Kala Ghoda Arts Festival: Mumbai Learns from its History, Questions the Present

Mumbai is witnessing contrasting parallels. Even as the small Chinese settlement in South Mumbai's Mazagaon prepares for the Chinese New Year, some Mumbai residents are learning the history behind the community's settlement at the ongoing Kala Ghoda Arts Festival - the very same spot from where the questions over the city’s present cultural identity rose and is doing the rounds now.

The debate was triggered after the discussion titled ‘Incarcerated: Tales from Behind Bars', featuring journalist and author Neeta Kolhatkar, also the author of the book 'The Feared: Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners', and activist Anand Teltumde, supposed to be held on Thursday, got cancelled by the organisers. Reportedly, the cancellation was carried out on the orders of the Mumbai Police.

"The organisers informed me that the event is cancelled, and we were asked to take the posts related to the event down from our social media too," Neeta Kolhatkar says. Talking to Local Samosa, she further informs, "The police spoke of 'consequences' if the session continues." 

Why Mumbai looks forward to KGAF

Since 1999, the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival has been one of the most-awaited multicultural street festivals in the city, and also a hub for art, music, dance, literature, and theatre, which can be accessed for free.

This year, too, it opened the space for various discussions, including conversations on the connection between caste and food, theatre productions concerning marginalisation and political survival amidst the volatile politics of the Mughal era, along with other major line-ups. 

From Poet and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote's visionary hopes often thwarted in political actuality to a session named 'Swaraj Stories' aiming to look back at the city and its freedom movement at August Kranti Maidan, the sessions have considered both history and hope, in its edition like previous editions.

On the gender front, there have been sessions exploring earth and the feminine through oral storytelling performances by Usha Venkatraman, Mehak Mirza Prabhu, and Dr. Gayathri Sampath, Booker Prize–winner Kiran Desai discussing her latest book, 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny', whille Booker Prize Winner Banu Mushtaq and multi-award winning author Volga talking about women's voices in regional literature and a conversation on how translation carries feminist intent across languages without softening its politics.

Consistent cancellations

The cancelled discussion, however, included the activist Anand Teltumde, who spent over 2.5 years in prison, as he was implicated in the Bhima Koregaon case in 2018. His book, 'The Cell and the Soul: Prison Memoir (2025),' has been a talk-point in the book festivals, and both Teltumde and Kolhatkar were supposed to talk to the writer Naresh Fernandes, who was the event moderator.

Following the incident, the authors and citizens are raising questions over the "cancel culture" of the events and sessions, both offline and online. "How many people or even journalists are usually aware that Maharashtra is among the top states in India for the majority under trials, and their conditions?," asks Kolhatkar, adding that such cancellations is a "pity' not just for the two speakers (referring to herself and Teltumde) but for citizens who are denied the stories and the information that are possible through such festivals.

"When the honourable supreme court has given bail to this gentleman in a previous case, to prevent him from talking and so abruptly, makes him seem like a petty criminal and convict and not the established academician and writer that he is," says Doctor and author Shoaib Sayed, who goes by the internet name, Daniyal. He adds, "This sudden cancellation will be seen as a blot on the sanctity of a festival as prestigious as KGAF, for sure".

Before this, a poetry and story reading session featuring actor Naseeruddin Shah, which was scheduled on February 1, was cancelled. It was co-organised by Mumbai University's Urdu department, which initially claimed that Shah opted out, but later stated that the co-organisers, Bazm-e-ahbab foundation, may have cancelled. 

On the other hand, the actor has claimed that he got the information of cancellation a night before the event and that he did not back off.

Mumbai's February(s) for forgotten history  

This comes as a sharp contrast with how the city is learning and taking lessons from its history and socio-political culture. Hosted in February, the KGAF usually brings together the patrons and the youngsters under one umbrella for navigating how the city and its infrastructure came into being.

This year, alone, Khaki Tours is hosting various digital walks across Mazagaon and Byculla, along with heritage walks in neighbourhoods like Bandra, Dalal Street, Apollo Bunder. While the digital walkthroughs being held at the Khaki Labs are witnessing the majority of the middle-aged and elderly persons questioning and interacting, the heritage walks are drawing an equal ratio of youngsters as well.

Usually, other Khaki walks draw five to six people even on the weekends, the walks organised as part of the KGAF are witnessing an average turnout of 20, as the guide Sonali from Khaki Tours told Local Samosa. The factor can largely be attributed to the free access to these walks, which usually cost more than Rs 500 per person.

Walking in one such guided tour aimed at spotting the history of Esplande Estate, a Navi Mumbai resident, Doli Nandu, who has already taken other heritage walks at Banganga, Byculla, among other spots, urges the youth to participate in such heritage walks to understand the city better. "It is they who need to learn the history; we at least have some knowledge of it," the 53-year-old says, before the walk begins.

This walk included around 15 people, including two international tourists, and a few locals like Meher, a Parsi septuagenarian, who could be seen testifying to the stories from the history that the guide shared about the architecture of the estate. The young, on the other hand, could be seen constantly questioning and taking notes. 

Incredibly disappointed to see that @kgafest had to bow down to a witch hunt against intellectuals like Anand Teltumbde and cancel his panel.

Mumbai has always held space for difficult ideas, and the shutting down of voices goes against the very soul of our city. https://t.co/luRCUofYNu

— Anish Gawande (@anishgawande) February 4, 2026

This February, for now, has also become the youth to question the artistic and literary freedom in the present Mumbai. ".....Mumbai has always held space for difficult ideas, and the shutting down of voices goes against the very soul of our city," says Anish Gawande from the NCP (SP), and also the youngest spokesperson in the country on X (formerly Twitter).

"As an author myself, I am aware that anything you write is bound to be perceived through the prism of both love and hate, but to be denied access to internet banter will be seen as most unfortunate and shouldn’t set a wrong precedent for the many young minds who attend this festival, around the topics of dissent and artistic expression," says Daniyal.

Adding to the contrast is the fact that KGAF is hosting multiple sessions on architecture and city planning, from a digital art exhibition by Saurabh Chadekar on Mumbai’s historic relationship with water, and Metro इन दिनों, which examines the city’s rapidly expanding metro network. This programming unfolds even as citizens question urban planning in the aftermath of a 32-hour traffic jam on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway - an episode that dominated headlines for three days.

Back in town, there are several restaurants that Neeta Kolhatkar likes visiting in Colaba. However, she says, "I do not want to go for any other session at the KGAF, and also to the restaurants till the festival goes on." 

With this festival bringing heavy footfall to nearby restaurants, the cancellations and the controversy leave behind a trail of questions - not only limited to art, culture, or festivals, but the entire ecosystem they sustain.