The Well-Being of the Labor Force in Colonial Bombay

The first full-length analysis of the social history of Indian industrial labor through the lens of well-beingCombines the scattered threads of labor, urban, gender, nationalist, and social reform histories Develops the prevalent image of industrial workers as a gender-neutral mass by emphasizing the gendered manifestations of labor well-being

Priyanka Srivastava is Assistant Professor of History and Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.

1. Introduction.- 2. The Political Economy of the Textile Industry and Its Labor.- 3. Industrial Housing and Sanitation Policies.- 4. Social Service, The Civic Ethic, and Labor Welfare.- 5. Welfare Rhetoric and Maternal Bodies: Protective Legislation Debates in Colonial Bombay.- 6. Childbirth, Childcare, and Women Millworkers.- 7. Epilogue.