Mumbai Neighbourhoods
Volume III

The inner city of Mumbai, in colonial times was called the ‘native town’ or ‘black town’. The structure of the city consisted of the ‘fort’ where the colonial population and some invited Indian communities lived. Outside the fort was the ‘native town’ where Indian traders were invited to settle, to facilitate colonial trade. In the inner city, before the traders started settling, the land was predominantly agrarian. With the advent of traders, many of the plantation owners started converting their lands into housing for the traders. These were mostly chawls. This volume studies ten neighbourhoods in Mumbai’s Inner city that have historically developed a unique urban form.