Datta Iswalkar: Voice of millworkers fades away

Spread over nearly 600 acres, Girangaon or the "village of the mills" in Mumbai is part of the history of this city.

The mills have become malls – but for the right of mill workers, Datta Iswalkar continued to fight, a selfless service.

Datta Bhau, as he was popularly known, was the voice of the mill workers community or Girni-kamgar and their families.

Iswalkar, aged 72, passed away at the Sir JJ Hospital at Byculla in Mumbai, on Wednesday evening.

He is survived by his wife, son and three daughters.

Over the last three decades, the socialist to the core – who had following across party lines and organizations - had been corresponding with various governments and chief ministers for the rights of millworkers particularly housing.

“Datta Iswalkar was a pillar of the mill workers movement,” said NCP president and former-time Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar.

Iswalkar started as a peon in the Modern Mills of Mumbai.

In 1856, the first mill started – the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company. And slowly it grew - and at one point of time, Mumbai had 130-odd mills.

These mills were owned by the Tatas, Petits, Wadias, Currimbhoys, Thakerseys, Sassoons, Khataus, Goculdas, Cottons, and Greaves among others. Most of the mill workers came from areas around Mumbai. The mill owners housed their workers in chawls built in the areas of Tardeo, Byculla, Mazgaon, Reay Road, Lalbaug, Parel, Naigaum, Sewri, Worli and Prabhadevi. These areas gradually came to be known collectively as Girangaon, literally "the village of mills".

The Great Bombay Textile Strike was a textile strike that was called on 18 January 1982 by the mill workers of Mumbai under trade union leader Dr Dutta Samant. The purpose of the strike was to obtain a bonus and increase in wages. Nearly 250,000 workers of 65 textile mills went on strike in Mumbai. The strike was never called off and mills – which were on leased land – started becoming defunct.

In 1997, Samant was shot dead by the underworld.

Iswalkar, the general secretary of Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti continued to fight for the case of these unemployed people, their families and the next generation.

Iswalkar was instrumental in starting 10 mills in the city and transferring the houses in mill-owned chawls in the names of mill workers.

“Datta Bhau was a thorough gentleman. He is an example of how movements are led by taking everyone along…he was the face of the millworkers movement,” said peace activist, writer and journalist Jatin Desai. “For journalists who wanted to know and write about mills, its background, the strike and the movement, he would eagerly help them,” he added.

“Thousands of mill workers have lost their most honest leader and I have lost a dear friend. I have rarely seen such a warm and selfless person.He led a long battle for the housing rights of mill workers and won it,” said journalist Nikhil Wagle.

“He fought for justice of millworkers…for 30 to 35 years, he led the struggle,” said Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar, former vice-chancellor of University of Mumbai.