The Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) was a historically significant gold mining center in India, characterized by its deep tunnels, immense gold production, and the complex social dynamics it fostered, including the formation of worker identities and labor movements.
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actually
4 000 level which
the rock bus took place
see this part
it's completely blocked the same opening
which is here is the air also so it's
all choked so they have to clean it
and while the cleaner is all open at the
bottom so they must work with slings
this is a rock bust which has been taken
in number one
53 and we call it 53 that is 5 300 feet
below surface
so this is the thing which i have taken
from the entrance
where you can see a slight
squeeze in there
and then again as we go in
a little more you can see the thing
squeezing in still more
and this is completely squeezed in here
you can see the lagging poles touching
each other
the anglos were the first people to go
in and bring the people out and
and
they didn't care about their own lives
and when they had a drink
drink
and they started mucking and all that to
retrieve these people
whether their legs were broken or
something just to save lives the other
coolies as they used to call them
workman labor yeah labor libras you
would say no sir we'll do it we do there
the kolar gold field is the oldest and
the most important gold mining center of india
india
with more than 600 kilometers of tunnels
reaching depths of 11 000 feet
kgf was among the deepest gold mines of
the world and has produced more than 800
tons of gold
today the lower depths have been allowed
to flood and mining is confined to
shallow mining at depths of two or three
hundred feet had been known in the
region for centuries
and unsuccessful attempts were made in
tipu sultan's time to extend these workings
workings
equally unsuccessful were eager 19th
from 1880 explorations were begun by the
reputed british mining company john
taylor and sons and following the strike
of a rich vein of gold quartz champion
load a flaccid landscape was transformed
into a bustling town the third largest
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located in the neck of my saw that
extended into the madras presidency
kgf drew thousands of tamil speaking
laborers to work in the five and later
four principal mines
at its peak in 1905 the mines employed
36 000 workers nearly all of their men
most of them were landless ali dravidas
and lower castes from the districts of
who came to the mining camp with their families
a range of specific groups were brought
to kgf for specific tasks there were
carpenters from malabar adhyandras to
work as scavengers and italian hard drop
miners while anglo indians occupied
but most numerous were the low-cost
tamil laborers who performed the most
dangerous difficult and low-paid jobs on
the mines
kgf soon became a pocket of thermal
miners surrounded by kannada and
only some of the workers were directly
employed by the company
most of them were employed by
contractors who paid lower wages and did
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the flimsy huts sometimes called
aeroplane huts since they flew away in a
good breeze
were considered more than adequate for
the workers and their families
europeans who earned up to 20 times more
than the indian
sometimes for the same job built up
their living areas with an eye on permanence
large bungalows sprang up equipped with
even victorian foot scrapers and
elaborate arrangements were made to meet
the spiritual or more earthly needs of
i like it because they say it's like
little england because the environment
the the what they say the atmosphere
even now today also i would say it's
what was the big change after the
britishers left
so many changes for the verse
this was known as mini england birthdays
and after
these people are bringing cows all the
cattle in the houses and
all the cow dung you can see there
anglo indians occupy the middle ground
in kgf enjoying far better jobs and
salaries than the indians
the angelian community
lady side they worked in the
mining hospital as nurses
some of them are housewives housewives
but they all work mostly all women and
even community as nurses as teachers in
there were voluntary migrants to the
area as well such as the marwadi money
lenders who arrived at the same time as
the workers in the late 19th century
before long most of the poorly paid
workers were indebted to these men
in our native place rajasthan
rajasthan division
division
we don't have any business only a small
business we had there
lending money to farmers and other
things and there was no progress
then he came here
his elder brother first came here
and he brought him here now it is
dull but from the beginning
they have progressed here in there
the company found mahwadi's convenient
allies in keeping workers bonded to the jobs
jobs
more worrying were the goldsmiths who
also flocked to the area and soon built
up a flourishing business in illegally
procured gold
what else accounts for the large number
of jewelry shops that have thrived up to
the present day in a poor mining town
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the very products of the mines gold
placed all workers under constant suspicion
suspicion
so concerned with the company about
petty pilfridge that they developed an
security men were brought from as far
afield as northwest punjab since they
in fact the company was the state in kgf
but workers also began to realize their
own strength and the power of collective action
action
in 1930 the company's decision to
register the fingerprints of all miners
led to the first general strike at kgf
18 000 miners struck work for 21 days
and even started leaving the area
forcing the company to withdraw its plans
plans
the only thing i can remember is that
that
my father
came with the huge crowd
they said that we are only labourers we
are not your prisoners you see why do
you want our fingerprints
after all you are paying at that time
they will give you only
six or eight nights per day
now you want to make a slave for you
that we
don't want to
do the work we don't want to do
management to all them
questions of dignity have always been
important to kgf miners
for a majority of the adidas migrants
life at kgf spelt freedom from the
well-known indignities of the countryside
countryside
along with a regular wage came a new
then it has spread to tamil nadu and all
that so conducts so many marriages
only with this thing without this what
they call is the priest
hundreds and thousands of uh respect for
selfless marriages in uh
even before this period started this movement
movement
you know we have started that
it was started by
pandita yogas 1907 at madras
death you know they have started it
again here in 1926 in siddhartha press anderson
anderson
and we have
journals like tamarind cultivated
rationalism and combined anti-brahmin
humor with discussions of national and
international political affairs
the self-image of the adidas soon bore
no resemblance to the colonial
in kgf there were few restrictions
except of course financial ones on what
old habits took on new meanings
wasn't beef much reviled by the upper
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became so self-confident that they no
longer tolerated any demeaning reference
to their cast status
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no wonder those who had tasted life in
this town were more willing to risk the
dangerous labor of the mines then return
kgf was important not only because it
enabled caste redefinition
it was here that workers discovered
their new identity as workers
and the importance of acting together to
defend their interests
it's about 80 percent of them or
seducers belonging to should it cost
there is no real need to take their
the the caste issue
issue
for what
where should they take
if the the childhoods were oppressed by
the high cost to people
you see there is some sense in it to
uh organize these children cost workers
against the caste castism
castism
that was not there and we organized all
in 1941 [Music]
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the trade unions in kgf for collard gold mines
mines
it was resisted
before that there was motivation
and during 1939 and 43 and all that years
years
the prices of commodities was seen
raising the day by day
after uh mr kandra govindan and wasan
became the
leaders and we tried to organize the workers
workers
for a strike and a strike ballot was taken
taken
from mysore mine to nandu-rukhman
irrespective of the leaders
and all workers voted for a strike then
then the
the
strike continued
for 78 days
and the police could not do anything
and the man there was nobody
supporting management
management was completely isolated
and that was the position
and then ultimately
they were forced to negotiate with the unions
unions
they were doing all the
development after they left for the
gold mine there was no development work
no development work
and they see the
indian company that is government company
company
of developing this mind
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the political predicament of thermal
workers at kgf is only worsened by the
current drive towards liberalization
which has usually meant privatization of
i think we have reacted very correctly and
i hope that we would be able to find a proper
proper
joint venture partner and this would be
setting the trend
for future especially in the mining
industry where still
the mining companies have not been
privatized we have to really think in
that direction where
where
we can
profitably manage
the mining ventures [Music]
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faced with almost certain privatization
or perhaps even closure
the trade union movement of kgf which
had earlier fought for a national
takeover of the mines is today in disarray
disarray
17 unions representing 4 400 workers
have only been able to organize sporadic
require funds to set up a tailing
treatment plant
and that is a profitable venture we have
got 33 million tons of tailing and
3 million tons per annum
we can treat so it will almost about 10 years
traces of gold can be retrieved from a
century's accumulation of tailings the
cyanide treated waste from which gold
has already been extracted
hopes are now pinned in these hills or
cyanide dumps that ring the kolar gold field
what is at stake in kgf is not just the
few thousand jobs in the mines but a
whole way of life
at the end of the century kgf may no
longer be the locus of new political
social or religious movements as it has
been in the past
the same agencies of capitalism that
brought thousands to this mining camp
today threaten kgf's continuance and
most people have already begun looking
elsewhere for their livelihoods
thousands of kgf residents commute daily
me [Music]
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