CarmineJansen at 08:24, 9 December 2025

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{{Short description|Strike by the workers of Indian Railways}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox civil conflict
| title = Railway Strike 1974
| partof =
| image =
| caption =
| date = {{start date|df=yes|1974|5|8}} - {{end date|df=yes|1974|5|27}}
| place = [[India]]
| coordinates =
| causes = Stagnant long working hours of locomotive staff
| goals = Eight-hour working day for locomotive staff
| methods = [[General strike|Strike]]
| status =
| result = suppression and failure
| side1 = [[All India Railwaymen's Federation]]
| side2 = [[Ministry of Railways (India)|Indian Railway Board]]
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The '''1974 railway strike in India''' was a major [[Strike action|strike]] by the workers of [[Indian Railways]] in 1974. The strike lasted from 8 to 27 May 1974.<ref name="f1">{{cite magazine |last=Sridhar |first=V |title=Chronicle of a strike |url=http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1819/18190750.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527051644/http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1819/18190750.htm |archive-date=27 May 2012 |access-date=28 September 2023 |magazine=Frontline |volume=18 |issue=19 |date=15 September 2001}}</ref> The 20-day strike by 1.7 million workers is the largest recorded [[industrial action]] in the world.<ref name="f1"/><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944832,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222065706/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944832,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 December 2008 |title=INDIA: Strangulating Strike |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]] |date=20 May 1974 |access-date=2012-02-11}}</ref><ref name=b>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/4395459 |jstor=4395459 |title=Railway Workers and Their Unions: Origins of 1974 Indian Railways Strike |last=Sherlock |first=Stephen |journal=[[Economic and Political Weekly]] |date=14 October 1989 |volume=24 |issue=41 |pages=2311–2322 |access-date=28 September 2023}}</ref>

==Reasons for the strike==
The strike was held to demand an eight-hour working day for locomotive staff by the [[All India Railwaymen's Federation]] a raise in pay scale, which had remained stagnant over many years, in spite of the fact that pay scales of other government-owned entities had risen over the years.<ref>{{cite web |title=THE INDIAN RAILWAYS STRIKE OF 1974: A Study of Power and Organised Labour |url=http://indianrailwayemployee.com/content/indian-railways-strike-1974-study-power-and-organised-labour |website=Indian railway employee website |publisher=Indian railway employee |access-date=5 June 2018}}</ref> Furthermore, since British times the Railways termed the work of the locomotive staff as "continuous", implying that workers would have to remain at work as long as the train ran on its trip, often for several days at a stretch. The [[independence of India]] did not change this. The eight-hour work day had not been implemented in Indian railways by the [[Railway Board]], a quasi-government bureaucracy despite having become a free country in 1947; this had led to dissatisfaction among workers, especially locomotive pilots.<ref name="book">{{cite book |last=Sherlock |first=Stephen |title=The Indian railways strike of 1974: A study of power and organised labour |edition=Hardcover |date=1 February 2001 |publisher=[[Rupa & Co.]] |location=[[Mumbai]] |isbn=8171675344}}</ref> Traditional railway union leaders too were starting to get distant from worker demands and closer instead to politicians, thus leading to further discord.<ref name=b/>

The spread of diesel engines and the consequent intensification of work in the Indian Railways since the 1960s resulted in continuous working hours being extended by days, creating much resentment among the workers.<ref name="wire">{{cite news |last=Ramakrishnan |first=Nitya |title=Remembering George Fernandes As He Was, Before He Lost Himself |url=https://thewire.in/politics/why-george-fernandes-is-a-force-to-be-reckoned-with |access-date=5 June 2018 |publisher=The Wire |date=3 June 2018}}</ref> The Railways, although government-owned, remained an organization in which the accepted worldwide standard of an [[eight-hour working day]] was violated with impunity.<ref name=b/> When the crafts unions raised the issue, they demanded a 12-hour working day for loco running staff. This led to railway strikes by rail workers across the country in 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1973, finally leading to the 1974 strike which was joined by 70% of the permanent workforce of railways. This was not the first railways strike in India, the earliest having occurred in [[British India]] in 1862 in [[Howrah]], and a number of strikes having occurred in the private railway companies that operated in British India, most of them becoming part of the Indian freedom struggle.<ref name="f1"/><ref name=b/>

As President of the [[All India Railwaymen's Federation]], [[George Fernandes]] led the strike.

==Culmination==
The strike commenced on 8 May 1974. The strike was brutally suppressed by the [[Indira Gandhi]] government with thousands being sent to jail and losing their jobs. The strike was called off on 27 May 1974.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/01/06/stories/2002010600140200.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306025910/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/01/06/stories/2002010600140200.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 March 2005 |title=Looking back at anger |date=6 January 2002 |work=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=28 September 2023}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1974 in India|Railway Strike In India, 1974]]
[[Category:1974 in rail transport|Railway Strike In India, 1974]]
[[Category:1974 labor disputes and strikes|Railway strike in India]]
[[Category:History of the Republic of India]]
[[Category:Indira Gandhi administration]]
[[Category:May 1974 in Asia|Railway strike in India]]
[[Category:Rail transport strikes in India]]

1974 railway strike in India - Revision history

CarmineJansen at 08:24, 9 December 2025