ABSTRACT
Fear of an uncertain future encouraged Mumbai Hindu slum residents to respond to the Sena’s delineation of a Muslim enemy and identify their membership in a unified Hindu nation as a resistance against Muslim aggression. Mumbai’s rising de-industrialization, informal sector, and the impact of the 1982–1983 textile strike were the factors contributing to the conflagration. Mumbai’s unique economic conditions allowed the Sena in the 1970s to scapegoat South Indians as obstacles to Maharashtrian Hindu prosperity and after 1985 portray antinational Muslims as the enemy of a Hindu nation. As India’s leading industrial center, Mumbai had attracted migrants who ventured forth to the area in hopes of finding employment opportunities only to end up living in squalor within its slums. In 1984 Hindu-Muslim riots occurred in Bhiwandi, a town in the Mumbai-Thane belt, and home to a large number of powerlooms owned and operated by large numbers of Muslim workers.
