ABSTRACT
Writing in 1977, the sociologist N. R. Sheth bemoaned that 'very little material of real contemporary value' on the sociology of Indian industrial workers is available. The shop floor has by and large remained the preserve of permanent operatives partly because, backed by union representatives, they fought to keep this space their own with an eye to protecting incentive payment levels. Partly because with the introduction of capital-intensive electronic exchanges in the second half of the 1980s, the management struggled to ensure adequate work loads even for regular workers, let alone think of bringing in temporary ones. Even those workers not born in Bangalore had for the greater part found work here first before being recruited by ITI. The concept of a labour aristocracy has at all times and places been anything but gender neutral. Technical education was most widespread in the survey sample among the Kannada speakers.
