The Hindu Business Line : Acting out life's eternal struggle

MUMBAI'S dilapidated chawls were once testimony to textile mill workers' lives and struggles. The textile mill worker as a community is on its way out, but a play depicting their life returns to Mumbai after three years.

Adhantar, a Marathi play on the life of a mill worker's family, is being brought back to the stage.

"It is a story of a mill worker's widow and her family. It is about the tragedy of a mill workers' life," says Datta Iswalkar, Secretary, Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti (Textile Workers' Union).

The play began its shows in 1997 and ran for a period of five years. "It was not a commercial success as it is tragic story," says the play's writer Jayant Pawar.

Pawar, once a textile mill employee, was witness to the major textile strike. "I worked as a technical assistant from 1978 to 1985. Although I was a part of the management side, I have seen the tragic life of these workers," says Pawar.

The play, according to him, is not a direct reflection of the incidents during the first round of strikes but dwells on the disintegration of mill workers' lives over the years. In fact, it is more about the second textile strike which resulted in the collapse of the labour movement, he says.

Adhantar was shown all over Maharashtra. "What's amazing about this play is that there is no protagonist. Everybody's role is important," says Iswalkar. He was once a textile mill worker at Modern Mills and joined the union after the mills closed down.

The textile industry, he says, is one of the oldest in Mumbai. "The industry started operations in 1856 and the workers who participated in the historic strike form the third generation of mill workers," says Iswalkar.

When the first textile strike was announced 2.5 lakh people worked in textile mills in Mumbai. At least 15 lakh people depended on the textile mill workers' wages during that time. The second strike was to protect mill land, equipment and land where the chawls existed.

After the textile industry collapsed, other industries such as chemicals and faced a downturn. The slump in the market, overcapacity and inefficient management drove these industries down under.

Adhantar is now being translated into English and German. It is also being made into a Marathi film, says Pawar.