New book documents Mumbai after demolition of Babri structure

Mumbai is considered the ‘Urbs Prima in India’ and rightly so. However, the demolition of the Babri structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and the subsequent communal riots of December 1992 and January 1993, changed the character of the financial capital of India. Around the same time, the transformation of Bombay to Mumbai also gathered steam and the city witnessed the mills-to-malls change.

Veteran TV journalist and writer Jitendra Dixit brings a unique never-written-before commentary on the city.

The book Bombay after Ayodhya: A City in Flux tells the story of Mumbai of the past three decades -- which is also the growing-up years of Dixit and his career as a journalist.

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“I was inspired to write this book by authors who witnessed the advent of gun culture in Kashmir in the 1990s and wrote about how the Valley changed as a result. I see parallels between Kashmir and Mumbai. The 1990s were tumultuous for both, and I grew up witnessing bloodshed on the streets of Mumbai as a result of communal riots, gang wars and terrorist attacks. In my view, the events triggered by the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya have transformed Mumbai,” he said.

The book was released by former Mumbai police commissioner M N Singh.

“This transformation has affected every aspect of the city, including its politics, underworld, police, social fabric, real estate and so on. As a resident and as a journalist, I have witnessed this transformation firsthand and this book is my attempt at documenting it,” said Dixit.

After the two waves of Mumbai riots, the serial blasts of March 12,1993 shook Mumbai’s core and then followed the gang wars which spilled on the streets besides getting hit by natural calamities like the July 26, 2005 deluge, the train blasts of 2006 and the 26/11 fidayeen attacks in Mumbai.

“Bombay after Ayodhya chronicles how the past three decades have been a period of unexpected flux in Mumbai. In the aftermath of 1992, a split in the Mumbai underworld led to new equations in politics, which altered the demography of the city and led to the rise of new townships. After a brief lull, blasts and terrorist attacks rocked it once more in 2002, a cycle of violence that reached a crescendo with the horrific 26/11 terror attacks in 2008," said Dixit.