The Untold Truth of Mumbai’s Underworld: India’s Gangsters Revealed

A Crime Diaries Exclusive | June 2025

There was a time when the streets of Mumbai underworld weren’t just crowded with people, traffic, and busy markets. They were battlefields where Mumbai gangsters ruled. In the 1970s and 80s, names like Haji Mastan, Dawood Ibrahim, Karim Lala, and Varadarajan Mudaliar were more than just characters. They were not mere stories. These names were part of everyday life. They were not in movies but part of everyday life.

These gangsters started small with activities like gold smuggling, bootlegging, and black marketing during a time when the government had strict controls and shortages were common. As their profits grew, so did their influence. They controlled entire areas, set their own rules, and even solved disputes in their own way. For many people, they were like parallel governments their power was real, and their names carried weight in the Mumbai gangster stories.

But as time passed, things changed. Their crimes evolved from smuggling and small-time rackets into large-scale extortion, contract killings, and drug trafficking. The gangster wars in Mumbai became bloodier especially in the 1980s and 90s, when Dawood Ibrahim’s gang rose to power and clashed with rivals like Chhota Rajan and Arun Gawli.

In 1982, the first major encounter took place when gangster Manya Surve was shot dead by the Mumbai police. This was just the beginning. After the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, the police launched an all-out crackdown on the Mumbai underworld. Officers like Daya Nayak, Pradeep Sharma, Vijay Salaskar, and others led encounter squads that targeted gangsters in the streets. By the late 90s and early 2000s, over 400 gangsters had been killed in encounter killings, and many fled the country to escape the heat. The encounter era slowly weakened the once-powerful Mumbai gangster culture.

Today, the golden age of Mumbai gangsters has mostly faded from the city’s streets. While some gangs are still active, their influence is not as strong as it once was. The names that once spread fear Haji Mastan, Dawood, Karim Lala now live on mainly in movies, social media posts, and old stories told by those who remember. Films like Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Shootout at Lokhandwala, and Company have turned some of these gangsters into larger-than-life figures, sometimes even portraying them as heroes. But the reality was far from glamorous. These men were criminals, whose actions brought violence, fear, and instability.

In this series, we’ll dive deep into the world of India’s gangster culture how they started, how they built their empires, and how their power faded. We’ll also explore the connections between gangsters, Bollywood, and politics, and look at how some gangs are still active today.

This is the story of India’s underworld a story of crime, power, fear, and survival.

In our upcoming articles, we will dive deeper into each of these topics and explore the underworld, gangsters, encounters, Bollywood connections, and more in detail.

Credits:
This article is a result of combined research and personal understanding to present a clear and engaging story.

Chap 1: Karim Lala and the Early Days of Mumbai’s Underworld

Long before Dawood ruled the streets, Mumbai’s underworld was born in the chaos of smuggling and power struggles. This chapter explores the rise of early dons like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, and Varadarajan Mudaliar—men who laid the foundation of the city’s crime empire.