Charmagandha: Mapping the Smellscapes of Thakkar Bappa Colony, Mumbai

Cities are often scentsual sites, both metaphorically and literally. But as Richard Sennett (1994) identifies in Flesh and Stone, we rarely acknowledge or recognise the physicality of the body that inhabits the city or pay attention to how urban spaces are (re)produced sensorially. And when it comes to smell, not only is it typically held in low regard among other senses. Henshaw (2014) (as cited in Allen, 2021) notes how contemporary urban smellscapes are less odorous as a result of built environment practices that produce increasingly homogenised, sterile, and controlled environments. In that sense, Thakkar Bappa Colony’s distinctive olfactory features and unique historical landscape lend themselves well to this study. By 'smellwalking' across the neighbourhood, this essay documents the interplay of caste, class, and smell in Mumbai.