Arthur Crawford

Who is Arthur Crawford?

Arthur Crawford was the first Municipal Commissioner and collector of Bombay, India. Crawford is famous as an able administrator as well as for his underhand financial dealings.

Crawford acquired the Agri-Horticulture Society's gardens at Sewri for the purpose of building the European cemetery in 1865. Crawford Market in South Mumbai is named after him. When he took over as Commissioner the water supply was scanty, garbage was piling up and the mortality rate was a high 40 per 1,000. Crawford cleaned the streets, fixed the drains and managed to lower the mortality rate by half from 35,000 to 18,000 over the next two years. However his plans greatly overshot the civic budget and was accused of financial mismanagement after he refused to heed to warnings that the deficit was ever widening. While criticised by many, he was defended by lawyer Pherozeshah Mehta during the Municipal controversy around 1870.

Later in his career it was alleged that Crawford accepted bribes from mamlatdars. This prompted a fierce public debate led by Lokmanya Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale.