Bombay then and now: From ancient sketches to present-day photographs

Marshland where the Mahalaxmi racecourse now sprawls, green hills under what is now the Eastern Freeway, the Sion fort standing at the edge of a rolling green expanse — when the Scottish artist James Wales sketched Bombay as he encountered it, in 1791, he couldn’t have imagined the changes his works would help us trace.

An exhibition at the Khaki Heritage Foundation (KHF), Fort, will highlight just how much has been altered, by exhibiting works by Wales alongside present-day photographs of the areas he sketched. The exhibition will be from Thursday to Sunday.

Speaking at the event will be Dr Uday Kulkarni, a surgeon and author of James Wales: Artist and Antiquarian in the time of Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao, which traces the artist’s life in India through his works and diaries.

“This was an India and a Bombay that people have forgotten about,” says Kulkarni. “I have acquired these sketches from all over the country, mainly the SP Lohia Collection. I got his diaries from the Yale Center for British Art in the US.”

The exhibition will be inaugurated by heritage conservationist Cyrus Guzder and will also feature a talk by artist Sameer Kulavoor, on art as the chronicler of times.

Bharat Gothoskar, founder of the KHF, says the event is meant to celebrate Wales’s and Kulkarni’s work. “But we wanted to make the topic relevant to today’s Mumbaikars, especially the younger generations. So we decided on the then-and-now format.”

The current-day photographs have been taken by Jatin Lodaya. “We obviously don’t know how the city looked then, and future generations might not know what Mumbai looked like today. This is my way of creating memories for the future,” Lodaya says.