Background of Ahmedabad Mill Strike

• In the dispute between Ahmedabad Mill owners and workers, the mill owners desired to take the bonus.
• Workers demanded a 50% wage increase in order to cope with wartime inflation (which doubled the prices of food grains, cloth, and other necessities) brought on by Britain’s involvement in World War I.
• The mill owners were only willing to offer a 20% wage increase. The employees went on strike.
• The mill owners’ relations with the workers deteriorated, with the striking workers being arbitrarily dismissed and the mill owners deciding to bring in weavers from Bombay.
• The mill workers turned to Anusuya Sarabhai for assistance in their fight for justice.
• In March 1918, Gandhi intervened in a dispute between Ahmedabad cotton mill owners and workers over the cessation of the plague bonus.

Ahmedabad Mill Strike – Features

• Anusuya Sarabhai, a social worker and the sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, one of the mill owners and president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association (founded in 1891 to develop the textile industry in Ahmedabad), was asked for assistance in fighting for justice.
• Anusuya Behn approached Gandhi, whom the mill owners and workers respected, and asked him to intervene and help resolve the impasse between the workers and the employers.
• Despite the fact that Gandhi was Ambalal’s friend, he took up the workers’ cause.
• Gandhi called on workers to go on strike and demand a 35% rise in wages rather than a 50% increase.
• While on strike, Gandhi advised the workers to remain nonviolent. When negotiations with mill owners failed, he embarked on his first fast unto death in order to strengthen the workers’ resolve.
• However, the fast had the effect of putting pressure on the mill owners, who eventually agreed to refer the matter to a tribunal.
• The strike was called off. In the end, the tribunal awarded the workers a 35% wage increase.