How did Sunday Became a Holiday? - ScienceNerds

Hey Folks, welcome back to ScienceNerds. Today we will find out - who was the person behind making Sunday a holiday in India. 

Why Sunday is Holiday?

Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, The Father of the Trade Union Movement in India.

Narayan Meghaji Lokhande

 Narayan Meghaji Lokhande was born in a very poor family from Phulamli Caste in 1848 in Thane, Maharashtra, India. In the 17th(seventeenth) and 18th(seventeenth) centuries, India was popular for its fine Textiles in western countries or nations. By Buying Cloth in India and Selling it in Europe, the East India Company made lots of Profit. The 1st Textile factory(mill) was established in Bombay, Maharashtra in 1854. Lokhande worked for some time as a storekeeper in a Bombay Textile mill He gathered the issues and problems of the working conditions in the factories and The issues faced by the labourers or workers.

Textile - Mill, Bombay

He Edited the first labour weekly "Deenbandhu"(friend of the oppressed). From 1880 as far as possible of his life in 1897 he took control over the administration of Deenbandhu, which was published from Bombay. Narayan Meghaji Lokhande was a prominent partner of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule. Jyotirao Govindrao Phule  (11 April 1827 – 28 November 1890) was an Indian activist, good thinker, social reformer and author from Maharashtra. Along with Lokhande, Jyotirao also gathered the meetings of the textile workers in Bombay. It is significant that before Jotirao and his partner Bhalekar and Lokhande tried to organize the peasants and the workers, no such attempt will be made by any association to review their complaints or problems. Mahatma Phule begins the first Indian Workers organization– 'Bombay factory Hands Association', with the help of Shri. Narayan Meghaji Lokhande.

Following are some of the rights factory(mill) workers got because of N M Lokhande:

1.  A weekly holiday on Sunday for factory workers.
2.  workers should be qualified to half-hour recess, In the afternoon.
3.  The mill should begin working from 6:30 in the morning and close by sunset.
4.  By the 15th of every month, the salaries of the workers should be paid.

Narayan Meghaji Lokhande is remembered not only for improving the working states of textile factory-hands in the 19th century but also for his courageous initiatives on caste and communal issues. The Government of India gave a post stamp with his photograph in 2005.

~sciencefreak