J R B Jeejeebhoy’s Bombay Vignettes
Explorations in the History of Bombay
Edited with an introduction by Murali Ranganathan
The book will be released by
Mr Neville A Mehta
Chief Executive Officer, Mumbai First
on
Saturday, 3 November 2018, at 5:30 p.m.
in the Durbar Hall of the Society.
The speaker for the evening is
Dr Dinyar Patel, Asst. Professor in History, University of South Carolina
Mr Sharad G Kale (IAS Retd), President of the Society,
will preside.
Please join us for tea at 5 p.m.
Prof. Vispi Balaporia, Hon. Secretary
Dr Meena Vaishampayan, Chairperson, Publications Committee
About the book
J R B Jeejeebhoy, (1885–1960), celebrated as a leading city historian of Bombay during his lifetime, has been largely forgotten in death. His major publications include Some Unpublished & Later Speeches & Writings of Sir Pherozeshah Mehta (1918), Dr. Sir Chimanlal H. Setalvad, a Biography (1939), and Bribery and Corruption in Bombay (1952). For nearly four decades, he wrote numerous long and short pieces on Bombay, and exposed various facets of its history to public view for the first time. Linking the past to the present, he was perhaps one of the first to be concerned with city heritage and its loss.
Bombay Vignettes is a selection of J R B Jeejeebhoy’s writings on Bombay. Drawing on a wide range of printed and manuscript sources, Jeejeebhoy paints a vivid picture of the city. His subjects include historical vignettes and contemporary images of the city; its public institutions, especially those associated with the law and judiciary; famous Bombay denizens like Pherozeshah Mehta, Rudyard Kipling, and James Mackintosh; and the relationship of the Parsi community to the city. From describing the advent of moving pictures in Bombay and complaining about the perennial problem of rash driving in the city, to remembering the long-forgotten first Indian judge of the High Court of Bombay and recalling the prevalence of slave trade in the city, Jeejeebhoy ranges far and wide.
An important addition to the shelf of Bombay books, J R B Jeejeebhoy’s Bombay Vignettes will appeal to all lovers of the city.
Murali Ranganathan is a Mumbai-based researcher with interests in the nineteenth century. He has translated Govind Narayan’s Mumbai: An Urban Biography from 1863 and edited The Collected Works of J V Naik: Reform and Renaissance in Nineteenth Century Maharashtra.
Cursetjee Manockjee Fountain or Oobha Parsi (now popularly known as Khada Parsi), at its original location on the junction of Bellasis Road, Ripon Road, Clare Road, Duncan Road, and Nagpada Road from where it was moved to its current location near the Byculla bridges in 1931. The building housing Treacher & Co Ltd still survives and is now the Memni Building. Photographed by D H Sykes & Co (fl. 1860s/1870s). From a manuscript photo album entitled ‘Scenes in Bombay Presidency’ in the possession of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai.
