Rebuilt British-Era Bridge In Mumbai Named After Operation Sindoor
The reconstructed Carnac Road Over Bridge (ROB) in South Mumbai has been renamed as "Sindoor Bridge", a nomenclature inspired by India's military action in May against Pakistan to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, civic officials said on Tuesday.
The British-era bridge will be inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday morning, they said.
The east-west connector, earlier known as the Carnac Bridge and named after former Bombay Province governor James Rivett Carnac, who held the office from 1839 to 1841, has been rechristened as 'Sindoor Bridge' (after Operation Sindoor).
A senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official told PTI that Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar had written to the civic body recommending the renaming of the ROB as 'Sindoor Bridge' in honour of the May 7-10 military operation against Pakistan's terror sites and air bases.
In a release issued on late Tuesday evening, the BMC said Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, Narwekar, and other senior leaders and civic officials will be present at the inauguration ceremony.
The bridge, which connects eastern and western parts of the Central Railway's train tracks (between Mumbai CSMT and Masjid stations) and links to P D'Mello Road, will help ease traffic congestion and improve connectivity in South Mumbai.
The Sindoor Bridge was rebuilt by the BMC after the original 150-year-old structure was declared unsafe by the Central Railway (CR) and dismantled in August 2022.
According to the BMC, the new structure, constructed as per a design approved by CR, spans a total length of 328 metres, including a 70-metre stretch within Railway limits, and 230 metres of approach roads on either side.
It features two steel girders, each 70 metres long, 26.5 metres wide, and 10.8 metres high, weighing 550 metric tonnes, mounted on reinforced concrete piers.
Work on the eastern approach, including piling, civil works, and asphalting, was completed in just four months, as per the civic body.
The installation of massive girders above the Railway tracks, considered a complex civil and structural engineering feat, was carried out in October 2024 and January 2025, the release said.
The reconstructed bridge has successfully undergone load testing, and the BMC has secured all necessary clearances, including structural stability certification, safety clearance, and a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Railway authorities, it said.
The civic body said the bridge is expected to significantly reduce traffic congestion at key intersections such as Walchand Hirachand Marg and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, and improve east-west traffic flow across important routes, including Yusuf Meherally Road, Mohammad Ali Road, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road.
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Scroll.in
43 minutes ago
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Mulk Raj Anand and his imagination of global resistance against caste, colonialism, propaganda
In 1937, as India struggled to gain independence from the British, a more global battle was raging thousands of miles west in the war-torn city of Madrid. Of the many foreign nationals serving in the Spanish Civil War in different capacities was Mulk Raj Anand, who saw Spain's struggle as a key point to decide the fate of democracy in Europe. With the revolt of General Franco to overthrow the government, Anand's anti-fascist principles led him to defend the Spanish Republic. During the battle, Eric Arthur Blair, a friend of Anand, was shot in the neck by a sniper but miraculously survived, as mentioned in DJ Taylor's definitive biography, Orwell: The Life. Years later, their paths realigned during the Second World War to counter the Axis propaganda led by Subhash Chandra Bose. Prompting Indians to revolt against British rule, Bose presented a formidable challenge to the British government in India, writes Stanley Wolpert in A New History of India. Today we recognise Mulk Raj Anand as the author of groundbreaking classics like Untouchable and Coolie. His novels depicted disturbing realities, holding a mirror to the plight of the lowest orders in Indian society. Recounting a day in the life of a sweeper boy who dreamt of a dignified life like the Sahibs, Anand presented the world with a side of India nobody talked about. However, Bakha was not the only one on the receiving end of societal brutality. There was Orwell in Paris (Down and Out in Paris and London), Bigger Thomas in Chicago (Native Son), and several others carrying their own untold stories. Anand's life was about much more than writing novels. As a committed Marxist deeply involved in left-leaning politics, Anand was also a vocal advocate for the values he profoundly believed in, willing to raise his voice in their support. From the trenches of the war-torn city of Madrid amid exchanges of gunfire to the broadcasting studio of the BBC, his fight continued. Let's revisit Mulk Raj Anand's journey from the jails of Amritsar to joining the International Brigade in Madrid, shaping the political and literary landscape of global resistance in the 1900s. Anand's early radicalism An avid reader of Dickens, Shakespeare, and Gorky during childhood, Anand was drawn towards underground politics during his teen years. During the Non-Cooperation Movement launched by Gandhi, he joined a revolutionary rebel group in Amritsar that the British government recognised as a terrorist organisation. Deeply embedded in the revolution, Anand was arrested twice before completing his degree from the University of Punjab. Anand's father, a military clerk loyal to the British Indian Army, was not proud of his son's altercations with the government. As detailed in Saros Cowasjee's biography, Mulk Raj Anand: His Life and Work, his father's background in the British Army helped Anand secure a scholarship to pursue a PhD at University College, London. With high regard for the British model of democracy, Anand was shocked to find that the condition of the working class in London was no different from that in India. He concluded that the British government was organised and it functioned in the interest of a small minority that controlled the whole state. Driven by his rebellious nature, Anand ended up fighting for the rights of British coal workers during the strike of 1926. These events not only solidified Anand's anti-imperialist views but also prompted him to join a Marxist study circle for a better understanding of the struggles of the working class. It did not take Anand long to find the like-minded company of left-leaning intellectuals during his university years in London. 'He'd frequent the British Museum to meet eminent writers and artists,' recounts Irish poet Louis MacNeice in his unfinished autobiography, The Strings Are False. As Anand's network widened, he cultivated some valuable friendships that would shape his literary career. It was the friendship and mentorship of notable author EM Forster that opened doors for him into the established British literary scene. Soon, Anand became a familiar name in influential literary circles in London, most notably the Bloomsbury Group, founded by English writer Virginia Woolf and her siblings, artist Vanessa Bell and author Thoby Stephen. Although not a permanent member, Anand attended several of the literary meets held on Thursday evenings, mostly at 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury. Despite the intellectual exchanges and collaborations, Anand observed pro-colonial sentiments and a racist attitude that he perceived as 'ignorance of other 'cultures' and the club's 'disengagement' with both national and international politics.' Remarks like 'lesser breeds beyond the law' about Indians left him 'feeling anger and shame,' as he recounts in his memoir Conversations in Bloomsbury (1981). Untouchable and its global echo Although Anand had finished writing Untouchable in 1927, his first published work was an essay, 'Persian Painting' (1930). The printed edition of Untouchable did not see the light of day until 1935, after rejections from 19 publishers. Books on Mughals, mysticism, and the extravagant lives of Nawabs fascinated publishers more, not the disturbing reality of outcasts, which many considered 'dirt.' At last, a moving preface by EM Forster encouraged Lawrence and Wishart, a small left-wing publisher, to take a chance on Untouchable. Upon publication, the novel successfully found a reader base in left-liberal circles, especially among Marxists and anti-fascists. The disturbing horrors of societal brutality against outcastes linked Untouchable with broader, parallel struggles unfolding across the globe, from the industrial underbelly of Britain to the Jim Crow South. Richard Wright, an African-American writer, uncovered systematic racism in the US, robbing Black communities of dignified life with Native Son (1940). Like Bakha, Wright introduced the world to Bigger Thomas, a young African-American boy from Chicago who was crushed and criminalised by structural violence. Although Anand and Wright never met, through Bakha and Bigger Thomas, they powerfully held up a mirror to societal brutality. Orwell, Anand, and the BBC In the 1940s, when the Second World War was at its peak, Anand was offered the position of Talks Assistant at the BBC's Indian Service in London. Citing political turmoil in India, Anand politely declined the offer, which was then passed on to George Orwell. His desire to serve his country, his wife's ill health, and financial setbacks led him to accept the job. As the new Talks Assistant, Orwell wrote a letter to Anand to convince him to write and broadcast for the BBC. Anand readily agreed. Together, tasked with encouraging anti-imperialist sentiments in India, they worked on several radio talk series. In New Weapons of War, Anand explained the meanings of war-related phrases such as 'Pluto-Democracy,' 'Propaganda,' and 'New Order,' terms commonly spoken yet poorly understood. According to Abha Sharma Rodrigues' doctoral thesis, George Orwell, The BBC, and India: A Critical Study, despite several ideological differences, the early life experiences of Anand and Orwell bore striking similarities. Not only did the zeal of reform motivate them to write, but they also went to great lengths to experience the pain of the lowest orders of society. While Anand spent time at Sabarmati Ashram, living with the untouchables and performing the tasks of a sweeper, Orwell resigned from the Indian Imperial Police and chose to live in slums, working menial jobs like a dishwasher in restaurants. As Anand uncovered casteism in Untouchable, Orwell exposed classism in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), laying bare the grim realities of poverty and exclusion in Europe's capitals. Often criticised as hypocritical and ironic, it remains debatable whether the BBC's wartime efforts to encourage anti-imperialist sentiments in India were successful. However, Orwell and Anand's experiments with language resulted in innovative broadcasts like New Weapons of War. Due to rising differences with the organisation, Orwell left the BBC in 1943, while Anand overlapped his tenure and continued to freelance as a scriptwriter and broadcaster until the end of the war. With India inching closer to freedom, he returned home and founded MARG (Modern Architectural Research Group) magazine in 1946. Drawing together the threads of his remarkable life, Anand emerges not just as a writer but as a fearless combatant whose participation in the global politics of resistance will always be remembered. From the prison cell in Amritsar to the trenches of war-torn Madrid, and from debates in Bloomsbury to broadcasting radio talks at the BBC, Anand's journey was not limited to writing. It was about proactively utilising every platform to challenge power and expose violence against the lowest orders of society, be it outcasts in India or coal miners in London. As we enter the age of renewed censorship and systemic oppression, the legacy of Anand reminds us that literature is not merely a mirror; it can be a weapon. You just have to wield it with some empathy forged in conviction and finally aim squarely at the architecture of injustice.
Indian Express
2 hours ago
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Thackeray cousins repackage politics of old, but can chemistry trump arithmetic?
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Besides the Thackerays, there is Deputy CM Eknath Shinde who is heading the Shiv Sena, the largest group with 51 MLAs, and will watch, hawk-like, every move the new jodi makes to dent his party's support base. Just as the cousins see the BMC as the route to power in Maharashtra, Fadnavis sees the BJP's bid to wrest control of the civic body from the Sena as a way to consolidate his hold on the state. Will the cousins now force the BJP to opt for alliances for the BMC elections, instead of going it alone as the ruling party had hoped for? The Raj and Uddhav reunion is a testament to the Congress's inability to set an agenda to counter an increasingly dominant BJP. No senior Congress leader was present at the Thackerays' rally. The party is apprehensive about the impact the duo may have on the non-Marathi-speaking vote base in the state (just more than 30%, though the Marathi-speaking population in Mumbai is only around 30% at present). There is also a weakening of Sharad Pawar as a pole in the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). While he was not present at the rally, his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule sat in the front row. The NCP (SP) working president was also seen getting Uddhav and Raj's sons Aaditya and Amit ready to be photographed with their arms around each other. The NCP (SP) may hope the Thackerays will provide a new pole around which the MVA can re-coalesce. This comes at a time when many in the Pawar camp want to join the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. The Deputy CM is not so keen on the idea, though he goes out of his way to do the 'work' of his former colleagues and keeps them in good humour. Beyond the immediate politics, the coming together of the cousins poses larger questions. Can this lead to a Marathi versus non-Marathi polarisation in the months to come, and a deepening of the Gujarati versus Marathi faultlines? The Thackeray cousins resisted the 'imposition' of Hindi to protect Marathi asmita (pride). But, the irony is that the actions of MNS workers on the ground — they assaulted a shop owner in Thane for not speaking in Marathi — show they are insisting on 'imposing' Marathi on all who live in the state. At the rally, Raj Thackeray, in the characteristic manner of the Sena of yesteryear, said there was 'no need to beat people if they don't speak Marathi, but if someone shows useless drama, you must hit below their eardrums'. Under Uddhav's stewardship, the Sena's image has softened. But this time, like his cousin, the usually mild Sena (UBT) chief struck a harsher note, saying, 'If we have to be goons to get justice, we will do goondagardi.' While people from outside a state should speak the local language, it should never be through coercion. The Maharashtra of 2025 is not the state it was in the 1960s, 70s or 80s, where the identity politics that the cousins are espousing worked. Mumbai, the country's financial capital, is rapidly growing, and so is Bollywood's outreach, spreading the influence of Hindi more effectively than anything else. The service sector in the city is also expanding quickly as aspirational entrepreneurs and migrants from different parts of the country seek its shores in search of opportunities, all requiring skills other than just the knowledge of Marathi. The coming together of Uddhav and Raj could have been a seminal moment in the Maharashtra story. They could have put out a new message in a new language for a new way forward, all the while keeping Marathi asmita as one of the elements in the vision. But it was more of the old. Even those who live in the state's hinterland now want to reach out to the world beyond them. On a visit to Nandurbar, a tribal-dominated district in north Maharashtra, I visited an interior village to look at a project. 'What if I were to tell you that I would convey to the PM what you really seek? But it has to be your dearest wish, not a string of wishes,' I asked a couple of hundred people who sat under the trees listening. Three women stood up, replying in unison, 'We want an English medium school here.' To them, the language was a doorway to opportunities they had not received so far. (Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide)
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Ahead of July 13 Martyrs' Day, Hurriyat Conference chief put under house arrest
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