There are numerous posts on Instagram and social media about this legend on how the land for Raj Bhawan, Mumbai was donated by a Parsi. This does not even find reference on the official Raj Bhavan website (Lok Bhavan Mumbai | Lok Bhavan Maharashtra | India), but people are in the habit of passing off anything as genuine history, which agrees with their version.
This matters to me because the location of Raj Bhawan was the original spot of Walkeshwar Temple, a Shilahara period place of pilgrimage for my ancestors and ancestors for the original inhabitants of Mumbai. This post was created with the help of Chat GPT, after doing manual research as well as taking its assistance in corroborating my findings.
Introduction: When Repetition Masquerades as History
Over the past few years, several online articles have confidently claimed that the land on which Mumbai’s Raj Bhavan stands was gifted to the colonial government by a Parsi individual, often named Sorabji Cawasji, and that this land was known as “Angola Doongar.”
These accounts are usually presented as settled fact. However, they are uniformly unsourced, late, and internally inconsistent. Having examined 18th– and 19th-century printed records and maps, this post argues that the donation narrative — and the very place-name on which it depends — lacks archival support and should be treated with caution.
This is not an argument against tradition; it is an argument for evidence.
1. The Central Claim — and Its Evidentiary Problem
The core assertions made by these articles are:
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A tract of land at Malabar Point was privately owned
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This land was called Angola Doongar
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It was donated or gifted to the Bombay Government by Sorabji Cawasji (or a similarly named individual)
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This donation enabled the establishment of Government House (later Raj Bhavan)
Each of these claims would normally leave a substantial paper trail.
None has been demonstrated.
2. The Silence of the Bombay Gazetteers
The Bombay Presidency Gazetteers (late 19th and early 20th century) remain among the most detailed administrative and historical records of colonial Bombay. They meticulously document:
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Land ownership
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Public buildings
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Government acquisitions
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Charitable gifts and donors
Yet:
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No Gazetteer records a donation of Malabar Point land
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No Gazetteer mentions Sorabji Cawasji in connection with Government House
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No Gazetteer lists any place called Angola Doongar
This silence is not incidental. When land was gifted to the colonial state, it was usually acknowledged explicitly.
3. Revenue, Survey, and PWD Records: What They Actually Say
Revenue and Land Alienation Records
A genuine land gift would require documentation under:
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Alienation of land
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Transfer without consideration
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Crown grants or resumptions
Such records are highly formulaic and precise. To date, no identified revenue proceeding records a private donation of the Raj Bhavan site.
Public Works Department Files
PWD documents related to the construction and improvement of the Governor’s residence consistently refer to the site as:
“land already in possession of Government”
or
“Crown land at Malabar Point”
Notably absent is any reference to a recent gift or benefactor — an omission that would be unusual, given its financial and administrative implications.
4. The Problem of “Angola Doongar”
Perhaps the most revealing weakness in the narrative is the place-name itself.
“Doongar / Dongar”
In Marathi and related regional usage, dongar simply means hill. British records use the term descriptively, not proprietarily.
“Angola”
“Angola” does not appear as:
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A Marathi, Gujarati, Portuguese, or English toponym for Malabar Hill
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A named hill, estate, or survey unit in colonial records
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A label on any known 18th– or 19th-century map of Bombay
No authoritative source anchors “Angola Doongar” to a fixed, legally recognised parcel of land.
A land donation cannot occur without a legally identifiable land unit. In this case, the land unit itself is unattested.
5. Parsi Archival Records — Another Absence
Parsi community documentation from the 19th century — including trust deeds, wills, Panchayat records, and commemorative texts — is unusually well preserved.
If a Parsi individual had donated a prime coastal hill to the government for its highest official residence, one would reasonably expect:
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Community acknowledgement
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Family records
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Memorial references
No such corroboration has surfaced.
6. How Such Narratives Likely Form
A more plausible explanation is gradual narrative construction:
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Private individuals occupied or leased bungalows on Malabar Hill
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Surrounding land was resumed or consolidated by the colonial government
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A personal name survived in oral memory
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Descriptive terrain (“dongar”) became a supposed estate
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Later writers retrofitted a philanthropic “gift” narrative
Through repetition, conjecture hardened into “fact.”
7. A Historically Defensible Conclusion
Based on currently available evidence, the most responsible conclusion is this:
There is no contemporaneous documentary evidence that the land housing Mumbai’s Raj Bhavan was gifted by Sorabji Cawasji or any private individual, nor that it was historically known as “Angola Doongar.” The land appears in 19th-century records as Crown or Company-controlled property, and the donation narrative emerges only in late, unsourced secondary accounts.
This does not preclude future discoveries — but history cannot be written on absence plus repetition.
Closing Note: Why This Matters
Urban history is especially vulnerable to myth-making, particularly when prestige sites are involved. Challenging such narratives is not iconoclasm; it is maintenance of historical standards.
If the claim is true, the archive will eventually prove it.
Until then, the story remains — at best — unverified.
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