A Joint Enterprise

Home , Banganga Tank, Gowalia Tank, Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy

On 5 March 1839, five were mutually beneficial. Especially since being conditioned by the structures prominent native businessmen of the 1860s the government, with the of social and political power.” While Bombay proposed a scheme to the help of the philanthropic individuals of acknowledging the importance of what government that would cost over two the capitalist class, created institutions James Scott calls “everyday forms of hundred thousand rupees, a huge sum to form the new public realm and built resistance,” Prakash and Haynes argue in those days. The scheme consisted of infrastructure to aid the capitalistic for the need to look at both extraordinary the building of a wharf and basin at the development that was emerging. and everyday resistance. Of particular Cooly Bunder (dock) for the landing of These institutions included hospitals, significance is their argument that grain, and the extension of this wharf educational institutions, asylums, and resistance is not always overt and as far as the Bori Bunder for the landing dispensaries for the use of the public at conscious. They define resistance “as of cotton or any other merchandise. large. The joint partnership between the those behaviours and cultural practices A Joint In their letter the merchants added, government and financial elite dominated by subordinate groups that contest the direction of urban planning and local hegemonic formations, that threaten to We doubt not that considering government, but by the 1920s the control unravel the strategies of domination; Enterprise: The the importance of the undertaking to of the upper classes was under attack. ‘consciousness’ need not be essential the interest of a large portion of the to its constitution.”4 In Bombay, both community; and the expense that will My argument that the building ordinary and privileged sections of Creation of a be involved in the completion of it, of colonial Bombay was a joint enterprise Indian society undercut colonial and elite upwards of two lacs of Rupees—as also of the colonial regime and Indians stands projects by challenging the government the improvement it will confer upon the in contrast to that of Anthony D. King, in court or by bargaining with the island of Bombay—an improvement the who credits European imperialism and government through contestatory acts New Landscape furtherence of which we have always colonialism alone with the creation that were not always overt or conscious. understood it to be a particular object of colonial cities.2 King sees global Although the cooperation of the native of attention to the Government of this influences at work in colonial cities, but elite and colonial government was in British Presidency to have effected through in Bombay as well as elsewhere these central to the operation of the joint private enterprise, our humble request will influences were met head on by local enterprise, the native elite did not simply be favorably taken into consideration by influences and politics, which were follow the government’s directions. Bombay the Honorable the Governor in Council.1 equally determinant forces in the making Instead, cooperation, the negotiation of of colonial cities. As the opening anecdote unequal power relations, domination, In other words, business of this chapter indicates, in Bombay, and resistance were all features of the leaders understood that the colonial taxpayers, landlords, and intellectuals, complex relationship that made the (1839-1918) government believed that private as well as industrialists and merchants city of Bombay and shaped a range of A Joint Enterprise: The Creation of a New Landscape in British Bombay enterprise would play an integral role who were involved in the global more specific social processes: from (1839-1918)" originally appeared as "A Joint Enterprise" in A Joint in the development of the city. commodity exchange, were influential migration—both from the hinterland to Enterprise: Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay (University of actors in molding urban-planning the city and within the city itself—to Minnesota Press, 2011). Copyright 2011 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. Reprinted by permission of the University of Minnesota Press. This chapter explores the city policies conducive to their agendas, commerce and industry, urban design that was built and controlled jointly by demonstrating the ways, as geographer schemes, and the partnership between the colonial rulers and the Indian and Jane Jacobs has argued, that global government and private enterprise. European mercantile and industrial elite and local already inhabit one another.3 to serve the interests of these classes and The City As Palimpsest Preeti Chopra especially their interests in the commerce Gyan Prakash and Douglas Cities are in a continuous state of the city. In this city, the government Haynes recognize that in unequal power of transformation and are comparable Associate Professor of Architecture, Urban History and Visual Culture Studies Department of Languages & Cultures of Asia, and capitalists worked together to relations there is both dominance and to a palimpsest: a text or a parchment and Design Studies Department University of Wisconsin develop the city through projects that resistance and “struggle is constantly that has been written on, erased, and

320 / 10 governance 11 / 321 written on again. The local elite played Negotiating the Best Deal: Native a specific meaning as was shown by title to the lands, which many had held, a complex and multifaceted role in city Landholders and the Width of Roads Advocate-General Thriepland of Bombay directly or through their ancestors, for design, and by doing so they constructed, Large landholders in Bombay while arguing a specific case in Bombay: twenty, forty, sixty years or more. Based erased, and transformed the city. As concretely shaped the city in making “It is called foras, . . . a Portuguese on this report the government issued landowners they made deals with the deals with the government when the expression, the meaning of which is an order on 4 April 1844 observing that government. As men of business they government needed to acquire lands in rent, but which in this island denotes the history of the origin of foras lands acted as advisers, partners, or investors their possession. By the mid-nineteenth the rent in particular which is paid by a established the government’s proprietary in schemes. As men of wealth, they built century, most of the land in Bombay was cultivator or person permitted to occupy right over such lands. However, wells, tanks, and religious, educational, in the hands of Indians. This was the case ground for the purpose of improving because of various circumstances the and medical institutions. They influenced with foras lands, which were in the hands it, but without any lease or other grant occupants were led to view this land as the course of development and opposed of numerous tenants, some of which were by which he can maintain possession their inheritance. The governor did not government schemes if they negatively required by the government for building during the continuation of the term.”7 wish to take all foras lands, but only to affected their interests. A city is made up roads and other public amenities. Sir reserve those pieces of land that were of multiple layers, making this exercise Michael Westropp, the judge in one key It is significant that Thriepland going to be required for works of public of digging up the past an archaeology of case, derived foras from the Portuguese discusses the understanding of the term utility in the future, while conceding the city. When talking of layers, I mean the word fora, meaning “outside,” to indicate foras in Bombay as the rent paid by a the rest of the land to the current erasures and writing that make the city a the rent or revenue obtained from outlying cultivator or person allowed “to occupy tenants on some scheme of tenure.9 palimpsest—in this case, the destruction lands.5 Roads from the Fort traversing the ground for the purpose of improving and construction of buildings, open Flats, or foras lands, between Malabar it” but without a formal lease or legal In 1847, William Acland, the East spaces, and the city infrastructure—that Hill and Parel, were generally known as document. Apart from immovable India Company’s solicitor, met with the characterized a certain era (Figure 1). “Foras Roads.”6 In 1805, foras land had objects such as houses, hedges, and major holders of foras land in Bombay, fences, ownership of land in England including Dadabhoy Pestonjee, Jagannath could be acquired through repeatedly Shankarshet, and Bomanjee Hormusjee. employing it for agriculture or for Copies of the plans were handed out pastoral use, both of which activities showing the various foras grounds and were seen as improvements in the the projected roads. Acland explained seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.8 to them that the holders of the foras ground needed to reach an agreement Although the government among themselves for compensating owned the land, in practice the rent- the holders of the ground that was to paying tenants sold and disposed of it as be made over to the government, free they wished, treating it as their property. from all claims, because it was required In 1841, the government took some for roads and so on. After this the pieces of land near the racecourse for government was prepared to draw up stacking hay without compensating the legal documents confirming the tenure occupants; the assumption was that it of the landholders. The landholders was government property. A memorial conveyed to Acland that rather than Figure 1. City of Bombay, signed by over seven hundred persons having their rights being declared by a 1909, plan. From The was sent to the government in which legislative act, they preferred this course Gazetteer of Bombay City they claimed their title to the lands. In his of action, as each landholder would and Island, vol. 2, compiled opinion, Advocate-General LeMesorier have his own deed of confirmation of by S. M. Edwardes warned the government that if the title.10 Acland thought he had come to (Bombay: Times Press, memorialists entered into litigation, they a satisfactory arrangement with the 1909), frontispiece. would be successful in establishing their landholders, but he found this was not

322 / 11 governance 11 / 323 the case. Enclosing a letter from the three width of the road to forty feet, if the out of this deal. Doing business with formed part of the cultural landscape landholders, he advised the government landholders completed the arrangements the government led them to appropriate of Bombay. They were the foci of daily to take swift action as buildings and other for the settlement of this longstanding colonial discourses on sanitation—as rituals, spaces of public interaction, improvements were rising in the foras issue by giving a definite date for effecting the discussion on the drains shows—for and public spaces that shaped the lands. The advocate general assured him the transfer of the required land to the their own purposes. By criticizing the neighborhoods around them creating a that it would be possible to deal with government. If not, a legislative enactment drains in the city, the landholders hoped to multifocal urban landscape in Bombay. the whole matter by a legislative act if would be used to deal with the matter.13 make an argument against the proposed necessary. The act could provide for a By threatening to use a legislative act, twenty-foot drains, thereby allowing Bombay had long suffered committee with the powers to ensure the government was able to make a deal them to hold on to more of the foras from a shortage of clean water, and the that landholders whose lands were taken with the major landholders regarding the lands instead of turning these over to the government and public in the 1850s were from them for public purposes were fairly width of the proposed roads. However, government and be responsible for paying keenly aware that contaminated drinking compensated by other landholders.11 the major landholders could not fulfill less compensation to those who had lost water led to the death of thousands from In short, if the landholders did not their commitment to the deal, as a their land since less land would have been cholera. The construction of the Vehar make a deal, the government could small minority of landholders opposed lost. Men of property in Bombay were reservoir in 1850 was the first attempt threaten them with a legislative act. the conditions.14 Finally, a few leading preoccupied with making money, and they to tackle the water problem on a large forasdars, or landholders, applied to the did not let colonialism stand in the way. scale (Figure 2).16 A series of schemes The letter from the three government to pass an act empowering followed, but each proved insufficient to principal landholders to Acland addressed it to take possession of the required land Early Philanthropy and the Erasure meet the needs of the growing population. the question of the width of the proposed and to appoint a commission to determine of a Landscape of Wells and Tanks Water from Vehar was first introduced to roads. They argued that the sixty-foot the amount of compensation and to With a few notable exceptions, the city in 1859, but people only began breadth requirement of the new roads collect ratable contributions for a fund.15 most of the early philanthropic efforts to get water at their door in 1864.17 In seemed excessive to them since Grant in Bombay were directed toward the 1879, the Tulsi works were completed; and Bellasis roads, which were major Although the government’s building of wells and tanks for the use of the Bhandarwada and Malabar Hill public thoroughfares, were approximately desire to build broad roads may have the general public. Not merely sources of reservoirs were constructed in 1884. In forty feet wide. The proposed roads, on been influenced in part by policies water supply, these water sources with 1889–90, Tomlinson’s water works in the the other hand, were unlikely to be used emanating from England, it had to adjust their platforms, steps, shrines, and trees Powai Valley was begun. The Tansa water except by the occasional foot passenger to the local circumstances of Bombay, or vehicle for pleasure or recreation. where Indians controlled most of the Furthermore, even a forty-foot-wide road land. Since the principal landholders were would require a sacrifice of a large portion unable to fulfill their part of the deal, of their respective lands, large sums of it is not clear whether the government money, and a loss of time and trouble agreed to let the proposed roads be spent in persuading people to agree to the forty feet wide instead of sixty feet. proposed project. If the sixty-foot width However, the government recognized that included twenty feet for the drains, then compromise with the native elite was they opposed the proposal on the grounds necessary to arrive at mutually beneficial Figure 2. Drawing showing that the drains, with their stagnant water solutions so necessary to the further the commencement of and “noxious effluvia,” were themselves improvement and building of Bombay. the reservoir in the valley objectionable. They pointed out that the of Vehar on the Island island abounded in examples of such In this example, the businessmen of Salsette. Work on the problematic sewers, and the “tainted were not engaged in conscious acts of Vehar Lake and Water atmosphere” could only be remedied resistance toward the colonial regime, Works started in 1856. by constructing covered sewers.12 The but as property owners they were Courtesy Bhau Daji Lad government was ready to restrict the simply ensuring that they got the best Sangrahalaya, Bombay.

324 / 11 governance 11 / 325 Figure. 3. Parsi well tanks also gave their names to various wall of the High Court near the judge’s near the Esplanade roads and localities. Framji Cowasji entrance gate facing the Oval, revealing maidan, Bombay, late reconstructed the tank known as Dhobi a plaque, which details its origins.26 nineteenth century. Talao and subsequently renamed it Figure 4. Detail of map Courtesy Bhau Daji Lad Framji Cowasji Tank in 1839. This tank The building of wells and tanks of the Island of Bombay, Sangrahalaya, Bombay. was used by dhobis for washing clothes for the public was seen as an act of public enlarged from Colonel until they moved to two wells on the good by the government. Donors were George A. Laughton’s northwest corner of the Esplanade some not averse to reminding the government survey map, 1882. Note years before this tank was filled in.24 The about these good acts when asking for its the numerous tanks, Babula Tank was constructed in 1849, favor. One example is the application for a including the Baboola Tank and there is a Babula Tank Road. The tank grant of land on Malabar Hill by Bomanjee adjacent to the Bombay on the Esplanade known as the Nakhoda Jamsetjee Moollah and his partners in jail, the Moombadavee Tank, constructed in 1856, was paid for 1850. Moollah was building a bungalow Tank at the center bottom, by Muhammad Ali Roghay, a prominent on his land and requested the government and the smaller Khara and Konkani Muslim businessman.25 The to allot him two adjacent waste plots of Poorum tanks near the Cowasji Patel Tank, built by a Parsi land to convert into a compound with a top of the plan. Copyright gentleman by the same name, has given garden and carriageway. In his application The British Library its name to the Cowasji Patel Tank Road. he mentioned that he and his partners Board. Maps 186 v.4. Colonel George A. Laughton’s maps of Bombay in the early 1870s, based on a survey conducted between 1865 and works, a major project, was initiated built around 1780.20 In 1846, the level of 1872, show the town and island to be in 1885 and opened in 1891–92.18 water in the tank fell. Cowasji conceived studded with tanks, while municipal of overcoming this deficiency by supplying maps of the early twentieth century The relatively small sums of it with water from a nearby oart (coconut reveal thousands of wells (Figure 4). money required for the construction of garden) known as Mugbhat.21 Three wells tanks and wells allowed many wealthy were sunk here and water was conveyed In the mid-nineteenth century, citizens to participate in acts of charity to the tank through steam machinery two wells in the Fort area were so famous (Figure 3). Several of the wells and tanks that cost thirty thousand rupees. Using “as to be a household word in every built by native philanthropists became an aqueduct, he conveyed water from family.” Their names were Ganbava and famous landmarks in the city. Sir Dinshaw Cowasji Patel Tank to two tanks at Duncan Ramlal. Ganbava was located at the E. Wacha noted with approval that “Hindus Road that were colloquially referred to eastern end of a street with that name, and Mahomedans of the first half of the as Do Tanki (Two Tanks). Cowasji came where Borah Bazaar Street crossed nineteenth century vied with each other to an arrangement with the government it. Men, women, and children would to supply this great necessity of life to the regarding the rents and revenues of his crowd around the well from morning to masses in the town by the construction Powai estate, and in return promised evening. Often, fights would break out, of large tanks.”19 It was Framji Cowasji, to ensure an adequate supply of water presumably as people jostled for their a Parsi citizen of Bombay, who was the to the two tanks.22 Suslaji Subanji, a turn to fill their vessels with water. At the first to think of redirecting water from its Muslim, constructed the Do Tanki in 1826 height of summer people would come original source to the place where it was and presented them to the public.23 there as early as one in the morning most needed. In 1837, he got the freehold to fill their “chatties” with water. The lease of the Powai estate. The Cowasji Tanks and the roads that Ramlal well, constructed by a wealthy Patel Tank in the native town was widely featured them were named after their Marwari, was located in the southern part used by the local population and was benefactors. Thus we find that these of the maidan. It is buried into the outer

326 / 11 governance 11 / 327 had spent over three thousand rupees charity which our father had erected, and wells, tanks, and institutions dedicated capitalism, assumed that the city was a in sinking a well in the neighborhood, which he, no doubt, believed would have to the public. There are other examples, neutral grid. Referring to the government’s which provided all the gentlemen living remained for many years as mementos at a later date, of the government tolerance of various faiths, the petitioners in that area “good water.” In light of the of his liberality and public spirit, are to be changing the use of an institution to attempted to remind the government “heavy expenses” incurred by his firm, destroyed.” The Petits clarified that this something quite different from that of their responsibilities as protectors of he hoped the government, “as a slight was not a complaint, but an inescapable for which it was originally endowed. religious practices and refuted the logic of remuneration,” would waive the rent result of the great public improvements universality by contrasting it to the logic of of these additional pieces of land. The carried out by the government. Referring Wells were closed not only the particular, in this case, of Muslim law. collector, in his report to the secretary to a similar concession made to a because they were in the way of modern The government replied that they could to government, stated that the applicant Goculdass Lilladhur in regard to a well improvements but also to ensure that not interfere in the matter and the use of planned to sink another well for the use of he had sunk on the Bombay Green, they Bombay’s inhabitants used Vehar water water supplied by the municipality was the public, marked D on the plan, at a cost said that they would be happy to augment and compensated the municipality for optional. If its use was considered to be of thousands of rupees. Citing these acts the compensation the government was these improvements. This is quite clear against their religion, then, they were told, of public benevolence, the collector urged going to give for these wells. The money in the protest made by Sayad Amadudin they should find other sources of supply.30 the government to grant Moollah the would be used toward the construction Sanaf Sayad Shah Jehan Rafai and other spots A and B, at the same ground rent of a well or a fountain in Elphinstone Muslim inhabitants of Bombay who In 1911, Dr. Bentley’s final as paid by other holders of government Circle or Frere town that would help petitioned the government in 1880 and report on the malaria epidemic of 1907 land. The government refused this request perpetuate their father’s memory.28 1881, asking them to exempt mosques and 1908 correlated the high incidence as there was a police chowky (check from the new water rates since these of malaria with high numbers of domestic post) on one of the spots and because it Alarmed by the possibility of rates were against their religion. In their wells. The municipality-led campaign did not want to encourage building in a paying compensation to these founders 1881 memorial, the petitioners elaborated that followed resulted in the closure locality that it considered overcrowded.27 of wells and setting a precedent, the in some detail how this violated of most of the wells and tanks in the government referred the matter to the Muslim law. In their petitions, they also city of Bombay in the second decade Donors of wells protested as solicitor to government, who said that emphasized that they now no longer had of the twentieth century despite major the destruction of the ramparts in the the founders of wells had no legal claim wells and tanks of their own because they opposition from the public on grounds 1860s resulted in the removal of the wells to compensation. In 1864, a government had been filled in since the introduction of inadequacy of municipal supply of and thus erased a landscape created resolution stated that since it had supplied of Vehar water. In their 1881 memorial, water and religious concerns. All wells, by philanthropic efforts. The new area the inhabitants of Bombay with “ample” they petitioned the government to not just domestic wells and tanks, were opened up by the removal of the ramparts supplies of water, these charities had reconsider their memorandum no. 3457, targeted.31 The municipality’s water provided an open terrain for the exercise ceased to exist and the government dated 17 November 1880, a response to supply was insufficient throughout the of a new era of philanthropy on the burial had to remove them to prevent them their earlier memorial which stated that second half of the nineteenth century ground of the old. In 1863, several donors from becoming a public nuisance. The the “Government sees no reason why and the early decades of the twentieth wrote to the government asking for government did not admit the right a distinction should be drawn between century. In 1914, members of the public reparations. Dinshaw and Nusserwanjee of the donors to compensation, but Mahomedan and other places of worship.” petitioned the government against Manockjee Petit gently reminded the stated that it would honor the memory the closure of wells; they argued that government that in 1854 and 1855 their of the charity of those who had sunk The memorialists were wells were used to make up for the father was granted permission by the wells at a time of great need by asking attempting to resist the policies of the inadequacy of the water supplied by the government to sink two wells, one on the Rampart Removal Committee to municipality by appealing to a higher municipality.32 The filling in of tanks and each side of the bridge that led to the Fort preserve the inscriptions on all wells authority, namely, the government. wells by December 1917 created 28.01 from the Church Gate. Over and above and suggest a way of permanently Their use of a signed petition reveals acres of open spaces and implied the the cost of the wells, their father incurred commemorating these public acts of the adaptation by the native citizenry of complete transformation of the landscape considerable expenses for the alteration of charity.29 I know of no memorial to these colonial British procedures. In applying of the city.33 A visit to Banganga Tank or the palisades and other associated costs. wells. However, it points to a larger water dues to all areas of the city, the an old print of the Framji Cowasji Tank Now they found that these “works of issue of the ownership by government of municipal authorities, using the logic of with buildings around it brings to mind

328 / 11 governance 11 / 329 Figure 5. Banganga Tank, persists only in the names they have first Indian philanthropist to build public Figure 7. Sir Jamsetjee Walkeshwar, Bombay, left to localities and roads (Figure 6). institutions in Bombay in partnership Jeejeebhoy (1783-1859), view of tank framed by with the British (Figure 7). Jeejeebhoy, portrait of the first baronet. the deepstambhas or Although this early philanthropy in his charitable activities, partnership Courtesy Bhau Daji Lad lamp pillars. Photograph was characterized by relatively simple with the British in the building of the Sangrahalaya, Bombay. by author, 1999. structures—wells and tanks—the joint public realm, and as a leader partnership of philanthropists with of the Parsi community, could serve government, characteristic of the joint as an “ideal type,” in the Weberian enterprise, was considerably more sense, for other leading nineteenth- complex, as were the institutions century philanthropists of Bombay.35 that were founded as a result of this partnership. The basic elements of the Born in Bombay to a Parsi partnership were set in place by Sir family, Jeejeebhoy was the youngest Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy and the colonial child of a poor weaver. The family was government and would be the model forced by circumstances to return to followed in subsequent arrangements their native town of Navsari in Gujarat. made by native philanthropists There Jeejeebhoy lived until the age of and the colonial government. sixteen, when he returned to Bombay.

An Ideal Type of a Philanthropist: A He was largely unschooled, and and abroad, such as his subscription Portrait of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, it was on his return to Bombay that he in 1846 to the Ireland Famine Fund.37 the impoverishment of the landscape the First Baronet, and an Early picked up the rudiments of bookkeeping, and the removal of gathering places and Partnership in Public Buildings Gujarati, and a little English. In Bombay, An early charitable institution ritual sites that resulted from the sealing Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy he worked for his uncle selling bottles, funded by Jeejeebhoy displays the of these tanks (Figure 5).34 A plaque at (1783–1859), a man of prodigious wealth but later he built his fortune in the China partnership between a native elite and the the latter site reminds us of its previous renowned for his charities, was the trade exporting opium and cotton. government and was perhaps a model for existence, but the memory of most tanks first Indian knight and baronet and the subsequent partnerships in the creation Jeejeebhoy’s name is of public buildings. In 1844, Jeejeebhoy synonymous with charity, and he spent submitted a plan to the government approximately two and a half million with the offer to build a new and more rupees on various kinds of charities. appropriate dharamshala on Bellasis Road Bombay’s first native general hospital to replace the existing building, which and school of art bear his name. It was was insufficient to meet the needs of its in recognition of his charities that he users. A dharamshala is a philanthropic received a knighthood in 1842 and a institution that might be a rest house for baronetcy in 1858.36 His charities for the travelers and pilgrims, or an almshouse. benefit of his own Parsi community as Its construction is an act of religious Figure 6. Plaque well as for the general public included merit. The dharamshala was run by the commemorating the public buildings and public works, District Benevolent Society of Bombay, an Framji Cowasji Tank on the such as the building of bridges in institution that had its origin in Bombay boundary wall of the Framji Poona (now Pune) and over the Thana after a visit to the city by Dr. Turner, Cowasji Institute, Dhobi Creek. Jeejeebhoy’s charities were Bishop of Calcutta, in January 1830. Talao, Bombay. Photograph not restricted to Bombay but covered Turner suggested the adoption of a plan by author, 1999. other areas in the Bombay Presidency to relieve the poor of the city, based on

330 / 11 governance 11 / 331 one that had been successfully followed Superintendence, in the same manner, their cotton to English markets resulted fortified city, between the native and in Madras and Calcutta in recent years. in all respects, as any other Public in a crash in the Bombay markets where European sections, the development In 1838, the government stepped forward building would be.” He reminded the banks collapsed and fortunes were lost. formalized and beautified the most with a monthly grant of three hundred government of his letter to Secretary important public arena in the city. This rupees to aid the running of the institution, Escombe, dated 15 May 1844, stating, The twin forces of speculation was “the old dirty and dusty Cotton which helped the poor, sick, maimed, “On the completion of the Building I and philanthropy, based on the large Green” that was surrounded by some and blind of every religion by offering propose to make it over to Government fortunes that had been built during this of the most important institutions of them shelter, food, and medical attention. for the DISTRICT BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.” time, transformed the face of Bombay the city including the Town Hall and St. Between 1 June 1837 and 31 December Clearly, he added, if his intention was after the 1860s. One sound speculative Thomas Cathedral (Figure 8).43 Central 1839, the society had helped five hundred to hand over the building to the society, scheme, the Back Bay scheme, aimed at to the impact of this scheme were the and twenty people. Pointing to the large he would not have asked for the the reclamation of 1,500 acres of land fort walls, which were pulled down as number of people the society had aided, intervention of the government.39 The along Back Bay, fell victim to the collapse the circle rose from the ground. This and its inadequate funds, Jeejeebhoy government responded favorably to his of the Asiatic Bank in 1865. Only a portion destruction sounded the death knell of offered to increase the society’s income request that the dharamshala be kept of the land was reclaimed, and through an the old center, the Green, as it opened by giving the government a sum of fifty in trust for charitable purposes by the odd twist of fate the government received a new arena for public buildings along thousand rupees if the government agreed government and that it would be kept in all of it free of cost.41 Another reclamation the maidan, shifting the heart of the city to double its monthly contribution to the repair as a public building. As such the company, the Elphinstone Land and outward to a new frontier between the institution.38 The government accepted his Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Dhurrumsalla Press Company, formed for reclaiming Fort and the “native town” (see Figure 1). offer, and the new building became known became a government building.40 After land along the foreshore of the harbor, as Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Dhurrumsalla. the 1860s, there were many opportunities was very successful in developing its Charles Forjett authored the for such partnerships, as numerous property, which was later transferred to scheme for Elphinstone Circle. Forjett, Jeejeebhoy made some very public buildings were raised in Bombay the government.42 Bombay’s first colonial a Eurasian, grew up in India and was Figure 8. Elphinstone Circle specific points about the intentions through the collaboration of native urban-design scheme—the Elphinstone superintendent of police in Bombay Garden, Bombay, 1869- behind his donation and the agreement philanthropists and the government. Circle Scheme—inaugurated this era. from 1855 to 1863. A legendary figure 72. In the foreground is he thought he had with the government in Bombay’s history, he became famous the ornamental fountain at regarding this public building. He thought Wealth and Architectural The Elphinstone Circle Development for his role in suppressing the Indian the center of the garden. that he had made arrangements for Pretension after the 1860s The Elphinstone Circle was Mutiny, also known as India’s First War It appears that temporary this building to be kept in repair by the An unrelated and distant Bombay’s first major urban design of Independence, and for his facility in shelters have been erected government as a public building for the event—the American Civil War that scheme. Located in the heart of the assuming native disguises. A member of over the statues of Marquis District Benevolent Society, so that it raged between 1861 and 1865—was Cornwallis and Marquis would not be a drain on the funds of the to have an electrifying effect on the Wellesley, probably to society. In 1847, he was surprised to find fortunes of Bombay. Cut off from its protect them against the that this was not the case and asked the cotton supplies from America, England monsoon rains. In the government to reconsider its decision. imported cotton from India, which was background to the left He stated that his original intentions funneled for export through the port of and beyond the garden behind building this dharamshala were Bombay. Within two years, as prices rose, the spire of St. Thomas to facilitate and extend the functions of firms and individuals in Bombay made Cathedral can be seen and, the society and give it some permanence, unprecedented profits. At this point, to the right, a part of one of “and to identify it with the Government all sorts of wise and unwise schemes the crescents that make up of the Country.” The building was to were formulated and led to imprudent the circle. The photograph be built entirely from funds donated by speculation. Share prices rose to great was most likely taken from Jeejeebhoy in a “substantial” manner, heights, bearing no relation to their actual the steps of the Town Hall. based on “plans prepared by the value. The cessation of hostilities in Courtesy Bhau Daji Lad Officers of Government, and under their America and consequent availability of Sangrahalaya, Bombay.

332 / 11 governance 11 / 333 the Board of Conservancy (1845–58), he The commissioners suggested that the Figure 9. Elphinstone (now later became one of the triumvirate of crescents they proposed erecting on Horniman) Circle, Bombay, municipal commissioners, established by each side of the green could be named circa 1864-66. James Act XXV of 1858. These commissioners after the largest private investors in the Scott, chief engineer to controlled the entire sanitation and scheme.48 The government approved, but the Elphinstone Land improvement of Bombay until 1865, the royal associations were removed. In a Reclamation Company, when a full-time municipal commissioner government memorandum, Colonel Turner designed the frontages and the body corporate of the Justices suggested that it should be stipulated of the buildings that replaced them. In 1861, Forjett conceived that “the frontage of the new crescents make up the circle. of the scheme for Elphinstone Circle be of an uniform and ornamental style Courtesy Bhau Daji Lad and received full support from the of architecture.”49 The government left Sangrahalaya, Bombay. governors of Bombay, Lord Elphinstone, it to the municipal commissioners to and Sir Bartle Frere. The municipal name the crescents and new streets commissioners bought the land and made after prominent Bombay merchants a considerable profit by dividing it into or the main owners of the crescents, building lots, which were sold to English and at least one of the buildings is and Indian firms.44 By 1865, Elphinstone named after an Indian merchant.50 Circle was almost completed.45 Colonel Laughton’s plan of the Circle in 1870 The government later ratified shows the occupants at that time.46 two resolutions passed at a meeting held circle named Elphinstone Circle (now in the 1850s, was not cut down and in on 14 February 1862 at the offices of Horniman Circle), the final buildings were 1920 was frequented by men on a daily A letter from a clerk in the Messrs. Ritchie Steuart & Company and more than three stories high (Figure basis between noon and four o’clock.51 municipal commissioners’ office conveyed attended by the representatives of all who 9). Focusing on the Town Hall with its the municipal commissioners’ proposal had agreed to buy land on the Bombay enormous Doric columns and impressive The circle, a new innovation in to the government to convert the green Green. The first resolution passed was flight of steps, the scheme consisted of Bombay, was a time-tested urban design into a circle, to be named the Victoria that the government would be requested a circus around a central garden with solution in England. In 1764 John Wood Circle, in 1861.47 The proposed plan was to name the whole circle Elphinstone a fountain, surrounded by ornamental the Younger completed the Circus begun practical from a real estate point of view as a tribute to the former governor of iron railings imported from England. by his father John Wood and in 1769 and incorporated architectural uniformity Bombay. The second resolution passed The Italianate facades of the buildings built the Royal Crescent in the small and urban design in its schemata. The was that the participants would notify were controlled to create a “uniform town of Bath in England. In eighteenth- buildings were adapted to the commercial the municipal commissioners that those and ornamental style of architecture.” century England, going to “take the enterprises they were to house by attending the meeting would prefer waters” at the hot springs in Bath was ensuring that maximum frontage was that the proposed buildings be three The native public adapted to part of the social calendar. Wood, who given to each block and that the lateral stories instead of two stories in height. the new circle, which replaced the chakri was at the same time architect, artist, fronts were as valuable as those fronting Furthermore, the ground floor should be or circle where children played. The builder, and speculator, built Bath for the the green. The commissioners were of made as high as possible, and each story fountain was erected on the exact spot “new bourgeois society.” In the Royal the opinion that the design should have should have a minimum interior height where a well of spring water existed Crescent built by his son, we find thirty “some degree of architectural nicety, of fourteen feet. Although it is left unsaid, and was named after the well’s donor. standardized houses fused together which will harmonize with the Town one might deduce that the addition The well was a spot where passersby— in the shape of an “open ellipse” to Hall,” particularly the buildings facing the of an extra story would bring greater cotton and opium brokers, clerks, and form a unified whole. Men such as green. Accordingly, building elevations profits to those investing in the land. It strangers—quenched their thirst. The Wood, who combined the qualities would be prepared in advance so that is a commentary on the influence of the old tamarind tree, where “groups of all of builder, artist, and speculator, built the purchasers of land would be aware investors that their recommendations kinds of men” gathered at noon or in the Bath and many of London’s squares of “their responsibility in this respect.” were carried out. Not only was the afternoon to rest and refresh themselves and crescents on speculation, and yet

334 / 11 governance 11 / 335 their architecture reflected a disciplined In its classical architecture, the Figure 11. The Secretariat, working of a “vigorous tradition.”52 Elphinstone Circle was a less restrained University Buildings and relative of the Town Hall and the Mint High Court, Bombay, circa Like Bath, Elphinstone Circle was building in its vicinity. The new buildings 1880s. To the right is the built on speculation and was conceived beyond the Fort were to adopt the more Secretariat, designed by and built at a time when speculators in dynamic architecture of the sculptured Colonel Henry St. Clair Bombay had acquired unprecedented Gothic style. The almost flat-bearded Wilkins, 1867-74. Left amounts of wealth. Unlike Bath, where male face that became the recurring of that is the University one man encapsulated the roles of builder, keystone of the colonnaded arcade of Senate/Convocation Hall, artist, and speculator, in colonial Bombay the Circle was to give way, in the new 1869-74; the University this scheme was a partnership between Gothic buildings, to molded surfaces and Library; and Rajabai government and private enterprise in a exuberant three-dimensional sculptures. Clock Tower,1869-78, all mutually beneficial speculative enterprise. The new architecture was to draw one’s designed by Sir George In 1864, grateful purchasers of sites gaze up toward the sky; and in the Gilbert Scott. Barely in the new Circle, “among whom are Victoria Terminus, strange unheavenly perceptible in the far numbered the leading members of the creatures seem caught, frozen in motion, distance is the High Court, commercial community of Bombay,” in the act of leaping forth from the roof 1871-78, designed by requested that the government allow of the building into the sky (Figure 10). Colonel J. A. Fuller. The them to give Forjett a sum of money Oval maidan with a riding equivalent to 2.5 percent on the value of Throwing down the Fort track on the outside edge the land purchased as a token of their Walls: the Creation of a new foregrounds this ensemble appreciation of his work in Bombay and Arena for Philanthropy of buildings. Courtesy particularly for his role in the Elphinstone The cotton boom encouraged the of throwing down the fort walls, no longer plain, creating a new public arena for Phillips Antiques, Bombay. Circle development. A government colonial government, under the leadership necessary for military purposes, and government offices and public institutions. official referred to the scheme as a of Governor Sir Bartle Frere (1862–67), to divide a part of the plain into allotments of The regime of collecting funds for the “great public improvement.”53 embark on the long contemplated project ground for building. In 1861, a committee latter signaled a new era of philanthropy. was appointed by the city to examine the issue of land and fortification. It decided The city was transformed to remove the walls and derive profits in multiple ways after the 1860s. The from the land so freed.54 By the 1860s, map of the island was reshaped and land for building purposes was in short the city’s physical appearance was supply and Frere received large sums transformed by improvements that can be of purchase money from those who categorized under three major headings: bid for the allotments. These moneys, (1) reclamations; (2) communications, combined with sums received from the through the extension and improvement government, were collected in a special of the road system; and (3) public Figure 10. Frederick fund for the construction of public buildings.57 The Municipal Corporation, William Stevens, Victoria buildings in Bombay.55 The style and founded in 1865, became a major Terminus, Bombay, 1878- architectural features of the buildings in player in directing municipal, sanitary, 87, detail. A gargoyle in the the Esplanade were regulated to create and other improvements in the city. form of an animal figure some urban design uniformity even seems to leap out from though it would be several decades before The creation of “New Bombay” the building. Photograph all the buildings were constructed.56 caused Edwin Arnold to exclaim in 1886, by author, 2005. The fall of the fort walls opened up the after a long absence from India, that

336 / 11 governance 11 / 337 “I left Bombay a town of warehouses including Elphinstone College (1871) and new features. Wells and tanks had as dispensaries, did allow a larger group and offices; I find her a city of parks the Victoria and Albert Museum (1862–72) been spread throughout the city and of people to participate after the 1860s, and palaces.”58 These new buildings, on Parel Road, Elphinstone High School, were acting as centers that attracted but a relatively small group of families based on designs by architects from Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art institutions—schools, dharamshalas, were builders of larger institutions, built Britain, were “to be of the highest (1857), Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital (1870– religious institutions—and activities in partnership with the government and character architecturally” and to produce 74), the Sailors’ Home (1872–76), and around them. Dispensaries and schools designed by architects from Britain. an “artistic effect,” in keeping with many others.59 In the 1870s and 1880s, were spread around the city, like wells Bombay’s prosperity, high population, and many more Gothic buildings were erected and tanks. However, they did not act as Until 1918, these major geographical situation. Work on Frere’s in Bombay, generally in the triangle foci for other activities. These institutions philanthropists were predominantly from meticulously planned scheme for this new bounded by Cruickshank Road, Carnac created a new public realm, in theory wealthy minority communities such as arena began while he was in Bombay Road, and Hornby Road. Perhaps the open to all, in contrast to the wells, Parsis and the Baghdadi Jews. They were and was continued by his successors. finest Victorian Gothic building in India is some of which could not be used by rewarded with high titles. For reasons Figure 12. Frederick Facing the sea in one grand sweep were the Victoria Terminus (1878–87), located particular castes or religious groups. that are not entirely obvious, Hindus William Stevens, Great the Government Secretariat (1867–74), north of the Fort (Figure 12). The historian The major institutions were grouped in and Muslim philanthropists were not Indian Peninsular Railway the University Library and Clock Tower Philip Davies observed that in a relatively specific locations—between the Fort major players until about the turn of the Victoria Terminus and (1869–78), the Convocation Hall (1869– short period of time, Bombay became the and the native town, along the Parel century. By 1913, the British government Administrative Offices, 74), the High Court (1871–78), the Electric proud possessor of some of the finest Road, and later around the Government had made eight men from the Bombay Bombay, 1878-87, Telegraph Department (1871–74), and Gothic Revival buildings in the world and House, Parel. Self-conscious about Presidency baronets. The Parsi baronets view circa 1880s. The the Post Office (1869–72), all based on also came to resemble Victorian London.60 the artistic effect of their architecture, were Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy (1858), administrative buildings variations of the Gothic style—French, they were designed and located along Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit (1890), and form three sides of a Venetian, and Early English (Figure 11). Although there were main roads, to be seen and admired. Sir (Jehangir) Cowasjee Jehangir (1908). square enclosing a garden Buildings in similar styles, predominantly continuities with the past, this new Three Baghdadi Jewish baronets were whose entrance gates are Gothic, were built in other parts of the city, era was distinguished by several The government and the created from the Sassoon family, Sir Albert guarded by a huge lion predominantly Indian philanthropists Abdullah Sassoon (1880) of Kensington and tiger carved in stone. A financed the construction of this colonial Gore, and Sir Jacob Elias Sassoon (1909) massive figure of Progress Bombay. Most public buildings were built and Sir Sassoon (Jacob) David (1911), (which can be see from with substantial help from philanthropists both of Bombay. Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim afar) crowns the huge and through public subscriptions, thereby (1910) was the Muslim representative and dome. Sculptural groups ushering a new era in philanthropy in Sir Chinubhai Madhowlal (Runchorelal), representing engineering, the creation of a shared public domain the adopted grandson of the founder commerce, and agriculture of Bombay. Whereas philanthropy before of the Ahmedabad textile industry, the surmount the principal the 1860s primarily dedicated itself to Hindu representative.61 The names gables of the building, and the building of wells and tanks, after the of these baronets and other titled a life-size statue of Queen- 1860s, institutions for the instruction luminaries were associated with most Empress Victoria stands or practice of Western educational of the public buildings of Bombay. in front of the central and scientific techniques—schools, façade. A horse-drawn colleges, the university, hospitals, and The Plague and Sanitizing tramway, introduced to dispensaries—became the objects the City after 1896 city in 1874 by Stearns of the philanthropy. Wells and tanks In September 1896, the bubonic and Kittredge, can be required smaller outlays of money plague first struck Bombay; soon after, it seen in the photograph. compared to most institutions, and spread to all parts of the presidency. Only Photograph by Clifton & many moneyed people of all religious after the passing of the Epidemic Diseases Co., circa 1880s. Courtesy groups participated in the building of Act in February 1897 were a number of Phillips Antiques, Bombay. this landscape. Smaller projects, such public health policies enforced to control

338 / 11 governance 11 / 339 the epidemic. The plague resulted in the government had earned the anger smooth flow of goods, including important the flight of a panicked population and of both merchants and landlords.62 arteries such as Mohammedali Road, and great losses in commerce and industry, east-west ventilation schemes such as forcing the authorities to the realization The activities of the City of Princess Street and Sandhurst Road.64 that sanitary reform could not be ignored Bombay Improvement Trust were to shape in the creation of a modern trading and the future growth of the city decisively Although its activities were industrial city. A board of trustees, created for many decades. After 1898, the great based on the Glasgow model, the for the improvement of Bombay City, powers allotted to the trust enabled Bombay Improvement Trust had to deal began work in November 1898 armed the colonial authorities to penetrate with the local reaction to its projects. with great powers for clearing unsanitary and destroy localities, displace people Forced acquisitions, demolitions, and areas and laying out new streets. and erect sanitary structures within the displacements brought about by the native town, and plan for the extension trust’s schemes affected many lives, and Even though the government’s of the city in the northward direction. opposition by landlords and tenants took policies of displacement and reclamation the form of thousands of petitions and were primarily geared toward the The constitution and powers court cases.65 People who lost their homes promotion of public sanitation and of the trust resembled those of the Port often spurned the trust’s suggestion social welfare, in actual practice the Trust and were based on the model of the of alternative accommodation, when policies of the trust were directed Glasgow City Improvement Trust. The trust it was offered, to reside close to their toward creating an aesthetically was responsible for (1) the laying of new former place of residence forming a ring beautiful Bombay. Although landlords roads, (2) improving crowded localities, (3) of congestion around the original zone ruled in the corporation, commercial reclaiming further lands, (4) constructing of demolition. The trust’s improvement magnates and industrialists dominated sanitary dwellings for the poor, and (5) strategies of “slum patching,” by the the trust, which led to an imposition of providing accommodation for the police.63 construction of a few chawls (a building their vision on Bombay. By 1918, little The trust’s road projects linked the city type that is often four to five stories had been done to remove slums, and through a network of roads to ensure the in height and has numerous single- room tenements) and thoroughfares, unable to control building operations.66 Figure 14. Lower half of took place in an environment in which The trust’s demolition activities and Island of Bombay, 1902- the municipality continued to control rebuilding activities dispossessed a 03 plan showing various the city’s bylaws and supervise the significant section of the population Bombay Improvement general sanitary administration of the who were not rehoused (Figure 14).67 Trust Schemes. From city (Figure 13). Great though its powers Administration Report were, the trust felt itself hampered by its Dividing The City of the Municipal inadequate funds and powers to bring In the twentieth century, the Commissioner for the City about sufficient change. Its critics were Bombay elite, through their institutions, of Bombay, 1902-1903. equally unimpressed by the results of continued to play a decisive role in the trust’s activities and in about 1917 shaping Bombay as primarily responsive began an agitation for the transference of to their needs and interests. By 1907, Figure 13. Chawl the trust to the municipality. Engaged in there was a housing crisis in Bombay building constructed a public debate of mutual recrimination, faced by all classes, from the wealthy by the City of Bombay the Municipal Corporation accused the to clerks and others of lesser means. Improvement Trust, trust of neglecting the overcrowded and The housing shortage had resulted in Bombay, early twentieth unsanitary areas of the city, while the an increase in rents in recent years that century. Photograph trust pointed out that the municipality had threatened to make Bombay a more by author, 2006. neglected to change its bylaws and been expensive place to live than London. The

340 / 11 governance 11 / 341 government saw this as a time to tackle Woods for being too distant and (2) capitalistic development of the island identities as citizens of Bombay. These the issue of the development of Bombay Worli, as the atmosphere had been and for dividing the city, reserving identities of fragmentation and cohesion in a more comprehensive manner.68 polluted by sewage disposal schemes. its best spaces for their own use. were produced in the community The reclamation of Back Bay was and public landscapes of Bombay. On 9 December 1907, the seen as the only solution for providing Conclusion government sent a questionnaire to additional accommodation for this Colonial Bombay was made Amid a landscape populated certain Bombay institutions, asking class, and a decision was made to jointly by Indians and the colonial by public buildings, predominantly in them to respond to questions relating transfer the reclamation rights from regime. Particularly in the second half the Gothic Revival style, the product to (1) segregation of areas by income the Bombay Improvement Trust to the of the nineteenth century, the colonial of a partnership of British colonial and groups, (2) coordinating and improving government. No particular localities regime and the Indian and European Indian financial and technical expertise, the various channels of communication, were reserved for the middle classes financial and mercantile elite cooperated Bombay’s citizenry could join together and (3) the best means of traveling since it was assumed that they would in creating an infrastructure—for in an arena that reminded many of for the population displaced.69 move into the areas vacated by the commerce, but also institutions for the Victorian London but also showcased the upper classes and to the northern area, public good—that was conducive to the Indian making of British Bombay. Thus The institutions that responded which was being developed for those commerce and well-being of the city. the joint enterprise resulted in a joint represented the elite of the city: the who could afford it. Laborers and factory public realm that not only was partially City of Bombay Improvement Trust, the workers would continue to live near Indian philanthropists played an underwritten by Indian philanthropists Municipal Corporation, the chamber of their place of work as their long hours of important role in financing educational but was built by native and European commerce, the Millowners’ Association, work demanded and as they would be and medical institutions in particular for expertise. The construction of Bombay the Bombay Port Trust, the G.I.P. and unable to bear transportation costs.71 the use of the public at large. In doing was a product of the joint enterprise that B.B. & C.I. Railway Companies, the so, the joint enterprise resulted in the called on European architects, engineers, Bombay Presidency Association, the Significantly, one of the creation of a new public arena for all of sculptors, artists, and also Indian Indian Merchants’ Chamber, and the questions raised was regarding the Bombay’s citizens. In contrast to exclusive engineers, artists, craftsmen, and other Bombay Native Piece Goods Merchants’ possibility of cheap trains or tramways community spaces, this was a landscape functionaries to design and construct Association. The last-named institution for workers that would allow them to that was open to and, in principle, owned British Bombay. The joint enterprise is the only one that gave its unsolicited be accommodated in the undeveloped by all of Bombay’s citizens. In spaces led to native participation—financial, opinion on the subject. Headquartered areas of the island. The question was such as these, they could imagine technical, and artistic—in the creation of in the premises of the Sheth Mulji whether the workers would be able to pay themselves as not only members of their British Bombay and by doing so infused Jetha’s Cloth Market Hall in the heart adequate rent and transportation costs to individual community but forge new this landscape with new meanings. of the native town, it represented be able to give a reasonable rate of return the interests of the business groups on the investment on accommodation Notes who did not have Western business projects.72 Such a policy would require 1 Jagannath Shankarshet, Framji Cowasji, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, Cursetji Cowasji and Naro Ragoonath Vuckeel to W.C. associations or a Western lifestyle.70 employers to adequately compensate Bruce, Collector of Bombay, 5 March 1839, Maharashtra State Archives (henceforth MSA), 1839, Revenue Department, their workers, and it was not in their vol. 60/1023, compilation. no. 280, no page numbers (emphasis added). A lac (or lakh) equals one hundred thousand. Each institution replied interests to do so. The only institution in 2 Anthony King, Urbanism, Colonialism, and the World Economy: Cultural and Spatial according to its own interests, and based favor of workmen’s trains or trams was Foundations of the World Urban System (London: Routledge, 1990), 39. on these responses, the government the chamber of commerce.73 Far from 3 The Bombay Chamber of Commerce, for example, played a role in fostering the improvement of communications proceeded in 1909 with a policy that simply responding to orders emitting by land and sea, ensuring the provision of port and harbor facilities. In the 1850s, the police was re-organized, the would be implemented in Bombay from London, the heart of the empire, construction of railways began, and the first train in India ran in April 1853, the twenty-two-mile long Bombay-Thana line. over the next twenty years. It was Bombay was shaped by local forces Other innovations included the electric telegraph and modern postal service. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce was recommended to reserve the western that were dominated by an industrial involved in various ways in all of these schemes. See Raymond J.F. Sulivan, One Hundred Years of Bombay: History of shores for the accommodation of and mercantile elite. High government the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, 1836-1936 (Bombay: Times of India Press, 1937), 56, 222. For more details on the wealthy. Two of the alternatives officials and the commercial elite shared the role played by the chamber of commerce in influencing the government to develop the port and railways, refer to considered were rejected: (1) Mahim a common interest in fostering the Chapters 10-13, 21-24; Jane M. Jacobs, Edge of Empire: Postcolonialism and the City (London: Routledge, 1996), 36.

342 / 11 governance 11 / 343 4 Douglas Haynes and Gyan Prakash, “Introduction: The Entanglement of Power and Resistance,” in Contesting 23 Wacha, Shells, 454-459; City Gazetteer, 3: 32, puts the date of construction before 1823. Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in South Asia, edited by Douglas Haynes and Gyan Prakash Other famous tanks included Gowalia Tank, Mastan Tank, Nawab’s Tank and Sankli Tank. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, copyright 1991), 1-22, quote at 3; Scott cited in ibid., 2; ibid, 3. 24 Sheppard, Bombay Place, 59; City Gazetteer, 3 (1910): 32, gives 1831 as the date of 5 On the island of Bombay, the judge pointed out, foras lands usually referred to the new salt batty land reclaimed the construction of the Dhobi Talao. The locality is still known as Dhobi Talao. from the sea; waste grounds lying beyond the Fort, Native Town, and other older settlements; cultivated land on the 25 Government Resolution by Under Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, no. 498 island; or the quit-rent paid for new salt batty ground and outlying ground. See Sir Michael Westropp, Bombay High C.W.--1185 of 1882, 30 June 1882, MSA, GD, 1882, vol. 124, comp. no. 591, 25-26. Court Reports, iv, 40, note in Phiroze B. M. Malabari, Bombay in the Making: Being Mainly a History of the Origin 26 Wacha, Shells, 453-454; my field research notes, 1998-99. and Growth of Judicial Institutions in the Western Presidency, 1661-1726 (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1910), 386. 27 Bomanjee Jamsetjee Moollah to A. Malet, Chief Secretary to Government, no. 2258 of 1850, 12 September 6 Malabari, Bombay in the Making, 388 n. 1849; Collector’s Report by P. Malet, no. 390 of 1849, 23 November 1849; and Secretary to Government, Territorial 7 Advocate-General Thriepland of Bombay, in Government Selections, iii, N.S. para. 17, quoted in Malabari, Department, Revenue to P. Malet, Collector of Land Revenue, no.1195 of 1850, 16 February 1850, MSA, GD, 1850, vol. Bombay in the Making, 385-386. For various interpretations for the etymology of foras, see ibid., 385-388. 47, comp. no.382, 7-11, 17. It is surprising to find that the government thought this locality to be overcrowded at this time. 8 See Patricia Seed, Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World, 28 Messrs. Dinshaw and Nusserwanjee Manockjee Petit to Government, 14 November 1863, in Government 1492-1640 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 18-19, 24-25. Resolution no. 487, “Extract from the Proceedings of the Government of Bombay in the General Department,” 9 The Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, 3 vols., compiled by S. M. Edwardes, (Bombay: Times Press, 1909-10), 2 11 March 1864, MSA, GD, 1862-64, vol. 33, comp. no. 103 of 1864, 521-522. The section of stately (1909): 367-374 (hereafter cited as City Gazetteer). See City Gazetteer, 2: 367-374 for a fuller account of foras lands. buildings lining the grand boulevard stretching between Elphinstone College and Treacher & Company’s 10 Letter from William Acland, East India Company’s Solicitor, to H.E. Goldsmid, Secretary to Government, No. buildings that was created after the fort walls were torn down in the 1860s was to be called “Frere-town,” 653 of 1847, Territorial Department and No. 1597 of 1848. Transfer from Revenue to General Department, 9 after Sir Bartle Frere, the influential governor of Bombay who conceived and began this scheme. See Dinshaw December 1847, MSA, General Department (hereafter cited as GD), 1848, vol. 54, comp. no. 379, 14-17. E. Wacha, A Financial Chapter in the History of Bombay City (Bombay: Commercial Press, 1910), 77. 11 Ibid., 14-17. 29 Government Resolution No. 487, “Extract from the Proceedings of the Government of Bombay in the General 12 Letter from Jagannath Shankarshet, Bomanjee Hormusjee, and Dadabhoy Pestonjee, to William Acland, Department,” 11 March 1864, MSA, GD, 1862-64, vol. 33, comp. no. 103 of 1864, 517-522. East India Company’s Solicitor, 2 December 1847, MSA, GD, 1848, vol. 54, comp. no. 379, 18-20. 30 The entire account is in this file. Original petition from Sayad Amadudin Sanaf Sayad Shah Jehan Rafai and 13 Letter from H. E. Goldsmid, Secretary to Government to William Acland, East India Company’s Solicitor, no. 1595 Muslim inhabitants of Bombay, 18 September 1880, and orders contained in Government Memorandum of 1848, Territorial Department, Revenue, 20 March 1848, MSA, GD, 1848, vol. 54, comp. no. 379, 20-22. no. 3487, 17 November 1880, is in response to this and is referred to in Government Resolution, no. 14 The conditions were: (i) that landholders give the required land up to the government, and were to be 4250, GD, 16 December 1881. Text of a second memorial from Muslim inhabitants of Bombay, 1881, compensated at rates determined by a committee of principal landholders; and (ii) that a fund be raised soliciting reconsideration of the orders in first government’s 1880 memorandum is in the file. All these from all foras landholders, in proportion to the quantity of the land. See City Gazetteer, 2: 372-374. documents are to be found in MSA, GD, 1881, vol. 101, comp. no. 723, 1-9, 281-283, 291 15 The Foras Act VI was passed on 6 June 1851, which confirmed the holders to the titles of their lands subject to the 31 “Annual Report of the Executive Health Officer for 1914,” in Administration Report of the rents payable to the government. The Foras Commission finished its work by September 1853. See ibid., 372-374. Municipal Commissioner for the City of Bombay for the Year 1914-15, 2: 105-111. 16 This account of water problems in Bombay is taken from Sir Dinshaw E. Wacha, Shells from the Sands 32 Manmohandas Ramji and others to Lord Willingdon, Governor in Council, 1 September 1914, of Bombay: Being My Recollections and Reminiscences--1860-1875 (Bombay: K. T. Anklesaria, 1920), enclosing the humble petition from the citizens of Bombay assembled in public meeting in the 440-453. For more on the development of the infrastructure of water supply, see Mariam Dossal, “The Town Hall on the 4 August 1914, MSA, GD, 1915, comp. no. 191, pt. 1, 11, 12. Politics of Municipal Water Supply in Mid-Nineteenth Century Bombay,” in Imperial Designs and Indian 33 Administration Report of the Municipal Commissioner for the City of Bombay for the Year 1917-18: 56, 177. Realities: The Planning of Bombay City 1845-1875 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991), 95-124. 34 The print of the Framji Cowasji Tank is part of the collection of the Alpaiwala Museum in Bombay. 17 Wacha, Shells, 459-461. 35 According to Max Weber an “ideal type” is the characterization of a subjective meaning orientation that is constructed 18 City Gazetteer, 2: 183. by scientists, “a hypothetical actor” who is used to illustrate a given kind of conduct. In The Protestant Ethic and the 19 Wacha, Shells, 458-459. Spirit of Capitalism, Benjamin Franklin is used as an example of an “ideal type,” who shows the spirit of capitalism. The 20 Samuel T. Sheppard, Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names. An Excursion into the By- “ideal type” is not empirical because perhaps one will not find a single Protestant of the ideal type constructed. See Max Ways of the History of Bombay City (Bombay: The Times Press, 1917), 53. Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by Talcott Parsons, with a foreword by R. H. Tawney 21 Oart means “a coconut garden,” and is a corruption of the Portuguese word orta or horta. See ibid., (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958), 47-78; Max Weber, Basic Concepts in Sociology, translated and with an 12; Mugbhat street extended from Girgaum Road to Khandewadi Lane. See ibid., 104. introduction by H. P. Secher (Seacaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1980, copyright 1962, Philosophical Library), 32-38. 22 According to City Gazetteer, 3: 33 n. 2, Michael’s History of the Municipal Corporation, 68- 36 John Houston, Representative Men of the Bombay Presidency (Bombay and London: C. B. Burrows, 1897), 67-68. 69 claims that Framji Cowasji obtained the Powai estate as freehold from government on 37 For a list of his public charities, refer to Appendix 3 in Jehangir R. P. Mody, Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy: condition of always keeping the Two Tanks supplied with a reasonable quantity of water. The First Knight and Baronet (1783-1859) (Bombay: Jehangir R.P. Mody, 1959), 172-175.

344 / 11 governance 11 / 345 38 Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, to Sir George Arthur, Governor and President in Council, 14 February, 1844, in 60 Philip Davies, Splendours of the Raj: British Architecture in India, 1660-1947 (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1985), Correspondence Relative to the “Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Dhurrumsalla,” Built by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 156-157. For a discussion of colonial architecture in Bombay, see chapter 7, “Bombay: Urbs Prima in Indis,” 147-182. Knight, and Made Over to Him by Government, for the District Benevolent Society of Bombay (henceforth 61 Arthur G.M. Hesilrige, ed., Debrett’s Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage (London: Dean CRJJD) (Bombay: Times Press, 1851), 1-3. This can be found in MSA, GD, 1872, vol. 11, comp. no. 549. & Son, Ltd, 1915), 208-209, 238-239, 387-388, 471, 564-565, 631; also see Amiya Kumar Bagchi, “Jejeebhoy” is a variant spelling of “Jeejeebhoy”; “dhurrumsalla” is a variant spelling of “dharamshala.” “European and Indian Entrepreneurship in India, 1900-30,” in Elites in South Asia, edited by Edmund Leach and 39 Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy to J. G. Lumsden, Acting Secretary to Government, 12 September 1847, CRJJD, 28-31. S.N. Mukherjee (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 223-256. Bagchi does not mention Petit. 40 J.G. Lumsden, Secretary to Government, to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, no. 3185 62 A.D.D. Gordon, Businessmen and Politics: Rising Nationalism and a Modernising Economy in Bombay, 1918- of 1847, General Department, 20 November 1847, CRJJD, 31-32. 1933, Australian National University Monographs on South Asia No. 3 (New Delhi: Manohar, 1978), 119-120. 41 Wacha, Financial Chapter, 142-169. 63 RDPGB, xxvi 42 Sir Richard Temple, Men and Events of My Time in India (London: John Murray, 1882), 270. 64 RDPGB, xxvi-xxvii. 43 S. M. Edwardes, The Bombay City Police: A Historical Sketch 1672-1916 (London: Oxford University Press, 1923), 44. 65 See the annual administration reports of the Bombay Improvement Trust for references 44 S. M. Edwardes says the lots were sold to English firms. However the list of names in the conveyance document is of to the number of settlements made through the courts for each scheme. Indian and English firms. The investors mentioned in the conveyance document were Messrs. Dawood (David) Sassoon 66 A. R. Burnett-Hurst, Labour and Housing in Bombay: A Study in the Economic Conditions of & Co., the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India London and China, the Chartered Bank of India Australia and China, Mr. the Wage-Earning Classes in Bombay (London: P.S. King & Son, 1925), 31-32. Merwanjee Nasserwanjee Bhownugria, Nasserwanjee Ruttojee Tatah (Tata), Mrs. Ardaseer Hormusjee, Mr. Hormusjee 67 Ibid., 26. Bomanjee, Messrs. Ritchie Stewart & Co., the Bank of Bombay, Messrs. Remington & Co., and Messrs. Finlay Scott & Co. 68 Letter from R. E. Enthoven, Acting Secretary to Government, to the Chairman, City of Bombay This can be found in a letter from Office of Municipal Commissioner with accompanying documents to A.D. Robertson, Improvement Trust, no. 7382 of 1907, GD, 9 December 1907, in Appendix B of Annual Administration Secretary to Government, 11 April 1863, MSA, GD, 1862-64, vol. 5, comp. no. 112, 193r, 193v, 199r, 199v. Report of the City of Bombay Improvement Trust for the year ending 31 March 1908, xxi-xxiv. 45 Edwardes, Bombay City Police, 39-44. Edwardes puts the date at 1863, but he is wrong as the following letter shows. 69 RDPGB, xxvii. It appears that the date is not correct as at least one body, the Bombay 46 See Figure 9, plan of Fort (West) by George A. Laughton, 1872 on page 41 in Matthew H. Edney, “Defining Native Piece Goods Merchants’ Association, responded before this date. a Unique City: Surveying and Mapping Bombay After 1800,” Marg 48, no. 4 (June 1997): 28-45. 70 See letter from the Chairman, Bombay Native Piece Goods Merchants’ Association, to the Secretary to the Government 47 Letter from Clerk, Municipal Commissioner’s Office, to A. D. Robertson, Secretary to Government, General of Bombay, General Department, regarding expansion of the City of Bombay, no. 126 of 1907-08, 17 March 1908, Department, no. 3777 of 1861, 10 December 1861, MSA, GD, 1862-64, vol. 5, comp. no. 112, 3-11. MSA, GD, 1909, vol. 218, pt. 1, 191-196, for an unsolicited opinion on the issues raised by the government. Note that Edwardes makes no reference to the proposal to name the circle “The Victoria Circle.” 71 RDPGB, xxviii. 48 Ibid., 3-11; quotes, 9. 72 Letter from R. E. Enthoven, Acting Secretary to Government, to the Chairman, BIT, no. 49 Memorandum by Colonel H. B. Turner, Acting Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, 7382 of 1907, GD, 9 December 1907, in Appendix B of Annual Administration Report of the 28 November 1861, MSA, GD, 1862-64, vol. 5, comp. no. 112, 15-18; quote, 16. City of Bombay Improvement Trust for the year ending 31 March 1908, xxi-xxiv. 50 Government Resolution, 29 November 1861, MSA, GD, 1862-64, vol. 73 “Summary of the replies received to the Government letter” in “Development of Bombay City and the 5, comp. no. 112, 18; my field research notes, 1998-99. Improvement of Communications in the Island,” in MSA, GD, 1909, no. 218, pt. 2, 589-608. 51 Wacha, Shells, 149-153. 52 Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, 5th ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), 147-150. 53 Letter from A. D. Robertson, Officiating Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay to E.C. Bayley, Secretary to the Government of India, No. 59 of 1864 General Department, 13 January 1864, MSA, GD, 1862-64, vol. 5, comp. no. 112, 323. 54 Report on the Development Plan for Greater Bombay 1964 (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1964), xxiv (henceforth RDPGB). 55 Temple, Men and Events, 276. 56 RDPGB, xxiv. 57 James Mackenzie Maclean, A Guide to Bombay: Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive, 31st ed. (Bombay: “Bombay Gazette” Steam Press, 1906), 207. 58 Edwin Arnold, India Revisited (London: Trübner & Co., 1886), 55. This quote is from chapter 5, entitled “New Bombay.” 59 Temple, Men and Events, 276-277; Maclean, Guide to Bombay (1906), 206-258.

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