Mumbai Neighbourhoods
Volume I

Histories of cities are often written as singular causal narratives. However the city is a palimpsest of multiple geographies, actors and events. The multiplicity of these calls for multiple stories to be written. People in the city are themselves large repositories of knowledge. The Mumbai Neighbourhoods Study is part of a five-year initiative at SEA to map nuanced neighbourhood histories, spatial types and contemporary accounts. As a pedagogic tool it is intended to make students gain confidence in the research and writing of neighbourhood histories and city narratives.
Volume 1 focused on the Western Suburbs. Students looked at ten neighbourhoods between Bandra to Borivali - investigating a range of typologies from tribal villages to modern housing societies. The places were chosen with an intent to study different settlement forms, building typologies and practices indicating the manner in which they have remained or redefined a subculture within Mumbai. Students collected their research material primarily by sketching the various typologies, fabric of the place and conducting long interviews with i resource persons and others they encountered on site. They used this information to piece together a nuanced account of the neighbourhood.