Questions of class: The general strikes in Bombay, 1928-29

This essay presents an argument about the processes which, marked as much b y contingency as by conflict shaped the formation of class identity. It arg ues that the formation of class consciousness is contingent upon the specif ic historical context in which it develops. Its presence at one moment has nor ensured its persistence at the,next. Class consciousness is neither lat ent nor immanent within the working classes, but is most fruitfully analyse d as a construct of political struggle and debate. Accordingly, the essay e xamines the construction of class in the course of the general strikes of 1 928-29 in Bombay These strikes involved or their core over 150.000 workers in more than eighty mills over a period of about eighteen months, bur they also pulled into their orbit workers in other trades and occupations in the city and beyond; and, in addition, they developed and manifested widesprea d support among workers for the communists. In particular the essay delinea tes a range of influences which shaped the political context of 1928-29 and informed these struggles. Finally, it sketches the conditions for the brea k-up of the solidarities of 1928-29 and the ebbing tide of class consciousn ess in the 1930s.