LIAS Kolloquium: Labour Politics And Muslim Nationalism In Late Colonial Calcutta
Prerna Agarwal, LIAS Fellow
02. Dec
In the winter semester 2026/27, the LIAS Colloquium will open its doors to the university community for the first time. The Fellows will present their current research projects, offering insights into the questions, methods and perspectives that shape their work. The weekly colloquium provides a space for focused exchange on the diverse research projects pursued at LIAS. All members of the university community are warmly invited to discover the programme and engage with the Fellows’ research.
Date: Wednesday, 2 Dec 2026, 12:15-1:45 p.m.
Location:Campus | Central Building C40.530
As the dockworkers, seamen and boatmen in colonial Calcutta were largely Muslim, this presentation is about the significance of popular mobilisation of the urban poor (and with a ‘socialist’ programme) by the Muslim League in the run-up to Direct Action Day in 1946. The chapter offers a new reading of this key event.
The main argument is developed along these lines: labour politics existed within an anticolonial movement, and in a tense relationship with not one, but two kinds of nationalisms. We often take into account the Congress one, but in fact Muslim nationalism was as significant for the shaping of labour politics. In the 1940s, these two nationalisms emerged as rival forces and vied for hegemony over mass politics, drawing the workers’ movement into their vortex.