Art Street: The role played by dabbawalas in erecting Rajguru memorial in Mumbai

President of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association Subhash Talekar said nearly 70% of all dabbawalas in the city come from Pune’s Rajguru Nagar, the birthplace of the revolutionary Shivram Rajguru

Subhash Talekar, president of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association, said nearly 70 per cent of all dabbawalas in Mumbai city come from Pune’s Rajguru Nagar, which was earlier called Khed. It is the birthplace of Shivram Rajguru and hence the town’s name was changed to honour his sacrifice. (Express photo by Aditya Poonia)

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In November last year, a memorial to Shivaram Rajguru, the revolutionary hanged by the British government in 1931 along with Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev Thapar for assassinating British police officer John Saunders, came up at Rajguru Chowk opposite Mumbai’s Mantralaya. However, not many are aware of the role played by the city’s famous dabbawalas in erecting the memorial.

“We have a lot of dabbawalas providing food in south Mumbai. In fact, we have 10-15 orders from the Mantralaya as well. Whenever we passed Rajguru Chowk, located opposite the Mantralaya, we felt that even though the chowk was in Rajguru’s name, there was nothing there to commemorate him apart from a plaque with his name,” Talekar said. The Mantralaya is the administrative headquarters of the Maharashtra government.

He added, “Dabbawalas have been serving in Mumbai for over 130 years now and we felt that honouring Rajguru would be a fitting tribute to dabbawalas as most of us come from the same place. Also, on March 23 – which is remembered as martyr’s day in memory of the three revolutionaries – there are several functions in Punjab, but nothing much happens in Maharashtra.”

Eventually in March last year, Talekar wrote to the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray seeking a memorial for Rajguru at the chowk, which was approved. Though the government changed in Maharashtra soon after, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the memorial in November 2022 along with members of Rajguru’s family and representatives of the dabbawala association.

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