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Dhaval Kulkarni (धवल कुलकर्णी) 🇮🇳

@dhavalkulkarni

Feb 1

Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange and unnatural. –William Shakespeare, Hamlet

On 12 January 1925, Abdul Kader Bawla, a businessman and corporator in the Bombay Municipal Corporation, was murdered while on a drive at Malabar Hill in Mumbai and an attempt was made to kidnap his companion Mumtaz Begum. However, Mumtaz was saved by the fortuitous arrival of four officers from the British Army, who despite being unarmed and outnumbered, fought off the eight assailants and saved Mumtaz. More significantly, they managed to capture one of the murders. Eventually, the case, which had captured media and public attention, led to the abdication of Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar-III of Indore.

But this is not just another true crime. The case and its backstory involves personalities of the day like Dr B.R Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shahu of Kolhapur, M.A Jinnah, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his elder brother Ganesh aka Babarao, and the Shankaracharya. Mumtaz later went to Hollywood to try her luck in the film industry. A silent movie on the Bawla case was also produced in Bollywood.

Read on to know more about this crime and its intersection with the various social and political realities of colonial India.

Of course, you can also buy my book 'The Bawla Murder Case: Love, Lust and Crime in Colonial India' at () or from an indie book store.

#history #heritage #colonialIndia #truecrime #crime #Mumbai #Bombay #police #policehistory #PrincelyIndia #Maharashtra #Indore #MadhyaPradesh #Book #books #movies #Hollywood #Bollywood

On 12 January 1925, twenty-five year old Abdul Kader Bawla, a businessman and corporator in the Bombay Municipal Corporation from Mandvi in south Mumbai. Bawla was a landlord and textile-mill owner, and was considered one of the richest men in Bombay. He belonged to the mercantile Kutchi Memon community and was the grandson of philanthropist Haji Saboo Siddik.

Near the Hanging Gardens on Malabar Hill, a Red Maxwell car hit Bawla’s Studebaker on the rear. It blocked Bawla’s car and around seven to eight people alighted from the Red Maxwell, showered abuse on Bawla and demanded that he hand over Mumtaz. They fired at Bawla from the left, where Mumtaz was sitting. Another assailant seized Mumtaz and she screamed.amzn.eu/d/79k8tPK

Lieutenant John MacLean Saegert, an officer in the British Army’s Engineers, Sappers and Miners, and his friends, Colonel C.E. Vickery, and lieutenants Francis Batley and Maxwell Stephen had played golf at the Willingdon Sports Club near Mahalaxmi Race Course.

At around 7.30 p.m., they left the club to visit the Taj Mahal Hotel at Apollo Bunder. On their way to the hotel, Saegert, who was driving and was unfamiliar with the area, arrived at Kemps Corner and took a wrong turn, driving up Malabar Hill via Gibbs Road instead of taking the lower Hughes Road to their intended destination.

When they reached the top of the Malabar hill, they saw two other cars on the right side of the road. When they were around thirty yards away, the European officers saw some men get down from the car in the front, followed by flashes of a pistol and then loud screams from the second car.

On hearing the screams, Saegert stopped the car. The officers, who were unarmed and in civilian clothes, got out and ran towards them. Three men were threatening a woman with knives. The woman, who was Mumtaz, had already been injured on the forehead and was being dragged out of the car

Despite being unarmed and outnumbered, the Army men put up a fight straight out of a Bollywood flick. Saegert was shot at and stabbed by the assailants multiple times. Lieutenant Batley attacked the shooters with a golf club, which was the only weapon available to the officers in the melee. Batley was also fired at by an assailant, but escaped unhurt. The army men overpowered an assailant, who was armed with a pistol and jackknife and was grappling with Saegert. As residents of the neighbourhood appeared on the scene, the other attackers fled.

Bawla succumbed to his injuries at the J.J. Hospital. Bawla had a fortune of Rs 40 lakh. He willed it to his widowed mother Rukhiabai in his dying declaration, leaving Mumtaz Rs 1 lakh, which was a princely sum in those days.

The crime sent ripples across the country as Bawla was one of the leading public men of the day. The Bawla murder case was also mentioned in the British Parliament. The European officers were lauded for their bravery.

Just one day after the attempted abduction of Mumtaz Begum and murder of Abdul Kadar Bawla, the police had realized this was not just another street crime or holdup. Patrick Kelly (later Sir), commissioner of police, Bombay wrote to the secretary, Government of Bombay, Home Department, about evidence pointing to a conspiracy being hatched or instigated in one of India’s most prominent princely states.

Kelly, who was one of Bombay’s longest-serving police commissioners, said the girl Mumtaz ‘was in the keeping of the Maharaja of Indore for a few years’. Mumtaz had left the royal in April 1924, and had been ‘kept’ by Bawla

Kelly said that the inspector general of police, Indore, sent his assistant to him around two months ago, with a request for copies of certain statements recorded by the Bombay police in an enquiry once made by them regarding Mumtaz. The commissioner added that he had refused to supply the copies and that any demand for papers of this sort should be made by the political agent of Indore to the Government of Bombay

A short while ago, Mumtaz’s sister had written to her from Amritsar that the Indore authorities were collecting wrestlers to abduct her to Indore. Bawla himself was said to have received threatening letters.

Investigations revealed that Shafi Ahmed Nabi Ahmed, who had been nabbed by the European army officers at Malabar Hill, was a risaldar in the Indore Mounted Police. Initially, he had denied his guilt and claimed to be an innocent pedestrian proceeding on his way when he was caught in the fray.

But the most daunting challenge for the Bombay police team was that although the crime had taken place in British Indian territory, the conspiracy was hatched in Indore. However, the investigators overcame this hurdle by their dexterity. Despite the odds stacked against them, the investigation by the Bombay police unearthed that most of the suspects on their radar were senior officials of the Indore durbar

Eventually, they arrested Pushpasheel Balwantrao Ponde (twenty-three), a Mankari from Indore; Captain Shamrao Rewaji Dighe (twenty-eight) from the Indore State Air Force; Akbarshah Mahomedshah (twenty-three), huzrya (valet) in the household department, Indore; Mumtaz Mahomed Syed Mahomed (twenty-five), sub-inspector, CID, Indore; Karamatkhan Nizamatkhan (twenty-eight), pay sergeant, Holkar mounted escort, Indore; Abdul Latif Moyuddin (twentyfive), motor driver, Indore; and Bahadurshah Mahomedshah (twenty), motor driver, Indore. It was believed that they were involved in the shooting. Later, Major General Sardar ‘Dilerjang’ Anandrao Gangaram Phanse, aged thirty-two, the adjutant-general of the Indore State Forces was also arrested.

Mumtaz was born in 1903 in a family of Punjabi Muslim courtesans. Her grandmother Karimbibi was said to be in the harem of Maharaja Ranjitsinh of Punjab. In 1911-12, Mumtaz’s mother Wazir Begum took her to Indore and the mother-daughter duo performed for the rich and famous in the town. Soon, they came in touch with Shankarrao Gawde, the major domo of Maharaja Tukojirao-
III. Soon, Mumtaz became the Maharaja’s mistress.

In April 1919, Mumtaz and her mother travelled with the Holkar family to Bombay. Tukojirao-III is said to have offered to marry Mumtaz by having her convert to Hinduism. However, this offer was rebuffed. The next day, Mumtaz was taken away from her mother on the pretext of watching a movie and was sent to Indore instead without her mother’s knowledge or consent.

Wazir Begum lodged a complaint about her daughter’s abduction with the Bombay Police, but the case was eventually dropped as there was no documentary evidence about Mumtaz being a minor. Mumtaz stayed on in Indore with a status equal to the two Maharanis and was also known as Kamalabai. In 1924, a girl was born to Mumtaz in Indore. The nurses claimed that the child had died later. Mumtaz alleged that the child had been killed by the nurses.

Finally, Mumtaz, her mother and step-father Mahomed Ali fled the custody of the officials of the Indore durbar as they were heading to Mussorie from Bhanpura. They arrived in Bombay and Mumtaz began performing again. It was then that she came in touch with Bawla and became his mistress. After a tiff with her parents, Mumtaz moved in with Bawla and began staying with his family at their sea-facing residence near the Girgaum Chowpatty. Mumtaz was finally putting the turbulence of the past behind her and settling down with Bawla when the shots rang out on that fateful day on Malabar Hill.

In court Phanse was represented by Barrister Muhammed Ali Jinnah. Jinnah’s wife Ruttie would sit at through the trial daily. During the trial, Mumtaz claimed that the real accused in the case were not being tried in court.

Eventually, Justice L.C. Crump sentenced three men—Shafi Ahmed, Captaon Shamrao Dighe, and Pushpasheel Ponde, to death. Two of the nine accused were acquitted. Phanse was sentenced to transportation for life.

As a semi-sovereign ruler, Tukojirao could not be tried in a court of law like a commoner. However, the circumstances in the case went dangerously close to implicating him. These included Mumtaz’s testimony, her allegation about her child being murdered and the accused in the case being in the service of the Indore durbar, with some holding high offices. The trying judge had noted that ‘there must have been some kind of conspiracy,’ and that there were persons behind the assailants ‘whom we cannot precisely indicate’

Eventually, Ponde, who was aged around 22-23, went insane in jail and his death sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. Shafi Ahmed and Dighe were finally hung at the Dongri Jail in Bombay on the morning of 19 November 1925. Intense secrecy had been maintained around this as people would gather near the jail gates after rumours of the impending execution.

Patrick Kelly’s efforts to crack the case which had turned into the ‘talk of the country,’ had led to pressure being brought upon him from the powers that be. Indore was among the foremost princely states in India and officers of the Crown in India were not keen on disrupting the status quo. These officials feared that any action by the Bombay Police against Indore would affect the relationship of the British empire with the princely states. Kelly was an upright officer and refused to succumb to these temptations and demands. He realized that these pressures were hampering the investigations into the case and threatened to resign from his position if it continued. His warning to the Bombay Presidency government worked and the pressure on the police eased. Such was the moral fibre of police officers in those days!

At a time when there were no scientific or forensic tools available, the Bombay police cracked the Bawla murder case based on circumstantial and material evidence, and human intelligence. As investigations went, this was a masterpiece. The Bawla murder case is regarded as a landmark case in the history of the Mumbai Police.

Gradually, pressure was mounted on Tukojirao-III to step down as the ruler of Indore. However, two social reformers, Maharshi Vitthal Ramji Shinde and Prabodhankar Keshav Sitaram Thackeray stood by him. Prabodhankar, the father of later-day Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, wrote three books in Marathi and English on the Bawla murder case. Prabodhankar reasoned that since the Holkar’s were non-Brahmins (they belonged to the Dhangar community who are originally pastoralists), the largely Brahmin-dominated press was gunning for Tukojirao. Copies of Prabodhankar’s book ‘The Temptress’ were also distributed in the British Parliament.

Eventually, Tukojirao was given the choice of either abdicating or facing a Commission of inquiry. He eventually abdicated in 1926 and was replaced on the throne by his son Yeshwantrao-II Holkar. Incidentally, Tukojirao’s father Shivajirao too had been forced to abdicate by the British.

Mumtaz was later estranged from her family. In 1929, she launched her career as a stage singer and eventually left for Hollywood to try her luck there. Not much is known about what happened to her later. Interestingly, a silent film on her life and the Bawla episode named Kulin Kanta (1925) was produced in Bollywood.

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Dhaval Kulkarni (धवल कुलकर्णी) 🇮🇳

@dhavalkulkarni

Dec 30, 2023

This is a long thread on the #restaurants I have eaten in 2023. This covers #Mumbai, #Delhi and #Pune.

#Food #food #MumbaiFood #Pune #PuneFood #Mumbai #Delhi #DelhiFood #eatingout #khaugiri #khawayya #hotel #hotels #foodscene

Hotel Gomantak Yashwantashram:

No frills joint located bang outside the Grant Road (West) railway station. Good place for coastal food

Moti Mahal Restaurant, Dariyaganj, New Delhi

The place where butter chicken is said to have originated. The butter chicken you get here is different from the 'tandoori chicken shreds served in oily gravy' stuff that is served elsewhere. Try the brain curry and kababs too...

Must visit

After eating at Moti Mahal, top it up with desserts from Cool Point Shahi Tukda across the road. Try the shahi tukda and kheer

#NewDelhi #OleDelhi #Delhi #Food #desserts

Read 33 tweets

Dhaval Kulkarni (धवल कुलकर्णी) 🇮🇳

@dhavalkulkarni

Sep 28, 2023

The outrage over the refusal of a Gujarati-dominated housing society to allow a #Maharashtrian woman to rent an apartment/ office at Mulund in #Mumbai is not the first such instance of housing apartheid directed at #Marathi speakers in their own capital. The roots of this discrimination run deep in #history.

Some political activists got together and ensured that the father-son duo in the Mulund society apologised to the woman. But soon, it will be back to business for them. At least, until the next outrage…

Even today, there is no clarity over whether that silly "rule" which was cited as the basis for the denial has been rolled back.

Thread

#Marathi #Maharashtra #MarathiIdentity #Marathipan

One must note that while the liberal intelligentsia is quick on its feet to denounce any expression of nativist, pro-Marathi sentiment in Mumbai, they often ignore similar regional and linguistic chauvinism, sub-nationalism and xenophobia in their own states. They also fail to acknowledge that opportunities are often secured through networks linked to caste, linguistic and regional identities with merit per se taking a back seat.

#Mumbai was a part of #Maharashtra in the geographical, historical, and socio-cultural sense. #Marathi speaking groups like the Agaris, Kolis, Bhandaris, Pathare Prabhus, Pachkalashis etc populated the clutch of islands that make today's Mumbai. These indigenous residents had to eventually pay the highest price for Mumbai's 'development.'

Marathi merchant princes and entrepreneurs like Rama Kamat Lotlikar and Jagannath 'Nana' Shankarseth Murkute, and the middle and labour class have built Mumbai brick by brick over the centuries and so have people like Nagu Sayachi and Raosaheb Papanna, who spoke Telugu but were culturally Maharashtrians. Economic migrants from other states came here later because they saw opportunities here and because they felt Mumbai was the mythical El Dorado, the city of gold.

Anyone denying this reality are living under a rock, or perhaps, they are THE rock.

The Samyukta Maharashtra movement had to fight tooth and nail to ensure that Mumbai was retained as part of Maharashtra and was not hived out as a union territory or merged with Gujarat as big money and capitalists wanted it to. The point to be noted is that the leaders and foot-soldiers of Samyukta Maharashtra also included the Telugu-speaking working class and journalists and activists like Va. Ra. Kothari, a Jain, who were Maharashtrians by conviction and belief. Maharashtra secured Mumbai on 1 May 1960 after the martyrdom of 106 people. Those who wanted to usurp Mumbai by hook or crook have certainly not forgotten this "slight!"

Mumbai had a strong working-class movement. This was broken down after mill owners, politicians, bureaucrats, builders, and the underworld colluded to sell off lands on which the textile mills stood. This was a barbaric case of dispossession. The mills were syncretic spaces and supported a strong manufacturing ecosystem. This was broken down. The communal strife in Mumbai during the 1990s owes much to this. The same story repeated itself when it came to the engineering units.

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Dhaval Kulkarni (धवल कुलकर्णी) 🇮🇳

@dhavalkulkarni

Jul 11, 2023

Malabar Hill is the most prestigious & well-guarded neighbourhood in Mumbai. It houses ministers, bureaucrats & the elite. The Raj Bhavan is also located here. In the 1970s, there was a robbery in Raj Bhavan, that too from the Governor's bedroom! #thread #MumbaiPolice #history

Nawab Ali Yavar Jung was the Governor of Maharashtra from 1970-76. Then, the Governor used to stay in Pune during the monsoons.

When Ali Yavar Jung returned to Mumbai from Pune, he was shocked to find that his cupboard in his bedroom in the Raj Bhavan had been raided. His suits, shervanis and clothes had been stolen. His Padma award medal had also been stolen.

Read 18 tweets

Dhaval Kulkarni (धवल कुलकर्णी) 🇮🇳

@dhavalkulkarni

Jul 2, 2023

The latest episode of #Maharashtra’s Game of Thrones saw #AjitPawar split the #NCP & become the deputy chief minister. Let us analyse the impact on the major players in the game
#SharadPawar #MaharashtraPolitics #NCPSplits #politics #BJP #ShivSena #DevendraFadnavis #EknathShinde

Eknath Shinde:

The ruling coalition in Maharashtra is now dealing with a problem of plenty. It now includes three parties, the #BJP, chief minister #EknathShinde’s #ShivSena, and now #AjitPawar and his men from the #NCP.

Ajit Pawar’s defection comes as a setback to Shinde as now, the BJP has a more dependable ally in Maharashtra. This has significantly reduced the elbow space available to Shinde.

Read 24 tweets

Dhaval Kulkarni (धवल कुलकर्णी) 🇮🇳

@dhavalkulkarni

Jun 30, 2023

#Hindutva zealots like #SambhajiBhide claim that #MahatmaGandhi's last fast in January 1948 was meant to force India to pay #Rs55crore to #Pakistan. It is also claimed that Gandhi indulged in #Muslim appeasement, but what is the reality?
#thread #history #Gandhi #NathuramGodse

The fast was a moral form of protest to ensure communal amity and cessation of hostilities between Hindus and Muslims in India. Gandhi also wanted to ensure the safety of the Hindu and Sikh minorities in Pakistan.

Gandhi planned to ensure that the Hindu and Sikh refugees in India went back to their homes in Pakistan, just as he wanted India’s Muslims to stay back in this country.

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