Can history truly brew in a chawl room? You would be surprised! Built to house migrant mill workers, chawls are synonymous with Mumbai and its mill history. Eventually, as the city developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, chawls sprung to house the natives while the British lived in sprawling bungalows. Chawls in Mumbai were mainly located in Girangaon (the village of the mills). The Girgaon chawls were where middle-class and upper-middle-class migrants moved in when they came to the city for higher education and white-collar jobs.

The chawls of Girgaon are built in the same style: single rooms, large balconies, and a common courtyard. But life in these chawls was starkly different, as these became the stage for social reform movements and activities during the independence era.