In Pics: 250 Chairs Come Together to Show Centuries of India’s Design, Craft & Everyday Life

At first glance, it looks like a room filled with chairs. Look closer, and each seat begins to reveal a different chapter of India’s past.

Currently on view in Mumbai, A History of India Through Chairs brings together decades of collecting, research, and restoration by the House of Mahendra Doshi. The exhibition presents everyday furniture as historical evidence. Through carvings, materials, shapes, and wear marks, these chairs trace how India’s social life, craftsmanship, and power structures evolved over time.

The show takes place at the Mahendra Doshi warehouse in Wadala, where visitors walk through clusters of seating from different eras. Around 200 to 250 chairs from the family’s vast collection have been arranged to reflect roughly two centuries of design in the subcontinent. 

The idea behind the exhibition grew from a simple observation. Chairs carry stories. A carved rosewood armchair from Goa reflects Portuguese influence. A Mughal-era chair from Lucknow carries delicate bone inlay. Art Deco lounge chairs reveal the design movements that shaped urban India in the early twentieth century. Together, these objects map a timeline of craftsmanship across regions including Gujarat, Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and coastal Karnataka.

Before European furniture styles arrived, seating traditions across India leaned towards shared spaces. Families gathered on charpais, wooden paats, and floor seating during meals or discussions. Colonial rule introduced the individual chair placed beside tables, a format that gradually reshaped ideas of hierarchy and personal space.

Many pieces in the exhibition carry traces of this shift. One Indo-Portuguese rosewood chair features a roughly inserted Ashoka emblem, hinting at how objects moved through different political periods and identities. Such details reveal how furniture adapted to changing regimes, institutions, and cultural preferences.

Restoration forms another layer of the story. Several chairs arrived in poor condition and required patient repair. Craftspeople studied the original joinery and materials before rebuilding them using traditional techniques. In one case, a delicate chair decorated with tiny ceramic beads required months of work by a senior artisan to restore its intricate surface.

The exhibition also honours the legacy of antique collector Mahendra Doshi, who founded the House of Mahendra Doshi in 1974. His passion for tracking down rare pieces in markets and bazaars laid the foundation for the collection that now fills the warehouse.

Seen together, the chairs form an unexpected archive of the country’s past. They reveal how design travelled across continents, how Indian artisans reshaped imported styles, and how ordinary objects quietly witnessed the making of modern India.

A History of India Through Chairs is on view until 8 March from 11 AM to 7 PM.
Address: Mahendra Doshi, LM Nadkarni Marg, Wadala East, Mumbai