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From Dhobi Ghat to Link Road: Mumbai’s washing tradition
Mumbai has washed clothes for the city by hand for over 130 years. A visit to Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, and what we learned from it.
Before there were laundry machines in every flat, Mumbai’s clothes were washed by dhobis, and much of it still is. If you want to understand how a city this size keeps itself clean, spend an early morning at Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat.
The ghat sits beside the railway line near Mahalaxmi station, and the best view is from the bridge on the road above, at around 7 am. Below you are rows of concrete wash pens, each with its own flogging stone. Washermen soak, beat and rinse clothes from hotels, hospitals and homes across the city, and the lines of drying sheets stretch for hundreds of metres. Families have worked the same pens for generations. Visit respectfully: this is a workplace, not a show. If you want to walk inside, go with a local who works there and ask before taking photos of people.
What strikes us, as a modern laundry, is how well the system works. Every garment carries a small mark in ink, a code only the dhobi can read, and things are rarely lost among thousands of pieces. Our barcode tags do the same job with a scanner.
We use machines, gentler detergents and dryers, which matter in the monsoon. But the principles are the same as at the ghat: sort carefully, wash each load well, dry fully and return every piece to the right home. If you visit, combine it with the Haji Ali dargah nearby, best reached at low tide.
