‘I Was Asked To Leave’: Shashi Tharoor Recalls Racism At Mumbai’s Breach Candy Club
A decades-old experience shared by Shashi Tharoor has reignited debate around elitism and racial discrimination in some of India’s most exclusive clubs.
The controversy centres around Breach Candy Club, one of Mumbai’s oldest elite clubs, after reports highlighted that its trust committee membership is still restricted to European passport holders living in the city.
As discussions around the club’s policies grew online, an old blog post by Tharoor resurfaced, where he recalled being thrown out of the club in the mid-1960s simply because he was Indian.
“I myself was thrown out of Breach Candy Club in Bombay in the mid ’60s when an American classmate hoped he could ignore the whites and take an Indian friend along,” Tharoor had written, describing the incident as a painful reminder of colonial-era discrimination that continued even years after India’s Independence.
Founded in 1878 during British rule, the club originally functioned as a Europeans-only social space in Bombay, now Mumbai. Indian members reportedly remained barred until the 1960s.
Reacting to the renewed attention around the issue, Tharoor recently posted on X, questioning how such a provision could still exist in modern India.
“There is absolutely no acceptable justification for a racist provision to survive on government land,” he wrote, adding that India’s Constitution should take precedence over outdated club rules.
The issue has triggered strong reactions on social media, with many users calling the policy discriminatory and outdated. Several people argued that institutions operating in independent India must follow constitutional values rather than colonial-era practices.
The debate has once again brought attention to how some elite clubs continue to face criticism over exclusivity, privilege, and rules seen by many as disconnected from modern democratic values.
News source: Information for this article was gathered from a variety of reliable news outlets.
