An island village neighbouring the erstwhile Mumbai Heptanesia, Bandra or Bandor as the Portuguese called it, was originally a collection of 24 villages inhabited by the Kolis or the fisherfollk community. In the 16th and 17th century many of these villages converted to Catholicism owing to the Portuguese rule. These converts were christened as East Indian by the British and form the backbone of Bandra’s cultural ethos.
The years following independence, the paddy fields and vegetable plantations gave way to bungalows and apartments, of the rich and the famous which made Bandra the Beverly Hills of Mumbai. Despite the urbanisation,
there still exists another Bandra made of villages which reminds of the Bandor of yesteryears.
This tour pays homage to the East Indians community - their way of life, history and culture.