Mumbai Research Centre, Asiatic Society of Mumbai, Gateway House, and Avid Learning present Uncovering Urban Legacies: Tracing the Sindhi and Parsi Heritage of Bombay.
Mumbai’s diverse urban fabric is built on the cultures and lifestyles of communities that call it their home. The communal diversity can be traced back to the 17th century which saw a flock of traders and merchants landing on the shores.
In the sixth edition of Uncovering Urban Legacies, our eminent speakers will explore the rich heritage of the Sindhi and Parsi communities to understand their indelible legacy on the city and its surroundings. They will traverse through Bombay’s historical, geographical, and sociocultural influences while illuminating the lesser-known ones, pivotally shaping the city.
Come and be a part of this fascinating journey to discover and re-discover the stories of not one but two communities that embraced and enriched Bombay.
Saaz Aggarwal has a Master’s degree in Mathematics, but over the years established herself as a writer and artist. Her body of work includes biographies, translations, critical reviews, and humour columns, as well as themed painting collections and mixed-media installations. Her books Sindh: Stories from a Vanished Homeland (2012), The Amils of Sindh (2019), and Sindhi Tapestry (2021) are in the libraries of the best universities around the world, and much of her research contribution is online: sindhstories, sindhworkis, talks, and free downloads. Her latest book, Losing Home (2022), uses simple language and strong visual imagery, weaving personal stories with historically-authentic illustrations and archival photographs, to tell the story of what life was like for the Sindhis until they were scattered by Partition, and the subsequent heroic rebuilding of lives. It is the culmination of ten years of research, and carries important messages for readers of all ages!
Read more
Dinyar Patel is an Assistant Professor of History at the S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) in Mumbai. He is the author of Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism (Harvard University Press, 2020), and the recipient of the 2021 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize. Patel's research focuses on the Indian nationalist movement, the urban history of Bombay/Mumbai, the history of the Parsi community, and global dimensions of Indian history. He is the recipient of fellowships from the US National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Program. His articles have been published in BBC News, The New York Times online, Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Scroll.in, The India Forum, Indian Express, and The Hindu.
Read more
Sifra Lentin is a Mumbai-based writer and the Bombay History Fellow at Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. She was awarded the 2018-19 Herbert Katz Fellowship for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania for her ongoing project on “Karachi’s Jewish Community”. The books written by her are the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet coffee table book ‘A Salute to The Sword Arm – A Photo Essay on The Western Fleet’ (April 2007); Our Legacy: the Dwarkadas family of Bombay (March 2018), Bombay’s International Linkages (February 2019), a Gateway House publication, and more recently "Mercantile Bombay: A journey of trade, finance & enterprise" (2022). She has contributed chapters on Bombay’s Jewish community to three books.
Read moreUncovering Urban Legacies is a series that looks at small but unique communities and how their rich culture and legacy have historically, economically and socio-culturally shaped the trading port city of Bombay. This series offers coveted academic perspectives on fascinating communities that have contributed to and influenced our city, the variety of fascinating cultures, their significant history and the enduring legacy of many diasporic communities in Mumbai. By far the series has explored the Jewish, Irani, Portuguese, Chinese and Armenian diasporas in our city and how their unique culture is intricately woven into the city’s landscape.
