The origins of the TLA are as unusual as they are significant. Developmental Economist KP Kannan, in Of Rural Proletarian Struggles – Mobilisation and Organisation of Rural Workers in South-West India, notes that the organisation was founded at the encouragement of a capitalist.
Published May 01, 2025 | 9:03 AM ⚊ Updated May 01, 2025 | 12:43 PM
The Travancore Labour Association, founded in 1922 amid the bustle of Alappuzha’s coir factories and the ferment of caste reform, holds the distinction of being Kerala’s first trade union.
Synopsis: Kerala’s first labour union, the Travancore Labour Association, was unusually founded in 1922 with support from a capitalist and initially focused on literacy, prohibition, and caste upliftment rather than labour issues. Over time, internal dissent, caste tensions, and political shifts transformed it into a more radical, socialist-oriented body advocating for workers’ rights and legislative reform.
Long before organised strikes and mass mobilisations shaped Kerala’s labour politics, a modest workers’ association in Alappuzha laid the foundations for a century of trade union activism.
The Travancore Labour Association (TLA), founded in 1922 amid the bustle of Alappuzha’s coir factories and the ferment of caste reform, holds the distinction of being Kerala’s first trade union. More than a collective bargaining body, it was a crucible of social transformation.
The origins of the TLA are as unusual as they are significant. Developmental Economist KP Kannan, in Of Rural Proletarian Struggles – Mobilisation and Organisation of Rural Workers in South-West India, notes that the organisation was founded at the encouragement of a capitalist.
In the years following the First World War, Alleppey’s once-centralised coir industry began relocating to rural areas to reduce costs and meet growing global demand. As increasing numbers of rural workers joined the workforce, the idea of forming a workers’ association began to take shape–not in reaction to exploitation, but as a step towards social upliftment.
It was during this time that PK Bava, known as Vadapuram Bava – a yard superintendent at Empire Coir Works earning ₹125 per month, a respectable sum for the era – emerged as an organiser. Though a worker, Bava was also deeply involved in the region’s caste reform and anti-untouchability movements.
PK Bava, popularly known as Vadapuram Bava
Notably, the owner of Empire Coir Works, a Bombay-based Indian industrialist, supported the formation of the association. This backing reflected the non-confrontational, reform-oriented nature of the initiative.
The TLA was not founded on demands for wages or labour rights, but rather on a call for temperance.
Initially named the ‘Labour Union’, the organisation was soon renamed the more moderate ‘Labour Association’, reportedly on the advice of another factory manager. Its early priorities were prohibition, literacy, and moral reform.
At its first meeting in April 1922, KM Cherian, Managing Director of South Indian Coir Limited (Ltd) and a Christian industrialist, delivered a detailed address on the virtues of abstinence from alcohol.
The meeting passed a resolution advocating prohibition as a path to workers’ economic betterment.
Thus, the leadership was drawn from diverse background. MK Antony, a local physician, served as President. A tailoring shop owner became Treasurer, and Bava took charge as Secretary.
Under his leadership, the TLA retained strong ties to the ideals of Sree Narayana Guru and TK Madhavan, emphasising social dignity, education, and awareness over direct industrial action.
In 1924, the TLA established a library stocked with books, periodicals, and newspapers. A year later, it launched its own publication, Thozhilali (Worker), providing a space for coir workers to write essays, poems, and deliver speeches.
In his 1980 paper The Travancore Labour Association: The Earliest Trade Union in Kerala, published by the Indian History Congress, T Jamal Mohammed documented how Thozhilali evolved into a powerful working-class voice.
Its most notable editor was the influential Malayalam writer P Kesavadev.
Copy of Registration Certificate of first Trade Union
The publication tracked working-class movements across India and the world.
Crucially, it introduced Marxist thought to its readers, publishing translated chapters of Das Kapital and fostering a new generation of politically aware worker-intellectuals.
Despite its cultural and educational contributions, the TLA faced moments of internal strife and external criticism.
While small, factory-specific strikes occurred occasionally, the first major inter-factory strike emerged only in 1934 – coinciding with the formation of the Kerala Congress Socialist Party (KCSP).
Earlier tensions had already shaken the organisation. In 1928, when Empire Coir Works announced a wage cut, the TLA leadership sided with management and urged workers to accept the reduced wages.
The decision triggered resentment, leading to the resignation of a key office-bearer.
The TLA also drew criticism for being dominated by leaders from the Ezhava community, which comprised the majority of the coir workforce.
Its close association with the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam) led Christian and Muslim workers to accuse it of caste exclusivity.
By 1934, a Christian Labour Association had been formed, while Muslim workers had already created a separate union.
Political sociologist Patrick Heller, in The Labour of Development, observed that the TLA at this point functioned “more as a caste-reform platform than a trade union,” focusing on education, prohibition, and social campaigns rather than wage negotiations or strikes.
Kannan further notes that some TLA leaders, who held supervisory roles, allegedly coerced workers into joining the association and made unauthorised deductions from their wages to cover membership fees.
Notably, accusations of financial mismanagement emerged in 1924 – soon after the organisation’s formation – prompting a leadership reshuffle. One faction later revived the organisation by merging it with Thozhilali Mitram, a group of dissidents.
Despite its contradictions, the TLA evolved into a more politically assertive organisation in the 1930s.
Influential writers and activists, including Kesava Dev and Balakrishna Pillai (editor of Kesari), steered the association towards socialist thinking and working-class mobilisation.
Dr M K Antony
Under the leadership of R Sugathan, a prominent socialist, the TLA aligned with the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) and began demanding legislative representation and protective labour laws.
The TLA’s participation in the first All-Kerala Workers’ Conference in 1935, organised by the CSP, marked a decisive break from its earlier reformist orientation.
Jamal Mohammed records perhaps the TLA’s boldest move: a planned 150-kilometre march from Alleppey to Trivandrum to present a memorandum to the then king of Travancore.
The colonial administration responded with arrests and a ban on the march. Nevertheless, the agitation brought workers’ grievances into the public spotlight and signalled the union’s growing political significance.
Led over time by reformers, radicals, and dissenters, the TLA laid the groundwork for Kerala’s enduring legacy of trade unionism, class consciousness, and democratic mobilisation.
In 2022, Kerala marked the centenary of the TLA with commemorative events.
As May Day is observed today, the association’s complex history reminds us that the fight for dignity at work has always been inseparable from the broader struggle for dignity in society.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
