India, April 27 -- Roughly a month ago, worker strikes began in the Gurugram-Manesar belt of Haryana, which is a major hub of organised industries, including automobiles, in north India. Within a week, the protests had spread to Faridabad, and then to the industrial areas of Noida in Uttar Pradesh. The police came down hard on the workers. This article first describes how the situation evolved, then analyses the underlying causes, before briefly addressing what should have been done.

First, let us understand why the workers went on strike. The strikes were driven by a combination of economic distress and workplace grievances, rather than a single issue. The first was low wages set against rising costs. Many workers in the National Capita...