The rags to riches story of a Bombay entrepreneur

Decades after the textile mill chimneys have faded from the Mumbai skyline, indelibly altering the demographics, architecture and culture of the city’s central districts, the fate of displaced textile workers continues to—surprisingly—animate political discussions.

- Rajrishi Singhal

A former textile factory in Colaba, Mumbai, 2010.

(GETTY IMAGES)

The campaigning for and outcome of elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest urban local body by a mile, for instance, provide insights into how the once-ubiquitous textile factory continues to haunt collective memory.

The textile factories were not mere physical symbols of industrial productivity and commerce but cradles for community development as well, providing livelihood for over 250,000 workers who had mostly migrated from rural Maharashtra. The workers and their family members tuned into the city’s rhythms to upgrade their songbooks and compose unique cultural memes; celebrations of traditional festivals turned into collective and voluntary labour, some of which have now become the city’s visible socio-cultural icons, such as the Dahi Handi festivities or Ganpati celebrations.

And then, following the prolonged textile strike of the 1980s, the mills shut down. Mill owners, with some help from the political class, were able to repurpose the land and monetise it, even though a part of the land was supposed to be used for public housing. Former mill workers, who lived near the mills in tightly knit communities, were also stakeholders because the mill land was on long lease from the city. But mill owners and political leaders successfully subverted rules and policy prescriptions. Unfortunately, even the trade unions failed these workers.

The forcible dispersal of a century-old community was turbocharged by a class angle as well: as south Mumbai got overpopulated, the wealthy and aspiring wealthy needed residential properties not too far from the original elite hub. This required overhauling the working-class character of the former textile district. End-result: out with the old textile mills, hello steel and glass skyscrapers.