Gangubai Kathiwadi Marriage

It is said that Ganga and Ramnik Lal got married after they left their home and started to live in Mumbai. But later Ramnik deceived her and sold to a brothel Rs. 500. This betrayal destroyed Ganga but her new life as Gangubai started. She became a prostitute and started living in the red-light area of Mumbai.

Gangubai Kathiwadi Relation with Karim Lala

As per the chapter of Gangubai written in Hussain Zaidi’s book on ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’, Gangubai was one of the prominent names of the biggest red light area of Mumbai called ‘Kamathipura’. Many underworld mafia people were her customers. 

In the 1960s Karim Lala was one of the powerful Mafia faces of the city and used to dominate the underworld along with Haji Mastan and Varadarajan. The red light area Kamathipura was also under the rule of Karim. 

In one of the incidents, Gangubai went to one of the biggest Mafia Don Karim Lala to seek justice. As per the book, she was raped by one of the members of Karim’s gang and she took the plea of justice to him. 

Later the relationship of Karim Lala and Gangu took a new turn and Gangu made him her brother while tying the rakhi to his wrist. Karim Lala also treated Gangu as his sister and gave the reign of Kamathipura to his sister Gangubai and she emerged as one of the ‘Mafia Queens’ of Mumbai.

Gangubai who was also one of the victims of the sex trade became a powerful and dreaded procurer of Mumbai’s Kamathipura.

Gangubai Kathiwadi of Kamathipura

After her alliance with Karim Lala, Gangubai ruled Kamathipura but never used her power to exploit young girls and women or forcefully led them into prostitution. Even After all the hardships, she faced in her life, she was determined to work for the betterment of all the other sex workers. She was a kind of a god woman for the sex workers and orphans.

Even though she ran a brothel she never forced anyone or asked them to work without their consent.