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RATIONALIZATION IN INDIAN BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 223
some of the representatives of the Indian cotton mills:
that in equipm~nt and installations one or two of them
were even more up-to-date than some of the mills in
Great Britain.
These aspects of rationalization are almost invariably
connected in India as elsewhere with a socially regrettable
and perhaps dangerous aspect, namely, retrenchment. 3
Now retrenchment is not a very pleasant phenomenon in.
the lives of working men and clerks and leads very often
to strikes. This socio-economic complex, rationalization
retrenchment strikes, has been of late associated with the
cotton mills of Bombay City. As if to advertize to the
world that post-war India has already mastered the
mystery of rationalization some 150,000 textile workers
of this city went on general strike in 1928 (April­
October). tt Efficiency" of labour was the catchword of
the managers and proprietors, and they wanted to introduce
t t new systems •• of work. And in this they got
their cue from the Tariff Board who had recommended,
naturally with an eye to technical improvements on ad"
vanced Western or even Japanese lines, that (1) a spinner
should be able to attend two frames and not one only as
before and that (2) a weaver should be i~ charge not of two
looms but of three. Labour-saving devices, whether
technical or organizational, have had always but one re.,.
action from the hands since the beginnings of industrial.
revolution (c 1775-1830), and that is unrest, riot and.
strikes. The cotton mills of the Bombay Presidency are
thordughly Indian in finance and management,. It is clear~.
therefore, that rationalization has been making headway·
3 Free Press (Bombay), 3 May .1929.