Working in the Mill No More

Mixing narrative and images, this book provides a stark account of the collapse of the textile industry in Ahmedabad. Over a four-year period, the author, accompanied by photographer Parthiv Shah, found out what had happened to their previous informants. Hindus and Muslims alike remembered a shared past of working in the same mills and living in the same neighborhoods. Then, following the 2002 riots, the community suffered its final fractures of religious hate. The stories and images here form a unique record of the social consequences of mass pauperization, a record that pays special attention to the coping mechanisms of women in preserving the basic fabric of family.