Bandra

Etymology: Tradition has it that the suburb was originally known as ‘Vandra’ as it was home of several hundred monkeys who inhabited both Pali Hill and Mt. Mary Hill. Then it was “Bandor” or "Bandora" as the Portuguese called Bandra in 1505. It was also called Bandera, Bandura, Bandore, Pandara, Bandorah, Bandara and Vandre. But finally it was officially designated as “Bandra” when the railway station signboard was painted at the end of the last century and the Bandra station and platforms were built.

The Portugese acquired Bandra, a fishing and an agrarian village in the year 1534 and it remained with them till the year 1775 when it became part of the British Empire under the Treaty of Surat. In the year 1779 it was under the rule of Marathas till the year 1802 when the Bajirao II signed the Treaty of Bassein with the British and since then it remained with them till the year 1947. The area was under the rule of the Silhara dynasty in the 12th century.

In 1661, when King Charles married Catherina of Portugal, the island of Mumbai was given to England as part of the dowry. However, Salsette Island, on which Bandra lay, was not part of this treaty and remained with the Portuguese.

During the rule of Portugese, the villages of Bandora and Khar were leased to Antonio Pessoa in the year 1548 for 488 pardaos 2 3/4 tangas by the Viceroy D. Joao de Castro. At some point of time the four villages of Parel, Wadala, Sion and Worli were granted to one Manuel Serrao and after him were granted to the Jesuits. Later Jesuits exchanged the Village of Bandra and Khar with Antonio Pessoa for Worli and thats how Jesuits got possession of Bandra. This must have happened between 1560s to 70s and the church of the Jesuits at Bandora was built in 1570 while the church of St. Andrew was built in 16th century in the year 1575 by Jesuits

BANDRA RAILWAYS

12th April 1867 the B.B & C.I railway commenced the first rail service of one train a day between Virar and Colaba (called Bombay Back Bay Station). This cheap, speedy and convenient transport service resulted in a greater influx into Bandra, so that hardly six years later, the service was increased to 24 trains each way, each day. On 12 April 1867 the first railway service was inaugurated with one train per day between Virar and Colaba in south Bombay. In the year 1947 a proposal to connect Bandra and Kurla was investigated by the Railways and later in 1952 when the Oil Refineries were proposed to be installed but was discarded as it was not economically viable.

In 1600,s the Portuguese built a church in Bandra on a hillock, which came to be known as the Mount Mary Church. The Portuguese also built a road from Mahim fort to the church to facilitate the devotees to attend the ceremonies at the church. As a result of the church, this area once isolated was converted into settlement for the catholic faithful. Soon small and large, cozy and traditional villas dotted the landscape. 

Bandra consisted of villages called Sherly, Malla, Rajan, Kantwadi, Waroda, Ranwar, Boran and Pali. It also included Chuim, which is now part of Khar. Bandra had 2 hills, Mount Mary Hill and Pali Hill. Residents of Bandra were people mainly by East Indians (original residents of Bombay Salsette, Bassein and Thana), a few Goans and Manglorian immigrants, Parsis, Muslims, Mahars, Europeans and Hindu Kolis. Bandra developed in late 1800 and early 1900’s. Many Co-Operative Housing Societies based on community were created by obtaining land from Bombay Improvement Trust on leases of 999 years. There is two such societies in bandra namely the St. Sebastian Co-Operative Housing Society and Salsette Catholic Co-Operative Housing Society. Majority of the population in these area are Christians. These societies are well planned and have gridiron road network, regular plots and open spaces.

Bandra Fort:  Castella de Aguada, The Portuguese had also built the Castella de Aguada in 1640, a fort at the mouth of the estuary at Bandra, to keep watch over the Arabian Sea and the island of Mumbai. It was subsequently surrendered to the British and later occupied by the Marathas, marking the end of Portuguese domination of Salsette Island.

Joining BANDRA and MAHIM

Until about the middle of the 18th century, a few small boats plied the creek between Bandra and Mahim. As the number of commuters to the island city increased, the British instituted a regular ferry service in 1775, to transport passengers, horses and stores to the commercial centres in Bombay. In 1845, after a number of ferry boats capsized a project was launched to construct a motorable road across the tidal creek. The causeway, which was financed by Lady Jamshetji Jeejeebhoy, commenced in 1843. It was designed by Lt. Crawford and constructed by Capt. Cruickshank of the Bombay Engineers. The causeway was opened to the public in 1845. Avibai Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy wife of Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy gave one and a half lakh rupees to fund the construction of the causeway and thats why its called Lade Jamsetjee Road. The total cost of its construction was Rs 2 lakhs.

BANDRA SLAUGHTER HOUSE The slaughter house in Bandra was contructed in the year 1867 and spread across 18 acres and before that it was located at Bori Bunder but was moved from there as people opposed it. Arthur Crawford the first Municipal Commissioner of Bombay undertook the exercise fo shifting the same. and it functioned here till 1973 when it was shifted to Deonar. At the time the slaughter house was shifted there was resisternce from the butchers and the general public. R P Masani in his book The Evolution of Local Self Governemnt in Bombay (1929) notes that “For the transport of meat a daily meat-train service was arranged-a measure long needed but strenuously opposed to the end by the whole guild of butchers”, since it was not only necessary because of the caste and religious beliefs that mutton and beef be slaughtered seperately but it was to be transported also seperately.

In the year 1920 the Bombay Municipal Corporation called for a report on possibility of shifting the slaughter house to Deonar. In the year 1953 a Committee headed by R P Masani, on the question of Slaughter houses in the State gave a report and recomended that the Bandra slaughter house should be demolished and be shifted to either Deonar or Thane. Agsin in the year 1957 there was a move to shift the slaughtwr house, that time the Central Governement pushed it citing it as a threat to the flights from the nearby airport. According to the Civil Aviation ministry the slaughter house was attracting vultures and other birds that were causing a threat to the flights. In 1876 the Bandra Municipal Borough was established

Slaughter sheep and goats are brought especially from Rajasthan and Gujarat. The cows and bullocks were imported from Poona, Sholapur, Baroda, Delhi, etc. The buffaloes come from Suburbs and Extended Suburbs. laughter houses. The Bombay Municipal Slaughter Houses support 150 families of butchers. These slaughter houses stand at the north end of the Lady Jamsetji causeway on the site of the old Jesuit monastery of St. Anne's about 100 yards south-west of the Bandra railway station. They are three in number, one for beef and two for mutton. [These details have been prepared by Mr. P. C. Higgins, Superintendent of Markets and Slaughter-houses, Bombay. One of the slaughter houses is rented to Government for the use of the Commissariat department.] The buildings, which were finished on the 18th February 1867,[The first meat train left Bandra at 3-30 A.M. and reached the Bori Bandar station at 4-46 A.M. on the morning of 20th February 1867.] at a cost of �32,000 (Rs. 3,20,000), were designed by Mr. Russell Aitken, then Municipal Engineer, and were built by Messrs. Wells and Glover. They are neat, strong, and well suited for their work. They are built of rubble masonry with facings of Porbandar sand-stone with iron roofs ventilated from above, and with floors of finely dressed basalt set in cement and well drained. The stock sheds, which lie on either side of the slaughter houses, are strong airy buildings 200 feet long by thirty-five broad, with iron roofs, surrounded by stone walls and strong pallisades. The buildings are so arranged as to be easily enlarged. Besides the slaughter houses and live stock sheds, there are lines for the kamatris,or slaughterers, and others employed at the slaughter house. There is also a covered space with standing ground for a week's supply of live stock, that is, at least 800 head of cattle and 10,000 sheep; there is also space for weekly and half-weekly markets, and ample convenience for cattle and sheep to reach the slaughter house by rail. In deference to the Hindu feeling against the use of beef, care has been taken to separate the mutton and the beef slaughter houses by a high wall. [For the same reason, in the meat train three passenger vans for the butchers and their servants used to be placed between the beef and mutton vans.] The floors of the houses are very carefully cleaned by water brought across the causeway from the Vehar main. The meat train, which has been discontinued since January 1879, used to pass at the Bandra station through a siding which branched into two lines, the west siding being for the live-stock and the east siding for the meat. The space between the two sidings is filled by the mutton, beef, and Commissariat slaughter houses which are built on the line with their respective yards in the rear. The siding ran close along the curve on which the slaughter houses stand, so as to admit of meat being loaded into large airy vans where it used to hang till 3-30 A.M. the time of starting for Bombay. By this arrangement the meat reached Bombay within half an hour. Since January 1879 the meat train has been discontinued in favour of the bullock cart and road system. According to the present arrangements, when the carcasses are cleaned and dressed, they are halved and quartered and hung in the bullock meat-vans. The vans, of which there are twenty-six, leave the slaughter house at 12 P.M. with a sub-inspector in charge, and reach the Bombay markets at about 3-30 A.M. [The meat is all the time in charge of the municipal superintendent of markets, the doors of the vans being under his look and key with duplicate keys at the different markets in Bombay. The butchers' servants travel with the vans sitting with the drivers. The doors of the vans are opened by the municipal peons on duty at the markets, and on producing the slaughter-house receipts the butchers' servants take their masters' meat to their stalls.]

The Salsette Co-operative Housing Society, Ltd. Salsette Catholic Co-operative Housing Society was setup in the year 1918 by FAC Rebello who at that time was the Accountant General of Bombay. The Society finally got the land in the year 1930 and undertook that is known as Kantwadi Scheme spread across 59 acres containing 220 plots. The Society was formed with the objective of acquiring for its members plots of land in the vicinity of the railway stations in Salsette for residential quarters. F. A.C. Rebello came with the idea of getting Society members to become the owners of plots in the area, and, as these plots belonged almost entirely to the members of the East Indian Community, to parcel them out amongst the members of the Community principally. The area to be acquired was 69 acres, and the acquisition of these land by private negotiations, belonging as they did to a large number of owners, was a stupendous task. Mr. Rebello, and those who worked with him, soon found out that the only way of acquiring some of the lands was to induce the owners to bring their lands into the scheme on the condition that plots of 100 sq. yds. Equivalent in area to three-fourths of their lands would be given in exchange. It was understood that they would pay all betterment charges.

One of the largest owners was the Late Mr. P. C. Gonsalves and who agreed to the idea of pooling and he also influenced the other smaller land owners. The first road constructed as part of the Scheme was the Perry Road, named after the Collector, Mr. E. W. Perry and the road give access to the lands in the Danda Government Scheme.

The St. Sebastian Homes Co-operative Society, Ltd By D. E. Pereira A.C.R.A (taken from the Archives of the East Indian Association Silver Jubilee)   The St. Sebastian’s homes Co-operative Society Ltd. Was established in 1918, being registers under the Co-operative Societies Act II of 1912. It was founded by the Late Mr. F. A. C. Rebello.   It was primarily intended to provide cheap housing accommodation for poor Catholic students and families of the Goan Community by having a hostel for boys going to school with a work-room, garden and playground, and also to provide building plots for members desiring to build their own houses. For this purpose a tract of land admeasuring about 40,500 sq. yds. was purchased in the first instance, 33,600 square yards, from one J. D. Mistry and about 7,000 square yards from several other owners. Immediately after these purchases, the land market rose in price and it was not possible for the Society to extend its area except with the aid of Government under the Land Acquisition Act.   In 1920, the Society applied to Government for acquisition of certain area for the Society, but simultaneously Government had mooted a scheme for the development of the chapel Road area known as the Chapel Road Scheme No. VIII. Mr. F.A.C. Rebello who had taken the initiative in this matter came to know that his application for acquisition would not be successful. His next move therefore was to ask the land owners of that locality, who were chiefly East Indians, to join his Society and to bring in their lands into the Society. The Society agreed in return to grant them building plots in proportion to the land brought in by each of the land owners.   The East Indian landowners found themselves in a dilemma. They, however, preferred to join the Society, rather than allow their ancestral buildings to pass out of their hands altogether, which would have been the case, had Government acquired their lands as intended.   This influx rejuvenated the Society which acquired about 25 new members with an additional area of about 12.5 acres of land (60,500 sq. yds.) which is the total area owned by the society in the Chapel Road Scheme. The additional area solidifies the Society’s rights as a substantial owner and the Development department were forced to return land to the Society after deducting a quarter of the area for roads. With fresh invasion of members together with their lands, the idea of having the hostel, etc. was abandoned.

The population of Bnadra in 1941 wasa about 70,000.

BANDRA MUNICIPALITY: The Bandra municipality was established in 1876 and the municipal district included the villages of: Naupada, Khar, Pali, Varoda, Chimbai, Katvadi, Mala, Sherli Rajan, Chui, and Danda. The income of the municipality mainly came from taxes on houses, boats, and roads.

GOLF COURSE

There was an 18 hole golf course in Bandra  called Danda Green with an English style Club House on the top of the hill, surrounded by trees.  Membership was only for the British who lived in Pali Hill.. Each cottage had a stable for horses. 

BANDRA LAKE Bandra Lake, also called "Bandra Talao" or "Motha Reservoir" was constructed by a rich Konkani Muslim of Navapada an adjoining village. The lake was later acquired by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and was named Swami Vivekanand Sarovar.

BANDRA CROSSES

There are over 150 crosses at various places. Many crosses were built to ward off the plague epidemic (1896-1906).The oldest is the one relocated in St Andrew's church compound. Stands 17ft high and made of a single stone. It was originally in the Jesuit seminary of St Anne built in 1610. The bldg was destroyed in 1739 and the cross was relocated to St Andrews church. The surface is carved all over with 39 emblems of the passion of Christ. Bazaar Rd is only 2 km long but houses a Jain temple, Ram Mandir, Hanuman temple, Khoja mosque, Christian chapel and a Sikh gurduwara. 

TATA AGIARY The Tata Agiary on Hill Rd was built by Tata in memory of his wife in 1884 The Tata Agiary was built in 1884 by Seth Nusserwanjee Ruttonjee Tata for the Parsis.

The Bandra Jama Masjid was constructed in the late ‘20s by the Bakar Kasai Jamat (butcher community). 17 Bandra Town Planning Scheme An important development in the history of Bandra seems to have been the Town Planning Scheme of 1927, which put an end to plots of small farmers and made room for housing projects and commercial establishments in the suburb, extending into Khar.

BANDRA VILLAGES Bandra was divided into 24 villages, separated from one another by vast tracts of cultivated land, mango groves, coconut and palm trees and inhabited by fisherfolk and farmers. 7 Apart from the Kunbis and Kolis, the other caste groups seem to have been Bhadaris, Bhois, Dhobis, Kumbhars and Pathare Prabhus. 8 Danda, Ranwar, Chimbai, Sherly, Rajan etc continue to survive and bear a similar name. Sherly, Malla, Sherly Rajan, was formed way back duing the 18th century and the inhabitants were mostly farmers and toddy tapers. Chimbai was a fishing village

Kantwadi, Waroda, Ranwar, Boran and Pali. It also included Chuim,

In 1915, the Western Trunk Route of Bombay was extended from Bandra to Jogeshwari

The lava flows, including the one at Bandra coast, are composed of black fine-grained rock, termed basalt, composed of dark coloured minerals ++++++++++++++++++++++

For Further Reading:

Shells from the Sands of Bombay, D E Wacha 1920