A Collection of Arcs de Triomphe (None of them in Paris) Part 2, Post-1900

Triumphal Arches - What is and What is Not

This is the third iteration of this post. The original, published 01-Apr-2014, was ‘Four Arcs de Triomphe (none of them in Paris). The second, 29-June-2018, included newly collected arches, but also omitted Lutyens’ India Gate from the earlier post on the grounds it was a War Memorial, not a Triumphal Arch.

Defining a Triumphal Arch is difficult. Some arches called Triumphal have no associated triumph, and then there are Monumental Gates and War Memorials which can look very similar.

Although retaining the title, I have chosen a new and more inclusive definition for these posts (there are now two of them, this one and pre-1900). For the purposes of this blog an ‘Arc de Triomphe’ is an arch with no structural purpose. This definition includes war memorials built in arch form – like the India Gate mentioned above and also Monumental Gates as long as they were built to be symbolic i.e. not city gates built as part of a wall, even if the wall has long gone. The other qualification of inclusion is that I have been there and taken the photograph.

Arches of the 20th and 21st Centuries

For Classical Arches and modern arches built before 1900, see part 1.

All the arches below owe a debt to the Parisian Arc, (almost) the first modern Arc de Triomphe. In some cases the debt is very obvious, for others it is more in spirit than in substance.

So, In order of construction:

The Gateway of India, Mumbai

Completed 1924, Visited 14-Mar-2019

India

In 1911 George V became the first British monarch to visit the Jewel in the Crown. The Gateway of India on the Mumbai (then Bombay) waterfront was conceived as a symbolic entrance to the sub-continent for the King-Emperor and Queen-Empress.

Careful planning is not just a feature of the current British government. In 1911 the King and Queen passed through a world-beating cardboard gate, the stone version would be built once the design.was agreed.

The Gateway of India, Mumbai

The foundation stone was laid in March 1913 but another year passed before George Wittet’s Indo-Saracenic gate was given the go-ahead. Work was completed in 1924.

The gateway was subsequently used as a symbolic entrance to British India by important colonial personnel and the last British troops left through it at independence in 1948. Once unpopular as a representation of "conquest and colonisation" it is now a symbol of the city and an attraction to tourists and the army of street vendors that prey upon them.

The India Gate, New Delhi

Completed 1931, Visited 16-Feb-2013

At the start of the 20th century Edwin Lutyens had the rare privilege of designing a new capital for Britain’s most prized possession. The ceremonial Kingsway, leading to the Viceroy’s palace through the administrative heart of his new city, was modelled on The Mall, but with a nod to the Champs Elysées.

The India Gate, New Delhi

In 1921 he was commissioned to build a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died fighting for the Empire in the First World War. It is now a memorial to the 70,000 who died in conflicts between 1914 and 1920. Completed in 1931, The India Gate was placed at the opposite end of the Kingsway (now Rajpath) from the Viceroy’s Palace (now the President’s Palace). If the Kingsway nodded toward the Champs Elysées, the India Gate bows deeply towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest

Completed in 1936, Visited 25-Jun-2023

Romania

With the world organised as it is, we do occasionally have to remind ourselves that it was not always thus, and most nation-states, even in Europe, are creations of the 19th century; there was no Germany before 1860 and no Italy before 1861. A Romania, smaller than the present country, achieved recognition as an independent state in 1878 and a wooden Arcul de Triumf was constructed on what would become a roundabout in north east Bucharest.

The end of World War One saw the creation of a larger Romania that included most speakers of the Romanian language. This required the construction of a new arch on the same site. It was designed by Petre Antonescu with a concrete interior and a heavily sculpted plaster exterior. The plaster became badly eroded, so in 1936 Antonescu designed a new, more durable and less flamboyant arch and that has survived to this day (with restoration work in 2014).

Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest

It is not the grandest of Arcs de Triomphe, and rather outside the city centre, though its roundabout is negotiated by all visitors being driven into Bucharest from the airport. Military parades pass beneath it every 1st of December, Romania’s national day.

Monumento a la Revolución, Mexico City

Built 1938 Visited 18-Nov-2017

Mexico

Intended as a neo-classical home for the Federal Legislative Palace, building started in 1910 but was halted two years later by the revolution. In 1938 the completed first stage was adapted as a monument to the revolution that halted the building and it now contains the tombs of five revolutionary heroes including Pancho Villa.

Monument a la Revolucion, Mexico City

Transforming the core of a parliament building into a triumphal arch altered the neo-classical intention into something that has been described as Mexican socialist realism. Whatever the label, I think it’s ugly (sorry Mexico). At 75m high it is the world’s highest triumphal arch, but please don’t tell Kim Jung Un, he would only make his bigger.

Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

Cambodia

Completed 1958 Visited 17th of February 2014

This 37m high sandstone arch was built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodian independence from France some five years previously. It now also commemorates Cambodia's war dead - and there are a vast number for such a small country.

The Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

Designed by Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann to resemble a lotus shaped stupa, it sits at the intersection of Norodom Boulevard and Sihanouk Boulevard, and is the ceremonial, if not geographical, centre of the city. A flame is lit on the inner pedestal, usually by the King, at times of national celebration and commemoration.

Patouxai, Vientiane

Laos

Built 1957-68, Visited 1st of March 2014

Ironically, this Arc de Triomphe was built to commemorate victory over the French. Laos gained its independence in 1954 after the first Indo-China War and Patouxai (Victory Arch) was built in the late 1950s. Less reverently it is known as ‘The Vertical Runway’ as there is a story that it was built from concrete donated by the Americans for airport construction.

Patouxai (Victory Arch), Vientiane

There are stairs inside and shops at three levels. From the top there is a good view over the gardens below one way and down Lan Xang Avenue – Vientiane’s Champs Elysées the other.

The Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang

Built 1982, Visited 9th September 2013

North Korea

North Korea’s Arch of Triumph, in Triumphant Return Square, commemorates Kim Il Sung's return to the capital (in 1948) and his founding of the Democratic People's' Republic of Korea after almost single-handedly driving the Japanese colonialists from his country (DPRK history avoids mentioning the global conflict and ignores contributions made by other combatants, including the Chinese, British and the hated Americans).

It was built in 1982 to celebrate his 70th birthday and is is blatant rip off of the French ‘original’. Two interesting details are that a) it is 10m taller than the Parisian Arch and b) that fact was the first thing we were told when we arrived in the square; delusions of grandeur and a chip on the shoulder being most obvious attributes of Kim Il Sung and the dynasty he founded.

Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang

Pyongyang’s sparse traffic means that it is perfectly safe to stand in the middle of the ‘Champs Elysées’ to take a photograph.

Eternal Flame, Martyrs Alley, Baku

Opened 9th of October 1998 Visited 12th of August 2014

Azerbaijan

The events of Azerbaijan’s Black January are little known in the UK.

In 1990 in, the dying days of its empire the Soviet Union declared a state of emergency in Azerbaijan. The Popular Front responded by imposing roadblocks around Baku which Soviet troops broke through, killing some 130 unarmed protestors. The Russian claims that the first shots came from the Azeri side, are hotly disputed. What our otherwise admirable Azeri guide did not tell us was that the state of emergency was declared to stop a pogrom which had killed 90 of Baku’s Armenian residents. What the Armenians never mentioned when we were there, was that the pogrom was provoked by Armenia granting citizenship to ethnic Armenians in the Azeri district of Nagorno Karabakh. What the Azeris forget to mention..... and so on in a time-honoured chicken-and-egg argument. The resulting Azerbaijan-Armenia war ended in 1994 with Karabakh becoming a de facto independent state (now called Artsakh) and Azerbaijan feeling miffed. Negotiations – and occasional shootings - continue. [Including a major outbreak in 2020.]

In Martyr's Alley the 130 who died in Black January are commemorated with names and photographs in black marble. At the end is an eternal flame.

Eternal Flame, Martyr's Alley, Baku

The eternal flame is the biggest test of my new rule for deciding what should be in and what out. Can it really be called an arch? Is it more of an elongated, heavyweight gazebo? I said I would be inclusive, so it is in.

The Arch of Bender

Built 2008 Visited  27th June 2018

Transnistria

Bender (or Bendery, sometimes Tighina) is a city on the right bank of the River Dniester in the breakaway Republic of Transnistria, officially part of Moldova. Bender was on the front line in many of the wars between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, its fortress being taken by the Russians in 1779, 1789 and 1806 (and lost in between). An arch commemorating the Russian capture of Bender Fort in 1806 was erected in Chişinău, the Moldovan capital, but was destroyed, along with much else, in 1944.

The Arch of Bender, Bender, Transnistria

This arch in Bender is a 2008 replica of that destroyed arch. The major result of the 1806-12 war was the Russian Empire’s gain of Bessarabia (approximately Moldova and Transnistria), so the arch is a message, or warning, from the Russian orientated Transnistrians to the Moldovans and their European ambitions.

Porta Macedonia, Skopje

North Macedonia

Built 2011 Visited May 2015

The Porta Macedonia was designed by Valentina Stefanovska as part of the then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s ‘Skopje 2014’ project which saddled the capital with a series of grandiose monuments at great expense. Despite its name it is not a gate, nor is it a war memorial, but the design is classic Triumphal Arch, so that is what it must be, though apart from commemorating 20 years of Macedonian independence it is unclear what the ‘triumph’ was.

Porta Macedonia

I am unconvinced that spending €4.4m on a triumphal arch was the best use of money, which is not overabundant in Skopje. Gruevski was prime minister from 2006 until forced to resign in 2016. In May 2018 he started a two years prison sentence for corruption.

and finally....

This space is available free to any country willing to build itself a pointless arch

Mumbai (2): The Posh End

A Walking Tour (sometimes by car!) of Mumbai's Upmarket Neighbourhoods

Our hotel was a short walk north from the Gateway of India, on the edge of the Colaba district – the final protuberance of the Mumbai peninsula. After breakfast a pleasant young man met us in reception to conduct a walking tour, with added car (Mumbai is big).

Mumbai's main posh area extends from the Gateway of India, through Fort and Marine Drive to Malabar Hill

We started a little further north in the Fort district on the main Mahatma Gandhi Road.

Kala Ghoda, Mahatma Gandhi Road

Elphinstone College

Mahatma Gandhi Road is lined with self-important buildings. Elphinstone College occupies a late Victorian pile of such solidity the builders clearly believed the Empire would endure forever. The college, now part of Dr Homi Bhabha State University, opened in 1835 and moved into this purpose-built edifice in the 1880s.

Elphinstone College, Mumbai

It is named for Mountstuart Elphinstone (‘Mountstuart’ with that surname! What were his parent thinking?) who arrived in Calcutta from Scotland aged 16 in 1796 and joined the British East India Company’s civil service. Having an uncle who was a director of the company did not hurt his progress through the ranks, but he was genuinely able and became Governor of Bombay in 1819 (I shall use 'Bombay' for references to the city pre-1995, otherwise 'Mumbai'). He did much to promote public education at a time when the prevailing British attitude was against educating the 'natives.’ He left India in 1827 having set in motion the events that would lead to the college that bears his name.

David Sassoon Library and Reading Room

The David Sassoon Library and Reading Room next door was completed in 1871. It was named for, and partly funded by David Sassoon who died a few years before it was completed.

The David Sassoon Library and Reading Room, Mumbai

David Sassoon, 1792-1864

Sassoon was a remarkable man. Born in Baghdad in 1792 he was, like his father, a businessman and a leader of the Jewish community. A period of anti-Semitic persecution persuaded him to move first to Persia and then to Bombay, arriving sometime before 1832. Extremely successful in business, with interests stretching from China to the UK, he became one the world’s wealthiest men. He spent his vast riches on a variety of worthy causes, contributing to the building of schools, hospitals, museums and synagogues. He became a British citizen in 1853, although he never learned English and dressed all his life in the traditional style of an Iraqi Jew. He had 8 sons from two marriages (and 4 daughters though there is little information about them.) and encouraged them to speak English and adopt western dress and manners.

The nearby Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue, Mumbai
Established 1884 by David Sassoon's grandson Jacob, very much in the Sassoon tradition

His son Abdullah settled permanently in England in 1873 as director of the London office of David Sassoon and Sons. Changing his name to Albert he continued with his father’s philanthropic activity and was created Baronet Sassoon in 1890.

Sassoon David Sassoon, the eldest son of David Sassoon’s second marriage also settled in England. A businessman and scholar, his daughter, Rachel was the first woman to edit a national newspaper, editing The Observer and then the Sunday Times in the 1890s. He was also the grandfather of Siegfried Sassoon one of the finest poets of the First World War and a man I have previously quoted in this blog

Watson's Hotel

Next-door-but-one is the former Watson’s Hotel, now the Esplanade Mansion. Although in a rather sad condition, it is world’s oldest multi-level cast-iron frame building.

Watson's Hotel, Mumbai

John Watson was a successful haberdasher who decided he wanted a hotel. Entirely pre-fabricated in England, assembly of the hotel started in 1867 and it opened in 1871, the year John Watson died. His son, John Jnr, made it Bombay’s premier hotel, with an exclusively European clientele, even at one time importing English waitresses. John Jnr returned to England in 1896, and in 1903 the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel opened (more later) and Watson’s would never be Bombay’s premier hotel again. There is a story, almost certainly apocryphal, that Jamsetji Tata built the Taj Hotel as vengeance for being denied access to Watson’s. Watson’s Hotel ceased trading in 1920 and for the building it has been downhill ever since.

Kala Ghoda Statue

This southern end of Mahatma Gandhi Road is known as Kala Ghoda (Black Horse).

The original Black Horse, the work of George Wade, was being ridden by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). Erected in 1870 on the occasion of his visit and financed by Albert Sassoon, it lasted until 1965 when the city rounded up the effigies of its former colonial rulers. The statue is now in the zoo.

For many years Kala Ghoda was without a Black Horse. The ‘Spirit of Kala Ghoda’ – almost a replica of the original horse, sans rider - has only been here since 2017. Sculpted by Shreehari Bhosle it was financed by the Kala Ghoda Association.

Kala Ghoda

Rajabai Clock Tower

The tower, which stands a little back from Mahatma Gandhi Road, looks and sounds slightly familiar. Completed in 1878, the design by Sir George Gilbert Scott owes just a little to August Pugin’s Elizabeth tower (as Big Ben’s tower has been called since 2012).

Rajabai Clocktower, Mumbai

It was part financed by Premchand Roychand, founder the Bombay Stock Exchange, and named after his mother. A probably apocryphal story tells that his mother, a strict Jain who had to take her evening meal before dark, had gone blind and needed a striking clock within earshot. There must have been a cheaper way to solve that problem.

Marine Drive

Our guide located the driver and bundled us into the car for the very short journey to Marine Drive (see map above).

‘Do you want get out and walk?’ he asked.  ‘Yes’, we said, which surprised him. The question is mandatory according to the ‘Guide’s Bumper Book of Questions to ask Tourists,’ but apparently nobody ever says ‘yes’. The driver was so confused he crawled along the curb just behind us in case he was needed. The guide soon realised this was silly and sent him away to park.

What, I wonder, was so odd about our decision? Promenades are built the world over for people to walk beside the sea, human beings seem to like it – and to sit beside the sea, too.

Sitting by the sea on Marine Drive, Mumbai

It is a place where young Indians can do things that would have caused a scandal in their grandparents’ time – and still would in many parts on India. I will omit that photo. Though harmless by European standards I would not want to cause any trouble.

Across the road are up-market seaside apartments, looking just as they do anywhere else. The large floodlight tower visible just above the apartments to the left is in a corner of Wankhede Stadium. The 33,000-seater cricket stadium is the home of Mumbai, the most successful Ranji Trophy Team, Mumbai Indians IPL Team, and has frequently hosted the Indian National team.

Marine Drive, Mumbai

Marine Drive, like Kala Ghoda hardly felt like India; the sun was strong enough, but where were the tuk-tuks and cycle rickshaws, where the litter and incessant sound of car horns? Where are the hawkers and their barrows? Here, in the most affluent corner of India’s most affluent city, so many of the usual accompaniments of Indian life have been banished.

Walking along Marine Drive, Mumbai

We reached Chowpatty Beach. In front and a little to our left was the green protuberance of Malabar Hill. Mountstuart Elphinstone was the first to build a bungalow here, in 1865 it was the birthplace of Rudyard Kipling and is now home to the business tycoons and Bollywood film stars who make up India’s super-rich.

Chowpatty Beach and Malabar Hill, Mumbai

Gandhi Museum and Library

After our walk we were driven a little way inland from the end of Marine drive to the Gandhi Museum and Library. This was our third Gandhi Museum of the trip and, great man as he may be, it was at least one more than was necessary.

Gandhi Museum and Library, Mumbai

The first had been the Subarmarti Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gandhi’s home for many years, making all other Gandhi Museums a disappointment, not that the Mumbai guide knew where we had been – and we were too polite to tell him.

Gandhi Museum and Library, Mumbai

Another problem here was that a cruise ship was in and busloads were being brought, whisked in, round and out before the next busload arrived. In places we had to fight to see the exhibits - though I took my photos in quieter moments. I am not old enough to go on a cruise (though 70 is not far away) but when I am, I still won’t go.

The Hanging Gardens

It is not just Babylon that has hanging gardens, Mumbai has them too. Nobody knows in what way the Babylonian Gardens hung, but those in Mumbai rather disappointingly sit on rather than dangle over the city’s main reservoir.

Hanging Gardens, Mumbai

Officially called the Pherozeshah Mehta Gardens they were laid out in 1881 by Ulhas Ghapokar. The story that they cover the reservoir to avoid possible contamination from the Towers of Silence 500m to the north may not be true.

Hanging Gardens, Mumbai

It is a pretty place with flowers, walkways and views of the Arabian Sea…

Colaba Point and the open sea from the Hanging Gardens, Mumbai

….as well as a large children’s section.

Who is the king of the swingers?

Tiffin Carriers

We headed north up the west coast of the peninsula towards the Dhobi Ghat, passing the Dabbawalla statue on the way. Dabbas or Tiffin Boxes – small stainless steel or aluminium boxes with a tight-fitting lid in which workers carry a packed lunch – are common across India, but Mumbai has taken them and created a unique institution. Almost 200,000 dabbas are delivered daily from their homes to the office workers of Mumbai. Dabbas are collected around the suburbs, loaded onto trains, and distributed throughout central Mumbai by bicycle. In the afternoon they are returned whence they came.

The Dabbawalla Statue, Mumbai

Mumbai’s 5,000 uniformed dabbawalas – almost all from the same village near Pune - are self-employed members of the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association, which guarantees a minimum wage and distributes profits. The system is remarkably efficient, (almost) infallibly delivering the right box to the right place at the right time six days a week 51 weeks of the year – for a week in March everything closes while the dabbawallas attend their village festival.

The system started with 100 dabbawallas in 1890 and has been growing ever since; we saw several on our travels. It answers a particular need of a particular city, but also relies on a society where men go to work and women stay home and cook their meals.

Dhobi Ghat

We have visited laundries in India before, in Lucknow in the north and Kochi in the south, but this is the first we have seen with its own viewing gallery. We waited while a bus load of cruise ship passengers was shepherded out of the way.

Dhobi ghat viewing platform, Mumbai

7,000 dhobiwallas flog, scrub, bleach, dye and dry 100,000 items a day, mostly by hand. In 2011 the Guinness Book of Records certified their record for the ‘most people hand-washing clothes at a single location’. The cleanliness of the finished product is unchallenged and in the feat of organisation involved in returning (almost) every item to its owner the dhobiwallas match the dabbawallas. It is, though, a labour-intensive way of washing clothes, and works only because that labour is cheap.

Dhobi Ghat

Mumbai Municipal Headquarters

Moving back south towards our hotel we stopped outside the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai - though it resembles a Cathedral more than a seat of government. The corporation was established in 1888 and is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the almost 500 km² of Greater Mumbai.

Mumbai Municipal Headquarters

The statue outside is of Sir Pherozeshah Merwanjee Mehta, the man for whom the Hanging Gardens are named. The son of a Parsi businessman, he graduated from Elphinstone College in 1864 then gained an MA in Law at Bombay University. Further study in London led to him being called to the bar after which he returned to practice in Bombay. In 1872 He drafted the Bombay Municipal Act and is thus considered the 'father of Bombay Municipality'. He went into politics and in 1885 was a founder member of the Indian National Congress which would eventually lead the country to independence.

Sir Pherozshah Merwanjee Mehta, the father of the Mumbai Municipality

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Railway Terminal

Facing the municipal building is the even larger and grander (if part scaffolded) Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Railway Terminal. Designed by Frederick William Stevens in Gothic Revival style, it was completed in 1887, the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne and so became the Victoria Terminal. The station was renamed in 1996 after Shivaji, the 17th century founder of the Maratha Empire. It is perfectly reasonable for India to remove the names of British monarchs from major transport hubs, but why Shivaji when Mumbai already had a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport? Why not pick someone else?

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal, Mumbai

Inside is one of the world’s busiest railway stations (and a couple of layabouts posing for photos).

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal, Mumbai

As in many Victorian railway stations (and the Moscow metro) the design details are way over the top for a railway station.

Inside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus

The station was on of 10 sites attacked in November 2008 by the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba extremist group. Two terrorists ran into the station firing AK 47 rifles indiscriminately. 58 people were killed and 104 injured

Taj Mahal Palace

Near our hotel is the Taj Mahal Palace. Built in 1903 it soon replaced Watson’s as Bombay’s leading hotel. It may now be challenged by two dozen other 5-star hotels, but remains the most expensive in town.

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai

One of the challengers is the adjacent Taj Mahal Tower. It has the same owners and sets the same standards, but the functional modern tower lacks the grandeur of the older building.

Taj Mahal Tower Hotel, Mumbai

Unlike Watson’s, the Taj Mahal Palace has always been under Indian ownership and open to all – well, all who afford £300+ a night. We walked through with our guide; the new ground floor is cool and elegant and mainly given over to retail premises bearing the names you see in 5-star hotels the world over. Don’t the rich deserve a bit of variety?

Like the railway station, the hotel was targeted in the 2008 attack. Bombs exploded on the ground floor and six armed men attempted to take hostages. 32 innocent people, guests and staff, died. Near reception on the restored ground floor is a wall of running water. Beside it the names of those who died are carved in alphabetical order, regardless of nationality or status.

Memorial to those killed in the 2008 attack, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai

The Gateway of India

I mentioned the Gateway of India in this post’s opening paragraph and now, almost at the end, we finally get there. It is opposite the Taj Mahal Tower and a short walk from out more modest accommodation.

In 1911 when George V became the first British monarch to visit India the local authorities decided to build a symbolic Gateway on the Bombay waterfront, through which the King-Emperor and Queen-Empress could enter the sub-continent.

British government planning was as impressive then as it is today, and in December 1911 the King and Queen passed through a world-beating cardboard replica of a gate that would eventually be completed in 1924.

The Gateway of India,
Partly obscured from the landward side, I could not get far enough away on the seaward side

The gateway was subsequently used as a symbolic entrance to British India by important colonial personnel and the last British troops left through it at independence in 1948. Once unpopular as a representation of "conquest and colonisation" attitudes have soften; it is now a symbol of the city and an attraction to tourists and the army of street vendors that prey upon them.

Dinner in Mumbai

Our half day tour had been good value, reaching well into the afternoon. Once the guide had departed, we did some last-minute shopping and later walked north into Kala Ghoda in search of a recommended restaurant. It was clean and the décor was well above average but our meal, aloo muttah and tandori chicken, was fine but hardly outstanding.

And Home

Next morning, we went to the airport and thence home. Our plane to Dubai was late arriving and flight to Birmingham was further delayed in Dubai, including an hour’s sit in the plane before it pushed back. The reason? Heavy rain, Dubai has 94 mm a year (less than 4 inches) and most of this year's fell on us.

I will just repeat my thanks to Pioneer Travel of Kochi whose arrangements were as faultless for our two days in Mumbai as they were for our two weeks in Gujarat.

Gujarat

Part 1:Ahmedabad (1) Liquor Licences, Mosques and Tombs

Part 2:Ahmedabad (2) A Stepwell, Gandhi and a Thali
Part 3: Meeting the Locals
Part 4: Siddhpur, Patan and Modhera
Part 5: Salt and Wild Asses in the Little Rann of Kutch
Part 6: Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar
Part 7: Bhavnagar
Part 8: Palitana and the Temples on Shatrunjaya Hill
Part 9: A Lion Hunt and a Visit to Junagadh
Part 10: Gondal
Part 11: Gondal to Bhuj

Part 12: Bhuj

Part 13: To the Great Rann of Kutch, Craft Villages and a Salt Desert

Part 14: Going to School and Other Entertainments in the Great Rann of Kutch

+

Mumbai (1) Dharavi, the World's Biggest Slum

Mumbai (2) The Posh End

Mumbai (1) Dharavi, the World's Largest Slum

Slum Tourism - Morally Justifiable or Not?

Arriving in Mumbai

Jet Airways was 35 days from going out of business, but no one knew that at the time, and our 600km flight southeast from Bhuj to Mumbai passed without incident.

Bhuj-Mumbai, 600km

The only item on the day’s agenda was a ‘slum tour’ in the afternoon. We had been feeling uncomfortable about this since it was first suggested. I trusted Pioneer Tours judgement, but it sounded too much like spoiled rich kids in the early part of last century heading off to stare at the poor (curious little people!) and laugh at them behind their backs. Was I expected to go the full Bullingdon and burn some 2,000 rupee notes in front of a homeless person?

A rep from Pioneer met us at the airport with a car. Mumbai, he pointed out, is a city built on a peninsula and our hotel was near the tip. We could save a lot of driving up and down, he said, by doing the tour of the Dharavi slum now. We agreed - it was time to face up to our misgivings.

The Mumbai area has a superficial similarity to the Lake district and Furness peninsula.
Imagine Barrow-in-Furness had grown to cover the whole peninsula and nearly reached Windermere

To Dharavi

The slum guide was scheduled to meet us outside a branch of Coffee Day a few kilometres to the south. Dismissing the possibility that this was all an elaborate scam to steal our baggage (who could possibly want two weeks of unwashed laundry?) we loaded our cases into the car and were driven to the rendezvous.

We met our guide, D, a young man with a ready smile, at the appointed place and as it was 10.30 we had coffee. There are 1,700 Café Coffee Days [Update at end] across India. Bright, clean, and air-conditioned with a mainly young, affluent clientele, they feel a long way from the slums - though Dharavi is only a short walk away. As we talked to D, a man with a university education but born and brought up in Dharavi, we realised that although social gap might be wider than the physical gap, it was not as unbridgeable as we had presumed.

Slumdog Millionaire was set and filmed in Dharavi and he was keen to tell us how hurtful he found the film’s grossly inaccurate depiction of his home and fellow citizens. ‘These are not the idle poor,’ he told us (though these may not have been his precise words), ‘they work hard in thousands of small businesses, and they work with optimism, not despair.’ He was so determined to overturn the preconceptions the film had given us, I felt it was not the moment to tell him I have not seen Slumdog Millionaire.

After a short walk through the streets of Mumbai, probably India’s cleanest city, we were able to look down, literally though certainly not metaphorically, on its largest slum. D's attitude was that of a young aristocrat about to show off his ancestral pile and we were privileged to be there…

Looking down on Dharavi

…indeed we picked our way through sacks of God knows what as though they were Louis Quinze furniture.

Picking our way through the sacks

A Little History

Mumbai was founded 2000+ years ago on a group of seven islands. In medieval times they were owned by the Sultanate of Gujarat, but in 1534 Gujarat came under pressure from the Mughal Empire. The Sultan requested Portuguese support, offering them the islands in return. The Portuguese accepted, but as the islands were of no great importance they were passed to England in 1611 as part of the marriage settlement of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. In 1668 they were leased to the East India Company at £10 a year and by 1675 the population had mushroomed to 60,000. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, land reclamation projects coalesced the islands into the peninsula, allowing Mumbai to grow into a major port. Its importance was further enhanced by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the population soon topped 1 million.

Deeper into Dharavi

Mumbai now has some 20 million citizens. The affluent areas near tip of the peninsula (see next post) can make you wonder if you are still in India, but like all successful cities, Mumbai drags in people from near and far hoping to share in the wealth. Dharavi, only 2km² in area, is home to a million such people.

Inside Dharavi

Dharavi may be packed with people, but the area D showed us was more packed with businesses - it is less intrusive to poke your nose into people's workplaces than their homes.

Dharavi businesses specialise in taking the waste from the rest of Mumbai, and further afield, and turning it into something useful. India is awash with litter, and the plastic recyclers will never be short of raw materials. Huge sacks of plastic bottles and containers are brought in by truck and sorted here. Then they are turned into pellets and taken away to be recycled into more plastic bottles.

Plastic Waste, Dharavi

Slightly more sophisticated work goes on nearby. Inside a dark doorway, redundant phones, calculators and tablets were being disassembled to retrieve the valuable material inside.

Recycling electronic equipment

Elsewhere we saw men skilfully fashioning waste wood into small shrines - every Hindu home needs somewhere to offer devotion to their favoured deity. D was keen to point out that all the workers here were Muslims.

We also saw workshops where soap was made. Waste grease and alkali are all that is need to make industrial soap, though not without fumes. There is little ventilation in Dharavi, and the welfare of workers is not the highest priority.

Soap Production (I think), Dharavi

Health and safety nightmares are not hard to find. Below an unprotected drive-belt whirrs round in a narrow space at just the right height to catch loose clothing, while behind a young man sits with his hand on or dangerously close to a rotating shaft. That will probably be fine for years, then one day something unexpected will happen and he will suddenly discover he has fewer arms than yesterday.

Poor health and safety practices, Dharavi

And it is not just the businesses that are dangerous, the whole of Dharavi is a fire hazard. Largely constructed from inflammable material there are no fire escapes, no fire extinguishers (that I saw, anyway), narrow walkways and ad hoc electrical systems. The tangles of cables that cause regular blazes in Indian markets were rarely visible, but they does not mean they were not lurking unseen.

A two-man chapati team worked with an open brazier. I can vouch for the quality of the product, if not the safety of the system.

Chapati Production, Dharavi

There are other food producers – Dharavi has many mouths to be fed -….

Food Production, Dharavi

….and small potteries, all of which work with high temperature equipment.

Pottery, Dharavi

Among all this industry, there are spaces for children to play…

Children's Play Area, Dharavi

…there is even some play equipment, though you do not usually see a boy sitting on a slide with his pet goat.

Play equipment and goat, Dharavi

A relatively upmarket leather shop stands beside the playground - a tannery is hiding somewhere in Dharavi. Hindus will not work with leather, leaving the field open for Muslims. I bought a leather belt here, something I had been meaning to do for ages, they kindly punched in a couple of extra holes for my putative future weight loss. [Update: It worked, too, until the Covid lockdown altered my lifestyle].

Leather Products, Dharavi

As we returned through the playground, we remarked on the number of children not in school. Minutes later we came across the two children below; Google informs me that Dharavi has over 100 schools so education seems readily available.

School children (with tangle of cables above)

Visiting Dharavi, Some Thoughts

It was not an awkward visit, largely because our guide, D, was at home in Dharavi and at ease with everyone we met. ‘Slum tourism’ (I had not realised it was ‘a thing’) started in the 1880s in London (Whitechapel, Shoreditch) and New York (Manhattan’s Bowery and Lower East Side) and carries on today in Mumbai, South African townships, Brazilian Favelas and an increasing number of other locations, including Baltimore’s blighted neighbourhoods (The Wire did for Baltimore what Slumdog Millionaire has done for Dharavi). Many carefully chosen words have been written about the motives of the tourists, though ‘curiosity’ usually comes top of the list. Journalists, always willing to be outraged, have written about ‘voyeurism’ and ‘poverty porn’ but having done it I think such trips, properly handled (as ours was) can be worthwhile experiences; ‘education’ is only ‘curiosity’ with a shirt and tie.

Location of the World's Major Slums,
From Wikipedia, Map by Walké, data from Mike Davis, reproduced under CC BY-SA 3.0 

And Dharavi itself? D was endlessly upbeat about his home patch, stressing its industrious workforce and green credentials. He was largely right, there is much recycling and slum dwellers are not lazy, Dharavi is a huge reservoir of willing, if not necessarily skilled, workers. But therein lies the problem, they are doing jobs nobody else wants for wages we have difficulty getting our heads round – a 12-hour day will earn you US$16 a week, D told us, far less if you are the chapati maker. I have no evidence, but strongly suspect the workers are (ruthlessly?) exploited by those higher up the food chain who live in far greener parts of Mumbai.

I doubt, though, that their remuneration is significantly different from many of the people we met yesterday in and around the Great Rann of Kutch or the farmers whose families we visited last week in the northeast of Gujarat. And despite their grim surroundings, a Dharavi dweller can walk from the slum to the heart of India’s wealthiest city, and where there are great riches there are great opportunities. Sadly, for most we met in Dharavi those opportunities will never be more substantial than their dreams.

To the Tip of the Peninsula

Taking our leave of D, we were driven down the peninsula to the India Gate and checked into our hotel, a clean, relatively small establishment, nestling among far grander properties.

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai, grandest of the grand

We took a walk round, Mumbai's Colaba district, the first tourist hotspot we had encountered on the whole trip. Shoeshine men approached me in droves, anxious to clean my sandals. I had not notice, but now I looked, they were certainly in need of it, the once brown leather hidden beneath the salty dust of the Rann of Kutch. But I had invested a lot of time and money in getting them like that, and I did not want them cleaned, not yet anyway.

I will say no more now, as this district forms part of tomorrow’s tour.

Mumbai seafront opposite the Taj Mahal Hotel

After extensive comparisons we dined in the Leopold Café. When the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba extremist group attacked 10 sites in Mumbai in November 2008, this café had been the one of the first. Gunfire and a grenade killed 10 here and injured many more. 

Happily unaware of the above and no longer constrained by dry Gujarat, we started with a couple of large gins, and then drank Kingfisher beer with a vegetable biryani, rotis and chicken Lahore, our first meat in over a week. We spent a lot of money, at least by local standards, but enjoyed our return to the pleasures of unnecessary excess (with just a twinge of guilt).

Excess gin, Leopold's Café, Colaba, Mumbai

[Update: VG Siddhartha opened the first Café Coffee Day in Bangalore in 1996. By 2019 there were 1,752 branches and Siddhartha was seriously wealthy. On the 31st of July 2019 his body was found near the mouth of the River Nethravati in southern Karnataka. He had jumped from a bridge further upstream. There are questions over the profitability of Coffee Day and the tax situation of the company and Siddhartha himself. Ernst & Young are currently looking at the company’s books and cafés are closing.]

Gujarat

Part 1:Ahmedabad (1) Liquor Licences, Mosques and Tombs

Part 2:Ahmedabad (2) A Stepwell, Gandhi and a Thali
Part 3: Meeting the Locals
Part 4: Siddhpur, Patan and Modhera
Part 5: Salt and Wild Asses in the Little Rann of Kutch
Part 6: Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar
Part 7: Bhavnagar
Part 8: Palitana and the Temples on Shatrunjaya Hill
Part 9: A Lion Hunt and a Visit to Junagadh
Part 10: Gondal
Part 11: Gondal to Bhuj

Part 12: Bhuj

Part 13: To the Great Rann of Kutch, Craft Villages and a Salt Desert

Part 14: Going to School and Other Entertainments in the Great Rann of Kutch

+

Mumbai (1) Dharavi, the World's Biggest Slum

Mumbai (2) The Posh End