It was in First Nagpada (E city mohallas, the process of demolishing teacher Mohammad Farooque Sarang, Ward/23) that the Bombay Improvement and rebuilding has begun again at some resident of a 135 sq.foot room in BIT Trust, more commonly identified as BIT, of them. Like the Imamwada BIT chawls Chawl No. 5. “When the curfew finally initiated its ambitious operations in 1898 in Dongri. And significantly the process lifted, many of us wept with relief.” with a scheme to completely clear and of redevelopment is bringing together Sarang admits that “stones were thrown reconstruct the whole quarter, erecting communities that once faced each from both (Hindu and Muslim) sides” ‘model chawls for the industrial classes’ other on either side of a curfew line. during the riots but he insists that it was [The Gazetteer of Bombay City and “outside miscreants” and the police who Island, Vol. III, 1909]. First Nagpada, at A set of seven decrepit chawls created most of the trouble in 1992-93. that time had ‘the unenviable notoriety of tucked off the busy Ibrahim Rehmatullah After the riots, relations between the being the unhealthiest area in Bombay’1 road, the Imamwada BIT chawls have communities soured – “ dudh aur shakkar as it had suffered severely from the traditionally housed workers of the alag ho gaye the (the milk and sugar had bubonic plague epidemic that broke municipality, port, and police. Some separated)”, he says almost poetically. out in the city in the late 1890s.2 The residents now also have small businesses After the colonial administration attributed the or work as service professionals. While But through perseverance and 1 Annual Administration plague outbreak to locality-specific four chawls (Nos. 1,5,6,7) are exclusively communication the Hindus and Muslims Report of the Bombay conditions of overcrowding, filth and Muslim, three chawls (Nos. 2,3,4) are of Imamwada chawls have attempted to Improvement Trust Violence: How squalor prevalent in ’s inner-city predominantly Hindu. During the 1992- sweeten the milk again. Today they are a (AARBIT), 1902, p. 14. neighbourhoods which housed much of 93 communal riots the area remained commendable example of how community 2 Between 1896 and the city’s working classes. Their solution tense and violence-prone for days – the links can be restored even after vicious 1914, the bubonic the Mumbai was to set up the Trust to specifically Laxmi Narayan temple in the vicinity fighting and painful losses. Much credit plague epidemic claimed mitigate the abysmal living conditions was burnt, mobs on the loose attacked for this goes to the Imamwada chawl an estimated 183,984 of the urban poor and restore health of buildings, shoot-at-sight orders were in mohalla committee which was set up in victims in Bombay city. the city.3 This involvement by the state place, endless curfew caused shortages the aftermath of the violence of the early See Kidambi (2007). Riots Changed in the “sphere of urban development, of milk and bread, the police and SRP 1990’s. Through the mohalla committee – 3 According to J.P. Orr, through the creation of a special agency jawans brutally forced their way into and its supportive friends, namely peace one of the Trust’s early devoted solely to the purpose of civic the Muslim-dominated chawls dragging activist Sushobha Barve, retired cop Julio chairmen, “… the Life for Muslim’s restructuring, was the first attempt of its men away for questioning and harassing Ribeiro and then Police Commissioner Improvement Trust may kind in colonial ” [Kidambi 2007]. women and children with communal Satish Sahney – local Muslims, Hindus be expected to clear taunts and jibes. Though Dongri is and the police came together to keep the large areas of insanitary in Chawls The BIT set about knocking down known to be a communally-sensitive peace and dialogue going [Sharma 2002]. buildings… which should dilapidated neighbourhoods and buildings, area, the two communities had lived be replaced by buildings Published in the anthology The Chawls of Mumbai: Galleries of Life, opening up overcrowded areas and side-by-side with little conflict on a After several meetings with conforming to a much edited by Neera Adarkar, and published by imprintOne, 2011 constructing what it termed as ‘sanitary daily basis. But the exchanges between the young people and women of both stricter standard of dwellings’ for the city’s poor and laboring them had been limited. Some of their communities in Imamwada revealed that sanitation.” [‘How to Check classes. Besides First Nagpada, tenement children played with each other in the there was no space to meet the needs of the Growth of Insanitary blocks or chawls were also constructed spaces between the buildings; some young people to interact, play, study and Conditions In Bombay in Second Nagpada, Mandvi, Imamwada, of the people interacted at festivals. read, the mohalla committee took over City’, The Proceedings and others. Even these ‘model’ three classrooms in a disused municipal of the Third all India and ‘sanitary’ housing blocks were quite “We were so scared and anxious school in the neighbourhood and turned Sanitary Conference often divided by caste, class and religion. during the riots, some days it was even them into a community centre, with a Held at Lucknow, tough to make it to the community toilets study room, a table tennis room and a January 19th to 27th Sameera Khan Almost 110 years after the first as we feared being shot dead,” recalls newspaper reading room. Later, computer 1914 (4 vols, Calcutta, Freelance Journalist/ Writer/ Research Associate, Pukar BIT chawls were built in Mumbai’s inner- 65-year-old retired municipal school classes also began at the centre. At the 1914) , iv, p. 106]

088 / 03 housing 03 / 089 same time, the JJ Marg Police station inked with transit accommodation was encouraged to give a few volleyballs and rental money being finalised. and nets to the young boys, who created courts in the space between the buildings. According to Sarang, coordinator References At first, the young men played only with of the Baitul Aman Cooperative Housing • Barve, Sushobha (2003): Healing Streams: Bringing Back Hope in the Aftermath of Violence, Penguin Books, New Delhi. those of their community, till some local Society which represents Chawl Nos. 5 • Khan, Sameera (2007): ‘Negotiating the Mohalla: Exclusion, Identity and Muslim Women in Mumbai’, police officers decided to encourage and 7, initially just the ‘Muslim’ chawls Review of Women’s Studies, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. XLII No.17, 1527-1533 them to play volleyball with each other participated in the redevelopment plan • Kidambi, Prashant (2007): The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and by initiating a match between the Hindu but then their ‘Hindu’ chawl neighbours Public Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Aldershot. and Muslim boys of Imamwada and joined in as well. “United together • Sharma, Kalpana (2002) ‘Surviving Violence , Making Peace: Women in Communal the police. A modicum of communal we stand to gain a better deal from Conflict in Mumbai’ in The Violence of Development – The politics of identity, gender and harmony was achieved by “bringing the builder,” says Sarang , who has social inequalities in India ed. Karin Kapadia, Kali for Women, New Delhi. the Hindu and Muslim boys together spent his entire life at the Imamwada on a volleyball court” [Barve 2003]. chawls. His father came from Jaunpur in 1930 to work at docks If the mohalla committee and rented a room at the BIT chawls helped initiate the peace, then the then for “just 50 annas a month”. ‘Hafeez Contractor’-inspired towers that are now being planned as part of the Today his son, a Unani medicine Imamwada BIT redevelopment plan may doctor, his grandson and brother all live well cement the peace deal. “We’ve all in rooms down the corridor. “I like the found a common platform here. We want community life in the chawl, we look to save our homes,” says Sarang. “We all out for each other. I hope that doesn’t live as tenants in ageing buildings that change when we move to flats in another can fall down any day, we all desire to two-three years,” says Sarang, who has have our own place, so we are now all always wished to experience life in a going in for redevelopment. The chawls flat. “My eldest brother warns me that will be replaced by modern towers.” apartment life changes people’s lives, children forget their values, people get The Municipal Corporation of distanced from their religious tenets Greater Mumbai, who is the landlord of and get more materialistic.” But Sarang these chawls, has given its no-objection is realistic enough to note that he sees to redevelopment of the chawls as the not-so-good changes in chawl life independent flats. The whole exercise too – people not valuing community involves a local builder, more than 700 feelings, youngsters going wayward, the tenants, and all seven Imamwada BIT rifts growing between various Muslim chawls who have come together as four groups in the chawl such as the Shias cooperative housing societies. In return and Sunnis as well as the Deobandis and for about a lakh square feet of built-up Barelvis. At times, the school teacher, saleable area, the builder has offered who received the Mayor’s award for them seven 23-storey buildings with the best teacher in the year 2000, also each tenant receiving a fully-owned worries that a flat may give no security flat measuring more than 300 sq.ft. at a time of a riot. But then at one Deals are in the final stage of being time neither did a room in a chawl.

090 / 03 housing Sameera Khan 03 / 091