Abstract

"A basis for labour-management co-operation”? The ILO Productivity Mission in Ahmedabad, 1954-58"

Catharina Haensel, University of Göttingen, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (catharina.haensel@sns.it)

This paper looks at the impact of the ILO Productivity Mission in the context of technological change within the Ahmedabad textile industry during the 1950s. Ideas of “management” in India have often been anaylsed under the framework of the developmental state by juxtaposing “modern” management strategies promoted by international actors vs. “traditional” strategies employed by Indian businesses. However, this becomes a teleological pitfall by suggesting a linear development towards modernism. What can microhistorical perspectives offer to improve our understandings of the relation between the ILO and local actors?
The effect of the Productivity Mission will be looked at from three different angles: First, it analyses the implications for shopfloor management within the textile mills. By introducing payment by results, the mission sought to move away from direct, coercive forms of supervision towards greater collaboration and individualised forms of managing working time and productivity. Second, the paper discusses the impact of the ILO mission on business-labour relations in a longer history of “peaceful” conflict resolution in Ahmedabad. Lastly, it highlights the mirroring of management concepts as promoted by the ILO within emerging educational institutions of Ahmedabad, such as the Ahmedabad Textile Industry Research Association (ATIRA) and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A).