A guided walk in Kamathipura

Early on a cloudy Sunday morning I stand with a bunch of strangers on a busy street opposite the Royal Cinemas in Kamathipura. I have heard seedy stories of Kamathipura of the past. This neighbourhood is a famous red-light area of Mumbai but somehow its fame has waned overtime. Today I stand here waiting for Zoya Kathawala, an insider of the neighbourhood, who has promised to show Kamathipura in a different light with her walk “Kamathipura- Beyond the Brothels”.

What eventually came to be known as Bombay used to be an archipelago of seven islands—Bombay, Mazgaon, Parel, Worli, Mahim, Colaba, and Little Colaba. These islands were separated from each other by creeks and marshes. Once the archipelago came under the control of the British, they started reclamation—the process of joining the islands by filling the creeks. The geography was changed—hills were broken to fill up seas.

From the reclaimed land, Kamathipura sprung up.

The sex trade history of Kamathipura

Back in the days Kamathipura was a much sought after place for its brothels. The sex workers were coveted. According to Zoya, visiting Kamathipura was on the wish list of most of the sailors. “The road from here straightaway lead to the docks. The pimps would wait at the docks with horse-drawn carriages and directly bring the sailors here,” says Zoya.

The street now known as Shuklaji Street was once upon a time called “Safed gully” (white alley). This is where the white sex workers, mostly of Jewish origin from the Middle-East and East European countries, operated. Women sold into slavery from Latin America and Japan also ended up here.

However, the women here were never from a colonizer country, particularly Britain.

Tortures that women in sex trade had to bear

“The white sex workers had access to doctors whereas the Indian ones had to make do with home-made remedies,” says Zoya while informing us about a very gory crime that was committed against one such sex worker who contracted a terrible STD in the 1920s.

The living quarters of the women were basically cages. The “madams” or the pimps often abused the women physically, particularly when they refused to work due to legit illnesses. In some cases, they were beaten to death. Since the women usually had no relatives (or were sold by the relatives and severed ties) to count on, their murders would go unnoticed. Until one day it wasn’t and hit the headlines.

So what is there in Kamathipura beyond the brothels?

Not all lanes of this area house brothels.

In fact, the street we start our walk from is famous for cinemas. These businesses loom in obscurity and uncertainty. Some have also been demolished and redeveloped. The oddity of the cinemas here is that all of them have an in-house dargah(Muslim shrine). A nice cross-religious bond is seen here as the workers maintaining the dargah are not always Muslim by faith.

A Chinatown of the past

I had visited the only Chinese temple in Mumbai, the Kwan Kung Temple in Mazgaon, a few months back. I have also heard stories about the Chinese community settled in Bombay, so naturally I was elated at hearing that the street that I’m standing on was once a bustling Chinatown.

The endless opportunities at the port of Bombay attracted lots of immigrants into the city, the Chinese among them. Eventually they settled here in Kamathipura and started working as dentists etc. However, the Sino-Indian war of 1962 changed that forever.

After living in Bombay (and all over India) for 3-4 generations, the Chinese were subjected to racism by the-then Indian government. They were uprooted from their land, their belongings were ransacked and stolen, and entire families were incarcerated in Deoli encampment in Rajasthan’s deserts. All this without proofs and trials.

Many died in confinement. Later, most of them were forced to migrate to China, a place with which they share nothing in common except for ethnicity. Those who chose to stay in India continued facing harassments and most chose to emigrate to western countries when opportunities arose. (Read the book The Deoliwallahs for more.)

The inspiring anti-caste movement

It is no secret that India is riddled with a problem—the ‘high-caste’ Hindus time and again finding ways to discriminate, harass and torture people who they deem to be of low-caste (Dalits). Siddharthnagar, a sub-locality in Kamathipura, was ground zero of the Dalit Panther movement. The movement was set in motion by Dalit intellectuals like Namdeo Dhasal who believed that dialogue, words, and the pen can move mountains.

The high impact but peaceful movement faced police brutality and eventually it ended with The Emergency (a time when civil liberties did not exist) of 1975.

I also visit the premises of a building that is rumoured to have been a printing press from where Dr. Ambedkar published an inclusive newspaper catering to everyone in the society.

The neighbourhood is also home to a thriving Hijra community. I loved how Zoya dismantled popular prejudices—ones that had originated from hatred based on caste, race, class, and sexual orientation.

Look beyond the sex trade

Jeans dyeing, ittar(perfume) making, shoe making are just some of the industries Zoya showed us around. “See this alley,” Zoya says pointing to a deserted tiny alley. This becomes a second-hand/duplicate shoe market at 4AM every Friday and Sunday. “People who shop here make a picnic out of it”!

It was mind-blowing to imagine this tiny patch of lane humming with people.

Zoya explains the dynamics of every community who live and trade here. She focuses specifically on communities who have been relegated to the peripheries of “respectable societies,” for example, the nomadic ragpicker community.

Architecture galore

From the window, someone shouts, “Good morning, here after a long time?”

“Yes, the rain stalled my walks,” Zoya shouts back.

Apparently, the lady talking with Zoya is a descendant of S.K Pupala—a freedom fighter who remains obscure in our history lessons. His house remains intact with clear traces of the architecture of that time. The Pupala family has produced freedom fighters, contractors, engineers, and a mayor!

Just beside Pupala house is the most aesthetic spot of this walk—a beautiful Dutta temple constructed by Neelam Bai, a visionary of the past. There is no evidence that can point to the time of its construction.

Farther down we reach the Pochamma Devi temple—the deity is revered by the Telugu people. As history goes, the Nizams of Hyderabad lost a war against the Marathas in 1795. After the war, residents, mostly Telugu, migrated from the Deccan for Bombay. They found jobs as masons in the expanding city. Since Bombay was being reclaimed, ample land was available. The authorities settled them in the reclaimed land that came to be known as Kamathipura now, named after ‘Kamathis’, a word that means ‘labourers’ in Marathi.

The architecture of this temple has many similarities with the Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) station and the Brihanmumbai Municipality Corporation (BMC) buildings. It is because the contractors and masons of these historic British edifices were residents of Kamathipura.

The notorious Nagpada Junction

We walk by the Bellasis Road. It was built to connect Fort with Byculla, Malabar Hill and other western suburbs that were upcoming during that time.

We gather in front of Saarvi café, an Irani café bang opposite the Nagpada Police Station. Saarvi was the haunt of Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff and rumours say he still orders from here. Pakistani writer and director Saadat Hassan Manto was also a regular here.

I notice there is no signboard at the café. Apparently, Saarvi is so popular that one is just supposed to ‘know’ it. As a migrant from a different city, I felt this is an unnecessary “show-off”. Also, it makes very little business sense. But well, most of the Irani/Parsi cafes in Bombay function like this—good food, great bargain, but too much attitude and no service. So yeah, I am not surprised.

Coming back to the walk, Zoya takes us through a narration of real-life gang wars in the 70s and 80s Bombay. Dawood Ibrahim, Karim Lala, Haji Mastan, the Pathan gang, the Bombay Police and journalist Iqbal Natik – everyone features in Zoya’s reconstruction of the past.  Right at the place we stand was ground zero for a gunfight in the 80s. With bated breath everyone listens to Zoya as she takes us on a journey through time.

With this final action-packed flashback our walk ends.

Why you should go on this walk

The heart of the walk revolves around humanizing the marginalized and stigmatized people and communities that dwell in this neighbourhood. Zoya tries to tell the stories without missing the nuance. Nothing is black and white here. There is no judgement. There is context backed facts and the explorers are allowed to form their own independent opinions.

Details:

• Price– INR 1000 per head
• Duration– 2 hours
• Timing– Usually 7.30AM on a weekends
• Location– Meeting point somewhere around Grant Road
• How to book– Follow Zoya Kathawala on Instagram where she announces her walks (@zoyakathawala). Her walk is also listed on Urbanaut app.
• Requirement– Dress modestly, always ask for permission before shooting people and no DSLR(as that attracts too much attention).

*****

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