Unions in conflict

This book is a quite substantially modified version of my Ph.D. thesis, "Labour Organisations in the Cotton Mills of Tamilnad, 1918-1939" (University of Western Australia, 1976) My interest in Indian trade unions was first aroused by Dr Richard Newman who was the co-supervisor of my Ph.D. during 1971. Dr Nesman's thesis "Labour Organisation in the Bombay Cotton Mills, 1918-1929", which also has been modified and is soon to be published, provided me with many valuable insights and suggested some lines of research to follow. Dr Newman has encouraged ne since I commenced my research and made many valuable suggestions which I have incorporated in this revision of the thesis.

I owe a great debt to my ex-supervisor, Dr Hugh Owen, who first interested me in Indian history when I was an under graduate student. He has worked extremely hard to promote South Asian studies in Western Australia. I am grateful to Dr Owen for his patience, support and friendship over a long period of time.

Among the many others who assisted me, I would like to single out Professor Eugene F. Irschick who acted as my unofficial supervisor during my initial period of research in India. Professor Irschick not only provided criticisms at a crucial stage in my research but he and his wife, Ann, befriended my family and helped us overcome some of the problems associated with living in India with a young family. I am also grateful to Professor Peter Reeves who helped me to restructure the thesis and to Dr David Arnold who also suggested how it could be improved. My colleagues in the Department of Social Sciences, Western Australian Institute of Technology, provided much useful criticism in formal staff seminars and in informal conversations and demonstrated that inter-disciplinary cooperation can be extremely useful.