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The 20th Century Origins of Bombay’s ‘Cosmopolitanism’

Feb 10, 2026

Researcher and scholar Dr. Rachel Lee traces the historic roots of Bombay’s distinctive urban fabric, as it took shape in the early 20th century.

In a city that has for long been a site for commerce, and a diverse urban milieu the title of being ‘cosmopolitan’, however, did not emerge in a vacuum. What were the antecedents that had made this unique culture possible? Did Bombay truly present such an exceptional case? She unpacks the people and places that shaped the city, along with the exchange of ideas and resources that made this possible.

 

About the speaker:

Rachel Lee is an assistant professor, History of Architecture and Urban Planning, at TU Delft, Netherlands. Her research explores the histories of colonial and postcolonial architecture and urbanism at their intersections with migration and exile, transnational practice, heritage, mobility, and gender, particularly in South Asia and East Africa. She was part of the pioneering METROMOD project, which marked out a unique and unconventional map of life and work in exile metropolises in the early 20th century: New York, Buenos Aires, London, Istanbul, Bombay (now Mumbai) and Shanghai.

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