Contesting class: gender, community, and the politics of labor in a Calcutta jute mill

Abstract

This article is based on a detailed ethnographic study of Calcutta jute mill workers, with the argument drawing on interviews and observations of everyday politics and conflicts at the factory level. In an attempt to transcend the problem of essentialism in the study of working class politics, the article presents a theoretical reconceptualization of class, arguing that class is a contested category, one that is constituted by conflict, exclusion, and a hierarchical representation of interests. The "making' of class politics in India thus represents a continual process of reconstruction and conflict rather than a predefined teleology. In this process, it is maintained that both the structural and ideological/cultural components of class are constructed through the politics of gender and community. -Author