Health, Sanitation, and Welfare in Colonial Bombay, 1896-1945

Creating a Healthy and ‘Decent’ Industrial Labor Force: Health, Sanitation, and Welfare in Colonial Bombay, 1896-1945. A Dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy In the Department of History of the College of Arts and Sciences 8 June 2012 By Priyanka Srivastava M. Phil. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 1997. Committee Chair: Barbara N Ramusack Abstract This dissertation brings together scattered strands of labor, urban, gender and social reform histories to examine the discourse of labor welfare in colonial Bombay and its implication for the city’s cotton textile millworkers. It highlights that because of uneven economic and urban growth; millworkers lived in the overcrowded outskirts of the city that lacked infrastructure, especially for sanitation. Unforeseen crises such as the devastating bubonic plague of 1896-97 triggered sanitary housing schemes that targeted the poor. But as the epidemic-induced urgency diminished, procuring funds for these projects became harder. By the early twentieth century, systemic failures to extend healthy living to working class families produced alternate forms of urban governmentalities. The emerging educated, middle class public in Bombay increasingly became anxious that conditions of poverty and insanitation not only contributed to the recurrence of diseases and high rates of infant mortality but also threatened the aesthetics and moral fabric of the city. Assuming the roles of responsible citizens, social activists formed voluntary associations that aimed to ‘uplift’ mill populations, instructing them about the rules of a healthy and ‘decent’ living. Simultaneously, social activists lobbied the Municipality to improve the sanitary conditions of working class neighborhoods. Reflecting a nationalist desire to construct a harmonious nation, the programs of social service groups also aimed to create non- confrontational and non-trade union forms of associations among millworkers around various recreational activities. Their concerns for women millworkers were limited to enhancing their roles in social reproduction. Influenced by the labor welfare rhetoric of the post First World War period, social activists waged campaigns and collaborated with the Municipality and millowners for ensuring facilities such as paid maternity leaves, creches, medicalized child birth, and ante ii and post natal care for mill working women and their infants. The contemporary nationalist desire to create a physically strong nation and the urgency to prevent high rates of infant mortality in Bombay city fuelled these campaigns. Although important, these infant-centric programs constructed women millworkers as the mothers of future citizens of the nation, overshadowing their identity as productive and conscious wage earners. The emphasis on reforming the ‘backward’ infant care practices of mill working women belittled structural factors such as poverty and dismal sanitation that endangered infant health. This dissertation argues that despite creating greater awareness about millworkers’ dismal living; the discourse on labor welfare strengthened the construct of a ‘culture of poverty’ that interpreted poor health and insanitation as essential cultural attributes of the poor. iii iv Acknowledgments In the research and writing of this dissertation, I have benefitted from the support and generosity of many individuals and institutions and it gives me immense pleasure to acknowledge the help I have received over the years. First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my dissertation adviser, mentor and friend Barbara Ramusack, who has gone out of her way to support my doctoral project. Her meticulous reading and extensive, insightful comments have immensely improved my research, writing and analytical skills. She generously shared with me her extremely relevant unpublished papers, research ideas and primary sources, especially her collection of articles from the Journal of the Association of Medical Women in India. I hope to emulate her commitment, generosity and energy as a teacher, researcher and a mentor in my career as a historian and a teacher. I am grateful to my dissertation committee members and teachers for shaping my research ideas and in providing training as a researcher and teacher. Maura O’Connor has always encouraged me to develop a broader perspective and draw connections across historical boundaries and cultures in my work. From Man Bun Kwan I have learned the importance of intellectual freedom and the fact that formulating questions is as crucial a learning process as finding explanations and answers. Laura Jenkins offered insightful comments and criticisms that have enriched my dissertation and pointed toward future directions of research. I am indebted to Meera Sehgal and Michelle Rowley for exposing me to various strands of gender studies. Archival research for this project was conducted in the United States, London, UK, and Mumbai and New Delhi in India. In London, the assistance of the knowledgeable staff at the Oriental and India Office Collection and the Wellcome Trust was useful in locating sources. In Mumbai, the willingness of the staff of the Maharashtra State Archives to make documents v available made one forget the discomforts of a rather noisy, ill-lighted and cluttered reading room. The people at the Brihann Mumbai Municipal Corporation Office, the Royal Asiatic Library and Mumbai University Library were helpful in locating relevant sources. I appreciate the assistance of the staff at the National Archives and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi, the Kautz Family Archives of the University of Minnesota and the Amherst College Archives of Amherst, Massachusetts in finding and photocopying primary documents. The efficient systems of Ohio Link and Interlibrary Loan Services at the University of Cincinnati were instrumental in procuring important primary sources housed in various libraries of the United States. Hope Earls at the Department of History has been helpful in sorting bureaucratic matters. I am grateful to Mridula Ramanna for sharing information about the location of relevant primary records in the various libraries of Mumbai. V Radha facilitated access to the extremely valuable documents of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. I am deeply indebted to Dr M D David and Solomon Paul Benjamin for sorting my confusion about the location of the YMCA documents. Financial support for this project came from a variety of sources. A Graduate Enhancement award from the Charles Phelps Taft Memorial Fund and a Travel-Research grant from the Cincinnati chapter of the English Speaking Union supported my initial archival research at the British Library and Wellcome Trust Library in London. A Charles Phelps Taft Dissertation fellowship enabled me to undertake extensive archival research in Mumbai, New Delhi and London. Another dissertation fellowship from the Taft Fund and the Zane Miller Award extended the required financial assistance to write my dissertation. Conference travel grants from the Taft Fund enabled me to present parts of my dissertation at various conferences and receive feedback important for revising my work. vi Over the years, friends and family have encouraged my endeavors in various ways. I take for granted the support of my oldest friends in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, Indira and Titu. For years, they have lovingly shared their living space, food and academic and political ideas with me. My special friend Nandini offered me a place to stay in Delhi. Interactions with Rakesh, Jesse, Shubhranshu, Pritha, Manali, Jitu Ji, Ritu, Rama, Sumit, Ashok, Palash, Ravindra, Sumithra, Ranajoy, Taki, Sirisha, Atreyi, Kuver have shaped my intellectual and political ideas in numerous ways. In Cincinnati, I shared the joys and sorrows of graduate studentship and much else with Haimanti, Uma, Naeem, Rahul, Sue, Rob and Evan. I am grateful to Uma and Sundar for their generosity and hospitality. In London, the presence of Sudipa, Nitin, Bipasha, Rashmi, Sukanya and Mou kept me from feeling like an alien in the big city. In Amherst-Boston area, David, Mary Ann, Swati, Karen, Dan, Smita, Mwangi, Amit, Paul, Indrani, Abha, Litu Kabir, Svati have been an encouraging and supportive group of friends. My own family’s support and respect for my unconventional choices never cease to amaze me. Despite their anxieties about my ‘unsettled future,’ my late father Gopal Krishna and mother Ramlata never prevented me from first leaving home and then homeland for pursuing my projects. The literary tastes of Ramlata drew me to books from very early in life. My feminist elder brothers, Sanjay and Anoop have been continuous sources of support. Sanjay helped me secure admission in JNU where I learned the nuances of my own discipline and much else. Anoop arranged my stay in Mumbai and facilitated my entry into the Mumbai Municipal Corporation office and consistently urged me, sometimes to my utter annoyance, to finish my dissertation. Poonam enthusiastically shared her apartment during my archival work in Minneapolis. Anurag made bi-weekly trips from Pune to keep me from being lonely in Mumbai. Poonam and Anurag’s presence in the US has been a source of familial comfort. I am grateful to vii Smita for her friendship and love and for creating a home in Delhi. I could always rely on Nilu and Dev Chandra for financial

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