Book: Japanese Management, Indian Resistance: The Stuggles Of The Maruti Suzuki Workers

Author: Anjali Deshpande and Nandita Haksar

Published by: Speaking Tiger

Price: ₹499

This book chronicles the violent events of July 2012 at Maruti Suzuki's plant in Haryana’s Manesar that led to the killing of a human resources manager and left several injured. The authors, seasoned human rights activists with a long history of involvement in people's movements, highlight the perspective of workers through several first-person accounts.

By drawing on the history of company-labour relations at Maruti Suzuki, they narrate a story of workers’ exploitation and a breakdown of traditional modes of communication, which precipitated the violence. The book’s subject is significant since mainstream media’s reporting of these events failed to fully capture the workers’ perspective. It thus fills an important gap while situating labour conditions in Maruti Suzuki within the longer history of Japanese corporate involvement in Maruti.

Much of the book derives from narratives of factory workers whom the authors interviewed. This effort to make visible otherwise marginalised voices needs to be applauded. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, the book remains a missed opportunity. The copious first-person accounts, otherwise an essential archive for future research, make the book exhausting. It’s almost as if the authors decided to publish their field notes directly instead of writing the book! If the intention was to give greater prominence to workers’ voices and reach new readers who may otherwise not appreciate or be sympathetic to labour issues, then the book achieves little in its current form.

Deshpande and Haksar attempt to draw links between the events and extended Japanese corporate involvement in Maruti. But the attempt is shallow and many of the conclusions seem hurried and sweeping. Surely, the political economy of automobile manufacturing and the ground realities of rural employment in India may have something to do with workers’ conditions than the proclivities of the Japanese work ethic.

Ultimately, the book reminds us about the importance of both form and substance in narrating a compelling story.

This book chronicles the violent events of July 2012 at Maruti Suzuki's plant in Haryana’s Manesar that led to the killing of a human resources manager and left several injured. The authors, seasoned human rights activists with a long history of involvement in people's movements, highlight the perspective of workers through several first-person accounts.

By drawing on the history of company-labour relations at Maruti Suzuki, they narrate a story of workers’ exploitation and a breakdown of traditional modes of communication, which precipitated the violence. The book’s subject is significant since mainstream media’s reporting of these events failed to fully capture the workers’ perspective. It thus fills an important gap while situating labour conditions in Maruti Suzuki within the longer history of Japanese corporate involvement in Maruti.

Much of the book derives from narratives of factory workers whom the authors interviewed. This effort to make visible otherwise marginalised voices needs to be applauded. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, the book remains a missed opportunity. The copious first-person accounts, otherwise an essential archive for future research, make the book exhausting. It’s almost as if the authors decided to publish their field notes directly instead of writing the book! If the intention was to give greater prominence to workers’ voices and reach new readers who may otherwise not appreciate or be sympathetic to labour issues, then the book achieves little in its current form.

Deshpande and Haksar attempt to draw links between the events and extended Japanese corporate involvement in Maruti. But the attempt is shallow and many of the conclusions seem hurried and sweeping. Surely, the political economy of automobile manufacturing and the ground realities of rural employment in India may have something to do with workers’ conditions than the proclivities of the Japanese work ethic.

Ultimately, the book reminds us about the importance of both form and substance in narrating a compelling story.