Forts of Mumbai

Fort is military building, designed to be defended from attack, consisting of an area surrounded by a strong wall, in which soldiers are based while fortification is building military defences to protect a place against attack. In Mumbai, we have such evidences.

Syllabus:
1. Introduction: What is a Fort? What is the History of Fortifications?: Dr Kurush Dalal
2. The History of Mumbai: Dr. Rashna Poncha
3. Portuguese Forts and Fortifications in and around Mumbai: Dr. Kurush F Dalal
4. British Forts of Mumbai: Dr. Rashna Poncha
5. Bombay Fort: Dr. Rashna Poncha
6. After the Fort, the making of Modern Mumbai: Dr. Rashna Poncha

About the Speakers:

Kurush F Dalal has a BA in Ancient Indian History and History from the University of Mumbai, an MA in Archaeology as well as a PhD on the Early Iron Age in Rajasthan, both from Deccan College, Pune University. Subsequently he shifted focus to the Early Medieval Period predominantly on the West Coast of India and excavated the sites of Sanjan, Chandore and Mandad. These excavations and the data recovered have had a strong impact on scholarship in the region. The recent Mandad excavations have revealed a brand new hitherto unknown Indo-Roman Port site with antecedents going back even further. Dr. Dalal also actively works on Memorial Stones and Ass-curse Stones in India and dabbles in Numismatics, Defence Archaeology, Architecture, Ethnoarchaeology and allied disciplines. He is the Co-Director of the Salsette Explorations Project, a massive Urban Archaeology Project documenting the Archaeology of Mumbai since 2015, thus extending his interest from the Medieval into the Colonial Period. He has published over 35 papers and has read many more at National and International Seminars. He is a visiting lecturer at various Universities, Colleges, Schools and Government Institutions. He taught archaeology and allied subjects at the University of Mumbai for 10 years. He has recently blended his passion for food and archaeology into a research in Culinary Anthropology and Food Archaeology. He runs a very successful course called The Studying Food Workshop teaching food beyond the usual topics. He has made the most of the lockdown teaching via Instagram Lives and by teaching at various online platforms like Mythopia and INSTUCEN.

Dr. Rashna Poncha is Assistant Professor at the History Department, Sophia College (Autonomous). She is passionate about teaching and about History. She holds a Ph.D. in History for her thesis on “A Study of Frere Town, Bombay (1862-1947). Her area of specialisation is 19th century Bombay history. She has presented numerous papers at both international and national conferences, as well as published a book and papers in her specialisation. She has organised and conducted numerous conferences and seminars on different aspects of History and the History of Mumbai and its Communities and has published the proceedings thereof to wide acclaim. She was also the coordinator of a recent International Conference on Forts of India for the K R Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai.