On the occasion of World Labor Day, it is necessary to reflect on forgotten movements of the global labor movement and the ongoing struggle for justice and recognition
As the globe marks Labour Day, or May Day, this Wednesday, commemorating the historic 1886 protests in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, it’s vital to recognise that labour activism has deeper, lesser-known roots.
Nearly 21 years before these events, on 29 April 1865, a crucial yet largely forgotten labour uprising occurred in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. This momentous event may very well represent the world’s first organised labour and trade union movement, predating even the famed struggles that culminated in the international acknowledgment of workers’ rights.
Regrettably, it appears that the fact the workers were Muslims led to a lack of empathy from leftist activists or communists. Only the late trade union leader and journalist, Pran Nath Jalali, commemorated this day during his lifetime by hosting friends for tea at the Press Club of India in New Delhi.
On that spring day in 1865, weavers and other workers in the shawl industry protested against the oppressive taxation and dire working conditions imposed by the Hindu Dogra rulers. The demonstrations were brutally suppressed, resulting in at least 28 Muslim workers losing their lives and hundreds more injured—a tragic sacrifice in labour movement history.
Cashmere shawls, especially the pashmina (known as cashmere in Europe), have long been celebrated globally, fetching high prices and symbolising status and fashion in Europe. Historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine, who reportedly owned up to 60 cashmere shawls, were patrons. The Mughal emperors of India also cherished these shawls, often presenting them as gifts to foreign dignitaries, boosting their popularity in Europe.
The craft of shawl weaving in Kashmir has ancient origins. Saleem Beg, former Director General of Kashmir Tourism and cultural heritage expert, notes that this tradition predates the advent of Islam in the region. Iranian historian Zain-ul-Abideen Rahinuma has written that when Hazrat Khadija married Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in 595, she brought a Kashmiri shawl as part of her dowry.
Despite their international acclaim, the artisans who crafted these shawls endured squalid living conditions. The Treaty of Amritsar in 1846, which established Dogra Hindu rule under King Gulab Singh with British oversight, demanded annual tributes that included pashmina shawls. The exploitative tax system under Dogra rule left Muslim Kashmiri labourers with scant means, confined to their profession under severe penalties, almost akin to serfdom.
The conditions were grim: a shawl weaver barely earned seven rupees a month, from which they had to pay five rupees in tax. With the meagre remainder, they could not afford basic food and survived on water chestnuts.
The oppressive tax regime was personified by the Daag-e-shawl, a special tax department that collected exorbitant taxes for the ruler and regulated the weavers’ work with harsh measures. In 1865, this office was auctioned to a wealthy Kashmiri, Raj Kak Dhar, who was given carte blanche to extract taxes through draconian measures.
Their patience had run out. So on April 29, 1865, the weavers marched against the high taxation and miserable working conditions and demanded nominal wages. They also demanded an end to the ban on their emigration and the ban on taking up another profession. They also requested a meeting with the Diwan, a representative of the ruler in Srinagar.
However, a column of the Dogra army under Colonel Bije Singh stopped them at the narrow Haji Pather bridge over the river Jhelum. Historians have recorded that 28 improvised unarmed weavers were thrown into the river during the stampede and scores of people were injured by gunfire.
“The next day, the bodies were recovered from the river and paraded by the weavers to attract the attention of the ruler. The organizers of the procession were stopped and arrested and even flogged,” says Rekha Chowdary, a teacher at the University of Jammu.
Rasool Sheikh, Ali Pal, Abdul Qudus, and Sona Shah — the leaders who had led the procession – were detained in Bahu Fort jail in the Jammu region.
They never returned to Kashmir and died in jail. No inquiry was ever initiated, nor was a memorial ever dedicated to the world’s first trade union movement, which took place long before the Chicago incident or even before the Russian or Chinese communist revolutions, which were a result of workers’ resistance to exploitation.
This overlooked chapter in union history not only predates the Haymarket protests but is also a poignant reminder of the universal and ongoing struggle for workers’ rights.
On the occasion of World Labor Day, reflecting on such forgotten movements enriches our understanding of the roots of the global labor movement and the ongoing struggle for justice and recognition that continues in many parts of the world today.
