In the second half of the 19th century, a large textile industry grew up in the Mumbai city and surrounding towns, operated by Indian entrepreneurs.

Starting with the Factory Act of 1881, the state government played an increasingly important role in regulating the industry.

It was a textile strike called on 18 January 1982 by the mill workers of Mumbai under trade union leader Dutta Samant.

The majority of the over 80 textile mills in Central Mumbai closed during and after the strike, leaving more than 150,000 workers unemployed.

[3] As one of the consequence of the strike, the textile industries in Mumbai shut down and moved to the periphery or to other states as the land became real estate gold mine.