How would Mumbai look today if the African Siddi Yakut had captured the island city from the British in 1689? If the British hadn’t filled the coffers of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to end the nine-month siege of the Mazgaon fort, Mumbai’s history would have been very different.
Chances are that the city would perhaps never have witnessed its transformation into the 18th century modern city and the present-day financial nerve centre.
Most Mazgaon residents who frequent the amazingly clean and well-maintained civic garden atop Bhandarwada Hill for evening walks don’t know that a fort once existed on this hillock, perched above the Dockyard railway station and overlooking P D’Mello Road. Nor do the elders who frequent a shelter created for senior citizens in the garden.
The pujari of the 100-year-old Gamdevi temple on the hill is equally in the dark, just as is the state Directorate of Archaeology and Museums!
But, Suman Tate with Bhau Daji Laud Museum, Byculla, however, confirms that Bhandarkar Hill was the place where the Mazgaon fort stood. ‘‘After the Siddis captured the Sewri fort, they attacked the Mazgaon fort. I came across references to a battle between Chhatrapati Shivaji’s son Sambhaji and Siddi Yakut on this fort, but that needs to be confirmed. I even remember seeing a cannon there several years ago,’’ says Tate, who is engaged in a research project on Mumbai’s forts.
The Bombay Gazetteer, a highly detailed account of the city by the British, provides a fascinating glimpse into the strategic location of Mazgaon and the ferocity of the invasions by the Siddis, the generals of North African origin who worked with Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The Siddis repeatedly attacked the islands in Mumbai harbour from 1672, at a time when the British had acquired the island city from the Portuguese but were yet to shift their trading headquarters from Surat to Mumbai. The increasing invasions by the Siddi fleets were one of the reasons why the East India Company finally moved its base to secure the Mumbai harbour.
During the early invasions in December 1672, then British Governor Gerald Aungier, considered by many as the father of modern Mumbai, reluctantly allotted them houses in Mazgaon. The Gazetteer notes that between 1672 and 1682, the Siddis made continual use of Bombay as a military base, and targeted the Marathas and the British.
There are references to show that the Siddis terrorised Mumbai’s natives; they drove people from their houses, pillaged and burnt their homes, adorned the heads of massacred Marathas on poles along the Mazgaon shore, and sold Maratha captives in the town market.
According to the Gazetteer, the most ambitious of Siddi invasions was in 1689, when Siddi Yakut, backed by 20,000 men, stormed Mumbai. The fleet first captured the Sewri fort, plundered Mahim town, and moved towards Mazgaon. The news that the Siddis had arrived at Sewri frightened Mazgaon the ‘‘natives’’ so much that they abandoned the fort.
Despite British Governor Sir John Child’s attempt to dislodge the Siddi, he had captured virtually the whole of the island city except the fortified British garrison in South Mumbai. The Siddi siege, from April to December of 1689, forced the British to survive on stocked food, and eventually strike a deal with Aurangzeb to get rid of him.
The Gazetteer notes that in December, Child despatched envoys to Aurangzeb to buy peace. In February, 1690, the Mughal emperor issued an order agreeing to withdraw the Siddi fleet if the British paid Rs 1.5 lakh and sacked Child as governor.
Siddi Yakut eventually withdrew his forces on June 8, 1690, but before leaving Mazgaon, he burnt and destroyed the fort in a single act of defiance.
Nearly 200 years after the Mazgaon fort was destroyed, the Bhandarwada Hill was developed by the British into a major water reservoir. Built in 1884, the reservoir today supplies water to South and Central Mumbai.
FORT FORUM
Mumbai Newsline deserves praise for awakening people and the authorities concerned to the need to preserve Mumbai’s heritage. The plight of these monuments is not solely due to the neglect of the authorities but also due to the indifference of the elite. Since we cannot depend on the authorities, who are always short on money and imagination, it is the people who should take the initiative to preserve these structures.
The people of Worli have set a good example (MN, March 18). It would be so nice if someone from the locality took the initiative to raise funds and involve the local people in a larger effort to preserve the fort. In fact, the local legislator could easily help out as every MLA with the funds at his or her disposal. A garden or playground could be built and brochures could be prepared to attract tourists. It really doesn’t take much to achieve this.
- M D Kini
Dr Charat Singh Colony
Andheri (East)