Communalism and Working Class-Riot of 1893 in Bombay City

Riot of 1893 in Bombay City Shashi Bhushan Upadhyay The participation of social, religious or occupational groups in communal riots raises the problem of the concerned group's integration into the communal polity. In the context of the working class it has been argued that workers have been equally, if not more, responsible for adding to the dynamics of communal politics. This view has been questioned by some scholars and the idea of 'levels of consciousness' has been introduced to explain the apparent ease with which workers participating in workers' struggles have broken into communal riots soon thereafter This paper studies the 1893 communal riot in Bombay and argues that while the workers, the majority of them being Marathas, were involved, in the riot on the Hindu side, this did not lead to the development of a long-term communal consciousness among them.