Afghan Church | Churches Of Mumbai Series

Afghan Church, What kind of name is it ?

Never in my wildest dreams I could have associated AFGHAN(Islamic Country) with CHURCH .

Kishe ne sach hi kaha hai ki Bade bade shahero me choti choti baate ho jati hai 😜

I was really intrigued by this weird combination which in turned fired up many more question in my mind.

Could it be possible fusion of Islamic and western culture something like Champaner near Vadodadra Where we saw  amazing architectural influence of Islamic and Hindu culture together in form of Mosques and Chatris or Cenotaphs.

Ab jab sawaal man me utha hai tho uska jawaab bhi toh dondna padega na. 

I had to find an answer to my question on Afghan Church and in order to do so ek visit toh banta hai boss and hence I did my preliminary research on google and set out for my weekend wanderings of this week

Afghan Church:One look and I realised how wrong I was because there was no Afghan but only church. That too angalic church which had a huge spire. So now the question arise why the name Afghan Church. If you hear the tragic tale behind the name it would bring tears to your eyes.

History: Afghan Church was built by British to commemorate  the dead of the first Afghan war and the disastrous 1842  retreat of Kabul also known as Massacre of Elphinstone's army .

This massacre was so brutal that more than 4500 troops of british army was lost along with the 12000 civilians. Despite agreement on the settlement of safe passage to the british troops, this massacre still happened as the Afghan tribals killed most of the retreating soldiers.Many people died because of frostbites and starvation.

The killing was so profound that out of the 16000 people from the coloum commanded by the Elphintone only one European and few Indians sepoys reached Jalalabad. The hardship encountered was such that around 2000 Indians many of known was maimed by the frostbite, survived and returned to Kabul to exist, by begging or were sold to slave trade.  

Our Journey:

We had just finished visiting Haji Ali Dargah and walked back to Mumbai Central Station from where we took local train to Churchgate station. Right outside the station there is a bus stop from where we took local BEST bus no 137 and got down at the Afghan Church stop. Just opposite the bus stop you see a tall spire nestled among the trees. 

Tall Spire of Afghan church
nestle among the ancient trees

The Tall spire of the church can be seen from long distance. The construction and architecture of this church is pioneer in the sense that it paved the way for the high Victorian building that later became the hallmark of British Colonial architecture.

High Victorian style architecture 

I was very excited to explore this church.Imagine staying in Mumbai for more than 50 years and yet I haven't seen this place, well that's the tale of almost many mumbaikar that we are unaware of such hidden treasures within our city.

Yes I am excited to explore Afghan church

I was told that in olden days lots of British Soldiers used to come in this church to attend the Sunday Mass.

We crossed the road and entered the church complex, the lovely Banyan tree on the right of the church welcomed us and we saw few small children enjoying the swing on the hanging branches of the tree. I wanted to click them but they became conscious and ran away.

We then moved on to the main door of the church, which was unfortunately closed. I was very disappointed and after travelling so far I have to go empty handed.

Closed Door !  Will I be going empty handed ?

Kahte hai na... jaha chah hai waha raha hai meaning where there is will there is a way !

Luckily for  us, as we were clicking the exterior of the church, A batch of foreigners came at that time to visit this church. The guide along them went to the caretaker of the church, who stays next to the church. The caretaker came and opened up the Church for us with a rider that We must finish out visit in 10 minutes. We were ushered inside the church from the side door.

Side door through which we entered

I quickly entered the church and I was quite impressed with what I saw. The wide Gothic arches and the colourful stained glass windows coupled with the pin drop silence of the church took my breath away.

The Gothic Arches

Sitting at the church for hardly few moments I could feel the British era atmosphere all around me. I could see the Priest at the Lectern in his majestic robes and I could see the smartly dressed soldier with their wives sitting on the benches of the church listening to the Sunday sermon in my mind's eye. This is the magic of visiting such ancient places.

Can you see the priest...Well I saw !

The colourful stained glasses seems to narrate various episodes of bible I assumed. The light filtering in through these glasses seems to have hypnotic effect on me. It was difficult for me to take away my gaze from them.

Colourful Stained Glasses

Then there are commemorative plaques something similiar to the ones we saw at  St Thomas Cathedral  in this church too that speaks poignantly of the Officers, NCOs and privates and their families who  perished due to war and sickness during the troops withdrawal from Kabul through the snow bound passes. The Dead included both British and Indian soldiers. 

Daylight filtering through this colourful maze

The tiles of the floor were brought from England. The main corridor or Chancel as they call is 50 feet long and 27 feet wide and the huge spire that we see is 198 feet high.

50 Feet long chancel

 I was dazed as I came out the church. I decided to again went to the main door of the church. The beautiful door and the lobby outside it was decorated with colourful red flowers, being christmas time the aura of churches are of different league.

Decorated Church Entrance Door

This church is actually the Church of St John the Evangelist however it is popular known as Afghan Church.Talking about the construction of this church, the imposing edifice were constructed using the locally available buff coloured basalt and limestone.

Buff coloured basalt and limestone.

The church was opened to the public during the year 1858 by the Bishop of Bombay John Harding.

We spent some time exploring the outer side of the Church, took some photographs and bid our goodbye.

Information you can use:

How To Reach

The church is very near to the Colaba Causeway which is between Colaba and Old Woman’s island. One can easily reach here by taking a cab from anywhere in the city.

By Air:

• Nearest Airport: Mumbai Airport is the closest airport to the church. Airport is 27 km away from the church.

By Road:

• Nearest Bus Stop: You can catch BEST Bus number 123 from Churchgate station to reach the church.
• Taxis are available outside the Churchgate and CST station and you can reach in 15-20 minutes

By Rail :

• Nearest Railway Station: 

• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on Central Railway is the convenient railway station (6.5 km away) to reach Afghan church Mumbai.
• Churchgate station on Western Railway is another option which is 3.5 km away.

Churches of Mumbai Series | St Thomas Cathedral

It all started when last month I came across an article in the MIDDAY newspaper. A three hundred years old church was celebrating its tri-centenary. Naturally I was all inquisitive to know where was this church, what was the history behind and as I started my research I was getting more and more immersed into the past of this church. What got unveiled left me dumbfounded!.

Present Churchgate Station

For all these years passed, I never knew why Churchgate Station was called Churchgate and over that we always enjoyed Kishore Kumar crooning in the movie DON, Ee hai bumbai nagariya tu dekh babuwa....jaha churchgate ka  church hai lapata. 

Well the good news is I found the missing Church.

Jokes apart, St Thomas cathedral is in fact that missing church which gives Churchgate its name and another interesting fact about this church is that it is Point Zero spot where the pin falls in "Bombay"from where distance in the city was measured in milestones.

History:
St Thomas Cathedral stands testimony to the colonial past. The times when there was actually a fortified British settlement of Bombay which we call as Fort area in present times except that today there is no fort, no bastions or fort walls. What we see today is bustling commercial hubs yet being a commercial hub the British era can still be felt,looking around the buildings in these areas which are converted to Govt offices or bank premises. 
Till the 19th century the Bombay was fortified settlement with a fort wall and a moat.

The city had three gates 

Apollo gate- at Apollo bunder
Bazaar Gate- That is where today chhatrapati Shivaji Bus Terminus 
Churchgate- Where the flora fountain stands today
stands. 

Old Church gate,where the present day Flora Fountain stands
 (Pic source Wikipedia)

All the gates along with the city wall was demolished in the year 1860.

As the city of Bombay was inhabited by the Britisher they needed a place to worship so in the year 1676 the foundation stone was laid by the Governor Gerald Aungier  the same year that Emperor Aurangzeb began building Badshahi Masjid or mosque in Lahore. Unfortunately after the death Gerald Aungier the construction of the church was abandoned,however as the construction of the church was underway so the structure stood half way at 5 metres high for half a century. In 1710 Richard Cobbe the Chaplain adopted this unfinished Church and got the construction completed and finally the church was thrown open to the general public on the Christmas day 1718. 

The Church was named after St. Thomas, the Apostle, one of the 12 Disciples of Lord Christ who is believed to have come to India.

In the year 1837, the Church was consecrated as a Cathedral and Rev. Thomas Carr was appointed the first Bishop of Bombay. The Church underwent lots of  additions and renovation and took its present form in the year 1865.

In the 18th and 19th century the Cathedral was divided on the basis of different classes of society.There were even separate rooms for "Inferior Women" ( Now don't ask me what does that mean, I always felt that all humans are equal in the eyes of God, yet why this discrimination...probably another creativity of humans to divide the humans )

My Journey :

Armed with all the info that I can gather I was very eager to have a first hand experience of seeing the St Thomas Cathedral. So Weekend wanderer that I am, I set out one Sunday afternoon to visit this church. Let me share my experience from here on.

I took local train from Andheri to Churchagate and it was 4 pm when I reached the Churchgate station. Coming out of the station I started to walk towards Hutatma Chowk aka Flora Fountain and from there towards Horniman circle, just before that you see a Clock tower like structure and you can be forgiven if you mistook it for a clock tower. Its not a clock tower but the church, St Thomas Cathedral. I have come to Horniman circle for upteem times I fact I must have savoured the coffee at Starbucks  just opposite to it and yet missed this so important monument.

As I was entering the church I noticed a beautiful ornate fountain in front of the main entrance.

In 1864, Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, a Parsi philanthropist, had gifted this Gothic fountain to this church, because he wished to donate one in the vicinity of his residence, still known as Readymoney Mansion. 

ReadyMoney Mansion (It still exists)

This kind of donation was nothing unusual gesture for Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, because he had donated 40 iron fountains to Mumbai, of which only six can be found now. This ornate fountain actually compliments to the beauty of this Cathedral.

Made for each other

 This fountain was brought from London in parts."The local Parsi community were unhappy that such generosity was wasted on 'Unbelievers' and hence they disparagingly nicknamed the fountain the 'Cowasjee Cross'."( Source Times of  India Report)

Lobby at the entrance of the church

From here I moved to enter the Church. As we enter the Church we find a small lobby, what is noticeable here is the designed flooring, a designed wrought iron gate and the visitor book lying on the right side of the lobby.

Designed flooring in the lobby

Next we enter the main hall, What I saw was very imposing and grand.The inside of the church is painted in white.There was these  beautifully designed huge wrought iron brackets which holds the fans in the church.

Wrought Iron fan brackets in the hall catches your eyes

 The next thing that interested me a lot was the many memorials made of marble stone that adorned walls of the church. These memorials tell different stories of the different people and look very ostentatious.

Memorial for 300 Passengers
who perished on steamship Cleopatra

The first Memorial that I saw was for the 300 passengers of the Steamship called Cleopatra, who perished when the ship sank of the coast of Malabar on 15th April 1847. the ship was en-route from Bombay to Singapore.The monument was erected by the officers and the seaman of Indian navy as per the plaque 

The next interesting memorial was this huge memorial for Jonathan Duncan.

Memorial of Jonathan Duncan

Jonathan Duncan was the longest serving governor (16 years)The memorial comprises of a Dhoti clad Brahmin and a statue depicting the symbol of justice and this was all set against the backdrop of Banyan Tree with the smiling Chirubs.

In the words of  Reverend Avinash Rangayy the Church Priest "Duncan was a visionary who abolished infanticide in India… those cherubs denote this good deed. He was an Indophile — the Brahmin and the banyan tree depict his deep association with India, while the statue portrays his fairness in judgement despite being a colonial ruler."

Memorial for Captain George Nicholas Hardinge

Another interesting and beautifully carved monument of horses with a fairy and waves caught my eye. On closer observation I noted it was a memorial to Captain George Nicholas Hardinge
As per the plaque Captain George commanded the ship called "San Fiorenzo" considered to be terror of Indian seas which had 36 guns and 186 men on it.

 He chased and fought for three successive day the enemy frigate "La-Piedmantaise which had 50 guns and 566 men on it. Yet The Captain along with his crew achieved a brilliant conquest but unfortunately fell in the last and critical, part of this heric battle. It is said that he was very much inspired by his hero Lord Nelson. Captain George dies in the year 1808.  
last but not the least i liked this peculiar kind of memorial which looked like a coffin with a statue of a priest lying on it. This memorial belonged to the Rev. Thomas Carr  The first bishop of Bombay.

Memorial of  First Bishop of Bombay

Other than this there are many more exotic memorial some of which are in brass form each telling a different tale. Do visit and read each epitaph probably you may find some new secret unveiled.

After going through all the memorials I came down to the central of the church and started to walk down the nave. Just as I was to about to approach near the chancel,on my right side on the first row of the seating chairs I saw these two iconic chairs . Iconic because these chairs were occupied by King George and the queen on 3rd Nov, 1911.

Copper plate on the seats

Just before that there is this pew on which was used by Mother Theresa on 08.01.1989. I get goosebumps when I find myself so near the history and could actually feel the presence of this blessed soul.

After this I move towards the altar area or rather the chancel, what catches your eyes is the lovely stained glass windows with colour paintings of St Thomas and many others.

Some beautiful designed stained glass windows 

The chancel

One of the paintings at the cathedral shows St Thomas with a Bible in his hand and a T square in the other hand perhaps reminding the viewers  that at on time he was a builder by profession standing next to him on both his sides are archangels St Gabriel holding a lily symbolising purity and truth. and St Micheal holding a double edged sword, symbolising truth and justice.

No wonder that such beautiful Church is considered as a heritage site and is a recipient of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Conservation Award.

Stained glass window of St Thomas,St Gabriel and St Michael

I was simply overwhelmed by what I experienced here. I sat for sometime soaking in all the grandeur and the peace the place had to offer. Paid my respect to the lord and came out of the Cathedral as a contented man.

Thank You