India’s automobile sector has emerged as an important growth engine of the Indian economy. The Northernautomobile cluster in Haryana is not only the center of the automobile sector, but also a center of industrialunrest. This article questions informality in India’s automobile sector through the application of commoditychain analysis to explain why India’s automobile sector is beset by informality, low wages, and insecureworking conditions. The article illustrates how leading firms in India’s automobile industry, with theconnivance of the Indian state, exploit the automobile commodity chain to marginalize both subordinatefirms and the contract and casual workers who now make up the majority of the industry’s workforce. Thevery structure of India’s automobile industry locks many workers and firms into insecure work, whereproductivity gains are eaten up by leading firms, further reducing the margins of lower level suppliers andthe wages of workers. While the automobile sector, and the demand for vehicles in India is growing, thewages and conditions of the workers in the sector are not improving. This qualitative study of Haryana’sautomobile sector attempts to explain why this is the case. The article concludes that India’s industrialrelations regime has long ceased to reflect the actual balance of power between labor and capital, institu-tionalizing noncompliance with the labor law and providing the basis for the industry’s informalization.