Scenes from Mumbai (Part 2): Inspiring Religious Sites

Posted by Colleen
On June 6, 2022
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I’ve been getting acquainted with Hinduism while here (more on that later), but there are other prominent religions in India (Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism) that I also wanted to learn about during my Fulbright experience.

Jainism is the religion I knew virtually nothing about. For example, I knew Mahatma Gandhi was born a Hindu, but I had no idea that Jainism strongly influenced his nonviolent protests and other strategies to fight against British colonial rule. So, I was really interested to learn about Jainism while visiting this colorful temple!

If you’re curious about Jainism and don’t happen to have a Jain temple nearby to explore, you can click this link for a quick 2-minute video from the Oprah Network or this link for a longer explanation but in a fun cartoon form.

Babu Amichand Panalal Adishwarji Jain Temple

Here are a few photos from my visit . . .

If you’ve heard anything at all about the history of India, you probably know about the 1947 Partition. This was essentially a final act of the British Raj before the end of colonial reign, and it split the Indian subcontinent into two separate countries: a Muslim majority Pakistan, and a Hindu majority India. (And if you don’t know about Partition, I’d suggest reading this article from the New Yorker or for clicking this link to watch a 5-minute summary video that I think is pretty compelling).

Despite that massive migration of Muslims to Pakistan, Islam is still one of the main religions of India today. In fact, India has the second largest population of Muslims in the world (behind Indonesia).

Today there are between 300,000 and 400,000 active mosques across India (depending on who you ask, I guess). One of these is located on a small island just off the coast of South Mumbai that can only be accessed at low tide.

Haji Ali Dargah mosque

This site has special significance because it’s both a mosque and a mausoleum holding the tomb of a Muslim saint named Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari. It’s a heavily visited site (around 30,000 people apparently walk the long inlet path to this mosque each week), so it was no surprise that we found it super crowded.

As with my previous visits to busy temples, I only took photos around the mosque’s exterior to be respectful of the many folks praying/worshipping inside. (For the interior-curious reader, however, I found another blogger’s post documenting the long walk to the island and visit to the tomb inside the mosque–check it out here).