A Subaltern Crematorium of India? Bombay, 1918 – 1953

The Moynihan Institute’s South Asia Center presents Sohini Chattopadhyay, assistant professor of history at Union College.

In May 1939, a 20-year-old man died in Bombay’s suburb Vile Parle. He was a migrant worker, often without a home, and Dalit. His friends took his body to a cremation ground, but only by trespassing it at night, since Dalits were not allowed access to the cremation ground that offered traditional funerals for dominant caste Hindus. Seemingly unconnected, the same year, Legislative Councilmember of Bombay Purushottam G. Solanki, with the support of socialist Maniben Kara and theosophist Sophia Wadia, introduced the proposal to have a public electric crematorium in the city which would be accessible to all.

This paper links incidents of civil disobedience, such as the one in Vile Parle, to the political and social forces behind the establishment of Bombay’s first public electric crematorium. By analyzing these acts of resistance within the broader context of labor and anti-caste movements and a simultaneous comfort with new death technologies, the paper illuminates the complex interplay between public health infrastructure, colonial governance and the struggle for social justice. The electric crematorium, as a response to these tensions, emerges as both a symbol of technological progress and a tool for social equality, highlighting the intertwined histories of caste, technology and urban development in colonial Bombay.

Sohini Chattopadhyay (she/her) is assistant professor of history at Union College. Her current book project, tentatively titled “Dead Labor: Comparative Histories of the Electric Crematorium in Colonial Bombay and Calcutta,” tracks the intersections between technologies and social histories to underscore the connected and divergent patterns of urbanization in South Asia.

Chattopadhyay received a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 2023 and holds an M.A. from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. She was the founding-editor of the web journal Borderlines and is now developing its advisory board. She frequently contributes articles on public health, social policies and South Asian history on digital media platforms.