Heritage in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation crosshairs

The recent drive by the civic administration against ‘illegal’ religious structures has landed a large number of heritage crucifixes dotting the cityscape on the wrong side of development. 

After alarmed community groups protested against the destruction, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) promised them a few weeks’ time to prove the legality of the structures. Despite the moratorium however, some old crucifixes were bulldozed.

If these events give many citizens a sense of deja vu, it is because, in 2003, similar notices were issued under section 314 of the BMC Act.

Then too, organisations had rushed to municipal offices with documents to protect the crosses. They managed to save them, till these new notices provoked a fresh round of protests.

According to Gerald Misquitta, a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Malad, who has studied and written about Mumbai’s crucifixes, there are at least 1,000 of them. He has counted 100 in just Malad and neighbouring fishing villages like Madh, Manori and Culvem.

But not all are plague crosses dating back to the 1890s, when the city’s Catholics erected a large number to guard against the epidemic.

“Though they are commonly called plague crosses, not all were built during the outbreak,” said professor Agnes De Sa, head of the department of history at LS Raheja College in Santa Cruz (West).

multi-purpose faith
Some of them, in fact, had more secular uses. The Portuguese often used cross-like structures to demarcate areas and historians say that many of them, like the one on Chimbai beach, were just boundary markers.

De Sa, who has been researching the city’s crucifixes and plans to present a paper on the subject in April, says that local customs too spurred the erection of crosses.

“Many were built at crossroads and near cemeteries to ward off the evil spirits. Over the centuries, the real reason behind their construction was forgotten and people started worshipping there. Some crosses were, of course, built as symbols of faith,” she said.

Many of these faith markers were built by ancestors of the East Indians community when they were converted to Catholicism by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Before Mumbai became a city, it was dotted with fishing and farming villages. These hamlets and the localities within them had their own crosses.

“Erecting a cross was a source of comfort and hope for residents of small Pakhadis (hamlets),” said Misquitta.

While the plague crosses are about 100 years old, others have a vintage of many centuries. For instance, the crucifix at Orlem Market in Malad is over 200 years old, and in 2004, residents gathered for a ceremony to celebrate its bicentennial.

The crucifix that lends its name to Cross Maidan is the starting point of an annual walking pilgrimage from Mount Mary’s Basilica.

The large stone cross next to the grotto at St Andrew’s Church in Bandra dates back to the Portuguese occupation of the island.

According to Dr Joan Dias of Heras Institute at St Xavier’s College, the crucifix once stood in the compound of the Santa Anna Church and Jesuit College, outside what is now Bandra railway station.

When the buildings were destroyed, probably by the British, the cross was moved to its present location around 1775 AD. “It is an historic cross and carries symbols of the crucifixion,” said Dias.

Plague crosses plagued
Despite their more recent history, the plague crosses that commemorate victims of the black death that washed over Mumbai are the most numerous.

The inscription below the cross at Bandra’s Almeida Park says that it marks a burial ground for unbaptised children who died in the plague.

There is a cross on a hill near Gorai built around 1902 by grateful villagers as thanksgiving for delivering them from the epidemic. Misquitta said that villagers sought refuge on the hill as the contagion ravaged their villages below.

When the plague subsided, they returned to their homes and later raised the crucifix as a memorial of their stay on the hill.

The largest number of such plague crosses are in the old villages of Bandra. “Bandra has the largest number since it was badly affected by the plague. The crosses were put up to demarcate safe areas or, as a protection measure. A lot of superstition and fear is associated with these crosses,” said Dias.

Whatever may be the varied origins of the crucifixes, many of them are like milestones, marking the city’s history from the Portuguese occupation, the mass conversions to Catholicism, and the plague.

Bishop of Pune, Thomas Dabre, who belongs to the East Indian community that has roots in Mumbai and Thane, said, “When shrines and images go back into the distant past, traditions are built into them.”

“The crosses have cultural value and some are  historical. They represent community spirit, not just in the Christian sense. For instance, in Chimbai, Hindus maintain some  crosses. It speaks of the cosmopolitan spirit in Mumbai. So in theory, the crosses may be owned by people of one particular faith, but in practice, they belong to all communities,” said De Sa.

Blunting the axe
An effort is on to save these symbols of faith and history. At St Andrew’s Church, priests asked parishioners last Sunday to collect documents related to the crosses.

The St John the Baptist Church Save Committee, a group based in Marol, Andheri, have already collected papers, including property cards, old government gazettes and notifications, to prove the legal status of 68 crosses in the area.

“As the city expands, some crosses that were in street corners end up in the middle of roads. This is a recurring problem and when the old generation goes, their descendants will have nothing to prove the legality of their crosses. These documents will be given to every parish to be maintained as church records, The crosses should be saved,” said Godfrey Pereira of the group.

But Bishop Dabre added a note of caution. “While we fight for our symbols and traditions, we should also look at public good. Religion should not be sectarian,” he said. “Public good should be the decision factor in the settlement of this issue.”