. Das also discussed these issues in his book referred to earlier; the main emphasis in all these publication is rightly put on police repression against workers' spontaneous and legitimate actions. This debate regarding spontaneity versus organised movement is noticeable in all the writings on Indian labour history. Even today it is going on among labour historians though on a much more sophisticated level, sprinkled with heavy doses of abstract theories. Those who emphasised the spontaneous character of the movement did so for two reasons: firstly, since there were no trade unions to organise and plan workers' movements how, could such movements be explained unless the element of spontaneity was introduced into the argument ? Secondly, to protect outside leaders from legal actions, they wanted to refute charges of interference by outsiders. As a matter of fact, B.P. Wadia, one of the earliest labour leaders, was sentenced by the court for his involvement as an outsider with the strike of Binny &: Go's workers (1921). This assertion was therefore extremely necessary, particularly before the passing of the Trade Union Act. Just the reverse argument was put forward by the spokesmen of the ruling class with a view to keeping outsiders away from the scenes of labour unrest. They therefore did not put much emphasis on spontaneity. What both sides failed to see and appreciate was the fact that the term spontaneity in the case of the labour movement is a misnomer. Without some form of organisation and information system, workers of different factories or tea gardens could not have launched movements simulaneously with common objectives. The very nature of wage workers' collective participation in factory work automatically brings into existence an inherent, built-in system of organisation and communication among them. This aspect of workers' organisation has not received as much attention from scholars as it deserves. This paper constituts text of the presidential address of the author to the fifth session of the North-East India^ ^History Association, held at Aizawl in 1984.