Petitions
The South Indian Visvakarma Mahajana Conference Central Board.
27 March 1947.
The Viswakarma memorial was submitted on 27 March 1947 by M. Kandaswami Achariar, President of the D.M.E.M.E., writing from Udumalpet on behalf of the Viswakarma community of South India. It was addressed to the Minorities’ Sub-Committee of the Constituent Assembly and sought a separate constituency in the future Constitution for small-scale artisans and cottage industrialists registered under the Trade Union Act.
The Viswakarmas, Achariar explained, were a broad category encompassing hereditary practitioners of ironsmithery, carpentry, brassmithery, goldsmithery, idol-making in metal and stone, and temple construction, trades passed down across generations. Despite numbering around 18 lakh in the Presidency and six crore across India, the community had no elected presence at any level of government. No member sat in any legislature, central or provincial. No Viswakarma had become a District Board President or Municipal Council Chairman. Of the hundreds of judicial and educational posts across the Presidency, none was held by a member of the community. Only three Gazetted Officers and around fifty university graduates had emerged from their ranks since the introduction of higher education nearly a century earlier.
Achariar drew an explicit comparison to Muslim political representation to sharpen the grievance. A community of comparable national size had five or six ministers in the Interim Government of India, numerous provincial ministers, and hundreds of legislators across the country. The Viswakarmas had none.
The memorial traced this exclusion to structural failures in the existing constitutional framework. Under the 1920 reforms, the community had held a nominated seat in the local Legislative Council. That seat was abolished under the 1935 reforms without replacement or explanation. The seats provided under “Industry, Commerce and Labour,” twelve in total, were intended to represent a broad range of economic interests, but had been captured entirely by large-scale mill owners and industrialists, contrary to the spirit of the constitution. Small-scale artisans and cottage industries received nothing.
The memorandum asked the Sub-Committee to provide dedicated seats in both central and provincial legislatures for a distinct “Labour and Industrial” constituency, separate from mill industries and general labour categories, with formal registration under the Trade Union Act as the qualifying condition. Achariar invoked the British Labour Party as a model, arguing that India’s future constitution should enable a comparable political formation representing working artisans. He closed by offering to present a deputation of three to five community members before the Sub-Committee should it wish to hear their claims in person.
The petition sits within a broader pattern of representations to the Constituent Assembly from communities who feared that universal adult franchise, without structural protection, would deliver legislatures dominated by numerically larger or economically more powerful groups. For the Viswakarmas, the concern was specific: that artisanal and cottage industries, however ancient and economically significant, would remain invisible in democratic politics unless the Constitution created a dedicated channel for their representation.
M. KANDASWAMI ACHARIAR, D.M.E.M.E.,
PRESIDENT.
No. 16, RAJU NADAR COLONY,
DHALLY ROAD,
UDUMALPET,
27-3-47.
To,
The Minorities’
Sub-Committee of the Constituent Assembly,
NEW DELHI.
Sirs,
Subject :- The humble memorial of the Visvakarma indigenous industrialists of South India, praying for necessary provision in the act of the future constitution for a separate constituency for small scale industrialists coming under Artisans’ or workers’ union to be registered under the Trade Union Act.
May it please you, Sirs,
Under instructions from the above Central Board, the accredited representative institution of the Viswakarma artisans and cottage industrialists of South India, who can carry on the hereditary profession of iron smithy, carpentry, brass, copper, and silver smithy, gold-smithy, idol-making in metal and stone, including Temple building from time immemorial (Visvakarma being only a general term to include the above categories of small scale industries) handed down to the members of the community from generation to generation, we beg to submit the following:-
The economic condition of the community has distinctly worsened after the first and the second great world wars, and continues to be backward, economically, educationally, socially and materially, the community could command absolutely no influence and is therefore backward in public life also. For instance not a single member of the community has been elected member of the assembly or council old or new, central or provincial, through the open door of elections owing to the franchise being too wide predominated by other influential and wealthy communities or interests. Even going lower down, none have even become a District Board President or Municipal Council Chairman, or is there a single Judicial Official or Educational Officer in the province so far, although there are more than 2 hundred such posts in the presidency. Add to this, in spite of the community being nearly 17 lakhs strong in 1921 (more than 18 lakhs in 1941), there are only 3 Gazetted Officers in Government Service to-day and only about 50 graduates since the inception of the University Education nearly a century ago.
The community which is about 18 lakhs strong in the presidency and 6 crores in India stands perhaps next in rank to the Muslim population and it is extremely deplorable that, while Muslim interests are safeguarded by 5 or 6 members of the interim Government of India, numerous ministers in the various provinces and hundreds of members of legislation assemblies and other local institutions throughout the length and breadth of the country, this important industrial community can boast of not even one President District Board, not even one member of the legislative assembly, not to speak of any member of any Government.
Our Community was given a nominated seat in the local Legislative Council under 1920 reforms which was held by the representative of our community till 1935 when the new reforms came into force, completely ignoring our privilege and our legitimate claims as cottage industrialists of the land.
It is true, that the existing constitution provides for a large number of seats in the local legislature under “Industry, Commerce and Labour”. But unfortunately, for want of proper definition as to the scope and allocation, all the 12 seats, though intended to be common for the above category, were appropriated only by the large scale industrialists and mill-owners, contrary to the spirit of the constitution, aiming at full and thorough representation and equal opportunities for all.
We therefore pray that, you may be pleased to get suitable amendments made in the future constitutional reforms, providing additional and adequate number of seats for this special constituency (artisans’ or workers’ union). This ought to inevitably follow the grant of responsible Government to India in June 1948 if the formation of a “Labour and Industrial Group” as distinct from “Mill Industries” and pure “Labour” is accepted.
In conclusion, we need hardly point out that it is only just and proper for our country that the future Indian constitution should be so framed as to enable us to form a Labour Party similar to the one in Great Britain and it is the sacred duty incumbent on you, Sirs, to exert your utmost influence to bring about this very desirable and healthy change in the future Indian constitutional legislation, namely, the provision of adequate number of seats in the legislatures both central and provincial under “Labour or Artisans’ (metal, wood and stone workers) or workers’ union” to be duly registered under the Trade union Act.
If you will be so gracious as to receive me or a deputation consisting of three or five members of the community to learn at first hand still further about our legitimate rights and claims, we would only be extremely thankful to you for all your kindness and sympathy and will readily respond to your very kind invitation.
We beg to remain,
Sirs,
Yours devotedly,
(Sd.) M. KANDASAMY ACHARIAR,
President.