REVIEW: Lalbaug Parel

A LOST CAUSE

Mumbai was once known as the Manchester of the East for its bustling textile mills located in the centre of the city and employing nearly 2.5 lakh workers. In 1982, labour leader Dr Datta Samant called for a strike to demand pay hikes and bonuses for the workers. The strike, which lasted 18 months, crippled the textile industry and as mill-owners started moving their units outside the city and the strike eventually collapsed, over half the city’s textile workers lost their livelihood. Gradually mill-owners started selling the lands on which these mills once stood for commercial exploitation and the hopes of Girangaon’s workers for going back to work and being compensated for their loss of livelihood started fading very quickly. Today malls, commercial establishments and high-rise residential complexes have replaced the city’s textile hub.