Girangaon

The mill workers lived in a community, and they fostered a unique culture which shaped Mumbai at the turn of the twentieth century.

This textile industry flourished until the early 2000s after which most of the mills were shut down, as the owners deemed them unprofitable and declared they were incapable of paying their workers' wages.

The textile industry was offered added government incentives in the form of long-term leases (some of 999 years), as mills stimulated the economic growth and employment.

These mills were owned by former traders like the Tatas, Petits, Wadias, Currimbhoys, Thakerseys, Sassoons, Khataus, Goculdas, Cottons, and Greaves.

The mill owners housed their workers in chawls built in the areas of Tardeo, Byculla, Mazgaon, Reay Road, Lalbaug, Parel, Naigaum, Sewri, Worli and Prabhadevi.

In 1929, one chawl in Dadar was described as being a "dark, unwholesome den into which the light of day does not penetrate and which of necessity breeds disease and pestilence.

[18] In 2005, the government-owned National Textile Corporation auctioned five mills, covering 600 acres, for ₹20.2 billion (US$230 million).

[20] The Shrinivas Mills of Lalbaug, covering 16 acres, are being redeveloped into World One[21] – Asia's tallest residential building.

[23] The 2010 film City of Gold, directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, explores the lives of jobless Girangaon mill workers in the 1980s.