Bombay textile mill strike 1928 upsc
Great Bombay textile strike
textile strike in Mumbai
The Great Bombay Textile Strike was a textilestrike called on 18 January by the mill workers of Mumbai under trade union leader Dutta Samant.
History and biography sociology This is an example of a Bombay mill as a palimpsest. Once the Phoenix Mill, it now serves the role of a mall. Cotton Green, located in Girangaon, the hub of the textile industry in India, circa Interesting juxtaposition with the Taj Mahal Hotel in the background. One of the most remarkable developments in the Girgagaon area is what will become among the world's tallest buildings, at almost feet, built on the former property of a mill.The purpose of the strike was to obtain a bonus payment and an increase in wages. Nearly , workers of 65 textile mills went on strike in Mumbai.[1]
History of mills in Bombay
Main article: Mumbai mills
Built in , Swadeshi was Bombay's first textile mill, the first of the factories that spread over many parts of the island city in the next decades.
Rastriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh was the officially recognized union of the Mills. By , a new militant union leader by the name of Dutta Samant had arrived on the scene. Earlier he had got major wage increases for workers of Premier Automobiles and a section of the mill workers were hoping for the same.
The major difference between Premier Automobiles and the mills was that the former was a very profitable company and the mills were all sick units. Later that year Dutta Samant led the textile strike, over , people worked in Girangaon.[2]
Protests
In late , Dutta Samant was chosen by a large group of Bombay mill workers to lead them in a precarious conflict between the Bombay Mill Owners' Association and the unions, thus rejecting the INTUC-affiliated Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh which had represented the mill workers for decades.
Samant planned a massive strike, forcing the entire industry of the city to be shut down for over a year. It was estimated that nearly , workers went on strike and more than 50 textile mills were shut in Bombay permanently.
Samant demanded that, along with wage hikes, the government scrap the Bombay Industrial Act of and that the RMMS would no longer be the only official union of the city industry.
Mumbai textile mills history and biography wikipedia
The purpose of the strike was to obtain a bonus payment and an increase in wages. Nearly , workers of 65 textile mills went on strike in Mumbai. Built in , Swadeshi was Bombay's first textile mill , the first of the factories that spread over many parts of the island city in the next decades. Rastriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh was the officially recognized union of the Mills. By , a new militant union leader by the name of Dutta Samant had arrived on the scene.While fighting for greater pay and better conditions for the workers, Samant and his allies also sought to capitalize on and establish their power on the trade union scene in Mumbai. Although Samant had links with the Congress and Maharashtra politician Abdul Rehman Antulay, Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi considered him a serious political threat.
Samant's control of the mill workers made the Congress leaders fear that his influence would spread to the port and dock workers and make him the most powerful union leader in India's commercial capital. Thus the government took a firm stance of rejecting Samant's demands and refusing to budge despite the severe economic losses suffered by the city and the industry.
As the strike progressed through the months, Samant's militancy in the face of government obstinacy led to the failure of any attempts at negotiation.
Mumbai textile mills history and biography pdf The redevelopment of Mumbai's cotton mills began in , when efforts began to demolish the numerous cotton mills that once dotted the landscape of Mumbai , India, to make way for new residential and commercial buildings, as part of the wider redevelopment and modernization of Mumbai. The mills of Girangaon were once integral to Mumbai's economy, particularly during the British colonial period , when Mumbai then known as Bombay was often referred to as the " Manchester of the East". In the first half of the nineteenth century, India exported cotton to Britain , and then reimported the textile. In , the total textile import was valued at Rs. However, the cost had escalated significantly by , when textile imports stood at Rs.Disunity and dissatisfaction over the strike soon became apparent, and many textile mill owners began moving their plants outside the city. After a prolonged and destabilizing confrontation, the strike collapsed with no concessions having been obtained for the workers. The closure of textile mills across the city left tens of thousands of mill workers unemployed and, in the succeeding years, most of the industry moved away from Bombay after decades of being plagued by rising costs and union militancy.
It is one reason why some industries in India settled in Gujarat Although Samant remained popular with a large block of union activists, his clout and control over Bombay trade unions disappeared.[3]
Consequences
The majority of the over 80 mills in Central Mumbai closed during and after the strike, leaving more than , workers unemployed.[4] The textile industry in Mumbai has largely disappeared, reducing labour migration after the strikes.[5]
One of the consequences of the strike's failure was that labour laws in the country were mellowed and 'liberalized' since unions lost their foothold.
Until s, labour laws were stringent to appease the unions. As labour market became less transparent and unified, exploitative placement agencies popped up in the city, so a large population moved to contractual employment, which lacked all the benefits of organised sector like provident funds or even job security. This job insecurity also pushed a lot of the youth, especially Maharashtrian youth into the arms of the regional party Shiv Sena, so even if their parents had been communists, the children became Shiv Sainiks.
Mumbai textile mills history and biography Bombay or Mumbai is known as the city of dreams, the economic capital of India and in the past as the Manchester of India. It has played its part throughout the history of building dreams, nurturing dreams and at times have seen it shatter into pieces. Bombay, initially a port city later transformed from a trading town to a manufacturing centre in the mids. It was the venture of textile mills in Bombay which gave an economic boost to the city at that time. Cotton green mills in front of the Taj Mahal Hotel, Colaba inThe industries in Mumbai shut down and moved to the periphery or to other states as the land became a real estate gold mine. Mumbai's functional nature changed from industrial to commercial.[6]
Popular culture
The city was remade by the Dutta Samant-led textile strike.[7] Many Bollywood film directors started making politically relevant films on textile strikes in Bombay, and textile mill strikes have become an important theme of modern-day Indian films.
Producer Sangeeta Ahir, who is also a co-founder of the NGO Shree Sankalp Pratisthan[8][9] is making a film on the Great Bombay Textile Strike worker movement of the city.[10]