Breaking down the question
The operative phrase is changing nature — the examiner wants an account of how the composition, conditions and consciousness of the industrial working class have been transformed, not a static description. The comparison is implicitly between the classic factory proletariat and today's fragmented labour force.
At ten marks the response must be compact and thematically organised. It should register the key shifts — informalisation, contractualisation, feminisation, the decline of collective bargaining and the rise of precarity — and interpret what they mean for working-class solidarity.
The note on the working class in India supplies the evidence base.
How to approach it
Contrast the older image of a stable, unionised, largely male factory workforce with the newer reality of a casualised and dispersed labour force. Organise the body around discernible changes, each stated crisply and supported with a sociological voice such as Breman or Bhowmik.
Conclude by assessing the consequence for class consciousness — whether the fragmentation of the working class has weakened its capacity for collective action. Keep the answer analytical and resist listing labour legislation.
Model answer
The industrial working class in India has undergone a profound transformation. The classic image — a stable, permanent, unionised and predominantly male factory workforce concentrated in large mills and public-sector plants — has given way to a fragmented, insecure and dispersed labour force. Several changes define this shift.
Informalisation. The most decisive change is the swelling of informal employment even within the organised sector. Jan Breman argues that the secure factory proletariat was always a minority, and liberalisation has further tilted the balance towards casual, unprotected labour without contracts or social security.
Contractualisation. Permanent jobs have been steadily replaced by contract and outsourced labour. Firms hire through intermediaries to cut costs and evade labour protections, producing a two-tier workforce in which contract workers labour alongside — but on far worse terms than — the shrinking core of regular employees.
Decline of unionism and collective bargaining. The old industrial unionism, studied by E. A. Ramaswamy, has weakened. A dispersed, casualised and fearful workforce is harder to organise, and the bargaining power of labour has eroded, as Sharit Bhowmik's work on labour and unions documents.
Feminisation and new sectors. Women have entered industrial and allied work in growing numbers, especially in garments, electronics and export-oriented units, often on the most flexible and insecure terms. The rise of services and the gig economy has further blurred the boundary of the industrial working class.
Spatial dispersal and precarity. Production has shifted from large urban factories towards smaller units, industrial estates and peri-urban clusters, dispersing workers and deepening precarity — insecurity of tenure, income and identity.
The cumulative effect is a fragmentation of the working class along lines of permanent versus contract, formal versus informal, and male versus female labour. This heterogeneity has diluted the shared class consciousness on which classical labour politics rested, making collective mobilisation harder even as exploitation intensifies. The changing nature of the industrial working class thus reflects the broader informalisation of India's growth model.
Examiner's perspective
At ten marks the examiner rewards a focused account of change rather than a general description of industrial labour. A weak answer narrates the growth of the working class historically without identifying what has changed.
High marks reward crisp identification of the key shifts — informalisation, contractualisation, feminisation and the decline of unionism — each supported by a named authority such as Breman or Bhowmik. The strongest short answers close with an interpretive point about the fragmentation of class consciousness, showing that the candidate grasps the sociological consequence of these changes and not merely their description.