Business Suffers As Mumbai Comes To A Halt

Business and trade came to a halt in India's financial capital after protests across Maharashtra by Dalit groups led to shops and offices in large parts of Mumbai remaining shut.

"There was a complete loss of business today, and half of Tuesday," said Viren Shah, president of the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association. This translates to "more than Rs 700 crore worth of business lost only from sales, excluding the overhead costs," Shah told BloombergQuint in an interaction.

Dalit groups across Maharashtra had called for a state-wide strike to protest against the violence during the bicentenary celebration of the Bhima-Koregaon battle near Pune. The incident left one person dead. The protests spread to Mumbai by Tuesday afternoon causing train services to be interrupted and roads blocked.

Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About The Protests In Maharashtra

The disruption continued on Wednesday with protestors blocking arterial roads throughout the city, halting trains and forcing establishments to shut shop. Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dalit hero and architect of India's constitution Bhimrao Ambedkar, called off the strike later in the evening.

Also Read: What Was the Bhima Koregaon Battle & Why Are There Protests Now?

Shah estimates that more than 35 lakh licensed businesses in Maharashtra were affected by the strike. These assumed damages from the loss of business are "never recovered" except if it is loss of some public property, which is then taken care of by the government, he said. For the physical damage to individual shops, the shopkeepers have to deal with their respective insurers, he said.

Trade in Maharashtra too suffered with the movement of trucks being blocked. “350 to 400 trucks which supply masala (spices) to retailers were stopped today,” said Kirti Rana, president of the Confederation of All India Traders Association of Maharashtra. “Even trucks which supply food grains to the state were affected,” he said. However, protesters didn't block the trucks supplying vegetables and fruits because they usually enter the state early in the morning

Rana said he expects normalcy to return tomorrow since the strike has been called off.

Watch this conversation with Dalit Ideologue Chandra Bhan Prasad and Resident Editor of Sakal Times Rohit Chandravarkar on the implications of Maharashtra's caste wars.