Ahmedabad Mill Worker’s Strike 1918

An exhibition to mark the centenary of the strike 

Inauguration on Friday, 18 May 2018 at 18:30 by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Life Trustee IIC and Chairperson, IIC International Research Division

 

Chief Guest: Shri Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Director General & Secretary, Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai

 

 

The strike of the Ahmedabad textile workers in 1918 is remembered because of its unique nature. The leader of the workers was Anasuya Sarabhai and her brother, Ambalal Sarabhai was the President of the Millowners Association. When the millowners were considering stopping the plague bonus they had been giving and the workers asked for increased wages and threatened to go on strike, both Anasuya and Ambalal asked Mahatma Gandhi to come and intervene.  After 22 days, a compromise was worked out. Gandhi had insisted that there should be no violence. The struggle was conducted peacefully without any hostility. Gandhi said that he had never seen a struggle where there was so little animosity. After this the Ahmedabad Textile Association, a trade union on Gandhian lines, was launched

 

(Collaboration: National Gandhi Museum; and Shanti Sadan Trust, Ahmedabad)