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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Seventy-six mayors ruled BMC since 1931

After four years, Mumbai to salute its first citizen Kishori Pednekar Vishwanath Mahadeshwar Snehal Ambekar Sunil Prabhu Mumbai: As the date for appointing Mumbai’s First Citizen looms closer, various political parties have adopted tough posturing to foist their own person for the coveted post of Mayor – the ‘face’ of the country’s commercial capital. Ruling Mahayuti allies Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have vowed that the city...

Seventy-six mayors ruled BMC since 1931

After four years, Mumbai to salute its first citizen Kishori Pednekar Vishwanath Mahadeshwar Snehal Ambekar Sunil Prabhu Mumbai: As the date for appointing Mumbai’s First Citizen looms closer, various political parties have adopted tough posturing to foist their own person for the coveted post of Mayor – the ‘face’ of the country’s commercial capital. Ruling Mahayuti allies Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have vowed that the city will get a ‘Hindu Marathi’ person to head India’s richest civic body, while the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT)-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena also harbour fond hopes of a miracle that could ensure their own person for the post. The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) optimism stems from expectations of possible political permutations-combinations that could develop with a realignment of forces as the Supreme Court is hearing the cases involving the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party this week. Catapulted as the largest single party, the BJP hopes to install a first ever party-man as Mayor, but that may not create history. Way back in 1982-1983, a BJP leader Dr. Prabhakar Pai had served in the top post in Mumbai (then Bombay). Incidentally, Dr. Pai hailed from Udupi district of Karnataka, and his appointment came barely a couple of years after the BJP was formed (1980), capping a distinguished career as a city father, said experts. Originally a Congressman, Dr. Pai later shifted to the Bharatiya Janata Party, then back to Congress briefly, founded the Janata Seva Sangh before immersing himself in social activities. Second Administrator The 2026 Mayoral elections have evoked huge interest not only among Mumbaikars but across the country as it comes after nearly four years since the BMC was governed by an Administrator. This was only the second time in the BMC history that an Administrator was named after April 1984-May 1985. On both occasions, there were election-related issues, the first time the elections got delayed for certain reasons and the second time the polling was put off owing to Ward delimitations and OBC quotas as the matter was pending in the courts. From 1931 till 2022, Mumbai has been lorded over by 76 Mayors, men and women, hailing from various regions, backgrounds, castes and communities. They included Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, even a Jew, etc., truly reflecting the cosmopolitan personality of the coastal city and India’s financial powerhouse. In 1931-1932, the Mayor was a Parsi, J. B. Boman Behram, and others from his community followed like Khurshed Framji Nariman (after whom Nariman Point is named), E. A. Bandukwala, Minoo Masani, B. N. Karanjia and other bigwigs. There were Muslims like Hoosenally Rahimtoola, Sultan M. Chinoy, the legendary Yusuf Meherally, Dr. A. U. Memon and others. The Christian community got a fair share of Mayors with Joseph A. D’Souza – who was Member of Constituent Assembly representing Bombay Province for writing-approving the Constitution of India, M. U. Mascarenhas, P. A. Dias, Simon C. Fernandes, J. Leon D’Souza, et al. A Jew Elijah Moses (1937-1938) and a Sikh M. H. Bedi (1983-1984), served as Mayors, but post-1985, for the past 40 years, nobody from any minority community occupied the august post. During the silver jubilee year of the post, Sulochana M. Modi became the first woman Mayor of Mumbai (1956), and later with tweaks in the rules, many women ruled in this post – Nirmala Samant-Prabhavalkar (1994-1995), Vishakha Raut (997-1998), Dr. Shubha Raul (March 2007-Nov. 2009), Shraddha Jadhav (Dec. 2009-March 2012), Snehal Ambedkar (Sep. 2014-March 2017). The last incumbent (before the Administrator) was a government nurse, Kishori Pednekar (Nov. 2019-March 2022) - who earned the sobriquet of ‘Florence Nightingale’ of Mumbai - as she flitted around in her full white uniform at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, earning the admiration of the citizens. Mumbai Mayor – high-profile post The Mumbai Mayor’s post is considered a crucial step in the political ladder and many went on to become MLAs, MPs, state-central ministers, a Lok Sabha Speaker, Chief Ministers and union ministers. The formidable S. K. Patil was Mayor (1949-1952) and later served in the union cabinets of PMs Jawaharlal Nehru, Lah Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi; Dahyabhai V. Patel (1954-1955) was the son of India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel; Manohar Joshi (1976-1977) became the CM of Maharashtra, later union minister and Speaker of Lok Sabha; Chhagan Bhujbal (1985-1986 – 1990-1991) became a Deputy CM.

35K-year-old Ambadevi rock-art shelter may be Asia’s oldest

Amravati/Mumbai: Ostriches, the world’s tallest species of giraffe, cheetahs and other wild creatures once thrived freely in central India as revealed by paintings in the Ambadevi rock shelters along the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border near Amravati.

 

Latest studies and research suggest that many of the Ambadevi rock shelters, could be over 35,000-years old – much older than the Bhimbetka rock art shelters, near Bhopal (MP), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around 300 kms away, said multifaceted scientist and amateur archaeologist Dr. V. T. Ingole of Amravati.

 

Incidentally, Dr. Ingole and his team - Padmakar Lad, Manohar Khode, Shirish Kumar Patil, Dnyaneshwar Damahe, and Pradeep Hirurkar – discovered the rock shelters accidentally in January 2007, drawing global attention.

 

Later, the Archaeological Survey Of India (ASI) carried out extensive searches and diggings, revealing around 500 such sandstone shelters which bear a close resemblance to similar rock art sites in other parts of India, South Africa, France and Australia.

 

Dr. Ingole said that carbon-dating and other studies spanning a decade now suggest that the Ambadevi site is estimated to be around 35,000-years old, making it the oldest in India and Asia, overtaking Bhimbetka in ‘seniority’.

 

The Ostrich eggs discovered around Ambadevi and their carbon dating by Sonal Jain and others, indicate their origins to be around 35,000 BC, belonging to a similar painted image of the flightless bird ostrich species, found here.

 

“Further, Aardvarks (ant-eater) and one of the biggest giraffe species, Sivatherium – all now extinct in India - feature alongside the imposing ostrich painting. We surmise some of these species may have travelled from Africa via the Red Sea and Suez regions, traversing the Arabian deserts, then towards the east via territories of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and into India till Kerala,” Dr. Ingole, 78, told The Perfect Voice.

 

Among the rock arts in Mungsadev Shelter is a striking four-feet tall painting of a long-necked, feather-plumed bird whose morphology matches the African ostrich, now extinct in India, but genetically confirmed to have lived here during the Late Pleistocene era, besides many other animals that prowled on earth in the prehistoric eras, he explained.

 

Images found

The images of these extinct creatures are found on the same wall of the rock shelters, plus a clutter of many other familiar wild animals and birds living around the primitive humans, who witnessed them at close quarters and engraved/painted them for posterity.

 

“Bhimbetka was considered the cradle of Indian rock arts, but the new discoveries in Ambadevi (Gavilgarh range) point towards an earlier genesis. My research paper on it proposed that the Ambadevi shelters - based on multi-disciplinary evidence of direct visual documentation of extinct fauna, genetic dating anchors and compelling neuro-visual logic - contain the oldest pictorial depictions in the subcontinent,” Dr. Ingole explained.

 

Of the 500-plus rock art sites scattered over 40 square km, around 230 are decorated with paintings, carvings, and though the colors have faded, still enthrall the visitors who flock here from all over the world.

 

Amravati: Extinct creatures grace rock art shelters

The paintings depicted in Ambadevi rock shelters – predating Bhimbetka - comprise humans, tortoises, fish, birds, human hand-impressions, geometric figures, hunting scenes, war stages, or abstract geometrical figures.

 

Painted/carved out on vertical walls, ceilings and rock cavities, the images are a collection of herbivores and carnivores like aardvarks, ostrich, sivatherium, tigers, leopards, hyenas, jackals, wild dogs, bears, spotted deers, nilgai, barasingha, sambars besides the one-horned rhinoceros, and is aptly named as the ‘animal zoo’.

 

While aardvarks, ostrich, sivatherium became extinct in India many millenia back, the majestic one-horned rhino, which once roamed vast regions, is now relegated to Assam-West Bengal in India, and parts of Nepal.

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