Chawl

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In the period up to the 1980s, Chawls were buildings occupied by middle class families in parts of India. They typically consisted of 4 to 5 stories with about 10 to 20 tenements on each floor.

The tenements or "kholi"s as they were called had one living-cum-bed-cum-all purpose room and a kitchen that served as the dining room, doubling at night as a bedroom for a newly married couple (who got the privilege of having, at least for a period, a special and separate bedroom). Rents were often Rs. 40 per month or even lower.

Families on a floor had to share a common block of latrines, each block comprising typically 4 to 5 latrines. However, each family, or group of unrelated persons, endeavoured to have their own bathroom in their tenement. On the one hand, people living in a chawl had little privacy since the most trivial happenings in one home constituted an item of public news that interested all the others. On the other hand, people of a particular chawl were able to share with other inhabitants an atmosphere of intimacy and mutual support. No one felt lonely and it was as if the entire chawl formed a big family. In fact, the lifestyle that chawls gave rise to has distinctive cultural features which have been exploited in plays,films and novels. People brought up in chawls tend to speak indirectly, even to those who are not familiar with chawl culture. One has to be careful to avoid misunderstandings and make correct interpretations.

Though mostly belonging to the lower economic stratum, the inhabitants of a chawl were fiercely proud of their chawl and its history.