The controversy surrounding Delhi’s Gymkhana Club has also pulled into the spotlight other private clubs in the country. Most notably, Mumbai’s ultra-exclusive Breach Candy Club is facing the heat on social media after it emerged that, even in 2026, only European passport holders can become trust members at the club.
The Breach Candy Club was founded in 1878 as a facility reserved exclusively for Europeans living in Bombay. It was only in the 1960s, years after Independence, that the club opened membership to Indians — and even then, the real power remained vested with Europeans.
The club’s trust constitution, approved by the City Civil Court in 1967, created separate categories of membership with sharply unequal powers. Trust membership — reserved exclusively for “European inhabitants of Bombay” — carries the club’s real authority, including the right to serve as trustees or sit on the managing committee that oversees governance, admissions, finances and policy decisions.
(Also read: Harsh Goenka questions Mumbai’s Breach Candy Club amid Delhi Gymkhana Club row: ‘No Indian can be on…’)
Shashi Tharoor’s story about Breach Candy Club
Amid this backdrop of scrutiny, an incident where Shashi Tharoor was thrown out of the Breach Candy Club has again come under the limelight.
In an old blog post, the Congress leader had written about how he visited the club as a child in the 1960s with an American friend, only to be shown the door. He spoke about how he was “thrown out” of the club as a child.
“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…. That was India 20 years after Independence,” he recalled.
More about Breach Candy Club
Founded in 1878 during British rule, the Breach Candy Swimming Bath Trust — popularly known as Breach Candy Club — is one of Mumbai’s oldest and most exclusive private clubs. It is located on Bhulabhai Desai Marg in the upscale Breach Candy-Malabar Hill area of South Mumbai.
The club began as a colonial-era recreational institution created primarily for Europeans living in Bombay. Its origins go back to the mid-1870s, when British residents developed a seawater swimming facility along the city’s coastline. Over time, the area around Breach Candy transformed from a sparsely developed seaside stretch into one of Mumbai’s most affluent neighbourhoods.
Today, the club is known for its iconic swimming pools — including its outdoor pool once designed in the shape of British India — along with tennis courts, dining spaces, gardens and other leisure facilities. Membership is considered highly prestigious and is associated with Mumbai’s elite circles, including business families, Parsis, diplomats and old-money socialites.
(Also read: Won’t go and forcibly vacate: Centre tells Delhi high court over Delhi Gymkhana Club eviction)
