Architecture

Design. The Mukhi House, designed in a style reminescent of Italian Rennaisance, has a sandstone exterior and marble flooring. The two-storied house built over a basement consists of 2 living rooms, 1 dining room, 11 bedrooms, and servants' quarters. The kitchen and bathrooms are located at the backside of the building. The building also has a front and back courtyard, and an accessible terrace with a cupola that defines the distinctive skyline.

Financing. The Mukhi House, even in 1921, is said to have cost 2 crore rupees. According to historical accounts by Shakun Narian Kimatrai, although the Mukhis belonged to the social elite for many generations, Mukhi Pritamdas (great great great grandson of Diwan Mavaldas who served in the court of the Kalhoras in the 1700s), accumulated vast amounts of wealth and was considered the richest man in Hyderabad. His son Mukhi Jethanand extended the family fortune, and given his taste for good living, built the Mukhi House. (See male descendents in the Mukhi Family Tree.)

Occupancy. The Mukhi House was occupied by the Mukhi family from ~1921-1947, a period of approximately 26 years. The oldest living occupant is Dharam Bhavnani (1918- ) third child of Gobindarm Mukhi. She remembers moving from their old house on Mukhi Ghitti, to the new home located on the street now named Thandi Sadak (Mukhi House in this Google Map is the building across the street from the building labeled Hazrath Mohini Central District Library, formerly Homestead Hall).

Most of the Mukhi family moved to Bombay India in 1947, while Gobindram Mukhi and his wife Putli Mukhi lived intermittently in a portion of the Mukhi house until December 1957. During that period, the rest of the Mukhi House was occupied by the Indian Consulate.

In 1957, after Gobindram Mukhi died in an automobile accident, the Mukhi House became the property of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), tasked with allocating abandoned properties of Hindus to Indian immigrants (referred to as Muhajirs). However, because the Mukhi house was used as the ETPB office, it survived allocation and possible destruction to make way for new construction.

Subsequently, the house was occupied by para-military forces (with acocunts of window frames being burned as firewood), and there were three attempts by thugs to burn down the building. The property survived and later became the Khadija Girls Higher Secondary School.

Conservation. From 1991 onwards, Dr. Kaleem Lashari, archeologist and senior government official, urged the Sindh government to convert the house into a museum of the recent past. In 2008, the Mukhi family agreed to relinquish future claims to the house on condition that it be converted into a museum. This agreement required a protracted effort to contact the descendents, and to obtain their signed affadavits (organized by Kavita Mukhi and Indru Watumull.)

The conservation of the Mukhi House began in 2009 with a staff that included trainees from the Benazir Bhutto Youth Support Programme, and funds from the Sindh government (see budget speech of the Pakistan's People's Party [PPP] in Sindh, which includes a note about the conservation of the Mukhi House). The conservation was assisted by photographs that are accessible from the Mukhi House FaceBook page (access to these photographs requires login into your FaceBook account). Compare the Mukhi House to other buildings in Hyderabad during that era.

Reunion. On January 29th 2013, the former home was the venue for a reunion of 11 Mukhi family descendents (3 of whom were born in the house) organized by the Department of Antiquities in Sindh. The reunion included a formal inauguration of the conserved building, presentations of the conservancy efforts (Dr. Lashari) and of memories of the residents (Dr. Bhavnani), followed in the evening by a live performance of Sindhi musicians on the terrace of the building. The reunion was covered by BBC Urdu. A formal inauguration of the museum is planned for 2014.

360-Degree Panoramic Views of the Mukhi House

The following panoramics require a flash plugin on your browser. Please use the blue buttons on the lower part of the panoramics to rotate and view, or hold the left button and move the cursor across the panaromic to rotate the view.

The 360-degree panoramic views on this page were created by using licensed software to stitch together multiple still shots using a Sony Digital camera. Photo Credit: Bryant Dang and Suresh Bhavnani.

Front facade of the Mukhi House

Second Floor Hallway Overlooking the Back Courtyard.

(Note the superimposed photograph of Nehru and his family who were photographed at that location during a 2-night stay around 75 years ago).

Second Floor Living Room

Back Courtyard

Dharam Mukhi Returns to the Mukhi House Angan ... Virtually!

(Note the superimposed photograph of Dharam Mukhi shot in the same location ~75 years ago)

Original photograph of Dharam Mukhi used for the above superimposition