Mumbai's Religious Struggle

1855 map created by Vacher & Sons to assist police forces with surveilance of particular religious commmunities

the center of the map focuses on Muslim communties due to the increasing tensions between religious groups

The conflict between the identity of a city’s people is not confined to the oscillating forces of economic trends and Western popular culture. The increased awareness on the lifestyles of others across the globe that one wouldn’t have otherwise been in contact with has led to hordes of groups fighting for their ideas’ and ideologies’ validation. Rather than operating in the confined space of regions that had featured little to no change in their core beliefs, religion can now be inspected and critically analyzed by different peoples around the world. Mumbai’s religious groups and their tolerance of other groups has been conflicted with riots and slander among the centuries of the city’s existence. In the 19^th century, a well-documented struggle between Parsis and Muslim communities erupted in violence over slander in media content that attacked the fundamental beliefs and misunderstood stereotypes of each group. The result of this conflict has been one of hesitant tolerance at best. There exists, to this day, tensions between the two religious communities as they fight for the validation of their beliefs in a world that is densely populated with a cornucopia of religious ideologies. While not a result of the forces of recent globalist trends, the struggle between religious communities in Mumbai is evidence of the conflict that can arise as communities and groups of peoples are connected as the world tends towards a reliance on connection between different regions. The forced reliance on one another to maintain a productive society is not without its blemished, and the tolerance of other’s beliefs is a conflict that even today has been unresolved. In future times, the accepted co-inhabitance of different individuals will be pertinent to the survival of cultures and ideologies.

            The maps that highlight the relevant issues of a specific time give a modern view a peak into the past cultural landscape of a region. Native Town of Bombay microscopically analyzes the issues between Muslim and Paris communities, and gives people a glimpse into the struggle of different viewpoints. A story of ideological division is told that people today can certainly resonate with. The maps’ ability to weave stories from the past and depict them on parchment serves a modern tool to survey the fundamental structure that eventually branches into the conflicts that exist today.