[Reader-list] 22.9.2001: Dadar-Matunga

[Mumbai Study Group]

Dear Friends:

In our next meeting, we will host a panel discussion and presentation 
by several individuals researching on the locality of Dadar and 
Matunga, comprising the neighbourhoods of Hindu Colony, Parsi Colony, 
Matunga Central, Ruia and Poddar Colleges, King's Circle, Five 
Gardens, and the Catholic Colony in Wadala. This historic locality 
was the first consciously planned suburban development of the city. A 
plotted residential scheme with institutional and commercial 
developments for its working middle-class inhabitants, it was 
modelled on the British "garden city" paradigm in the 1920s and 1930s.

ANIRUDH PAUL, Deputy Director of the Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi 
Institute of Architecture (KRVIA) and PRASAD SHETTY, Project 
Coordinator of the Design Cell, KRVIA, will present on the 
architecture and environment of these neighbourhoods, on the basis of 
their study for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Heritage Conservation 
Society. NIKHIL RAO, doctoral candidate at the Department of History, 
University of Chicago, U.S.A. will discuss his ongoing research into 
the social and cultural history of these early suburbs, and their 
formation as "ethnic neighbourhoods" in the late colonial period.

This session will also be attended by representatives of the various 
residents associations of these neighbourhoods, whom we have invited 
to participate in this broad discussion of the history and 
ethnography, ecology and architecture of this unique locality.

This session will be on SATURDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2001, at 10.00 A.M., on 
the SECOND FLOOR, Rachna Sansad, 278, Shankar Ghanekar Marg, 
Prabhadevi, Mumbai, next to Ravindra Natya Mandir. Phone: 4301024, 
4310807, 4229969; Station: Elphinstone Road (Western Railway); BEST 
Bus: 35, 88, 151, 161, 162, 171, 355, 357, 363, to Ravindra Natya 
Mandir, 91 Ltd, 305 Ltd, A1 and A4 to Prabhadevi.


ABOUT THE MUMBAI STUDY GROUP

The MUMBAI STUDY GROUP meets on the second and fourth Saturdays of 
every month, at the Rachana Sansad, Prabhadevi, Mumbai, at 10.00 A.M. 
Our conversations continue through the support extended by Shri 
Pradip Amberkar, Principal of the Academy of Architecture, and Prof 
S.H. Wandrekar, Trustee of the Rachana Sansad.

Conceived as an inclusive and non-partisan forum to foster dialogue 
on urban and global issues, we have since September 2000 held 
conversations about various historical, political, legal, cultural, 
social and spatial aspects of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Our 
discussions are open and public, no previous membership or 
affiliation is required. We encourage the participation of urban 
researchers and practitioners, experts and non-experts, researchers 
and students, and all individuals, groups and associations in Mumbai 
to join our conversations about the the city.The format we have 
evolved is to host individual presentations or panel discussions in 
various fields of urban theory and practice, and have a moderated and 
focussed discussion from our many practical and professional 
perspectives: whether as architects or planners, lawyers or 
journalists, artists or film-makers, academics or activists.Through 
such a forum, we hope to foster an open community of urban citizens, 
which clearly situates Mumbai in the theories and practices of 
urbanism globally.

Previous sessions have hosted presentations by the following individuals:

Kalpana Sharma, Associate Editor of The Hindu; Kedar Ghorpade, Senior 
Planner at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority; Dr 
Marina Pinto, Professor of Public Administration, retired from Mumbai 
University; Dr K. Sita, Professor of Geography, retired from Mumbai 
University, and former Garware Chair Professor at the Tata Institute 
of Social Sciences; Dr Arjun Appadurai, Professor of Anthropology at 
the University of Chicago, Director of Partners for Urban Knowledge 
Action & Research (PUKAR), Mumbai; Rahul Srivastava, Lecturer in 
Sociology at Wilson College; Sandeep Yeole, General Secretary of the 
All-India Pheriwala Vikas Mahasangh; Dr Anjali Monteiro, Professor 
and Head, and  K.P. Jayashankar, Reader, from the Tata Institute of 
Social Sciences Unit for Media and Communications; Dr Sujata Patel, 
Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, University of Pune; Dr 
Mariam Dossal, Head, Department of History, Mumbai University; 
Sucheta Dalal, business journalist and Consulting Editor, Financial 
Express; Dr Arvind Rajagopal, Associate Professor of  Culture and 
Communications at New York University; Dr Gyan Prakash, Professor of 
History at Princeton University, and member of the Subaltern Studies 
Editorial Collective; Dr Sudha Deshpande, Reader in Demography, 
retired from the Department of Economics, Mumbai University and 
former consultant for the World Bank, International Labour 
Organisation, and Bombay Municipal Corporation; Sulakshana Mahajan, 
doctoral candidate at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban 
Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S.A., and former 
Lecturer, Academy of Architecture, Rachana Sansad.

Previous panel discussions have comprised of the following individuals:

S.S. Tinaikar, former Municipal Commissioner of Bombay, Sheela Patel, 
Director of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres 
(SPARC), and Bhanu Desai of the Citizens' Forum for the Protection of 
Public Spaces (Citispace) on urban policy making and housing; Shirish 
Patel, civil engineer and urban planner, Pramod Sahasrabuddhe and 
Abhay Godbole, structural engineers on earthquakes and the built form 
of the city; B. Rajaram, Managing Director of Konkan Railway 
Corporation, and Dr P.G. Patankar, from Tata Consultancy Services, 
and former Chairman of the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport 
Undertaking (BEST) on mass public transport alternatives; Ved Segan, 
Vikas Dilawari, and Pankaj Joshi, conservation architects, on the 
social relevance of heritage and conservation architecture; Debi 
Goenka, of the Bombay Environmental Action Group, Professor Sudha 
Srivastava, Dr Geeta Kewalramani, and Dr Dipti Mukherji, of the 
University of Mumbai Department of Geography, on the politics of land 
use, the city's salt pan lands, and the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 
Act.

We invite all urban researchers, practitioners, students, and other 
interested individuals to join us in our fortnightly conversations, 
and suggest topics for presentation and discussion. For any more 
information, kindly contact one of the Joint Convenors of the Mumbai 
Study Group: ARVIND ADARKAR, Architect, Researcher and Lecturer, 
Academy of Architecture, Phone 2051834, <adarkars at vsnl.com>; DARRYL 
D'MONTE, Journalist and Writer, 6427088 <darryl at vsnl.com>; SHEKHAR 
KRISHNAN, Coordinator-Associate, Partners for Urban Knowledge Action 
& Research (PUKAR), 4462728, <pukar at bol.net.in>; PANKAJ JOSHI, 
Conservation Architect, Lecturer, Academy of Architecture, and PUKAR 
Associate, 8230625, <pjarch at vsnl.com>.