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"Communities gather around them to pray, but rarely anyone remember their plague connection," says Sanchia deSouza, 38, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Toronto. Sushmita Pathak for NPR In a leafy Mumbai suburb, garlands adorn a roadside cross that was erected in 1897, when the city was battling the bubonic plague. In both cases, the city became a major hot spot for the disease. What happened after the plague's outbreak in Bombay has parallels with modern-day Mumbai's response to COVID-19. "Jamsetji Tata staked his faith in the city, and many followed." "The construction of the hotel itself rebooted a lot of people's faith in Bombay," says Tyagi. The fact that someone was willing to invest in an expensive project at a time of severe economic distress gave people hope. Tyagi says Tata wanted to boost the morale of his ravaged, beloved city by giving it a stunning new landmark. The Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata commissioned the hotel after the plague struck Bombay. Tyagi says that once you start looking for them, stories and evidence of the plague can be found in unexpected places and structures - even in the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, one of Mumbai's most famous landmarks. His goal was to to boost the morale of the ravaged city with a new landmark. Getty Images The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. The Trust was tasked with "making new streets, opening out crowded localities, reclaiming lands from the sea to provide room for the expansion of the city, and the construction of sanitary dwellings for the poor," writes historian Prashant Kidambi. The British colonial government responded to the plague by establishing the Bombay Improvement Trust, which was responsible for revamping congested neighborhoods. "Really congested neighborhoods incredibly unsanitary, subhuman conditions of life people living in dark, damp ill-ventilated housing," says Sadikot. But farther north, what was called the "native town" - where the cotton mills and working-class neighborhoods were located - was strikingly different. British elites had huge villas or bungalows in the hilly parts of the city, where they could enjoy the cool sea breeze. In the late 1800s, British colonists christened Bombay Urbs Prima in Indis-Latin for "India's Premier City." They built Victorian Gothic structures - including a clock tower modeled on London's Big Ben and a sprawling railway station with pointed arches and gargoyles - in the southern part of the city to showcase Bombay's might. Formerly Victoria Terminus, the railway station was built by the British to showcase Bombay's might.
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Bloomberg via Getty Images Pedestrians wearing protective masks cross a road outside Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station during the morning rush hour in Mumbai on July 14, 2020.