The Aussie urban historian who was consumed by Mumbai's many hues

James Cosmas Masselos, one of the foremost urban historians who wrote and researched extensively on Mumbai, passed away at the age of 85 in Australia on Wednesday.

- Danish Khan

LONDON: Over a glorious six-decade career, Masselos published six books, brought out five edited collections and contributed over 50 research articles. By any yardstick, this is a remarkable body of work.

In January 2017, a festschrift conference was held in his honour at University of Mumbai where scholars from around the world presented papers. These were later published in a volume titled 'Bombay before Mumbai' in 2019 edited by Professors Rachel Dwyer, Prashant Kidambi and Manjiri Kamat.

Masselos's association with the city began in July 1961 when he travelled from Sydney on a studentship funded by the Government of India under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. The flight with stopovers in Darwin, Jakarta, Singapore and Madras finally led him to Bombay where his abode was a hostel on B Road in Churchgate. Just a year before his arrival, the former Bombay Presidency had separated into two new states of Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960.