CHAPTER I

METHCDOLOOY : DIGGING OUT THE PAST

1 .1 Marxist Feminism and Research Methodology

.· ~The focus of this research, outlined in the Introduc-

tion, has been determined by an understanding of Marxist

theory of social change with a feminist concern for wanen's

subordination. Such ari approach entails the necessity of

addressing changes within the m

- 20 -

form of protest. Nowadays demonstrations to the headquarters

of Bharat Coking Coal Limited, at Koyla Bhavan, raise few

eyebrows.

In all of this wanen's work, and lives, mve changed. The aim here is to relate those changes to the irxiustry,

workforce and struggle. The dimensions of such a study, on

an industry-wide basis would be impossible, since much of

the material needed would have to be provided by the women

themselves. Such a study necessitated the selection of one

coal mining community.

The choice of a colliery town, the methods of research

adopted, and the nate rial sought to be tapped, were also

influenced by that same perspective. IvJarxist - feminists

are not only dealing with theoretical issues, since funda-

mental political implications and personal considerations

are at stake. Here I shall outline how such an approach

influenced the way in which I collected material for this

research.

1.2 Taking Sides in Research: Selecting a Colliery

After deciding that one colliery had to be selected

for this research, the first question emerges - which

colliery? On reaching Dhanbad I immediately visited the

Director General of Mines Safety and got a list of all the

collieries in the district. The mines vary in size, loca-

tion, extent of mechanisation and so on. Prior to nationa-

- 21 -

THESIS 331.48220954

82626 Wo

Ill II 11111111111111111111 TH3273

lisation in 1971 there-\\6s even greater diversity, with

large European-owned modernised collieries, small Indian-

owned mines with limited machinery, and the majority

ranged s anewhere between these two extremes. There seemed

to be no such thing as a •typical' mine.

In any case I could hardly pick out a mine fran a

list, and land up there to start my fieldwork. I had

other criterion in choosing a mine which ultimately deter-

mined my selection. I had decided to stay with a coa.f..;:,·,· ·

miners ' family, which turned out to be most important'

criterion. 1

In the context of the Jharia coalfield there are,

initially, two sides. I had met enough wcmen union acti-

vists to know this much - that neutrality means pro-manage-

ment. Whatever friction exists amongst men and women

workers, between trade union leaders and their members,

the division of class, between 'them' (the bosses) and

'us' (the workers) is even more pervasive. Middle class

wcmen of the coalfield are much further removed from the

lives of women colliery workers than coal-mining men or

the male trade union leaders. So great is the distance

between middle class and working class women of the coal-

field, that apart fran their gender, they have little else

in canmon.

Had l not opted for staying with a colliery workers'

family, the only other alternative would have been to stay ... \

- 22-

in one of the guesthouses of the Canpany. Had I stayed

in one of these bungalows I would have been identified as

'management• by workers. Besides too much help from 'them'

would have led to their interference in my research.

It would be dishonest on my part, however, to claim

that these were the cnly reasons for my decision. I did not

choose to stay with a worker• s family because this would

yield greater insight into their lives. My preference for

such a hrusehold stemmed from political and personal con-

siderations. Having experienced middle class male attitu-

des towards women, ar:d having met coalmining men in Dhan-

bad1s collieries, 1 knew that I felt safer with the latter

than the former. Through the wanen workers, I met their

husbands and male comrades, and found them to be far less

oppressive in their attitudes t~~rds wanen than their

middle class counterparts.

In spite of there being thousands of miners' fami-

lies in Dhanbad, finding a place to stay amongst them was

far fran easy. Ny contacts fortunately included union

activists. To arrange such accommodation, and to get

introduced to such wanen in the first place, such contacts

were essential. \vithout such friends I would not have

been able to establish any fruitful relationship with

colliery workers. In fact it was because I already bad

such friends that I felt that such research was viable in

the first place.

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There \\EI.S, however, considerable opposition to my

staying with workers, in their bustees • Some union acti-

vists, with middle class backgrounds, voiced the opinion

that it was • unsafe for women• • The most common objection

was, however, that it would be physically impossible for

me to stay in such bustees. There would be the problem of

food, sleeping arrangements, and, of course, the greatest

problem of all - and the least openly stated - the lack of

toilets and bathrooms in most workers• homes.

Having already met women workers and their families,

I was convinced that such objections were not in sunnount-

able. I felt that if I could get past the barrier of

middle level trade union activists, I could convince them

I ...as far more adaptable than they gave me credit for. I

never actually imagined such problems of safety, focxl or

toilets, for if several thousand of other women could live

in these bustees \'by not one more? I ...as not to be deter-

red by, what I naively considered to be, petty obstacles.

Ultimately, and as usual, I got my own way. Such a

household was found. In the absence of all other cri te-

rion, the colliery selected for this study was governed by

the discovery of a mining family who were not intimidated

by accommodating two wan en fran Delhi.

1 .3 Bhowra : An Ideal Colliery?

In October 1985, Pusbpa, my frierrl fran Delhi arrived

- 24-

in Dhanbad. She came as a friend -cun-translatar for the

first few months of my fieldwork. Arrangements for us to

stay in Bhowra colliery town had only been made a couple

of days bef are she came. Our journey there was a novel

experience for both of us.

Bhow.ra is only around twelve kilometres fran Dhanbad,

via Jharia. Yet the journey takes time, passing through

many colliery towns en route. Bhow.ra is at the southern

end of the coalbelt, bcrdered by the River Damodar.

On our first day we get down from the trekker a few

hundred metres before it's destination, Bhowra•s •Hospital

More'. On one side of the road the huge, yellow bungalow

of the erstwhile owners, inappropriately named 'lal bunga-

low', gives most people in the trekker the impression that

this is our destination. Nowadays the 'lal bungalow' is

used by 'pharen experts' who come to advise Indian mamge-

ments how to exploit their coal reserves.

Our destination lies on the other side of the road,

/ New Persiabad Bustee. It is called 'New' Persiabad be-

cause the old bustee,ha.lf a kilometre away, had to be shif-

ted due to subsidence. New Pemiabad is a Santal bustee,

and all the inhabitants are the descendents of the original

settlers in Bhowra. The Santals are 'adivasis' (aborigi-

nals) and their hanes and lifestyle easily distinguishes

them fran other canmunities in Bhowra. Most of the houses

of Persia bad Bus tee are a canbina tion of mud am tile, am

- 25 -

concrete structures, built around a courtyard. The houses

were more spacious and less crowded than most other commu-

nities that work in the colliery.

Persiabad Bustee \4lS on the outskirts of lhowra, and

when we arrived there in 1985, there \\B.S still some 'jungle 1

close at harxi. It served us well as our •toilet•, and the

pond and well as our 'bathrocm•. At that time only the

Santals of the bustee used this area for such purposes,

and the men maintained a respectful distance and would

consciously avoid us when we \>Jerrt to the 'toilet'. If

they were present, they would \'o,B.rn us by coughing so that

we could relieve ourselves elsewhere.

On subsequent visits to Persiabad Bustee the land-

scape has rapidly changed. Fersiabad ()pen cast Project

has expanded, and an ever increasing mountain of d~bris

looms on the har'izon. New workers quarters have been

built by the C cmpa.ny and have been occupied (not allotted)

by up-country labourers, supporters of the Janata Party

it is popularly alleged. As a result the 'jungle' has

been greatly depleted, arxl going to the 'toilet' proving

increasingly difficult. Bihari men (those from the plains

of Bihar are known as 'Biharis', local inhabitants of

Dhanbad do nat consider themselves 'Biha.ris', but Jhar-

khandis, dehatis (locals) etc.) do not make effar'ts to

maintain a distance on such occasions. I realise now

that staying in the dhowrahs would have been much more

- 26 -

difficult for us. 'Toilet' facilities are a crucial as-

pect of any research scholars• fieldworkt

Every household of Bersiabad Bustee is dependent upon

the colliery for its subsistence. None have any land left

to cultivate, although all of them were agriculturists in

the previous generation. Both men and wanen worked in the

coalmine, mostly as malkatas or wagon loaders.

The household we -were accanmodated in, were also '

landless and dependent upon the coa.lmine, but it differed

fran others in the bustee in many ways. Our hostess, Asha

Hembrom, a young housewife with three children, 'W9-S both

outspoken and educated. She was the only woman in the

whole bustee to have passed her matriculation examination.

Her husband, Motilal, is much quieter and more introverted '

than his wife. He is an electrical helper in the_ colliery.

'lliey live together in .Asba's father's house in Persiabad,

since his family lives far away fran the coalfield. fvla.ny

such households exist in the colliery towns, based on con-

venience rather than •tradition'.

As:ta and Motilal Hembran share the house with her

mother, two brothers and two sisters. &r father lives

and works in a factory in Sindri, around fifteen kilanetres

away. Asha is, in many ways, the 'head' of the household.

She made the decision to ace anmodate us, taught us ho.-t to

bathe in the open, and showed us where to relieve ourselves

in the 'jWlgle ', and never once apologised for the lack of

- 27 -

facilities. Her confidence and 'matter-of-fact• accep-

tance of us, made for a much better relationship between

us, neither she nor ourselves were inconvenienced, or felt

awk\#t6rd.

Persiabad Bustee, as it turned out, afforded us nany

advantages canpared to the crowded dhowrahs in Bhowra town.

Yet we wanted to see what sort of colliery existed in

Bhowra before we finally decided to stay on.

\men I initially tried to select criteria for the

sort of colliery I preferred,given the sort of perspective

and scope of this research, I had wanted to find a coa.lmine

with a lengthy history. Fortunately Bhowra '\'tQS such a

colliery. Coal began to be mined in Bhowra in 1~1, when

it ~s owned by the British canp:lny, Eastern Coal Canpany,

managed by Mackinnon and Mackenzie. ~ership passed into

Indian hands in 1955, when Karam Chand Thapar and Canpany

took over, until 1971 , when the mine was nationalised.

The colliery has a sizeable women's workforce, around

eight hundred out of the total of around eight thousand.

Not all collieries employ such a large proportion of women

workers, and some of the highly mechanised mines have few

female employees. Such a colliery would have been not

only unsuitable for this research, but much less enjoyable.

The large number of women workers in Bhowra have made their

- 28 -

Bhowra is located on the fringe of the coalfield

ani is less cro'WCled than neighbouring collieries. It is

a mixture of dhowrahs inhabited by workers from distant

districts of Monghyr and Bilaspur, self-built huts inha-

bited by local and up-country labourers, and bustees such

as Fersiabad with the original inhabitants of Bhow.ra. This

afforded me the opportunity to explore the "v13-ys in which

village ties, caste and community, and migration patterns

have influenced the sexual division of labour in the coal-

mines, and the forms of struggle that emerged.

Later on in my research I discovered other informa-

tion about Bhowra which proved advantageous. written

material pertaining to coalmining in the past is sparse,

about a particular colliery almost non-existent. Some of

• the private concerns had maintained archives, bu1: since

nationalisatian a great deal of such information has been

destroyed, lost or damaged.

Bhowra's history was never well documented, but va-

luable insights into the past was unearth during the

course of research. In 1931 the Royal Commission on Labour

had selected Bhowra colliery as one of the mines sampled.

This has given us glimpes of colliery conditions at that

time.2 So also did James Mackie's book about the proper-

ties of the Eastern Coal Company, written in the early

1930's.3 113-ckie was the Agent at Bhowra colliery at the

time and provides us with many details about mining methods

- 29-

and technology. These sources are all the more important

since they deal with a past which is beyond the memories

of most of Bhowra • s inhabitants.

In the recent p3.st, ...... 'r Sukumar Ba.nnerjee, an anthro-

pologist, chose Bhowra as one of his case studies in his

research on the e.ffects of mining on the tribal population

of the Jharia - Ranigunje coalfield.4 He conducted his

fieldwork on the eve of natianalisation and has . given

some useful information about land ownership, and atti-

tudes of Santal villagers and miners at that time. Even

recent history is largely undocumented at colliery level.

So, inspite of the haphazard way Bhowra colliery was

chosen, it proved to be a fortunate discovery. Ferha.ps

had I stayed long enough in another colliery, I might have

argued the same way, I do not know. Certainly Bhowra had

its disadvantages too, which I began to discover during

my fieldwork, and are outlined in the following section,

but I might have faced such di.fficulties elsewhere too.

I do not argue that Bhowra was a representative or typical

mine, for no mine is, but it is a mine with a history of

over eighty years and. employing large numbers of women

workers with a past I hoped to explore.

1 .4 From the Present to the Past: Methods of Research

Only after we larrled up in Bhowra did I begin to

- 30 -

devise means and ways of collecting information about the

present, and, hopefully the past too. I knew what I was

looking for, but I did not really know how I was going to

unearth such material. I make no apology for this, with-

out having some knowledge of the place or people, to

devise methods of collecting data in advance is totally

unpragmatic. In a politically sensitive environment like

Bihar's coalfield it would certainly be disastrous.

I knew that questionnaires were out of the question.

Other feminist researchers have pointed out that interview-

ing women is itself ridden with contradictians.5 My objec-

tion to using questionnaires was not s'imply because the

information it would yield would be highly distorted, but

because I would have felt most uncomfortable objectifying

women and women's experiences. I do not argue that the

sort of discussions with women workers that I engaged in,

should replace traditional tools of sociological research,

for without personal or political committment such 'methods'

would amount to advocating exploitative tactics for gain-

ing informatian.6

It is necessary if the material used in this study

is to be assessed, to inform the reader how that informa-

tion was collected. Our accommodation in Bhowra had been

arranged through tmion activists of the Bihar Colliery

Kamgar Union (BCKU), the Hembrom household in Persia bad

Bustee were active members of this union.

..

- 31 -

On the second day in Bhowra, the local union leaders

asked one of their most militant women activists, Durgi

Bourin, to act as our escort. Durgi was employed as a

wagon loader in Bhowra, but had been ill for several

months and had applied for 'light duty' • Whilst her case

-was being pursued she was off work, though someone else

worked in her place, badli they are known as, and her wage

was divided equally between them.

The next 1·ew days were hectically spent being intro-

duced to many women workers, in their hanes, at their

workplace, and in the tea-shops in the bazar. Women

workers were more than willing to talk about their day-to-

day problems, even personal affairs, normally taboo amongst

middle class women in India. Since we were not •manage-

ment', they complained heavily against the loading ~.

the munshi and other office staff.

We collected some information from the colliery

offices too, such as the number of women workers, their

job designation, and other i terns related to present-day

employment. From the surnames of the wanen we could

estimate the caste composition of their employment. The

offices could not provide us with accurate information

pertaining to the past. The Personnel Office could not,

for example, give the exact number of women employed in

Bhowra at the time of nationalisatian, or even how many

women had retired under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme

since 1 Wo.

- 32 -

we met managers too, from the General Manager, Perso-

nnel Manager to Colliery Managers and loading babus. Plenty

of such people wanted to talk to us, and we turned down

many an invitation.

After a month of such research, I noted in my field

diary which I maintained daily, we seemed to be up against

soroo sort of barrier. This barrier was preventing my search

into the past. The women workers that we met were mostly

young, below forty or so. Our attempts to meet older, or

retired women failed. If we went to visit women in the

mornings, Durgi would tell us that they were at work, and

in the evenings they were busy.

Stories were fleeting around Bhowra about us, most

of them alleged that we were from 'CID', and a few that

\~ were connected to 'family planning'. Many people assu-

med we were staying in the 'lal bungalow'. Sometimes we

would be asked W:lat 'checking' we had come for. Any research

means investigation means 'checking' means 'CID'. A few

male workers came and offered to 'reveal all' about the

corruption in the coal industry, which is rampant, since

they had heard that Rajiv Gandhi had sent us.

Sometimes we would meet a woman worker, and she wculd

be friendly, helpful and "talkative. A few days later the

same woman would be stiff and reserved. Someone must have

warned her not to talk: to us, but why'?

- 33 -

We thought perhaps our close association with Durgi

and the BCKU, which some activists had exploited claiming

that -we were 'their' union people, was to blame for some

of these reactions. We approached leaders of the other

important union of Bhowra, the Janata Mazd.oor Sangh (JM3)

we explained our research to t.;.em and asked if they could

help us meet women workers who were members of their unicn.

They admitted that they only had a handful of women members,

mostly widows of coalminers who had been members of JMS.

'rhey had no women activiSts at all, and told us that Durgi

was the best guide for our research.

We plodded on with our research, although I was gett-

ing frustrated, until early February 1986. One day we were

sitting in the house of Ba.santi Roy, an extremely outspoken

and militant woman, when we began to understand why the

past seemed so elusive. It is not possible to go into the

details of that discussion, or how one discovery led to

another, since most of these details will be dealt with in

the final chapter. It is useful, however, to point out a

few of the reasons why the past had been blocked.

One reason was the unpleasantness of that past. Many ,

women turned out to be highly critical of their union

leaders, and their past activities. Durgi could not reveal

that past to us, for those union leaders were pursuing her

application for 'light duty'.

Basanti was not so easily silenced, yet even she de-

- 34-

cided that our knowledge of unpleasant aspects of the past

was unnecessary. She told us that another wonan from Delhi

had come Bhowra to ask them a lot of questions. ThiS woman

claimed to be sent by A .K. Roy (BCKU' s President in 1l1anbad)

and Basanti and others '\'iEre led to believe tbat their prob-

lems would be taken up by their union. Since nothing trans-

pired from this, the researcher never returned to Bhowra,

she said there was no point in telling us anything.

We found out that counter-propaganda -was being spread

against us not only by men of rival unions, but BCKU acti-

vists and members too. Most organisations bave aspects of

the past they wish to remain dead, and in a place like the

coalfield such a past can involve murder, rape and massive

corruption. Those involved in such activities obviously

tried to silence our informants.

Not all our difficulties were due to such sinister

motives. Most of the women I was meeting initially had

become politically active since the 1970s under the leader-

ship of the BCKU. I later on found that many of the older

generation of militant women workers v.Ere members of the

Communist Party' s union, the United Coal Workers 1 Union,

since the struggles of the 1940's. That union is largely

inactive nowadays in Bhowra, but these wanen have renained

loyal to it.

In such a situation any attempt at accurate quanti-

tative information, or representative sampl1ng would be

- 35 -

impossible. I did, however, talk to over a hundred women,

mostly workers, some retired and some who were wives of

coalmining men. Working women included wagon loaders,

shale pickers, clay-cartridge makers and office peons;

young and old; local Santals and 'outsiders 1 from Monghyr

and Bilaspur; residents of Bhowra and villagers of Cband.an-

kiari block - just across the River Damodar.

From these women I began to put together the pieces

to build up a coherent past, for the last forty years or

so of Bhowra 's history. Yet I v.e.s interested to learn \'bat

bad happened even prior to that. The pragmatism adopted in

choosing a colliery, in interviewing women workers also

helped me make sense out of the first forty years of Bhowra

colliery 's history.

I have already indicated specific material on Bhowra

in the 1930's.7 There were other stray references to the

colliery in the Annual Reports of the Chief Inspector of

Mines, the Report of the Indian Coal Committee (1924-25), 8

and the Transactions of the Mining, Geological and Metallur-

gical Institute of India, 9 for the years prior to the 1940's.

~aterial was collected from the Crime Directory reports at

the Thana.s of Jharia and Chandankiari, from the Government

of Bimr State Archives ani stray newspaper reports for the

1940's. Yet specific information pertaining to Bhowra's

history prior to the 1940's remain scant.

- 36 -

Given the paucity of specific details, I have taken

the liberty to infer possibilities, in order to complete

the picture. For this I have used other material availa-

ble to the historian, such as Government reports, gazet-

teers and censuses. I recognise that such sources are

highly problematic for an understanding of women workers'

lives during the early part of this cenil.try, but it also

remains a fact ttat other material does not exist. Once

~ the bias of the authors is recognised, however, the infor-

mation can be valuable for researchers. Otherwise we

should have to accept that any history of women of the

working class - or most other groups of people for that

matter - cannot be written.

The combination of source materials used in this

study reflects both my own political and personal approach

to the issue at hand as well as the availability of data.

I see no contradiction in this. It is only necessary, I

feel, to clearly state the sources used so that the con-

tent of one• s study can be assessed. Research scholars

who dare to ignore the boundaries of one's discipline,

and hope to further develop emerging Marxist-feminist

perspectives, have to be rigorous in their choice of data,

and methods of research.

1.5 Unravelling the Past : Chapterisation

In writing this particular thesis I do not argue

- 37-

that this is the past, as it actually was. All history

is selective. Aspects of Bhowra•s past have been addressed

where they have a bearing on the present day .problem of

women's marginalisation from the coal mining irxlustry. I

have attempted here to present th:it relevant past both

chronologically and thematically. furing the course of my

field work and research, in the bustees of Bhowra and the

libraries of the big cities, it was found that certain

themes can be attributed to particular periods of the past.

I propose to explain here why I have divided the history

of Bhowra's colliery women in such a way.

In the first twenty years of this century it was

found that there was no indication of organised protest,

a:nd no legislative interference. Yet in spite of the

absence of 'big events' about which historians ustally deal

with, the coalfield was changing, a:nd the people who lived

there must have been affected by the opening up of the

mines.

In order to try and understand how and why a parti-

cular pattern of work emerged it was considered necessary

to explore pre-mining relations. The sexual division of

labour in the villages of those who took up work in the

mines, must have influenced early work fB,tterns in the

collieries. The material conditions of those communities

that took up mining, their relationship with the land and

caste hierarchies, needs to be unearthed in order to under-

-38-

stand which aspects of pre-capitalist relations are in-

corporated, or undermined, with the introduction of the

coal indus try.

Only by examining early work pa. tterns, in the villages

and mines, is it possible to see how such contradictions

were resolved by mining families. For it is not accepted

that the capitalists imposed a sexual division of labour

on their workforce. Rather what emerged was the result

of a series of compranises and adjustments that colliery

workers had to make in order to maintain themselves and

their families. These aspects of work and life in the

early years of mining are explored in Chapter II.

From the 1920's to the 1940's the workforce was

changing rapidly, due to the sort of changes that were

taking place in the industry. The legislation prohibiting

women from working below ground in the coal mines was

introduced in 1929. This was the first piece of • protec-

tive' legislation, and is, even now, used to justify

wanen' s mar ginalisa ti on in the coal industry.

Angela John's study of the debate surrounding the

-r.ight to women's employment in the coal mining industry

in Britain in the 19th century has provided many insights

for this thesis. She found that women were declining in

the industry before legislation was introduced. The deba.-

te saw the emergence of domestic ideology to justify,

rather than cause, the removal of women from the coal

mines.10

- 39 -

Legislation, changes in the industry, and gender .;;"l

ideology are clearly connected. In Chapter III these

connections are explored in detail. The debate to debar

women from working below grourxl encapsulates attitudes

towards wanen, in particular working class women, which

have, in subsequent years rarely been challenged.

Organised struggle in Bhowra emerged in 1 ~7, follow-

ed by a three month strike in 1948. Yet for the next

twenty years no other strike or organised protest took

place. Women's employment also declined rapidly during

these labour trouble-free years for mamgement. It be-

came necessary to go into the details of that strike, and

women's involvement in it, to understand later events.

The 1950's and 1960's sa:w the emergence of a parti-

cular type of trade union movement, popularly known as

'mafiaism•. In Chapter IV I have tried to explore how

such a trade union emerged, in the context of Bhowra

colliery, and how wanen workers 1 protests were effectively

quashed for many years.

Yet women workers in the 1980's in Bhowra had shown

that they are not passive victims of oppressive trade

union politics and the coal industry's policies. The

struggles that women were involved in, in the 1970's and

'80's and their trade tmion leaders• attitudes to\\Qrds

them, were explored in Chapter v. Aspects of the past, outlined in the previous chapters, all cQile into play in

- 40-

this last chapter. Regional and caste differences, and

attitudes towards wanen within the working class (Chapter

II); gender ideology of the bosses, union leaders and up-

wardly aspiring lower castes (Chapter III); the relatively

successful attempt at containing labour discontent (Cte.p-

ter IV); all have a part to play in the present day lives

of working women in the coalfield.

HopefUlly by this last and final Chapter, I will have

unravelled that past which can help us answer why the

industry no longer needs women workers; why trade unions

have failed to effectively oppose their retrenchment; why

militant women activists remain supporters of trade unions

that have not prioritized their right to work?

1

2

3

4

Footnotes

Many Marxist and feminist scholars in recent years have questioned attempts at 'value-free research'. Even back in the 1960's, however, Howard s. Becker had challenged such notion. He argued that it is impossible to do research that is "uncontaminated by personal and political sympathies." The question is not, therefore, whether or not the researcher should take sides, since it is inevitable, but rather, as the title of his article suggests, "Whose Side Are we On?" In The Relevance of Sociology, J • Douglas (ed.), r.ew York, 1976, pp. 99-11 a. Royal Commission on Labour in India, Vol. IV, Part I and II, uovernment Of India, London, 1930. (here-after referred to as RCL IV).

J. Mickie, Notes on the Jharia Coalfield and the Properties Of' the Eastern coal Company Liillited, 1934.

s. Bannerjee, Impact Of Industrialisation on the Tribal Ba!Ulation of Jharia - Ran!gunge Coal Field Areas, cutta, 1981.

5 See H. aoberts, Women and their Doctors: Power and / Powerlessness in the Research Process; and A. Oakley,

Interviewing Vlanen: A Contradiction in Terms. In Doing Feminist Research, H. Roberts (ed. ), London, 1981.

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Janet Finch writes that she emerged from interviews with women "with the feeling that my interviewees need to know how to protect themselves from people like me." If open-ended, informal interviews are advocated as a technique of research, divorced from the moral basis of feminism, she argues, the infor-mation gathered can actually be used against women collectively. See 'It's great to have someone to talk to': The Ethics and Politics of Interviewing women in Social Researching, Politics, Problems, Practice, London, 1994, pp. 71-87. See J. Mackie, s. Banncrjee and RCL IV, op.cit. Evidence given before the IIXlian Cool Committee 1~24-2.2,, Volume II, Government of India, diicutta, 192 1liereafter referred to as ICC).

Bhowra colliery's Agent, James Mackie, and Manager, Andrew Fanquhar, were active members of the Mining,

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Geological and ~~tallurgical Institute of India, and references to their colliery's conditions can be found in the transactions of the Institute.

10 A. John, op.cit.