[Reader-list] Grandfather on the Building!!

[kaiwan mehta]

Hi All,

The last month has been interesting since its been a month where my
basket of meeting people and collecting information has been full.

Besides interviews, of residents, there has been a collection of
responses of my friend moving in the area, as she was ready to be my
subject in the area.

Did you know which was the first book translated into Hindi in Bombay?
Or where did Premchand sleep when he stayed in Mumbai for 6 months?
Where did Tilak hide during the British crackdown on freedom fighters?
Well soon you will know!

Secondly I conducted a studio exercise on the project with Second Year
students. This was a part of the Humanities and History of
Architecture studio. Since the studio ended the year on a discussion
of Industrialisation and Colonialism, the project suited well to the
context of the class.

I am joining below the text produced by two of the researching groups.
At the end of this exercise we had a discussion on research methods
adopted by them and the way they wrote the text. This is becoming a
document by itself! the manner we conducted the exercise was an
important process and exercise i need to document.
The students developed some drawings and interesting images, which I
have not figured how to attach here. Do you know families still
recognise plastered images of their great grandfathers on buildings
here, while queen victoria peers from her cast iron bust fitted in
grilles?

Text follows .... 

KRANTI NAGAR	
British developed Bombay as their colony. They built fort area as
their main administration centre. Bombay grew as an industrial city.
Textile mills grew on very large scale. People from interior of
Maharasatra started to migrate to the town. British set up factories
in areas like Lower Parel, Lal Baug etc. The residential areas for
these workers were built away from Fort areas like Girgaum, Bhuleshwar
etc. A group of people staying together belonging to the same
community came to be known as wadi. Our site is one of such wadi.     
             	In those days in the Girgaum area landlord Mr. Shivnath
Rele was the third richest person after Parshuram Mehta and Mr.
Jaggannath Shankar Seth being the first richest. At present, the Mehta
family members are the in laws of the Rele family. Out of the property
owned by the Mehtas, three villas at Napien sea road were leased to
the British officials then. This clearly symbolizes the high status of
the Rele family in the eyes of the British government at that time.
The prestigious position owned by the landlords at time is clearly
evident from the fact that the main roads were blocked for common
people to let the landlords car pass through.               Our wadi,
in 1890s was a horse stable under British government. The horses were
used for pulling carriages, which were popularly known as 'Victorias'.
Hence this area in those days came to be known as 'Sarkari Tabela'.
Chawls 'H' and 'I' (fig 1) housed the carriage riders on the first
floor and stables on the ground floor.                 This plot was
under mortgage with landlord Mr. Shivnath Rele who was an accountant
at British administrative office. As the owner couldn't pay for it,
Mr. Shivnath Rele got the land. Later, he developed the land in 1890s
comprising of 10 chawls and rented it out to people.    	The blocks H
and I were G + 1 structure which had a stable on the ground floor and
riders' residences on the first floor. When Rele got this plot it
already consisted of these blocks which still exist. Shivnath Rele
constructed the landlord's mansion. The blocks A, B, C, D, E and F
already existed as ground floor structures which were later extended. 
  	In initial days on ground floor of block D only flower vendors
stayed and hence the building was known as 'Phoolwala' building. On
the first floor of this structure all educated people used to stay.
Some of them worked as teachers in the neighboring schools, some were
clerks in British offices and many of them worked in post office. Thus
this wadi in general housed people from different profession. The main
modes of transport in those days for these people were trams. Majority
of working strata of this wadi used trams as their main traveling mode
for reaching their respective working places, whereas there also
existed a group, which preferred walking to their work places, mainly
at Byculla, Lalbaug, Fort etc. If looked into history of these
residents' native towns, none of them had come from the same area, yet
all of them had migrated from different fragments of Maharashtra. The
wadi wasn't dominated by any particular caste of people, but majority
of them were Maharashtrians.  Then later in the year 1954 'Sane
Guruji' named this wadi as 'Kranti Nagar'.

The Landlord's mansion in those days also comprised of G+1 structure
with a pitched roof. The Rele family resided on the ground floor and
the first floor was used as a hall for public and family
get-togethers. All the marriages in Rele family were held here. This
hall in those days was also used for Ganesh utsav and many political
meetings. The Ganesh Utsav was celebrated on a very large scale over
here. The importance was it was highly decorated with costly
accessories. They even had electronic toys for display. And in those
days only the privileged rich class had access to such goods. This
wadi also became important for political get-togethers addressing the
common public, as this wadi was one of the most thickly populated
wadis. Bal Gandharva had come to this wadi for Ganapati Jagran. Famous
political leaders such as George Fernandez, Pramod Navalkar and
industrialists like Naval Tata had delivered speeches in this wadi.
    
 	After Shivnath Rele the property was taken care of by his four sons,
Raghunath, Kesarinath, Gopinath and Vishwanath. As the Rele family
grew another floor was added to the existing G+1 landlords mansion.



             



•	Block K was given to the eldest son Raghunath Rele, which is at
present taken care by his daughter Kanchan Mohan Dsouza.

•	Block A, B and C were handed over to his second son Kesarinath Rele,
of which block A belongs to his younger son Milind Rele and block B
and C to his elder son Uday Rele.

•	Block H and I were handed to the third son Gopinath Rele, who lost
his entire property due to his ill vices. Thus the blocks H and I are
the only block in the wadi which are owned by the respective
residents.

•	Block D and E were handed over to the youngest son Vishwanath Rele.
The block D at present is maintained by MHADA. Whereas block E is
under mortgage to an institute 'Messrs Simon Reuben Samuel, Simon
Reuben, Solomon Simon Reuben'.

 	 The distinct feature of the wadi is that it is completely cut-off
from the busy lane just outside. It has two general stores, one
vegetable vendor and also a laundry within its premises. In a way the
wadi serves most of the basic needs to the residents.

 	At present the landlord's mansion is divided into two sections,
Milind and Uday Rele reside in the left hand side section and Kanchan
Dsouza in the right hand side section. The hall on left hand side of
the first floor was rented to the 'Agarwal Classes', whereas the right
hand side of the hall was given to the architect Pravin Katwi.
Currently the first floor is empty and the ground floor is rented to
some tenants.
    
 	Even though all the chawls were under the same family, the different
chawls at present have different management procedures as the
maintenance of the chawls was completely the responsibility of the
chawl members and the landlords played no part in it except collecting
taxes on one date of every month. The tenants paid a monthly rent of
Rs. 89 for single rooms and Rs. 152 for double room. Previously, the
tenants used to pay Rs. 5 as the rent.  In some of the blocks there
are treasurers, who collect funds in case of any large-scale
maintenance problem. If there is any leakage or any damage, the
individual tenant is responsible for its repair. In short the landlord
has a negligible role in the building affair and is yet respected by
his tenants.

 	 The corridor, which is between block E and D (MHADA), is a dump
yard. People from both the buildings happily throw all their garbage
in this corridor. The most distinctive feature of this corridor is
that a small gutter divides it and it belongs to two different
authorities. The right side belongs to MHADA and the left belongs to
the building itself. The corridor is cleaned every morning but makes
no big difference, as the scenario remains the same.  Today, since,
the wadi no longer exists as a concrete, united structure, the garbage
disposal mismanagement is clearly visible from the wastes dumped in
every nook and corner of the area.
                           
The entire floor has a common washing place at the end of the
corridor. In some building it is also used for bathing by men and in
some it is no longer used as sinks.
          
    Block A and B share a common toilet. Hence they have built a
bridge connecting the two blocks.

In spite of this wadi being one of the first ones to have large scale
Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav now a days they don't hold one. Blocks A and B
have a small scale Ganesh utsav amongst them selves.  At present this
wadi only celebrates large scale   Sarvajanik Gokulastami, Holi and
Shiv Ratri. This wadi now has a small Sai Baba temple, which is
recently built and taken care by the residents. The residents
regularly visit the temples of Babulnath, Mumbadevi, Gora Ram and Kala
Ram, of which the tradition of visiting the two hundred year old Kala
Ram temple, since the wadi came into being, has been carried on till
date. The main schools in the proximity of the wadi are 'Chikitsa
Samuha', 'Aryan high school' and 'Kamlabai School', which is the only
girls' school in this area.

  	  Speaking about the status of the residents of the wadi, one can
say that they are all purely middle class working families, working
various fields such as, in the mantralay, reliance energy, gold and
diamond merchants, whereas some had set up small scale household
business such as tailoring, florist, printing etc. one peculiar aspect
of the florist is that they also undertake large scale contracts of
providing flowers for marriages and similar other functions, working
just in a 2x2 m space.




 	In spite of the new development happening around, the wadi still
stands and maintains its own distinct identity. One of the most
interesting factors of the entire Wadi is that, though all the chawls
together form the entire complex of the WADI, still individual chawls
have different management systems and the interaction between them is
much lesser than what one would expect it to be……..

BHATIA MAHAJANWADI

The areas of Bhuleshwar, Kalbadevi formed the native town during the
British rule. The Fort area had the British residents and commercial
areas while Indian traders, workers and shopkeepers lived to the north
of Princess Street. The Fort area is well documented in this period
while the native town was quite neglected in terms of historical
documentation. We tried to deduce the history of the area by
understanding the history of one of the colonial era buildings. The
methods employed were looking at the elements of the building and
talking to the residents there.

The particular area of the old native town that we studied is
Kalbadevi. Walking from Marine Lines station along Princess Street we
found the Mumbai we were so used to. As soon as we took a left to
enter Kalbadevi, we felt we were transported to another town
altogether. The narrow streets were unusually crowded and buildings
lined both sides of the road. The buildings were as closely packed as
the people on the streets. The buildings are mostly belonging to the
colonial era but some new buildings have come up mostly after
demolishing older buildings. The buildings show a mix and match of
different architectural styles with the building typology resembling
traditional Indian architecture but the details are a combination of
both Indian and European architecture. Mostly they are residential
buildings. Lots of these buildings were built exclusively for a
particular community but some have over the years accepted other
communities.

The building we picked for our study is more than 175 years old and
called the Halai Bhatia Mahajanwady. It is owned by a trust called the
Bombay Halai Bhatia Mahajan Trust. The residents allowed to stay in
the building are only Bhatias and the trust makes sure that the
exclusivity of the building is maintained except for a Maharashtrian
doctor who also runs his clinic there. Initially, shops weren't there
in the building but the ground floor of the residential buildings
shows some commercial establishments of late. The trust office is on
the first floor of the older residential building. About 600 people
live in the building.

As we enter from the street, the gate of building seems quite large
and decorated. On further enquiry, we discovered that the gate is a
heritage structure. The entrance of the buildings flows onto the main
pathway leading from the gate to the community building. The courtyard
of the building is formed due to 3 buildings enclosing it with the
gate on the fourth side. The two residential buildings are the oldest
structures in the complex while the most recent additions have been
added around 50-60 years ago. The innermost building is the community
gathering space.

The residential buildings show a common house typology. Both the
buildings have two entrances into the building from either ends but on
the same side. Each floor has between 14 and 20 single rooms sharing a
common bathroom, toilet and washing area. Both buildings have shops on
the ground floor, which have been added much after the building was
built. Some of the people residing in these rooms have bought more
than one house next to each other and combined them to form large
houses. Some houses have bathrooms inside them but private toilets are
not allowed by the trust. Initially, all the rooms were connected to
each other by doors but after repairs carried out in 1996, most of the
residents opted to have these doors removed. The houses are 10' by 18'
in size. The height of these rooms is about 12' and this allows for a
small storage area above the door.

Building number 1 has five floors while building 2 has four. The trust
office is on the first floor of the first building. Commercial
establishments happen on the road facing side on the ground and first
floors of the building. However, access to the upper commercial
establishments is from inside. In the first building, people on the
first floor owned single rooms while those on the upper floors had
more than one rooms. One of the houses had five rooms owned by the
same person who connected them to form one large house. The second
building had these conjoined rooms scattered all over the building.
One marriage hall is on the ground floor of the second building.

The community building at the end of the path was built about 150
years ago. It has 2 halls, on the ground and the first floor each. The
building shows tremendous colonial influence. The ground floor has a
higher plinth and shows an arcade. The keystones are carved to depict
the founders of the wadi. The iron grills on the first floor were
highly decorative with floral patterns and a casting depicting Queen
Victoria. The hall on the first floor had paintings of founders of the
wadi. Storerooms containing records and food grains were there. The
wooden flooring in this building is damaged to a large extent. In
spite of being a heritage building, it is be demolished on the 26th of
March 2005. However the façade is to be retained. The community halls
have different functions taking place frequently like thread
ceremonies, weddings, bhajans, pujas etc.

When we were short listing buildings for our study, we met a group of
old men in the building who gave us a little information about the
building. Most of them stayed there since birth, which meant that they
were there for about 70 years or so. They mentioned where they
originally hailed from and asked us about the project. They seemed
quite happy to share information and answered our questions without
any hassles. One of the old men was a former trustee and he was
instrumental for getting us access to the community building which was
closed on that day. He spoke about 'pagdi', which interested us a bit.
The few people who we talked to that day convinced us that the
community was quite welcoming and this made the building quite
appropriate for our study.

On our second visit, we conducted detailed interviews of the residents
in the buildings. By now word had spread about the fact that we had
visited the building the earlier week, which showed how close-knit the
community was. People seemed quite curious and welcoming. However
there were some exceptions. Some people refused to talk before we went
to the trust office and when we did go there, we were spoken to very
rudely and asked to leave. Talking to the individual families was a
different experience as we got lots of information from them
On our second visit, we conducted detailed interviews of the residents
in the buildings. By now word had spread about the fact that we had
visited the building the earlier week, which showed how close-knit the
community was. People seemed quite curious and welcoming. However
there were some exceptions. Some people refused to talk before we went
to the trust office and when we did go there, we were spoken to very
rudely and asked to leave. Talking to the individual families was a
different experience as we got lots of information from them

One of the families we spoke to consisted of two sisters and a brother
who were all in their early seventies. One of the sisters was widowed
and the other two were unmarried. The eldest remembers being here
since childhood. She could not exactly remember exactly how many
generations of a family lived there but she assumes her
great-grandfather first settled here. She recollected her childhood
days when there were as many ten people living in one room, all of
them being more than six feet tall! One wonders how they managed to
sleep in the same room. Now, like many families in the building, the
number of people in one room had come down drastically. She remembered
playing games in the courtyard, which was quite large before the
latest additions. The community celebrated festivals together quite
frequently and the family took an active part in these festivals. Her
family was involved in the cloth business for a long time before
switching to other professions. One of her grandnieces is training to
be a chemical engineer.

She seemed quite nostalgic about the past and considers the new
generation to be quite aloof from the rest of the community. She also
misses the days when all the rooms were connected to each other by
doors. However, the community feeling is still quite strong she said.
The large number of old people who lived alone in the building were
taken care of by other residents.

	The other family that gave us some really interesting information was
from the older building. Three generations of the same family lived in
the same house. This gave an overview from the younger generation
also. The man gave us a background about the Bhatias, right from the
activities happening in the community hall to the people and the trust
being very helpful by nature. The Bhatias are traditionally cloth
merchants from the Saurashtra area. People living in this wadi
probably founded the Mangaldas cloth market. As time passed, they have
entered other professions mainly due to the collapse of the cloth
market. Now, the Mangaldas market, which was purely a cloth market,
has started selling everything. We saw old family photos on the wall
of the house members, which showed that at least three generations
might have lived in that house. Though very small the house could
accommodate more than seven members, some of them had mezzanine rooms,
which were used to sleep in.

One of the houses had a family of four. The father was busy on the
computer yet gave us information. Infact he was one of the people
involved in the repair of the building ten years ago. He was in his
early fifties and was remembering the situation in his childhood. At
that time, there were Gujarati medium schools located practically
every 2-3 buildings in the neighborhood. Education till matriculate
level was common but after that the children joined the family
business. Now, he noticed that all the Gujarati medium schools had
shut down and English medium schools had gained popularity. Earlier,
Gujarati medium schools like Gamadia and Shakuntala were quite popular
and now most of the community went to schools like St. Xavier and St.
Anne's. Economically, most of the people living in the building are
quite well off and own some property elsewhere in the city. However,
many prefer remaining here because it's close to their workplaces. He
remembered the road in front of the building had a tram running on it
for a long time. Now instead of the ghoda-gadi in which he traveled,
there were cars and traffic jams all day. The daughter thinks that
since everybody is joining their rooms and now the chawl system is
turning into a flat system. We asked about the furniture lying outside
the room and he said that it was his mother's junk and waiting for her
to pass away so he could get rid of it.
One of the houses had a family of four. The father was busy on the
computer yet gave us information. Infact he was one of the people
involved in the repair of the building ten years ago. He was in his
early fifties and was remembering the situation in his childhood. At
that time, there were Gujarati medium schools located practically
every 2-3 buildings in the neighborhood. Education till matriculate
level was common but after that the children joined the family
business. Now, he noticed that all the Gujarati medium schools had
shut down and English medium schools had gained popularity. Earlier,
Gujarati medium schools like Gamadia and Shakuntala were quite popular
and now most of the community went to schools like St. Xavier and St.
Anne's. Economically, most of the people living in the building are
quite well off and own some property elsewhere in the city. However,
many prefer remaining here because it's close to their workplaces. He
remembered the road in front of the building had a tram running on it
for a long time. Now instead of the ghoda-gadi in which he traveled,
there were cars and traffic jams all day. The daughter thinks that
since everybody is joining their rooms and now the chawl system is
turning into a flat system. We asked about the furniture lying outside
the room and he said that it was his mother's junk and waiting for her
to pass away so he could get rid of it.

	One of the flats had a large family where we met a young woman who
taught in G.D. Somani pre-primary school. When we mentioned the old
woman's complaints that the young generation doesn't take part in the
community affairs, she remarked that old people could only complain
and do nothing else. She said that they do take part in festivals like
Holi, Diwali and Janmashtami, which the community celebrates together,
but because of their busy work schedules they cannot meet often.
Moreover, most people of her age have left the building and it makes
it tough to socialize much. Her house was the largest in the 2nd
building with as many as 6 rooms combined.

Another woman who was married outside the community said that it was
impossible for non-Bhatias to buy flats in the building. She commeted
about the trust's attitude. The trust is so strict that they did not
allow even eggs to be eaten in the building. However, of late, they
allow eggs to be eaten. During solar eclipses, it was believed that
water gets impure and they had to throw away stored water after the
eclipse and everybody had to take a bath with their clothes on in the
bathrooms. The trust seems quite compassionate though. After the
partition, many Bhatias from Pakistan were given rooms in the wadi
free of cost and the community is so close-knit that now one cannot
even guess who is a refugee. Also, in spite of the costs involved in
running the building, she felt that the trust charging only Rs. 100
per room as monthly charges was quite fair. She complained about the
water problem and said that sometimes the second floor residents had
to collect water from the ground floor, since there was only one tap
for almost 50-60 people.

	The mystery of the pagadis was solved by one of the families. This
family owned five rooms in a row connected to form a large house. The
house was a blend of historic and modern styles. The grandmother of
the house said that the family was living there right from her
great-grandmothers age. She said that the people from the wadi were
very helpful and very trust worthy since they had once helped her when
she was getting robbed by some outsider. Since then, she says, the
rules of the wadi have become strict. She told us that it was very
convenient to stay in the wadi due to easy railway and market access.
Also less payment of the monthly maintenance helps them a lot. The
aunty there told us that the pagadi symbolized the caste and sub-caste
to which that person belongs. Different shapes of the pagadi showed
different sub-castes like the one she showed us had a rounded end,
which was symbolic of the Bhatias

In a building of more than 600 close-knit residents and a trust that
rarely reveals anything, rumours spread quite frequently and easily.
Some residents said that Parsis owned the building when it was first
built and due to some reason or the other, had to vacate it and gave
away the building free of cost to the Bhatia community. Although we
cannot aunthenticate this information, many residents believe this to
be true. The community building which is to be demolished has sparked
off a whole rumour mill by itself. One of the trustees told us that
the building will have its façade retained and any changes made will
be from the inside. Moreover, the two marriage halls, the storerooms
etc are all going to be retained. However, many residents felt that
the building was going to be demolished and a seven-storey residential
building was going to be built. Some others feel that a shopping
complex is going to be built. One of the residents mentioned that the
ghost of the building's founder is seen sometimes in the courtyard.
Apparently, he is not happy with the way the wadi is run…

The history of the wadi spans six generations as far as we know and we
managed to get the point of view of practically every single
generation. In spite of the differences and the changing times, people
still live together in harmony through the occasional problem. Most
people do not remember occurrences happening outside the wadi, which
shows the insular nature of this community. Nostalgia among the older
generation is quite frequent and the indifference of the younger
generation seems to irritate them. The younger generation complains
that the older people don't understand them. Water problems
everywhere. Traffic problems on the road outside. In spite of its 170
year-old history, doesn't seem to be different from any other
building, does it?







            

 




-- 
Kaiwan Mehta
Architect and Urban Reseracher

11/4, Kassinath Bldg. No. 2, Kassinath St., Tardeo, Mumbai 400034
022-2-494 3259 / 91-98205 56436