Mumbai's dabbawalas in London? Mahindra boss calls it 'reverse colonialism'

Anand Mahindra, top boss of Mahindra and Mahindra, recently shared a video about London's food delivery innovation, said to have been inspired from Mumbai's dabbawalas

The top boss of Mahindra and Mahindra, Anand Mahindra, uploaded a video to X that demonstrates an innovative food delivery strategy developed by a London-based company, supposedly inspired from Mumbai's well-known 'Dabbawalas'. He referred to it as "reverse colonization," bringing to light the irony of India's cultural influence returning to the West in the same way that the British colonized India in the past. 

Most would agree that the dabbawalas are the lifelines of Mumbai. The more than 100-year-old dabbawala system is incredibly famous and has accumulated boundless popularity and acclaim universally. On X, the Mahindra Group Chairman showed a video in which Londoners attempted to duplicate the dabbawala system.

Mumbai's dabbawalas in London: Insights 

“No better—or more ‘delicious’—evidence of reverse colonization!” Anand Mahindra exclaimed in the post's caption. A London-based business adopts the Mumbai dabbawala system, a zero-waste system that helps London, in the video. You can see people packing food in dabbas and delivering it on a bicycle-like vehicle as the video plays. 

On April 28, this video was made public. Since being posted, it has acquired than four lakh views. The offer also has near 9,000 likes and various comments. As found in the video, the organization, DabbaDrop, utilizes traditional Indian steel tiffin boxes, rather than single-utilize plastic containers. The service offers a sustainable option emulating the Indian innovation.

Mumbai's dabbawalas in London: People reacted to the viral clip

One user wrote, "Dabbawalla became a case study for a reason. To implement such strategies across cities/nations."

A second wrote, "Dabbawalas in Mumbai work on a different pattern, they collect food from respective houses and deliver at the workplaces. This is more like a Swiggy, with the same food being packed at one place and then delivered to various people - anyway, it's a good start-up."

A third user commented, "That's the right type of colonization. No extortion, no famine, just tasty dishes".

A fourth user said, "People in the West are not used to still tiffins or lunch boxes. While in us, locals there used to find my steel lunch box strange."

A fifth user wrote, "Learning and adopting sustainable solutions of India that we inherited from our ancestors. India is more modern and sustainable than any other developed country. Just need to be highlighted."