Mumbai: City’s forgotten protestors of 1930 come alive in rare photo exhibition at CSMVS

This is one of the 115 photographs that will be displayed for six months at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya starting October 11

MUMBAI: A woman in a sari worn in the style of the Kolis, a central, dhoti-like swathe of cloth transforming the wrapped fabric into no-nonsense workwear, stands on the footrest of a police van. Inside, silhouettes of women with their heads covered by their saris are visible. A policeman with a baton stands outside the van. More men in uniform are milling in the background. This photograph shows the aftermath of a protest organised by women in Bandra in July 1930. The protest was aimed at the auction of toddy shop licences, and the women sitting in the van were eventually dropped off at Ghatkopar, about 25 km away, in the Bombay Suburban District.

The Gujeratis [Gujaratis] took special interests in the civil disobedience movement because the Mahatma requested their support. Here’s a group of young Gujeratis [Gujarati] women carring [carrying] sea water to their respective homes for the purpose of making salt. Photo taken 15th March 1930.” Gelatin Silver Print, 114 x 164 mm. (Photographing Civil Disobedience, Bombay 1930-31, published by Alkazi Collection of Photography in association with Mapin Publishing)

This is one of the 115 photographs that will be on display for six months at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS Museum) starting October 11, and which depict the protests of common men and women of Mumbai (then Bombay) during the Civil Disobedience movement.

The photographs were first found in a vintage album titled the Collections of Photographs of Old Congress Party (1930–31), which is informally called the “Nursey” album, from the name “KL Nursey” stamped on the spine. They now form part of the Alkazi Collection of Photography (ACP) maintained by the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts founded by the late theatre director, Ebrahim Alkazi.

A book, titled, Photographing Civil Disobedience: Bombay (1930-1931), published by Mapin, bearing most of these photographs will also be released on Saturday. Co-edited by Avrati Bhatnagar and Sumathi Ramaswamy, US-based historians of colonial and modern South Asia, the book comprises essays on various aspects of what the editors call “the disobedient streets of Bombay” in those crucial years of the Indian national movement.

The Civil Disobedience movement is generally understood to have commenced on March 12, 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi led a host of non-violent protestors on foot from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, located on the coastline of Gujarat, to revolt against the salt laws imposed by the British. The 24-day march served as a lightning rod for ordinary men and women to claim their right to protest as citizens of a state under colonial rule, making it one of the most successful mass movements of the 20th century. The movement was suspended for a duration in 1931, and eventually called off in 1934. Though history books highlight the role played by Gandhi and other Congress leaders in shaping the movement, it is the role played by the masses that this exhibition draws our attention to.

“This album makes such a strong visual case for taking stock of the power of ordinary people, especially the people of Bombay, to bring about change and speak up to perceived injustices. It would not be incorrect to say that “the crowd” is the protagonist of the album to whom the camera is drawn. These are people with regular jobs, deeply embedded in the social relations of their neighbourhood and the city, who also volunteered with local nationalist organisations keen to take part in the ongoing movement to destabilise the colonial state. The ordinariness of the participants resolved to carry out an extraordinary feat of challenging an empire is what makes the practice of mass nationalist action all the more appealing,” Bhatnagar said.

“The Nursey album is also an extraordinary inscription of “the crowd”—in this case, disenfranchised and dispossessed colonial subjects—as an empowered collective political actor/agent in the “disobedient” streets of Bombay in 1930– 1931. (...) The fervour of the disobedient crowd’s political commitment and the intensity of its public “eruption” were regularly described in the press in India at the time, these accounts supported by photographs,” Rahaab Allana, curator for the New Delhi-based Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, wrote in the book’s preface.

He pointed out that the figure of KL Nursey warranted further research and investigation, as little is known of his identity. We attribute authorship to him, but it is hypothetical, Allana said. We do not know who really wrote the descriptions presented below the images in letterpress in the original album, he said.

“The rare and detailed visual record of the Civil Disobedience Movement—particularly highlighting women freedom fighters in Bombay (now Mumbai)—was discovered when the Alkazi Foundation acquired the album over two decades ago. With the vision of sharing this important chapter of Mumbai’s history, we developed an exhibition at the Mumbai Gallery,” said Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director general, CSMVS.

The photo exhibition, Disobedient Subjects: Bombay, 1930-1931, in partnership with Alkazi Foundation, will be on display at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) from Oct 11, 2025 to Mar 31, 2026.