What strikes the visitor is not the service the Irani cafe gives, but the wonderful cosmopolitanism of it...

- INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS, Bombay Congress Guide, 1934

Our Story

Born in 2006 Irani Chai, Mumbai remembers and documents, through words and visuals, the Irani cafes of Bombay. Established by enterprising Irani migrants who arrived in Bombay from the late 1800s and 1950s, the departure of these street corner sites from Mumbai’s landscape has been noticed by many in recent years. 

For at least two decades tabloid journalists have been crafting articles celebrating these Mumbai institutions or mourning their disappearance, while many a student of film or urban studies, braced with the same sense of impending loss, have sought to capture the Irani ‘before it goes’. Older Mumbaikars lament what is being lost as they witness another café close, or watch it morph into something vastly different. Some hanker for the days when, they say, hour upon hour could be sweetly passed at the local Irani - bun maska and chai a satisfying, and economical, accompaniment to spirited conversation with friends and family. 

With great affection many recalled the ‘classic’ physical features of the city’s Iranis – marble-topped tables, Burmese teak walls, bentwood chairs (some say from Poland, others insist Czechoslovakia), mirrors, signage announcing "all are welcome, whatever caste" or “No match sticks/ No discussing gambling/ No newspaper/ No combing” and those painted-glass images of Zoroaster, Jesus Christ and pretty-as-a picture landscapes.

Always at the heart of Irani Chai, Mumbai has been the question of what sits behind the nostalgia for these distinctly Mumbai social spaces? Beyond the fading allure of bentwood chairs and marble tabletops – we wrote in our introduction in 2006 - lay a multitude of memories. 

Today, you'll find a collection of oral history interviews and articles, an archive of film and news media clippings, and blog posts. The interest shown in the project from all corners of the globe has not declined in the 15 years since it started.

 NOTE 1. The Irani community in Bombay is not exclusively Zoroastrian, and some of the city’s Irani cafes have been operated by Shi’a and Baha’i Iranis. While this project has focused on the cafes operated by the Zoroastrian Irani community, this was never the intention at the start of the Irani Chai, Mumbai project.  

NOTE 2. We value our own intellectual property rights and those of others. We make every reasonable effort to trace and obtain permission from copyright owners in order to reproduce intellectual property to support our work and in turn, make every effort to protect our copyright and that of others. Irani Chai, Mumbai welcomes your feedback to correct any errors or omissions. 

Bruce Carter

Bruce has worked on community history projects since 2000. These have included oral history, exhibition curation, walking tours, writing and research. He holds qualifications in public history and library & archives management and in 2020 completed his PhD thesis at University of Technology, Sydney, under the supervision of Dr Devleena Ghosh and Dr Paula Hamilton. Based in Sydney, Australia, he is a member of Professional Historians Association (NSW), the Oral History Association Australia (NSW branch) and the Association of Critical Heritage Studies. 

Bruce would love to hear from you.