A contribution towards this process is a compilation of facts about the strike. Rajni Bakshi in this book presents the facts. Based on interviews, discussions and secondary sources she reconstructs the events as they took place and attempts to get at the forces and factors that lay behind the events. 

There would be no uniform agreement about her interpretations and conclusions. There would, however not be, we hope, any dispute over the facts and hence the book can become a basis for discussion. 

It is only fair to add that the views expressed are of the author and do not reflect the opinions of BUILD Documentation, Centre. 

I first met textile workers in January 1982, to discuss not the strike but non-party political organisations in urban slums. It was immediately evident that for them the two were inseparable. The strike was an attempt to articulate and organise discontent with life in the mills and the larger socio-political reality through new and different means. It was easy, then, to share the sense of living inn revolutionary times. 

Over the next two years I regularly met with numerous textile workers, particularly the small group I first met in January 1982, and attempted to understand their hopes, aspirations and reasons for struggling. From July 1982 onwards the accounts of these meetings were regularly published in The Telegraph, along with assessments of how the strike was progressing. Yet when the strike effectively ended in June 1983 and I wrote the last of several lengthy reports on the strike, too many questions remained unanswered. Moreover, the human saga of the struggle, so cursorily covered in journalistic reports, seemed in danger of being forgotten by all but those who actually suffered. From this grew the need for a book that recorded this saga and assessed its implications. 

Apart from utilising the notes on scores of interviews with workers and officials during the strike, I met with a cross-soction of "trade union leaders, millowners and government officials to record how they viewed the strike in retrospect. I also consulted Dr. Samant's files containing correspondence and papers relating to the strike, and numerous books on trade unions and strikes in India. 

This book is not intended to be a clinically objective view of the strike or the textile industry and those who control it. It is the story of a search and struggle to realise certain aspirations and is thus. necessarily subjective. The fIrst draft of thIs book was completed in mid-1984. But the process of finalising the manuscript and publishing it was delayed for a variety of reasons. In spite of the delay I hope that this account will, in some limited way, be of use to those who want to understand the struggle of Bombay's textile workers. 

This book is a result of the inspiration, help, encouragement and opportunities provided by many people. I would like to thank: 

-M.J.Akbar and Ajay Kumar for giving me the opportunity to write extensively on the strike in The Telegraph.  And Olga Tellis, my senior colleague, who gave me leave of absence to write the book and encouraged my work. 

-Harsh Sethi and the Indian Council of Social Science Research for a grant that funded the research. 

-Rajni Kothari, D.L.Seth, Smitu Kothari and Vijay Pratap and others at Lokayan who have helped me to better articulate the questions and guided the search for a deeper understanding of the political process. 

-BUILD, for publishIng the book. 

-Sundeep Pendse for his help and encouragement. 

-The friends at the Centre for Education and Documentation (CED) for always helping and encouraging. 

-Shirin Mehta, who painstakingly corrected the proofs. 

-Manjit Kriplani Madon, whose prodding first led me to contemplate this project. Vir and Malavika Sanghvi,  whose support and. faith at crucial times has made this possible. Achin and Nita Mukherjee who bore with my endless agonizing and doubts and were consistently supportive. 

-My parents and family who believe in me even when we disagree. Without their love and encouragement this book could not have been written. 

-Above all and most importantly, to Gulab Gajarmal, Khandeo and Lata Shelke, K.P.Kamble and countless other textile workers and their families who gave me their time and confidence. It was the warmth with which they welcomed me into their homes, the candour with which they shared details about their lives, dreams and aspirations which made it imperative that their story be told. If in my telling of it the account lacks anything in sincerity, depth, accuracy or fairness it is due to my own failings, for which I hope they will forgive me.