When English author and ‘prince of paradox’, G.Ok. Chesterton, wrote, “
The true soldier fights not as a result of he hates what’s in entrance of him however as a result of he loves what’s behind him,” he, after all, was referring to the vagaries of the First World Struggle (WWI), which for the primary time in fashionable historical past noticed unprecedented ranges of carnage and destruction on a world scale due to new navy applied sciences.

At the moment, over 100 years later, the world is at present waging a distinct form of struggle — this time towards the COVID-19 virus, which, on the time of publishing this text, has contaminated over 4.53 million individuals worldwide. At the moment, regardless of a century’s price of socio‐political, financial, and cultural adjustments since WWI, frontline staff who’ve been enthusiastically dubbed as ‘corona warriors’ by mainstream media and web customers, echo the very sentiment Chesterton wrote about – to struggle for and defend what they love.

Illness and the Most metropolis


Some say the phrase ‘Spirit of Mumbai‘ has turn into an irritating reminder of town’s submission to adversity by its beautiful capability to bounce again within the face of virtually something — whether or not it’s the eight terror assaults that town has been topic to, collapsing bridges or the annual deluge Mumbai experiences in the course of the Monsoon — the ‘Spirit of Mumbai’ at all times retains town afloat. It has been broadly argued that this angle normalises town’s overburdened, crumbling infrastructure, authorities inefficacy, and infuses a misplaced sense of delight throughout the metropolis’s residents.

The coronavirus disaster, nevertheless, has had an unprecedented impact on Mumbai. As instances within the metropolis proceed to swell with out respite (Mumbai has the very best variety of COVID-19 instances in Maharashtra), by no means earlier than have the streets ever skilled such nakedness, college hallways such stillness, and workplace buildings such quietness.

After all, regardless of the lockdown, town remains to be in (fractured) movement. Important staff, legislation enforcement authorities, grocery customers, the occasional wanton law-breakers have all been noticed on town’s streets, however, for probably the most half, Mumbaikars have set an awesome instance of exercising self-discipline. To not point out, from offering financial support, to protecting tools and meals, town has proven an outpour of affection in the direction of healthcare professionals, the police drive, social staff, grocery distributors, sanitation staff and different such ‘corona warriors’ — dare I say, the spirit of Mumbai has shined via, as soon as once more.

Many Mumbaikars, infinitely extra certified than myself have written concerning the phrase ‘Spirit of Mumbai’ however Ratan Tata‘s caption posted on the 11th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Assault is the one I need to placed on show in the present day. He wrote in an Instagram publish ”
… however most significantly, we stay pleased with the spirit and the sense of unity displayed by Mumbai in all its energy on that day. I’ll say it once more: We may be harm, however not knocked out.”

“Historical past and the Resort are intertwined,” wrote Hilla P. Guzder in her 2003 e-book, “The taj of the Tatas”. It is true, visually an intrinsic a part of town’s historical past is the long-lasting Taj Mahal Palace Resort — be it the well-known postcard picture of the cityscape from the harbour that includes the lodge and its well-known next-door neighbor, The Gateway of India; or the picture of indignant, darkish smoke billowing out of the flaming dome of the lodge in the course of the 2008 terror assaults.

The lodge was re-opened after restoration on India’s Independence Day, 15 August 2010, and now stands as an emblem of endurance and, in some sense, embodies the Spirit of Mumbai.

Mumbai and the Nice Struggle

Extraordinary instances name for extraordinary measures. In a time the place the COVID-19 virus is but to see its peak — stadiums, exhibition facilities and leisure grounds are being transformed into makeshift medical and quarantine facilities to fight the unfold of the contagion.

The Taj Mahal Palace Resort’s ornate interiors are additionally internet hosting a sequence of name rooms for medical employees. Hospital staff in South Mumbai are being offered lodging within the lodge’s rooms to allow them to lower down on commute time, relaxation near their workplace, and never worry spreading the virus at house.

To most Mumbaikars, seeing resorts was is hospitals, is unprecedented.

Nevertheless it’s hardly the primary time the lodge has been transformed right into a makeshift medical middle.

In the course of the Nice Struggle, the Taj Mahal Resort was was a 600-bed hospital.

About 1.25 million Indians served in WWI; many from Mumbai had been Bombay Port Belief staff and Parsis. To at the present time stands a struggle column in Malabar Hill’s Khareghat Colony, created “in pious reminiscence of the Zoroastrians, who died doing their obligation in the course of the Nice Struggle”, unveiled in 1926 by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy.

A couple of kilometers away, a commemorating gold plaque at St Thomas’s Cathedral in Horniman Circle reads, “In ever grateful reminiscence of the lads related with Bombay who gave their lives within the service of the empire.”

One other memorial stands in Masjid Bunder’s Indian Sailor’s House, devoted to 2,223 seamen “who fell within the Nice Struggle and whose graves are the ocean”.

The Taj Mahal Palace lodge, nevertheless, wasn’t the one construction used to serve the Imperial British Empire’s struggle efforts. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, (previously often known as the Prince of Wales Museum) served as a Kids’s Welfare Centre and a Navy Hospital throughout WWI. The Jer Mahal Constructing, which homes iconic institutions like Kyani & Co. and Common E-book Retailer, was additionally deliberate as a hospital previous to WWI. Later, components of it had been handed over to the Goan group to run golf equipment.

It has been 102 years because the finish of WW1. The Nice Struggle was meant to be a struggle to finish all wars, however as everyone knows historical past repeated itself simply 21 years later with the Second World Struggle, which lasted from 1939 to 1945.

India, as soon as once more, was used as a strategic pawn by the British Empire. Nonetheless, regardless of being sucked practically dry of a number of sources together with manpower, India lastly earned her independence from the British on the finish of the carnage.

Mumbai is at present one of many worst-hit by the coronavirus in India. Town has reported 17,512 COVID-19 optimistic instances thus far and its loss of life toll at present stands at 655, but when we look via the pages of historical past we see that this is not the primary time town has confronted adversity. Mumbai has fought via the bubonic plague, floods, droughts cowardly terrorist assaults, and has at all times emerged stronger, rising like a phoenix from the ashes. As Ratan Tata stated, ”
We may be harm, however not knocked out.”

This time will probably be no totally different.