Text
Statement
This set of images were taken at the offices of the Bombay Mill Owners' Association - an alliance founded in 1875 by Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit to promote an unified code of trade, commerce and employment for the Textile Industry in Bombay.
India maintained an agrarian economy and Textiles was one of the first organized industries to usher the country towards the Industrial Revolution - A distinction that held it above the rest.
At it's height in early 20's, the Bombay Mill Owners' Association was responsible for maintaining memberships of over 80 Textile Mills that directly employed 300,000 men and women within the island city of Bombay. During this period, the combined Textile Mills of Bombay contributed to over 35% of the nations Textile output.
During the early 70's, the Textile Industry in Bombay began to witness a decline due to rising manufacturing costs and militant demands as made by it's large and now powerful unionized work-force.
In 1981 the entire Textile work-force in Bombay entered into a year long strike. Disunity and dissatisfaction over the strike soon became apparent, and many Textile Mill Owners began relocating their plants out of the city. Unable to resolve the prolonged strike lead to the closure of Textile Mills across the city leaving tens of thousands of mill workers unemployed.
Succeeding years witnessed Textile Mills being morphed into alternate industries. At present, the remaining dead and vacant Mills are being transformed into shopping-malls, commercial office parks or residential complexes.
My Father, during his tenure with several Textile Mills used to visit the Bombay Mill Owners Association and spoke with reverence as to the Associations' authority and pride that it was.
Although the Association today remains a functioning body, lack of members and their support has lead to a decline not only in it's authority, but also of it's physical upkeep.
Images from this series does depict the unfortunate state of the Association, but one can witness the heritage and fountainhead that it once was. Sadly, the history of the Bombay Mill Owners Association draws a parallel with rise and fall of the Textile Industry in Bombay.
I wish to dedicate this set of images to my Father, Mr. Laxmidas D. Vora ( May 10, 1926 - April 02, 2009 ) who devoted an entire career towards the Textile Industry in India and Africa. — jai vora.