Anjali Deshpande and Nandita Haksar, Japanese Management, Indian Resistance: The Struggle of the Maruti Suzuki Workers

Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books New Delhi 2023; 366 pages, Rs.449/

On 18 July, 2012 violence ensued in the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar, Gurgaon after an altercation broke out between a worker and a supervisor. In the subsequent violence the supervisor was killed and some properties of the plant were destroyed. The reason for the incident is not comprehensively established till date, yet there are claims and counterclaims regarding it. While the management of the company accused the workers of creating unrest, and immediately sacked around 2500 of its workers, on the other hand workers have been claiming that the management brought in bouncers in the plant and they were the ones who set fire to factory properties. They also suspect that the same hired goons attacked and killed the supervisor.

The case against the workers led to the arrest of 146 workers out of which 33 were convicted of lesser crimes and sentenced while 117 were acquitted. Of these workers 13, including MSWU leadership, were sentenced to life for murder.

The workers who were at the forefront of the struggle are in a very poor state. Many of them are stigmatised because they were in jail, making it hard for them to find work. Few have died in very bitter conditions and many are now working as daily wagers. The workers have tried to take their grievances to all the political parties but they remain indifferent.

The book, Japanese Management, Indian Resistance: The Struggle of the Maruti Suzuki Workers, by Anjali Deshpande and Nandita Haksar is a documentation of the conditions which led to the violence of 18 July and it also brings to light the aftermath of it by documenting interviews of the workers – retired, sacked or jailed – of the plant. Also, the book is a documentation of the plight of Indian workers in the era of liberalization/privatization of the economy.

Workers’ resistance in the Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant, as the authors remind us, was not an isolated phenomenon, but was one of the workers’ agitations widespread in India ever since it embarked on the path of privatization. As Anjali and Nandita note, “It is important to remember that the strikes in Maruti Suzuki did not suddenly come up as isolated events. There had been a succession of strikes since 2009 in the automobile industry in India.” The authors document at least 14 cases of big strikes in the auto industry across India during the three years preceding the Maruti incident.

These strikes were the results of a mix of apathy shown by the governments towards the workers' rights in the changed circumstances which favoured big foreign corporations, and the systematic yet fast erosion of the previously established legal rights under the pressure of private capital.

Maruti Motors Limited was incorporated in 1971 with a much-publicised aim of producing affordable Indian cars. However, soon the company which was led by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s son Sanjay Gandhi, went into liquidation due to the management’s corrupt practices. Land for the plant was forcibly acquired from small and medium peasants of Gurgaon in Haryana and the capital for the venture was raised by forcing banks to unlawfully lend, and through black money poured in by greedy crony capitalists. Still the company could not take off and in 1978 it was liquidated. Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane accident in 1980, and to cover up her son’s doings, as is suggested in the book, Indira Gandhi nationalised its assets in 1981 while incorporating it as Maruti Udyog Limited. In 1982, the newly incorporated company signed a joint venture with Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan.

Under the Japanese management the venture became successful in terms of profit, and soon Suzuki’s equity was raised from 26 per cent to 40 per cent, which in 1992 went up to 50 per cent, corresponding with India’s liberalisation under the Narasimha Rao Government. Suzuki’s increased its clout and got total control over the joint venture.

The much-touted success story of Maruti Suzuki does not come from some miracle or exemplary working style of the Japanese management, as is generally said, but it comes from the cruel and worst form of exploitation of the working class that prevails in Japan. In Japan, this we learn from the book, “stressful working conditions are so much a part of life that they have even led to the coining of words for some alarming phenomenon like karoshi or death by overwork, and karojisatsu or suicide due to overwork”. As per available data, South Korea, where they have a similar work culture as in Japan, has the highest suicide rate in Asia. It is followed by Japan.

As soon as Suzuki took over, it introduced the same kind of vicious work practices over the Indian workers where workers are expected to increase production at the cost of their own well-being. In the book the workers describe how there was no respite during their shifts and the management gradually curbed their lunch and toilet time. A former union leader recalls at least two suicides due to what the Japanese call karoshi. Also, the management began employing contract workers because it freed the company from any responsibility towards the workers.

The struggles and agitations in Maruti Suzuki were led mostly by independent unions such as the Maruti Udyog Employee Union (MUEU), the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) and the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU). These unions were formed in different phases of the workers’ struggle in the company. These unions were not affiliated to any traditional unions such as INTUC, AITUC, CITU and HMS, which had been active since the early days of Maruti Suzuki. This could happen because, as the authors aptly observe, “The traditional trade union movement has not been able to evolve new strategies and effective ways to protect workers.” This “not been able to evolve” is perhaps deliberate since all the traditional unions were affiliated to one or the other political parties which formed governments in the centre and states and were the ones who supported liberalisation and curbing of workers’ rights. Hence, they could hardly go beyond symbolic support to the workers’ struggles. The vacuum thus created paved the way for the formation of new, militant unions. However, the new unions themselves had their own limitations. Devoid of ideological framework, these new unions initially floundered. But in the later phases they recovered. This can be seen in their charter of demands, which included, along with many demands, making contract workers permanent. The authors note, “the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union insisted on fighting for the rights of the contract workers, adding their issues to the union's charter of demands. It was a heroic act which went against the advice and warnings of larger national trade unions.” In this way they were able to unite most of the company’s workers with them for their cause.

The book is not just a documentation of the struggles of Maruti Suzuki workers but is also a grim reminder of what liberalisation means for the Indian working class. In this period, the government of India has completely aligned with the forces against the rights of workers. It has abandoned its commitment to the welfare of its people enshrined in the constitution and has shown complete apathy towards the conditions of the Indian working class.

Not only the governments but the legal system and the media too have forsaken the Indian workers. The court proceedings aftermath of the violence, authors note, “show the extent of injustice in the legal system and institutionalised by bench and bar.” The media coverage of the incident too helped strengthen the bias against the workers by blaming the workers for the unrest without presenting their point of view.  

Today, there are hardly any grievance redressal mechanisms left for the Indian workers. Under the Modi government labour laws have been replaced by four labour codes, giving more power to corporates and foreign investors. Meanwhile, opposition parties, including the left parties, utter not a single word about the plight of the workers. The authors rightly conclude, “The trade union movement is now faced with the challenge of fighting ruthless corporate power with successive governments stripping workers of their rights by making the rights guaranteed to them under the Indian Constitution meaningless. Workers are being disenfranchised.”

Karan Varma

Click here to return to the April 2025 index.