The Working Classes and the Future Constitution

The Working Classes and the

Future Constitution

(General Secretary, The All-India Railwaymen’s Federation)

The subject of the future constitution of our country as outlined in the White Paper has by now apparently received exhaustive criticism on the part of the intelligent public. Nevertheless, the view-point of organised labour has not attracted adequate public attention.

It is generally agreed that the future constitution will be retrograde in removing certain matters outside the sphere of activity of the legislatures, viz., questions relating to the Army, the Railway Board, and the Reserve Bank. The financial safeguards proposed and the arbitrary powers, under the plea of special responsibility, vested in the Governor-General and the Governors will make the legislatures more powerless. Similarly, the British element in the public services will not be under the proper control of a popular Minister. The number of legislators necessary for the working of the future constitution will be very considerably increased, from 872 to between 1500 and 1750 in the provincial legislatures alone, costing to local governments about Rs. 66 lakhs, and to the candidates above Rs. 100 lakhs at every general election, let alone the cost of elections to the federal legislatures. Nor has any provision been made to establish a Statutory Economic Council though recommended by the Whitley Commission, in the Constitution Act, to ensure the establishment of a machinery for tackling the economic problems of the country with the utmost efficiency and expedition, without going through the cumbersome process incidental to legislative action in the future councils. There is no provision indicated for progressive increase of political power to the country in a reasonable period of time.

The proposed classification of subjects to fix the respective jurisdiction of the provincial and federal authorities is equally unsatisfactory. Labour would not prefer a federal form of government to a unitary type, for the simple reason that the desire of the working classes is to discourage divergent action on the part of the legislatures and encourage inter-provincial and inter-national unity, even feebly, on the principle that the interests of the workers are identical everywhere. In this connection, it will be relevant to point out that France and Italy originally tried to modify the Versailles Treaty in such a manner that a Convention adopted by the International Labour Conference may be automatically binding, without requiring individual ratification on the part of the States-Members. It is indeed regrettable that this attempt was successfully opposed by other countries. The difficulty experienced in federal countries like the United States and Canada in bringing about uniformity of labour legislation has been very considerable. Recently, a delegate of the American Federation of Labour, addressing the British Trades Union Congress, significantly pointed out that while it was difficult enough to get a favourable legislative measure for labour passed in Great Britain, it was almost impossible to do so throughout the United States, because the British workers had to face opposition only in one parliament while the American workers had to fight in 48 parliaments.

The same position will be experienced in our country when the Federation is inaugurated. In the evidence given before the Joint Select Committee, the Secretary of State stated that, while power of labour legislation will be generally concurrent in federal and provincial legislatures, the provincial governments which will administer labour legislation under the new constitution will have a great voice in shaping labour measures passed by the federal legislature.

It may also be pointed out that while Railways will be a federal subject, Roads will be outside the purview of the federal legislature. Similarly, the legislation on health, insurance, and relief to the poor will be exclusively provincial subjects.

Examining the question of the classes that will share the small political power that will result out of the future constitution, or in other words, the franchise which will send legislators, it will be seen that communalism will become rampant and communal electorates will serve to perpetuate religious and caste distinctions. The franchise is mainly based on property qualification, and needless to say there is no provision for adult franchise even on a voluntary basis as in Ceylon. The politically minded section will not be necessarily confined to the enfranchised electorate, and such of them as are not enfranchised have no hope of redress except through the exercise of some influence over the 14 per-cent enfranchised adult population.

While every important section including the women receives some representation or other, the vast majority of agricultural labourers have no direct place in the future constitution. In defence of this arrangement, the Lothian Committee states: ‘As regards his interests as an employee, we feel that in addition to the influence which the relatively small number of electors of the agricultural labourer class will be able to exercise through their fellow agriculturists and their representatives in the legislatures, the representatives of labour in the legislatures may be relied upon to interest themselves broadly in their welfare as wage-earners.’ What the Lothian Committee forgot to note is that it is not sufficient that some party interests itself in the welfare of some others but that there should be sufficient representation for interest. Labour, besides being under-represented, will be lost in the opposition of agricultural, industrial, and commercial capital, both European and Indian.

The recent evidence given by the Secretary of State has admittedly shown that reservation of seats for Europeans exclusively is for the purpose of giving representation to European capitalists as such. In the Federal Assembly, Labour will secure 10 out of the 250 seats allotted for British India. But this will be more than offset by 26 seats (7, 11, 8) reserved for land-holders, commerce and industry, and European interests. In the provincial legislatures, out of 1585 seats, Labour gets 38 seats while capitalists have reserved seats numbering 119 (26, 56, 37) from European, Commerce and Industrial, and Land-holders' constituencies. In the Federal Council of State, Labour has no direct representation at all.

Even the representation of industrial labour, wherever recognised, is further handicapped by the exclusion of certain sections of the workers, like the clerical and supervisory staff, from the electorate. The average cost of election to a seat for the candidate will range between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 25,000 according to the Lothian estimates. The present inadequacy and poverty of labour organisations will discourage running costly election campaigns and there is no chance for a labour candidate being successful in a general constituency.

No provision is contemplated to embody in the future constitution a declaration of fundamental rights guaranteeing to the workers freedom of speech, association, and press for legitimate Trade Union purposes, right to work, right to strike and to receive State assistance in case of social risks.

In the circumstances, when, the propertied classes are themselves keenly dissatisfied with the future constitution as transferring no real power to this country from the British vested interests, it can hardly be expected that the working classes will rest satisfied with the constitution proposed in the White Paper.