Volume-XII, Issue-III, May 2026 |
War, Workers and the Colonial Metropolis of Calcutta Aritra Gangopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Department of History, PKHN Mahavidyalaya, West Bengal, India |
Received: 20.04.2026 | Accepted: 07.05.2026 | Published Online: 31.05.2026 | Page No: 103-108 | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.03W.326 | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
The commencement of the Second World War in 1939, created repercussions throughout the far-flung British Empire. Resources from the Indian colony were channelized to sustain the war effort. With Japan`s entry into the war in 1941, hostilities reached India`s doorstep. Initial Axis military successes, compounded with Imperial Japan`s initial successes against the Allied forces, had threatened the very existence of the Raj in South Asia. The imperial city of Calcutta, with its strategic location and pre-existing industrial infrastructure now pivoted as an important nodal point in the Allied effort to counteract the Axis incursion. The city witnessed repetitive bombing raids from Japanese airplanes. The war-induced uncertainties produced a sharp hike in the prices of essential items and a famine ravaged the countryside of the Bengal province. The working class population of the city was hit hard and the plight of the people involved in informal sectors was the most perilous. Historical accounts have largely overlooked their desperate struggle for survival in the midst of wartime paranoia and economic devastation. By examining the daily struggles of cobblers, scavengers, bookbinders, and domestic workers, this article illustrates how these figures navigated and resisted the systemic negligence of a metropolis at war. | ||
Keywords: Second World War, Working Class, Trade union movement, Calcutta, late-colonialism. |