Mumbai: Know your city (Part 1)

It’s amazing how much I dint know about my own city. And to be quiet honest I am too laid back a person to have taken the trouble to find all this if it weren’t for MumbaiCircle.

But these facts are rather interesting and I thought I had share them with you all (the kind person I am).

Here is Part 1 of the “Know Your City” series:

1. The Marine Drive Gymkhanas

All of us have passed across the gymkhanas that adorn Marine Drive – Catholic, Wilson, Hindu, Islam, Parsi. There’s an inter sting story behind their formation that trails back to the formation of Bombay Gymkhana

The Bombay Gymkhana was formed in 1875. This club was exclusively for Europeans.

The Indian communities were not happy about not being allowed membership to this club. Finally, in the 1890’s the British allotted one plot each to the major religious communities in the city, for their exclusive use thus ending their conflict with the colonizers.

Thus came into existence the Hindu, Parsi and Islamic gymkhanas.

A lot of inter-communal matches were organised between these communities. Some such as Gandhiji even condemned these communal matches as they were against his vision of unifying Indians.

2. The Maidans of Fort

There is an interesting piece of history behind the maidans of Fort – Oval maidan, Azad maidan, Cooperage and Cross maidan.

Oval Maidan, 1875

As soon as the British East India Company took over the 7 islands of Bombay from Charles II in 1668, they started fortifying Bombay. Indians were only allowed inside the Fort with permission.

The fort had three gates, called the Apollo Gate, Church Gate and Bazaar Gate. An esplanade, a level open space, was maintained along the western fringe of the fort to provide a clear line of fire.

The fort was never properly invested in and in 1860 it was demolished by Sir Bartle Frere, the then Governor of Bombay. The ramparts were removed, the moat filled in, and the area was significantly re-structured.

In order to finance some public building works Governor Brere divided the single stretch into 4 parts – Oval, Azad, Cross and Cooperage – and thus came into being the “Maidans of Fort”.