Mumbai and Dharavi

Mumbai does not have a significant history, unlike Delhi and other cities on the North India Plain. In fact it was just a group of seven islands on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The city as it is constituted today can be traced back only just over 200 years, which is when the East India Company got involved, because of it's being closer to Britain than other available ports. Treaties, not unlike Hong Kong's, allowed a toe in the door. The seven islands were engineered into one joined up area into what we now know as Mumbai. The rest, as they say, is history, because of British military successes. Only two large buildings from that period exist, Gateway to India (1911), which became the exit door in 1948, at independence. The other is Victoria Terminus (1848), a truly massive and impressive monument to the British Empire, a railway station, it dwarfs Paddington in scale and grandure. A pic of both should appear below. Britain left behind, te railways, main road system, and legal sytm, all benefited Bitain, for example the railways were built at the expense of Indian taxpayers, but all dividends were paid in London.

I found Dharavi, where I spent two days, in what is the world's largest slum. A truly staggering 1 million  people living within an area of one square mile, making those who complain about Britain being overcrowded exaggerating somewhat! I was awed by the business, entrepreneur ness, both volume and intensity of this inner city. It is doomed in a city with has the highest land values in the world. A large new city of corporate high rises is taking shape, with all the infrastructure involved, surrounding this oases of real productive work. Many of the products that leave the area came in as recycling material. The population is 90% immigrants and communities that find it hard to live elsewhere. 60% are Muslims! the rest are made up of Dalits (Untouchables), Bangladeshis, Southern Indians and. Buddhists.

Most of these pictures came out in a bigger mess than usual, as I had problems uploading

External view of Hajali

Ali's Mosque with me looking suitably penitent

                                       The intensity of some of the worshipers was concerning

My guest house box in Colaba, Delhi, right next to the Taj that was part of a terrorist attack a few years 

                                               ago

ago
      The of the magnificent Victoria Terminus Railway Station

                                              

                                              Ceremony in the Jain Temple

                                              Exterior of the Jain Temple

                                               Vitamin A gene added to carrots to help combat disease

                                                    

                                                          Exterior of Hajali Mosque

                                              Procession to Hajali

                                              Spice and grain shop in Dharavi

                                              

                                              Religious garland shop in Dharavi

                                              Potters shop in Dharavi

 

                                               The open air dhaba (washing) area

                                                         Street in Dharavi

                                                          Tea and food shop

                                              Clothes manufacturing

                                              Finished clothes ready for dispatch

                                                    Leather safety glove manufacturer

                                               Mumbai Metro train interior

        India Gate entry point which eventually became the exit door for the British

                                     Leather being dyed. The acrid vapour caught in thr throat

Some locals with whom I had a pot of chai