Siddhpur Gaze

 

Siddhpur is a historical city which is located in northern Gujarat in India. Siddhpur’s history begins approximately from 4-5th Century A.D This place has seen the Pandavas, The Solanki’s, Muhammad Ghori, & The Mughals. There is a huge settlement of the Dawoodi Bohra community in this area. Bohras are a trading community who traveled the world, absorbed various cultures and are known for their significant contribution towards the development of Siddhpur. I came to know about Siddhpur a few years back, from a friend who has an ancestral home in Siddhpur.

 

On inquiring further I found that these centennial Dawoodi Bohra houses were intricately decorated and the interiors were very European in nature, adorned with fashionable Victorian furniture. This really caught my curiosity. When I moved to Gujarat as a student I seized the opportunity. On my first visit, as I walked around the empty streets of Siddhpur, I felt as if I was in an abandoned film set, whose crew had long deserted the place, leaving only a few stragglers behind. The town seemed to be trapped in a time warp. A surreal atmosphere loomed over the town, with its ancient facades juxtaposed with modern high rises. Siddhpur, though seemingly stripped of its former glory, was adopting a new avatar, that of generic town, common and insignificant.

 

This project is a small window to what is becoming of these heritage homes in Siddhpur.