Dattatray Samant (21 November 1932 – 16 January 1997), also known as Datta Samant, and popularly referred to as Doctorsaheb, was an Indian politician and trade union leader, who is noted for leading 200–300 thousand textile mill workers in the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) on a year-long strike in 1982, which triggered the closure of most of the textile mills in the city.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Mumbai-Thane industrial belt witnessed successive working class strikes and protests, with multiple trade unions competing for the allegiance of workers and political control.

[2] Samant was arrested in 1975 during the Indian Emergency owing to his reputation as a militant unionist, despite belonging to the Congress party of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

While fighting for greater pay and better conditions for workers, Samant and his allies also sought to capitalise and establish their power on the trade union scene in Mumbai.

Thus the government took a firm stance of rejecting Samant's demands, and refusing to budge despite the severe economic losses suffered by the city and the industry.

As the strike progressed through the months, Samant's militancy in the face of government obstinacy led to the failure of any attempts at negotiation and resolution.

At 11:10 a.m. (IST) on 16 January 1997, Samant was murdered outside his home in Mumbai by four gunmen, believed to be contract killers, who fled on motorcycles.

As Samant left his residence in Mumbai's Powai suburb by Tata Sumo, he was obstructed by a cyclist at about 50 metres following which he had the vehicle slowed down and lowered the window assuming them to be workers.

In 2010, he filed a suit against film-maker Mahesh Manjrekar for "wrongly" portraying Datta Samant in his movie Lalbaug-Parel that the textile mills in the Mumbai closed down due to the strike he led.

[6] His niece Ruta, a former Air India airhostess, is married to Jitendra Ahwad, MLA in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.