Mahim residents urge revival of Haj ships as cruise terminal opens

Time of India

11 hours ago

In a touching scene from the 1983 blockbuster Coolie, protagonist Iqbal (Amitabh Bachchan) plans to go for Haj and pray for the recovery of his seriously ill mother. However, just before boarding the passenger ship for Jeddah, he is stopped from travelling as he is suffering from a fever.
Iqbal gives his ticket to a poor, old man and sends him off for Haj on his behalf, crooning the devotional number: 'Mubarak ho tum sabko Haj ka mahina...' The movie's script blocked Iqbal from boarding the ship for Haj. In real life, however, a group of Mahim residents have petitioned the govt to restart passenger ships to Saudi Arabia for Haj pilgrimage.
As the annual Haj for 2025 concluded this past week, the Mahim Residents' Group reiterated their old demand.
The recent inauguration of the Mumbai International Cruise Terminal at Mazagon has rekindled their hopes.
"Haj pilgrimage through the sea route was stopped in 1995 as the govt wanted pilgrims to travel by air and the travel was subsidised. Now the pilgrimage by flights has become costlier and poor pilgrims cannot afford it. Travel by ships will substantially reduce the cost," says Irfan Machiwala, one of the residents who is joined by Farooque Dhala, Syed M Ismail, and Syed Gulzar Ranam.
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The advocates for restarting passenger ships for Haj cite a 2018 statement of then Union Minorities Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, where the minister said that the govt wanted to start Mumbai-Jeddah cruise ship services to ferry Haj pilgrims as a pilot project. "But the plan got shelved," says Dhala.
In 2023, the residents wrote to the Maharashtra CM, PMO, Ministry of Minority Affairs, and even sought help from some MPs.
On May 5, 2023, in a letter to Sarbananda Sonowal, then minister of ports, shipping, and waterways, Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar wrote: "Poor Muslim pilgrims would have to pay much less for travel to Jeddah than they pay for airfares and it would be helpful in cutting down the Haj and Umrah cost. As part of the new Haj policy, the Modi govt planned 15 cruise trips for pilgrims from 2018 onwards.
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It was the famous Khandwani family in Mahim that pioneered the commercial ships for Haj during the First World War.
In 1914, four brothers, Abdullahmian Khandwani, Dadamian Khandwani, Mohammedmian Khandwani, and Abbamian Khandwani, bought three German ships and created the Khandwani Steam Navigation Company.
In an article on the Khandwanis, journalist M A Siraj says that for the 10-day voyage from Bombay to Jeddah, the Khandwanis would charge up to Rs 210, with the price going down to Rs 10 per passenger, depending on the economic condition of the pilgrims.
"The booking manager had instructions to insist on people paying according to their status, more in line with the spirit of the Hajj. But they must... It would take the ships ten days to ferry the pilgrims to Jeddah," writes Siraj.
Sohail Khandwani, a descendant of the family, businessman, and managing trustee of Mahim and Haji Ali Dargahs, who lives in the iconic beachside villa, Khandwani House, in Mahim, says: "I feel privileged that my forebears pioneered the commercial ships for Haj pilgrimage.
The govt should restart if it is viable today." Sohail's uncle Amin Khandwani, chairman of the Haj Committee of India (1982-89), told Siraj in an interview in 2005 that his grandfather Abba Mian Khandwani "would tie a talisman on the mast and sail off for Jeddah.
"
We speak to Asif Dadarkar, who owns a shipping company and whose uncle Mohammed Saeed Dadarkar was general manager at Mogul Lines Ltd, which operated two ships, MV Noorjahan and MV Akbar, to ferry Haj pilgrims. "Ferrying Haj pilgrims alone will not be commercially viable unless they are subsidised and allowed to cruise to other ports," says Dadarkar.
Whether or not the govt restarts passenger ships for Haj by reintroducing a subsidy, for now the residents are keeping the faith.