Long before May Day became a symbol of workers’ rights worldwide, India’s labour movement quietly sparked to life on Marina Beach, Madras, in 1923.
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00:00In a period of time, especially with the people of the communist ideas of the world, they said that workers of the world unite.
00:16May 1st International Workers Day, Labor Day, they say in India.
00:20Most people picture Chicago or Moscow, but India's labor story began on a dusty beach in Madras, Chennai, one century ago.
00:28Marina Beach, Chennai, 1st May 1923.
00:31A lawyer activist named M. Singaraveller climbs onto a bullock cart platform.
00:36Behind him flaps a rectangle of D. Crimson, first red flag ever hoisted on Indian soil.
00:42His newly minted Labor Kisan Party of Hindustan reads out a charter.
00:468-hour day for men, 6 hours for women and minors, paid maternity leave, accident insurance, old age assistance, short, sharp, revolutionary.
00:56Exactly what the colonial mills run by the British refused to grant Indian workers.
01:00Until then, labor rallies in India were scattered meetings.
01:03Singaraveller welds them into an internationalist frame, linking coolies of Chennai to Chicago's haymarket martyrs.
01:10For the British police, that's sedition wrapped in socialism.
01:13They shadow him for years.
01:15Three months later, Bombay's textile unions copy the format.
01:18Red flags, 8-hour chant.
01:20Within a decade, the 1935 Government of India Act legalizes trade union registration, unlocking collective bargaining nationwide.
01:27Coincidence?
01:28Workers will tell you otherwise.
01:30Fast forward.
01:31India's code of wages promises minimum pay.
01:33Gig drivers still wait for social security.
01:36Yet, every May day, factory sirens pause for 2 minutes at 8 am.
01:41A silent nod to the 8-hour dream born on Marina Beach.
01:44So, when you scroll past red flag emojis today, remember, they first caught the sea breeze in Madras, 1923.
01:51Raised by a lawyer who believed rest is a right, not a perk.
01:55Labor rights are still work in progress.
01:57The story is still being written.
01:59I'm Manish Harikari.
02:00Thank you for watching The Culture Project and more.