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 MUMBAI CHAWLS

The Chawls in Mumbai were built to provide cheap housing to the thousands who migrated from the 1860s onwards to work in the city's mills and other industries. To house the laborers for the British-built factories in Parel and Lalbaugh , affordable housing in the form of chawls was provided by landlords in Girgaum and adjoining areas. The Chawls were a series of rooms linked by a common balcony facing a courtyard. Each room or set of rooms would have cooking facilities ( usually a charcoal chulha (oven) or kerosene stove ) and a tap from which water was available for a few hours a day. But bathrooms and places to wash vessels and clothes were only available communally on the ground floor. Many of the Chawl buildings were well constructed. The main frame was timber and balconies were a strong feature, echoing local vernacular architecture like the houses in earlier wadis such as khotachiwadi. Many Chawls also had decorative Minton tile flooring and stained glass in some windows. Some even had ornamental gateways.

According to a former resident, the open balcony commonly called a gallery was the heart of Chawl's life. "There was a mix of castes, although some Chawls were exclusive. For example, Talmakiwadi was for Saraswati, Shastri House and Angrewadi was for brahmins. There were 19 families in each corridor in Jitekarachiwadi and children played out in the gallery. Festivals like Diwali, Dussehra, and Ganpati were participative even though they were not as loudly celebrated as today " the resident added.

Sadly however Mumbai's unique Chawls are slowly making way for skyscrapers and in the new modern spaces, the warmth and bonhomie of Chawl life will be sorely missing.