IIT Bombay’s Abhyuday Organizes Interactive Exhibition On Textile Worker’s Strike in 1982

Mumbai: Ever wondered why the land prices are so high in Mumbai and its’ suburbs? Ever wondered why crime rose so much post 1985? Why so many people went unemployed all of a sudden?

IIT Bombay’s Abhyuday is organising an interactive exhibition ‘1982, a tale of the forgotten past’ from June 11 to 13, 2017 at Lecture Hall Foyer in the Institute campus. The exhibition has been ideated by Chinmay Parab, an M.des Student of the Industrial Design Centre (IDC).

Abhyuday is a student-run non-profit organization of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Prof. Kavi Arya is the faculty in-charge of Abhyuday. The organization provides a platform for social activities, campaigns, initiatives to build the nation bottom up and for upcoming ideas for social development. Abhyuday aims to empower students taking the mission of social leadership to drive a change around the nation.

‘1982, a tale of the forgotten past’ attempts to tell the story of the Great Bombay Textile Strike and its impacts on the city culture. The aim, here, is to sensitize current population of Mumbai with the forgotten past of the city and leave them with a question mark, in order to envision a better future. Data visualization method is used to convey the story is conveyed through juggling of data and numbers , which will make people actually understand it better.

Textile Worker’s strike in 1982 was a pivotal moment in the history of the textile industry and that of Mumbai. 240,000 mill workers from over 58 mills in the mill district of Mumbai participated in the strike that started on 18 January 1982 and ran for 18 months. Unsuccessful end of the strike served to change the face of the once industrial capital of the country into financial capital. In the past three decades, the city saw a dramatic transition from mills to malls and residential towers, considered as the most disruptive urban transformations India has ever seen.

35 years after the strike, the situation seems to be almost similar to that of the textile industry. IT sector in India, on which the service industry thrives, is undergoing the digital transformation with automation and introduction of artificial intelligence. It wouldn’t be a surprise if history repeats itself in the white-collared IT sector too.