The Aussie urban historian who was consumed by Mumbai's many hues

Hindustan Times

4 days ago

LONDON: James Cosmas Masselos, one of the foremost urban historians who wrote and researched extensively on Mumbai, passed away at the age of 85 in Australia on Wednesday. Over a glorious six-decade career, Masselos published six books, brought out five edited collections and contributed over 50 research articles. By any yardstick, this is a remarkable body of work. The Aussie urban historian who was consumed by Mumbai's many hues
In January 2017, a festschrift conference was held in his honour at University of Mumbai where scholars from around the world presented papers. These were later published in a volume titled 'Bombay before Mumbai' in 2019 edited by Professors Rachel Dwyer, Prashant Kidambi and Manjiri Kamat.
Masselos's association with the city began in July 1961 when he travelled from Sydney on a studentship funded by the Government of India under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. The flight with stopovers in Darwin, Jakarta, Singapore and Madras finally led him to Bombay where his abode was a hostel on B Road in Churchgate. Just a year before his arrival, the former Bombay Presidency had separated into two new states of Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960.
He achieved his PhD in 1964 under the supervision of Professor William Coelho at St Xavier's College. Masselos's scholarship has the trademark of deep archival research combined with a clear desire to understand how the city worked and the various communities who made it home. The urban space of Bombay fascinated him, and he got naturally drawn to the multitude of street spectacles that he witnessed.
An enduring feature of his scholarship was the ability to constantly reflect on the city's past based on current happenings. The Mumbai riots of 1992-93 spurred him to write an essay in Economic and Political Weekly about the communal riots of 1893. The detailed narrative provided a glimpse into the city's street life a century before and helped dissect the phenomenon of communal riots. His own experience of wandering in the city facilitated a rich understanding of how urban crowds behaved.
His essay titled 'Bombay Time/Standard Time' informed a large section of intellectuals of what it meant for Bombay to have its own time zone, separate from the standard India time, as late as 1955. Perhaps using time as a metaphor, Masselos was making the statement that just as Bombay time and Indian Standard Time were different, so was the cosmopolitan city of Bombay from the rest of India. Bombay's uniqueness was brought out in many of his other influential research articles which continue to inspire and attract new scholarship.
In 'Power in the Bombay Moholla', another exploratory essay, he explained effectively the context in which the assistance and concurrence of city's mohalla leaders were required by national leaders in the early 20th century if they wished to make inroads with the masses. Similarly, his 1973 essay on Khojas of Bombay was one of the earliest accessible works which clinically identified how colonial courts in the 19th century were defining community and sectarian norms.
Masselos remained connected with the University of Sydney through his working life. After his PhD from University of Bombay, he joined University of Sydney as a lecturer in 1965 and taught generations of students till his retirement in 2001. His affable nature and curiosity endeared scholars across the world who were seeking to make sense of Bombay. He loved Bombay and its people in all its hues, which is amply reflected in his scholarship. In 2009, along with writer and journalist Naresh Fernandes he wrote 'Bombay Then and Mumbai Now'. Accompanied by fascinating pictures, the book captured the changing essence of the city bringing into conversation the past with the present.
Jim is now gone, but future generations of scholars will continue to refer to his rich work to understand the dynamics and famed resilience of the city.