the story of the mill lands - wordpress.com · around the mid 80s the textile mills in mumbai ......
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The story of the Mill lands
of Mumbai
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Around the mid 80s the textile
mills in Mumbai started closing
down. Many reasons were
attributed to this: militant labour
unions; avaricious owners
wanting to re-develop the mills
into commercial property;
policies discouraging industry;
obsolete technology making
production incapable of
international competition; etc.
Thousands of mill workers lost
their jobs.
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The entire mill infrastructure along with large parcels of mill-lands was labelled as „derelict‟ and „sick‟ – calling for new
plans for their „redevelopment‟.
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The state government responded to this by appointing the
famous „Correa Committee‟ as a Study Group for making
recommendations for the redevelopment of the mills.
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In order to make the „New Master Plan‟ Information on the mill-lands was pieced together - small pieces of maps were
stitched together and surveys were undertaken to understand the mill infrastructure
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For the first time a map of the Mill lands was put
together. The map identified 57 textile mills located
in a dense city fabric
The cartographic map in the way it was assembled
posed the problem of the Mill lands as “a fabric
characterised by high density with few open
spaces”
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The study group responded to the
problem of density by making a case
for new open spaces. The new Master
plan proposed large open spaces within
the mill lands.
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The proposal included an open space structure and identified buildings that could be conserved for public
use. The notions of classical open spaces dominated the proposal. Case studies from European and
American industrial land redevelopment were frequently used to argue the case.
The master plan also identified areas for housing, museums, schools, hospitals, and commercial spaces.
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But nobody seemed to like the plan…
The mill owners opposed the plan. They were not ready to give their land for housing, open spaces and
amenities
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And Mill workers were unable to see how open spaces would benefit them
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Several Alternative Plans were prepared to
either increase the real-estate, generate new
jobs or even to modernise the mills
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The government finally rejected the green plan and asked the committee to rework on it.
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Something went wrong
Was it the cartographic map?
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The cartographic map had established high
density and a lack of open space as the
problem…
However, it missed out many other things
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In the context of the closure of the mills
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… the cartographic map did not understand the aspirations of the labour…
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… their romance with the space …
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… their cultural engagements with it and the absurdities of the relationships that the rights
discourse flattens out completely
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“There was a different culture then. It was
common to gamble, and also to „keep‟ another
woman. To have another woman was a
considered a sign of manliness. And these
woman were loyal. To the man, to the family, to
the wife and children. She could be a widow or a
deserted woman. She would become a part of
the family. She was not married to the man but
had her own status.”
– Bhai Bhonsle in Neera Adarkar and Meena
Menon’s ‘One Hundred Years, One hundred voices’
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“A few of us in the clerical staff once asked
Vishnu to fill up a water pot. The upper caste
workers would not touch that pot… when asked,
they said, „how can you drink water that has
been filled by a mahar (lower caste)… They
would sit and eat paan with him… but never eat
from his lunchbox”
– Dutta Iswalkar in Neera Adarkar and Meena
Menon’s ‘One Hundred Years, One hundred voices’
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nor did it understand the aspirations of the owners …
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… nor the opportunities in the transformation of the Mill lands
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… or in keeping them in a state of ruin
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it was unable to comprehend the intensities of the densities around the Mill lands and the
complex property relationships that people engaged in.
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Documents from CIDCO
Cheque
Books of
Standard
Chartered
… or the absurdities and the reorganisations of the work forms post retrenchment
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The cartographic map was unable to look at the many stories of change that had been told of the
Mill lands.
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To conclude, Maps and Statistics like we saw in the case of the Mill lands have dominated the
understanding of cities and informed interventions in them. In many ways, these form the archiving
instruments through which the city is understood for the disciplines of architecture and planning
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The contention is that, while maps possess
a cartographic distance from the ground
Statistics iron out the nuances of the urban
context
Both run the risk of generalising the city.
Hence limited as tools for archiving and
further intervening
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‘Multifarious
nows’ is a map
making exercise
undertaken after
10 tumultuous
years of
transformations
of the mill lands.
It is an attempt at
rebuilding the
map of Mumbai’s
mill lands beyond
its cartographic
skin into the
thicknesses of its
lived spaces, its
memories and its
convoluted
narratives.
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As an exercise in map making it uses several devices – it is pink in colour speaking of a new anatomy of the
city. Here several other geographies where the stories of Mill Lands were played have been stitched into
the map – Bhiwandi, where the textile industry shifted; the corridors of Mantralaya where policies were
modified; courts of Delhi where negotiations were worked out and verdicts were passed etc. –…
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… the map also had several small screens embedded in it … telling the many stories of change … as
extensively documented footnotes through which the map is read…
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… included in the footnotes is a compilation of historical narratives of the mills; visions, policies and
loopholes; the stories of mills changing into malls and multiplexes; stories of property associated with mill
housing and nuanced tales of their redevelopment and archives of entrepreneurial roles played by mill
workers post retrenchment…
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Besides the screens, embedded in the map, are eye pieces, projecting out of like giant industrial bolts…
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Allowing one to go closer, beyond its
cartographic skin
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Looking into environments of desire
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Here one sees several landscapes … multiple desires of various people who had multiple stakes in the mill
lands at various times in its history
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‘Tiffin for all castes’ speaks of the absurd situation where Mill workers, who migrated from smaller
villages to work in the mills, carried with them their beliefs and customs and stuck by these even in the
modern situation of industrial production. Firm believers of the caste system, no upper caste hindu would
eat from a lower caste’s plate or for that matter from a muslim’s. Yet many of them were the best of
friends. Single women and widows who ran khanawals (eating spaces) catered to all their needs &
idiosyncrasies.
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Many of the women also became their confidantes. ‘Mothi aai’ (elder mother) speaks of the longing for
sexual desire in the predominantly male industrial landscape. Very few women migrated to the city. They
came only when they had lost their husbands or when circumstances were unfavourable for them in the
village. Many of these women had relationships with the male workers in the city. These relationships were
also accepted by the society at large in many ways. These women often travelled back to the mill workers’
villages with them and met their families. Children of the mill workers often called them ‘Mothi Aai (Elder
Mother)’
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‘Trunk of Goodies’ talks about the social status of the mill workers, the fascination to work in the Mills of
Mumbai and the bringing back of items (of desire) from the city back to the villages.
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‘Gardens of Desire’ speaks of the opportunity for open spaces and gardens that elite citizens and
architects in the city saw in the decline of the Mill Industry.
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‘Towers of Desire’ talk about the desire to consume every inch of the Mill-land to generate Real Estate
with international design firms competing to leave their mark on the Mill Space.
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‘Phoenix Mills’ refers to an absurd moment in capitalist development where a bowling alley was set up in
Phoenix mills, masquerading as mill-workers’ recreation and a McDonalds was passed off as worker’s
canteen. This space has now become a popular hangout space frequented by the city’s young elite
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‘Enterprise Space’ shows how many retrenched workers shifted into the informal economy, some
becoming hawkers, others absurd service providers in the city. They occupied bizarre spaces in the city,
often engaged in tenuous property relationships which made their survival possible and further sold
aspirations as cheap consumables and services to yet others in this system
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To conclude, the project is not only an ongoing map making exploration to critique conventional
cartography but is also an attempt to build an archive of the Mill lands of Mumbai with its multiplicities, its
intensities and absurdities. This map could open new possibilities of intervention, that the cartographic
map was unable to generate.