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. 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.
Mumbai textile mills history and biography pdf Learn about the history of Mumbai's industrial past and the textile mills that spurred its economic development today representing modern Mumbai.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.
Mumbai textile mills history and biography Known as the Maximum City, Mumbai’s status as the financial capital has roots in the city’s rich textile mills that were spread across in the early 19th century. Mumbai, in those times known as Bombay, was called the Manchester of the East.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. 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.
History and biography sociology 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.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. 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 wikipedia
Learn about the history of Mumbai's industrial past and the textile mills that spurred its economic development today representing modern Mumbai.The 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]