Informalisierung und Arbeitskämpfe in Indien. Eine zeithistorische Perspektive auf die Gegenwart

After sketching out briefly the development of industrial labour and industrial relations in India, this essay examines the impact of processes of informalisation on forms of industrial dispute. Examples are drawn, in particular, from two industries, i.e. the automotive industry and the “power loom” textile sector. For while the first represents, as it were, the “inner front” of informalisation (i. e. informalisation within the “formal sector”), the second stands for the “outer front” of informalisation (i. e. the decentralisation of industries that were regulated “formally” before). The essay argues that: (1) informalisation has reduced the efficacy of industrial disputes that follow the laid down legal procedures. (2) labour law, despite its growing non-implementation, continues to provide the elements of ideas of social justice among workers. (3) legally regulated forms of industrial conflict are being overshadowed, at least partly, by seemingly “primitive”, “archaic” forms of labour struggles. Their brutalisation and relatively unorganised appearance can, however, be explained against the background of contemporary processes of “globalisation”.