Gujarati Muslims who built Bombay’s commerce—and carried it across the world

‘Gujarati Muslim Communities in Colonial Mumbai’ event explored the contribution of prominent families in the early 20th century, and their business interests from glassware, opium to silk to shipping.

Left to right: Danish Khan in conversation with Murali Ranganathan at The Asiatic Society | Purva Chitnis, ThePrint

Mumbai: The JJ flyover snaking through the dense areas of Mumbai’s Dongri and Bhindi Bazaar on its single pillar hides the history of three Gujarati-Muslim trading communities. The contribution of the Bohras, Khojas and Memons to colonial Bombay’s commerce and politics is often relegated to a footnote. But London-based author and journalist Danish Khan intends to set the record straight. 

“Every time I think of the JJ flyover, I think of life going down below. That is the real hub. The history is getting lost there,” said Khan in conversation with historian Murali Ranganathan at The Asiatic Society of Mumbai earlier this month.

The event, ‘Gujarati Muslim Communities in Colonial Mumbai’, explored the contribution of prominent families in the early 20th century, and their business interests that ranged from glassware to opium to silk to cotton mills to shipping. 

Sir Ibrahim Rahimtoola from the Khoja community, who served as the president of the imperial Legislative Assembly, was also the mayor of Bombay. Among the Bohras, there was philanthropist Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy, who was knighted by the British government and financed the Matheran Hill Railway. 

Khan, who is working on his new book on Muslim capitalism, distinguished these communities and their north Indian Urdu-speaking Muslim counterparts.

The Khojas, Bohras, Memons from Mumbai had a commercial background, unlike the Urdu-speaking north Indian Muslims, who more often than not were writers, poets, artists—and even landlords. 

The reach of the Bohras, Khojas and Memons was extensive—they not only had footprints in India but also across the world.

“In my research, what I found mindboggling was when they went across the Indian Ocean, they carried their family as well. Unlike other community members, they transplanted their families wherever they went, and this was a good point for the British colonial administrators who wanted parts of Africa and others to do well commercially. They did, and they did wonderfully,” Khan said.

His book looks at the Gujarati Muslims in colonial Bombay as economic actors. He details their contribution to trade and commerce and how they shaped the contours of India’s financial capital. 

“While we have stories about the Parsis, the baniyans, the marwaris, there is a lack of engagement with the Bohras, Khojas, and Memons as a business group,” he said.

Audience at The Asiatic Society | Purva Chitnis, ThePrint

Gujarati Muslims in Mumbai

Even back in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bombay attracted people from all over India.  

“It was a period when people were finding and discovering their identities in terms of religious roots, philosophies they could follow,” said Khan, adding that people built their identities not based on religions but by their professions. 

In terms of sheer numbers, the Gujarati Muslims were a small community, but their contribution was immense. According to Ranganathan, the population of 19th-century Mumbai was about 1.1 million, of which 25 per cent were Muslim. In 1901, it was estimated that there were 17,000 Memons, 11,000 Bohras, and about 9,000-10,000 Khojas, he said, citing the first official census for Mumbai that was conducted in 1860.  

“But what is important is that the Muslim political representation revolved around these communities as they had the wealth to stand for the elections and vote,” said Khan.  

Famous lineages 

One of the most prominent Bohras was the Tyabji family, who started as traders but with each subsequent generation became lawyers, politicians, diplomats, and academicians. One of the descendants was Badruddin Tyabji (1844-1906), who became the first Indian lawyer to practise at the Bombay High Court. He was also president of the Indian National Congress. 

Among the Khoja Muslims, the Currimbhoy Ebrahim family held sway in the mid-19th century, with trade interests reaching China and Africa. The family started with shipping, then progressed to the cotton industry. They owned at least a dozen cotton mills across the city.  

Another big name was Umar Sobani, a Memon who was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and the owner of Elphinstone Mill in Mumbai. He also participated in the non-cooperation movement. 

These communities had crossed the Indian borders and were even influential overseas. For instance, when HSBC bank was being founded in Hong Kong in 1865, Ebrahim Noordin became the bank’s earliest customer just 10 days after it was founded. 

The lost history in the Dongri area below the JJ flyover needs its own heritage walk, said Khan. Many moved to more luxurious homes in Malabar Hill, but when they grew old, they would return to their roots.

“They would come back to their mohallas where they once lived. Their family members would take them there,” said Khan. And they would spend their last days in their childhood homes. “This went on till the 1930s.”

(Edited by Ratan Priya)