Articles by Arup Kumar Sen

of Edward Said ARUP KUMAR SEN In his tribute to Edward Said (EPW, December 27, 2003), Frederic F Clairmont has mainly highlighted his political activism. In my tribute to Said, I would like to situate his writings and speeches in a post-colonial perspective. In fact, Said was a pioneer in post-colonial studies.

From the late 19th century onwards, managing agency firms acquired a firm control of most cotton, jute and other mills as well as tea gardens and local mines, while looking at processes of labour control in the Bengal jute mills, the coalfields of Bengal and Bihar and the cotton mills of Bombay and Ahmedabad, this paper probes deeper into the dichotomy that prevailed as industrial capitalism first set up roots in India, for while policy decisions relating to wages, technology, etc, was vested in the managing agency system, disciplining of labour took place at the shop floor and in workers' neighbourhoods. Further, these middlemen, jobbers and agents came to exert overweening influence in the 'culture of coercion' that was thus established.