A swanky makeover for weathered chawls of Mumbai

Developers are excited and occupants are largely worried about the execution of the Maharashtra government’s proposal to redevelop the historic Bombay Development Department chawls, spread over 92 acres of prime real estate. Alok Deshpande reports on the ambitious plan and the varied concerns

In 1933, friends and relatives gathered at chawl number 14 of the Bombay Development Department (BDD) at Delisle Road to celebrate Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s birthday. The event was organised by Comrade R.B. More, one of the important forces behind the Chavdar Tale Satyagraha, a protest against the practice of disallowing the so-called ‘untouchables’ from using water from a public tank. At the programme, balladeer M.K. Kamble sang a paean to honour Ambedkar, mentioning him as ‘Babasaheb’ for the first time. With this event, the Red Chawl, as it was known then, strode into the history books.

Constructed between 1920 and 1925, , standing in the heart of Mumbai, have been witness to many such historical events. They have seen the rapid development of Bombay and then Mumbai as a prosperous island city. They have watched Bombay, found suitable by the British rulers for setting up textile mills, become the financial capital of independent India. The inhabitants of these chawls — poor and lower-middle class Marathi migrant labour and their families — have been spectators as well as participants in not only the city’s industrial growth, but also the freedom struggle, the Left-led labour movement, the Dalit Panther movement, and the Shiv Sena’s growth.