Mumbai Fables by Gyan Prakash - Review of a Review

By Harish Trivedi

Mumbai Fables by Gyan Prakash reviewed by Anita Vachharajani, DNA Sunday, Oct 17, 2010, 2:02 IST


Review of a Review:


I have read with interest Ms.Anita Vachharajani’s review that appeared in DNA, October 17, 2010. The review is quite informative and interesting. But in the interest of history and accuracy I am presenting some facts and perspective that is missing in that review.

Commenting about the land reclamation the reviewer states, ‘Started in 1784, reclamations had, by 1872, added four million square yards to Bombay. Girangaon (the ‘Village of Mills’), which had sprouted to meet the international demand for cotton. Unhygienic conditions and a particularly heavy monsoon led to the bubonic plague epidemic of 1896-97.

I have not read Mumbai Fables by Gyan Prakash so I do not know if Mr. Gyan Prakash or the reviewer has come up with the etymology of the word Girgaon or Girgaum but the name has nothing to do with cotton or cotton mills as the reviewer states. Girgaum derives its name from the Sanskrit words Giri [Mountain] and Grama [Village]. The late Salim Ali the great ornithologist and naturalist.. has noted that tigers roamed the hill side of Malbar Hills and one such tiger was spotted at the base of the hills near the Girgaum area in early part of the 20th century.
The business in opium was lucrative and popular at that time in history. Even Warren Hastings had indulged in that past-time. But to say that Wadias dabbled in Opium business without any reference to the contributions of the Wadia clan to the city of Mumbai as we know it, is a gross injustice to these revered family name.
The docks at Bombay are a monument of the industry, enterprise and integrity of the Wadia family. The Wadias moved in from Surat to Mumbai at the invitation of the British.

In 1870 the Bombay Port Trust was formed. In 1872, Jamshedji Wadia, a master ship-builder constructed the "Cornwalis", a frigate of 50 guns, for the East India Company, a success which led to several orders from the British Navy. In all the Wadias, between 1735-1863 built 170 war vessels for the Company, 34 man-of-war for the British Navy, 87 merchant vessels for private firms, and three vessels for the Queen of Muscat at Bombay docks.

Miss Vachharjanai states, ‘He (Prof.Gyan Prakash) describes the various blunders around the Backbay reclamation project Khurshed Framji Nariman…’
The reviewer further says, ‘…Nariman took up cause against the mosquito-breeding ‘grand mess’ that the project had become, was sued by the British government, and went on to completely trounce them…’

This is a misrepresentation or mis-reading or only a partial reading of history either by Prof. Gyan Prakash or by Ms. Vaccharajani.

Mr. Nariman came into the public eye in 1926 as an independent and courageous politician for the sensational libel case against him by the British engineer involved in the Backbay Reclamation scandal.

Mr. Nariman first made charges of corruption and mismanagement of the reclamation project in the Bombay Legislative Council (1926). There upon Mr. Thomas Harvey, the engineer in-charge of the project challenged Mr. Nariman to make those libelous statements in public (as statements made in the chambers of the legislature cannot be challenged in the court of law). Mr. Nariman complied by making the same charges in public. Mr. Harvey filed a libel suite against Mr. K. F. Nariman.

Mr Nariman successfully faught the case and WON (July 20, 1926)and also exposed the scandalous financial arrangements in this scheme. He was called Veer or Courageous Nariman. The end of the Marine Drive causeway road was named Nariman Point because of this event.

In 1935 he was elected the Mayor of the Bombay Corporation. As a Mayor he started the Bombay city Citizens Association and was also its first President to take keen interest in slum clearance.