ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one section of Bombay's working class, its dock workers whose importance in the political economy of the city and the country has, barring some notable exceptions, not received adequate attention by scholars. It suggests to accord Bombay's dock workers their due: a prominent place in the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century India. Dock workers were recruited through contractors known as serangs or toliwalas and worked in gangs or tolis consisting of fifteen or twenty men. The mathadis carried bags of rice, sugar, oil seeds, and other commodities which formed a substantial portion of exports from Bombay. More information is available on the strike of 1947-48. It occupies an important place in the history of dock workers' protests because it occurred shortly after India gained Independence in August 1947. Dock workers' demands for better working conditions coalesced with demands of other members of Bombay's industrial workers, such as the mill hands and railway employees.
