This postcard of the Ganesh Flour Mill/s forms some of the rare pictorial evidence we have on Delhi’s industrial growth in the late 19th century. If you look closely, you can see the proprietors of the Mill on the top right-hand side of the postcard and the mill hands to the bottom left. The architecture and style of the mill is reminiscent of Victorian mills in England and the picture alludes to a new mechanised future for the city and country at large.
In 1912, Ganesh Flour Mills, located in Sabzi Mandi was one of four ‘big’ flour mills in Delhi. The others being ‘Delhi and Northern India Flour Mills’, ‘Diamon Jubilee Flour Mills’ and ‘John’s Flour Mills’. They produced flour, bran and suji for consumption across India to the value of 50 lakh rupees. However, at the time the four big mills had only 300 employees in total! This was far less than other mechanised industries in Delhi, such as cotton mills which had more than 2,500 people working in 20 mills by the turn of the century.
Historian Narayani Gupta suggests that labour procurement was difficult for Delhi’s Mills and as a result mill hands from Rajasthan laboured in the flour mills for example. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that areas like Sabzi Mandi and Teliwara saw an increase in migrant populations in the late 19th and early 20th century which was associated with mill work.
So, what happens to Ganesh Flour Mills you might wonder? Well, from Rotem Geva’s work on Delhi we learn that the mills were looted during the Quit India movement in 1942 because of food shortages during the war – prices were high and the mills became a symbol of the British government’s callousness. Subsequently, it seems Ganesh Flour Mills continued as a private undertaking until 1984, when it was nationalised by the Government of India (If you have any further information on the fortunes of Ganesh Flour Mills, do get in touch!)
See you next week.
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