Il Tolomeo

Rivista di studi postcoloniali | A Postcolonial Studies Journal | Journal d’études postcoloniales | Revista de estudos pós-coloniais

Unheard Voices: The Migrant Workers of Mumbai’s Cotton Mills and Narayan Surve’s Poetic Legacy

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Abstract

Migrants play a key role in Mumbai’s dynamics, shaping its identity through cultural fusion. This paper shifts focus from the city’s colonial legacy and Dharavi to overlooked cotton mill workers, mostly migrants from nearby villages. Recruited by ‘jobbers’ and housed in cramped chawls, their lives mirrored subaltern destitution. Narayan Surve, an orphan poet raised by mill workers, captures their struggles in his Marxist poetry, giving voice to the marginalised and highlighting the socio-economic and cultural challenges faced by Mumbai’s migrant labourers.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: July 2, 2024 | Accepted: Sept. 30, 2024 | Published Dec. 9, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Mumbai migrants • Cotton mill workers • Urban identity • Subaltern studies • Narayan Surve

Copyright © 2024 Harjot Banga. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Tol/2499-5975/2024/01/007


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