Mapping Memories in a Metropolis: Khotachiwadi's Local Oral Histories and Their Relevance to Mumbai's Broader Urban Narratives

Andre Jude Joseph Baptista

The city of Bombay, India, has firmly stepped into the 21st century as Mumbai, reintroducing or maintaining elements of its journey while welcoming and incorporating new ones. Historical enclaves dotting the city carry surviving bits of Mumbai’s built heritage, and the personal stories of people who have resided in them for generations lend themselves as a vibrant thread in the city’s colourful tapestry. These spaces have contributed in part to shaping the city’s overall visual and cultural identity, and presently offer, through memories preserved in oral traditions, unique perspectives on that narrative. They are marked by parallel ideas of migration and community, language and expression, belief systems and lifestyles, architecture and design, social reform and education, art and literature, music and theatre. Current perceptions of these ideas, together with associated memories – both personal and collective, render identity to the space and its people. As such, they each represent a microcosm of urban histories sustaining both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Located in the southern part of the island city of Mumbai, the 200-year-old precinct of Khotachiwadi is an ideal heritage enclave to explore these ideas. By dealing with concepts of space and identity, and object and memory at a micro level, this work will provide glimpses of Mumbai’s urban histories.