When I began to research the city’s post-Independence history for my section of the coffee-table book Bombay Then, Mumbai Now, it soon became clear that about the only thing that has remained constant over the centuries is unrelenting change.
Reading the essay by my co-author, Jim Masselos, about the city’s rise to prominence before 1947, it’s evident that even Mumbai’s physical geography has been in flux for the last 300 years, growing through reclamation and by expansion into the hinterland. Ironically, though Mumbaikars have always complained about the rapid pace of the metamorphosis, we’ve been quick to forget things the way they used to be.
This photo is a good example of our amnesiac tendencies. Few Mumbaikars remember the time when this plaster of Paris Mughal fantasy stood at Apollo Bunder. Until the Gateway of India was built here, society ladies took tea under their parasols on the stone quay. Our short memories have also led some Mumbaikars to forget that the city’s prosperity was built with the labour and enterprise of migrants from other parts of the state and from all around the country.
It isn’t surprising that these people now want to spend Rs 350 crores to build a gigantic statue in the sea that, they claim, will serve as a symbol for our city. They’re obviously hoping that it will overshadow the symbol that currently embodies the spirit of our city: the Gateway of India, a portal that embodies the hope and hospitality for which Mumbai has always been renowned. We’re hoping that this book will help us Mumbaikars to cling to our memories, which, after all, are the foundation of our future. Naresh Fernandes
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