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This essay explores the rapid expansion of small handloom centres in Western India between 1930 and 1970. It attributes the transformation of these places into larger cities to the role of local weaver-capitalists, who developed new markets for local textiles and introduced significant technological innovations into the industry, and who forged strategies for combatting the growth of labour resistance. The essay also highlights the role of the late colonial and early post-Independence states, which promoted the growth of weavers’ co-operatives and which imposed extensive regulations on larger enterprises. The paper argues that the powerloom centres of Western India sustained a ‘hyper-industrial’ quality, with limited economic or cultural diversification, restricted urban amenities and public services, and the extensive concentration of poor urban migrants in slums. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the past, leading national trade unions in India failed to develop a strong base among unorganised (informal) sector workers and limited their engagement with civil society. Recent initiatives to redress the latter are assessed with reference to the opportunities and constraints that emerge from the organisational structure and ideological and political affiliations of trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]