0:04 [Music] this
1:52 [Music] is
3:19 what [Music]
4:39 um [Music]
9:54 [Music] foreign
10:36 [Music] hello
11:04 [Music] right
11:06 right [Music]
11:49 [Music] foreign
13:25 [Music] okay
16:48 [Music] foreign
16:51 foreign [Music]
17:04 actually
17:06 4 000 level which
17:08 the rock bus took place
17:09 see this part
17:12 it's completely blocked the same opening
17:15 which is here is the air also so it's
17:17 all choked so they have to clean it
17:19 and while the cleaner is all open at the
17:23 bottom so they must work with slings
17:25 this is a rock bust which has been taken
17:26 in number one
17:30 53 and we call it 53 that is 5 300 feet
17:33 below surface
17:34 so this is the thing which i have taken
17:36 from the entrance
17:38 where you can see a slight
17:40 squeeze in there
17:42 and then again as we go in
17:44 a little more you can see the thing
17:47 squeezing in still more
17:50 and this is completely squeezed in here
17:51 you can see the lagging poles touching
17:52 each other
18:17 the anglos were the first people to go
18:19 in and bring the people out and
18:20 and
18:23 they didn't care about their own lives
18:25 and when they had a drink
18:26 drink
18:29 and they started mucking and all that to
18:32 retrieve these people
18:33 whether their legs were broken or
18:35 something just to save lives the other
18:38 coolies as they used to call them
18:40 workman labor yeah labor libras you
18:44 would say no sir we'll do it we do there
20:05 the kolar gold field is the oldest and
20:07 the most important gold mining center of india
20:08 india
20:11 with more than 600 kilometers of tunnels
20:14 reaching depths of 11 000 feet
20:16 kgf was among the deepest gold mines of
20:19 the world and has produced more than 800
20:20 tons of gold
20:22 today the lower depths have been allowed
20:25 to flood and mining is confined to
20:33 shallow mining at depths of two or three
20:35 hundred feet had been known in the
20:37 region for centuries
20:39 and unsuccessful attempts were made in
20:41 tipu sultan's time to extend these workings
20:43 workings
20:45 equally unsuccessful were eager 19th
20:52 from 1880 explorations were begun by the
20:55 reputed british mining company john
20:57 taylor and sons and following the strike
21:00 of a rich vein of gold quartz champion
21:03 load a flaccid landscape was transformed
21:06 into a bustling town the third largest
21:21 [Music]
21:22 located in the neck of my saw that
21:25 extended into the madras presidency
21:27 kgf drew thousands of tamil speaking
21:29 laborers to work in the five and later
21:32 four principal mines
21:34 at its peak in 1905 the mines employed
21:38 36 000 workers nearly all of their men
21:40 most of them were landless ali dravidas
21:42 and lower castes from the districts of
21:47 who came to the mining camp with their families
22:11 a range of specific groups were brought
22:13 to kgf for specific tasks there were
22:16 carpenters from malabar adhyandras to
22:19 work as scavengers and italian hard drop
22:21 miners while anglo indians occupied
22:29 but most numerous were the low-cost
22:31 tamil laborers who performed the most
22:34 dangerous difficult and low-paid jobs on
22:36 the mines
22:38 kgf soon became a pocket of thermal
22:40 miners surrounded by kannada and
22:47 only some of the workers were directly
22:49 employed by the company
22:51 most of them were employed by
22:54 contractors who paid lower wages and did
23:03 campaign [Music]
23:29 the flimsy huts sometimes called
23:32 aeroplane huts since they flew away in a
23:33 good breeze
23:34 were considered more than adequate for
23:37 the workers and their families
23:40 europeans who earned up to 20 times more
23:41 than the indian
23:43 sometimes for the same job built up
23:45 their living areas with an eye on permanence
23:50 large bungalows sprang up equipped with
23:53 even victorian foot scrapers and
23:55 elaborate arrangements were made to meet
23:57 the spiritual or more earthly needs of
24:08 i like it because they say it's like
24:12 little england because the environment
24:16 the the what they say the atmosphere
24:17 even now today also i would say it's
24:33 what was the big change after the
24:35 britishers left
24:38 so many changes for the verse
24:42 this was known as mini england birthdays
24:43 and after
25:01 these people are bringing cows all the
25:03 cattle in the houses and
25:04 all the cow dung you can see there
25:29 anglo indians occupy the middle ground
25:31 in kgf enjoying far better jobs and
25:34 salaries than the indians
25:35 the angelian community
25:38 lady side they worked in the
25:40 mining hospital as nurses
25:43 some of them are housewives housewives
25:46 but they all work mostly all women and
25:49 even community as nurses as teachers in
26:02 there were voluntary migrants to the
26:05 area as well such as the marwadi money
26:07 lenders who arrived at the same time as
26:10 the workers in the late 19th century
26:12 before long most of the poorly paid
26:15 workers were indebted to these men
26:18 in our native place rajasthan
26:19 rajasthan division
26:20 division
26:24 we don't have any business only a small
26:26 business we had there
26:28 lending money to farmers and other
26:30 things and there was no progress
26:33 then he came here
26:35 his elder brother first came here
26:38 and he brought him here now it is
26:41 dull but from the beginning
26:43 they have progressed here in there
26:52 the company found mahwadi's convenient
26:54 allies in keeping workers bonded to the jobs
26:56 jobs
26:58 more worrying were the goldsmiths who
27:00 also flocked to the area and soon built
27:02 up a flourishing business in illegally
27:04 procured gold
27:06 what else accounts for the large number
27:08 of jewelry shops that have thrived up to
27:10 the present day in a poor mining town
28:27 that's right [Music]
28:53 the very products of the mines gold
28:54 placed all workers under constant suspicion
28:56 suspicion
28:57 so concerned with the company about
28:59 petty pilfridge that they developed an
29:06 security men were brought from as far
29:08 afield as northwest punjab since they
29:59 in fact the company was the state in kgf
30:01 but workers also began to realize their
30:03 own strength and the power of collective action
30:05 action
30:07 in 1930 the company's decision to
30:10 register the fingerprints of all miners
30:13 led to the first general strike at kgf
30:17 18 000 miners struck work for 21 days
30:19 and even started leaving the area
30:20 forcing the company to withdraw its plans
30:22 plans
30:25 the only thing i can remember is that
30:26 that
30:27 my father
30:33 came with the huge crowd
30:35 they said that we are only labourers we
30:38 are not your prisoners you see why do
30:40 you want our fingerprints
30:42 after all you are paying at that time
30:43 they will give you only
30:47 six or eight nights per day
30:50 now you want to make a slave for you
30:51 that we
30:52 don't want to
30:56 do the work we don't want to do
30:58 management to all them
31:30 questions of dignity have always been
31:32 important to kgf miners
31:35 for a majority of the adidas migrants
31:38 life at kgf spelt freedom from the
31:39 well-known indignities of the countryside
31:41 countryside
31:43 along with a regular wage came a new
32:15 then it has spread to tamil nadu and all
32:18 that so conducts so many marriages
32:21 only with this thing without this what
32:23 they call is the priest
32:26 hundreds and thousands of uh respect for
32:29 selfless marriages in uh
32:31 even before this period started this movement
32:32 movement
32:38 you know we have started that
32:40 it was started by
32:43 pandita yogas 1907 at madras
32:48 death you know they have started it
32:52 again here in 1926 in siddhartha press anderson
32:55 anderson
32:56 and we have
33:13 journals like tamarind cultivated
33:16 rationalism and combined anti-brahmin
33:18 humor with discussions of national and
33:20 international political affairs
33:23 the self-image of the adidas soon bore
33:25 no resemblance to the colonial
33:36 in kgf there were few restrictions
33:39 except of course financial ones on what
34:01 old habits took on new meanings
34:04 wasn't beef much reviled by the upper
35:41 [Music] foreign
36:04 became so self-confident that they no
36:06 longer tolerated any demeaning reference
36:08 to their cast status
37:04 foreign [Music]
37:32 no wonder those who had tasted life in
37:34 this town were more willing to risk the
37:36 dangerous labor of the mines then return
38:35 kgf was important not only because it
38:37 enabled caste redefinition
38:39 it was here that workers discovered
38:42 their new identity as workers
38:44 and the importance of acting together to
38:46 defend their interests
38:48 it's about 80 percent of them or
38:50 seducers belonging to should it cost
38:54 there is no real need to take their
38:57 the the caste issue
38:58 issue
39:00 for what
39:02 where should they take
39:05 if the the childhoods were oppressed by
39:07 the high cost to people
39:10 you see there is some sense in it to
39:12 uh organize these children cost workers
39:14 against the caste castism
39:16 castism
39:19 that was not there and we organized all
41:00 in 1941 [Music]
41:01 [Music]
41:04 the trade unions in kgf for collard gold mines
41:06 mines
41:08 it was resisted
41:11 before that there was motivation
41:15 and during 1939 and 43 and all that years
41:16 years
41:20 the prices of commodities was seen
41:22 raising the day by day
41:26 after uh mr kandra govindan and wasan
41:28 became the
41:31 leaders and we tried to organize the workers
41:32 workers
41:35 for a strike and a strike ballot was taken
41:37 taken
41:40 from mysore mine to nandu-rukhman
41:43 irrespective of the leaders
41:47 and all workers voted for a strike then
41:48 then the
41:49 the
41:51 strike continued
41:53 for 78 days
41:56 and the police could not do anything
41:59 and the man there was nobody
42:02 supporting management
42:06 management was completely isolated
42:08 and that was the position
42:10 and then ultimately
42:12 they were forced to negotiate with the unions
42:13 unions
45:16 they were doing all the
45:20 development after they left for the
45:23 gold mine there was no development work
45:27 no development work
45:30 and they see the
45:31 indian company that is government company
45:33 company
45:41 of developing this mind
46:19 [Music]
46:37 [Music] anymore
47:26 the political predicament of thermal
47:29 workers at kgf is only worsened by the
47:32 current drive towards liberalization
47:34 which has usually meant privatization of
47:45 i think we have reacted very correctly and
47:50 i hope that we would be able to find a proper
47:51 proper
47:53 joint venture partner and this would be
47:55 setting the trend
47:57 for future especially in the mining
48:00 industry where still
48:01 the mining companies have not been
48:03 privatized we have to really think in
48:04 that direction where
48:05 where
48:08 we can
48:10 profitably manage
48:12 the mining ventures [Music]
48:16 [Music]
48:19 faced with almost certain privatization
48:20 or perhaps even closure
48:23 the trade union movement of kgf which
48:24 had earlier fought for a national
48:27 takeover of the mines is today in disarray
48:29 disarray
48:32 17 unions representing 4 400 workers
48:35 have only been able to organize sporadic
49:57 require funds to set up a tailing
49:58 treatment plant
50:00 and that is a profitable venture we have
50:04 got 33 million tons of tailing and
50:07 3 million tons per annum
50:09 we can treat so it will almost about 10 years
50:16 traces of gold can be retrieved from a
50:18 century's accumulation of tailings the
50:21 cyanide treated waste from which gold
50:23 has already been extracted
50:25 hopes are now pinned in these hills or
50:28 cyanide dumps that ring the kolar gold field
50:36 what is at stake in kgf is not just the
50:38 few thousand jobs in the mines but a
50:40 whole way of life
50:43 at the end of the century kgf may no
50:45 longer be the locus of new political
50:47 social or religious movements as it has
50:49 been in the past
50:52 the same agencies of capitalism that
50:54 brought thousands to this mining camp
50:56 today threaten kgf's continuance and
51:13 most people have already begun looking
51:15 elsewhere for their livelihoods
51:17 thousands of kgf residents commute daily
51:37 me [Music]
