Gentrification in the mill land areas of Mumbai city - RC21 ORG ...

The gentrification process in Mumbai has acquired prominent status only after the decline of
textile mills which was thought to be its lifeline. The huge area of Parel, Lower Parel,
Chinchpokli, Sewri, Dadar, and Elphinston known as Girangoan or the land of the mills
possessed a historical significance from time immemorial with its mill and indigenous
culture. It was considered to be the birth place of the working class and its culture in the city.
The huge mill lands with magnificent mill structure, tall chimneys, the sounds of the
machines, sirens during change of shifts, the chawls of workers, forms a milieu of the mill.
However, with the advent of neoliberal policies the process of deindustrialisation has
contributed to the closure of the mills one after the other, with the longest textile mill strike
during 80s that lasted for two years (Krishnan, 2000; D’Monte, 2002). Once, honoured as the
heritage of Bombay, textile mills have fallen into a matter of disgrace. Gradually, the huge
abandoned landmass in the central part of the city became a focal point of attraction for the
builders and the city built up area started gentrifying from the land of mills to malls and
towers. New age of modern constructions began to occupy the old land of mill and within a
span of few years what we witness is wholesale deconstruction of the structure or piecemeal
renovation, that resulted the industrial land to get transformed into the land of service sectors
by bringing up new glass façade offices, high end service sectors, entertainment and new
generation creative industries. The continuous speculation of land value and its astronomical
growth on one hand, with the Rent control act application on the older chawls in the locality,
restricting it to a minimum rent bringing in a locational advantage to the original inhabitants a
greater bargaining power. Similarly, the newly rich migrant population from all over the
world found it easy to settle at the central location, consequently transforming mill lands into
the land of transnational elites or ‘transnational capitalist classes’ (Rofe, 2003) as cited by
Harris (2008:2409). Frequent formation of gated communities is producing an invisible wall
making the locality a land of contrast. The huge residential towers are juxtaposed to the age
old dilapidated chawls in the vicinity that made the built up area into a land of contestation
where struggles and negotiations become a way of life. Therefore, as the city built up area
transforms it leads to the transformation of socio-cultural political system and structure with
reconfiguration of the social space.
Objectives of the paper
This paper is an attempt to bring out the internal conflict and contestations and the daily
negotiation with everyday life that occur in the neighbourhood of Sitaram Yadav Marg when
gentrification has touched the area. The paper also looks into the process of formation of the