Mumbai
About the city
Mumbai, the financial and commercial capital of India, is a modern metropolis as well as a living museum of the British era in India. It was originally a cluster of seven islands namely, Colaba, Fort, Byculla, Parel, Worli, Matunga and Mahim, which have been linked through successive reclamations. In 1534, the seven islands were ceded to Portugal by the sultan of Gujarat in the ‘Treaty of Bassein'. The major island of the group Mumbadevi, was passed on to Britishers in 1661, as part of the dowry when Catherine of Braganza married England's charles II. In 1665, the British occupied all the seven islands and leased them to East India company. Today, the vibrant metropolis presents a true cosmopolitan outlook.The largest and most cosmopolitan of India's cities presents two faces. One is shown by the wealthy entrepreneurial elite with its very Western lifestyle; the other stems from Mumbai being an indisputably Indian city. The magnetic attraction of the city for the rural poor, and their determination to make a decent living for themselves, has made Mumbai the powerhouse of India. The spending power of those who have clawed their way up the ladder fuels the local economy and ensures the further growth of Mumbai's prosperity. Mumbai is a Cosmo politian cocktail of colour, class, race history and entrepreneurship.
Mumbai is located on the Salsette Island, off the west coast of the Arabian Sea, in Maharashtra, western India. Its flanked by land on three sides and the sea on the west, this is what makes it an important port. Mumbai in fact, is the only place to have a natural harbour.
This pungent drama is played out against a Victorian townscape more reminiscent of a prosperous 19th-century English industrial city than anything you'd expect to find on the edge of the Arabian Sea. It's a city with vibrant streetlife, India's best nightlife, and a wealth of bazaars.
Situated on a peninsula, halfway up the west coast of India, Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Of the four great cities of India, Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan, spearheading India's move into the 21st Century. The word Mumbai is derived from Mumbadevi, the patron goddess of the Koli fisher folk, the oldest inhabitants of Mumbai. Mumbai is also the country's financial powerhouse, the nation's industrial heartland, and its economic nerve centre. It is also the seat of the glamourous world of Bollywood Cinema. Dazzling shopping arcades, exciting sport activity, night clubs and discotheques, theatre and music, and interesting sightseeing-Mumbai offers the visitor a heady mix of all this and more.
A city as varied as its street food, a metropolis with a teeming population that seems to rise as steadily as its stock index, Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan, expensive and fast-paced of Indian cities. Originally a group of islands inhabited by the Koli community and passed on to the English as dowry by the Portuguese, the island city is the commercial and entertainment capital of the country. It is a blur of sights, sounds and smells - its dazzling nightlife coupled with Bollywood are in sharp contrast with the clusters of swelling slums and acute shortage of space in the city. and yet, Mumbai's spirit is infectious-- the city is always bustling with activity, eating and drinking, shopping, partying and celebrating festivals both religious and cultural. Noise levels may be high and pollution even higher, but Mumbai is an experience like no other.
Located on the west coast of India and along the Arabian Sea, Mumbai is the capital of the state of Maharashtra. The city originally comprised seven islands that were fused into a single land mass in 1862 as part of a major land reclamation project. However, the boundaries of the defined city have been stretched well beyond old city limits. Mumbai consists of two regions -- the City, which lies in the southern parts, and the ever expanding Suburbs. The South Mumbai cityscape is dotted with old Victorian architecture from the city's colonial past as well as old cinema halls built in the Art Deco style. The Gateway of India in the Colaba region, the art district of Kala Ghoda, the Fort area (named after the old Bombay fort once located here), the Victoria Terminus or the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) as it is now known, as well as the Manhattan-like commercial area of Nariman Point are the major landmarks of southern Mumbai. This area is also full of shops, hotels, cafes and restaurants. Central Mumbai is dominated by the fast emerging commercial and shopping area of Lower Parel, once a renowned textile mill complex. Move out towards the suburbs and you will encounter three lakes -- the Tulsi, Vihar and the Powai Lakes. The first two are located within the Borivli National Park and supply part of the city's drinking water. The beaches, whether Chowpatty in South Mumbai or suburban Juhu, are always teeming with tourists and snack sellers and come to life especially during the Ganesh festival when giant idols are immersed in the sea.
Demography
The population of Mumbai is more than 18 million, with a density of about 29,000 persons per sq.km. There are around 811 females to every 1,000 males. The overall literacy rate of the city is above 86%, which is higher than the national average. The religions represented in Mumbai include Hindu (68% of the population), Muslims (17% of the population), and Christaians and Buddhists (4% each). The remainder are Parsis, Jains, Sikhs, Jews and atheists.History
In 1661, King Charles II of England married Princess Catherine de Braganza of Portugal, and as part of the dowry he received, "Bombay" which is today known as Mumbai. Later in 1668, it was handed over to the East India Company.In 1858, the administration of the country was taken over by the Queen of England, Queen Victoria, from the East India Company. A viceroy was appointed to rule India in the name of the Queen. Bombay came under the direct rule of the British in 1861. The first railway line in India w2as started between Bombay and Thane in 1861. In 1864, modern water supply began in Bombay (Mumbai) and in 1885, Bombay was lit with gas. However, the joining of Mahatma Gandhi in Indian politics in 1920 was a turning point in the political destiny of India which led to the Independence of India from the British rule. Bombay (Mumbai) had an important role to play in this event.
Mumbai, as an archipelago was known to the Greeks as far as 1000 BC. It was then a well-known maritime centre which traded extensively with Persia and Egypt. In the 3rd Century B.C, it became part of Ashoka the Great's empire.
Mumbai probably got its name from Mumbaidevi, a goddess of the Koil tribe of fisherfolk who lived here since Ashoka's time. Bombay. The European name came from the Portuguese word Bom Bahia (The good Bay) that was given to it by Portuguese explorer Francis Almeida.
The English were already well established in India (to the north in Surat, and in Chennai when Mumbai came into their possession as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese bride of Charles ll. Not much of a prize it seemed, for at the time it was a malarial swamp inhabited only by fishermen. Charles leased the place to the East India Company in 1668 (for the princely sum of £10 a year!). After the British finally won over the Marathas in 1857, they began to modernize the city. In the next 60 years they were successful in joining all the seven islands of Bombay into a mighty city. In the next century, this city played a historic part in the freedom movement of India. Its history since then has been one of constant land reclamation and growth. Its prosperity grew rapidly to surpases Chennai and Kolkata, a process greatly aided by Jain, Parsee, and Jewish entrepreneurs. It is the financial and commercial centre of India and visibly the richest of the five big cities. It has, moreover, a great deal of interest for the visitor and a friendly, if frenetic, atmosphere.
In ancient times Bombay was a set of seven islands, home to the Koli fishing community that continues to inhabit parts of the city shoreline today. Various dynasties ruled here at different times, with the city of Puri on the Elephanta caves being a major settlement in the region. Later, King Bimba or Bhima built the town of Mahim on one island in the 13th century and the islands continued to be ruled by Hindu rulers until they were invaded by Muslims in the 14th century. The Sultan Bahadur of Ahmedabad then ceded Bombay to Portugal in 1534. The Portuguese did little to develop the islands and included them instead in Catherine of Braganza's dowry when she married England's Charles II in 1661. The British Government in turn leased them three years later to the East India Company for a meagre annual rent. Bombay soon developed as a trading port, attracting large numbers of merchants and migrants from other parts of India. Migrants included Parsi businessmen, Gujarati traders, Muslim weavers and Hindus fleeing Portuguese persecution in Goa. These early migrants laid the foundation for Bombay's multicultural mix. The next twenty years saw the presidency of the East India Company being transferred to Bombay from Surat, and the town soon became the trading headquarters for the whole west coast of India. The British began fortifying their lucrative acquisition and Bombay's fort, in the current Fort area, was built in the 1720s. Soon after, the seven islands were merged into a single land mass in a century-long land reclamation process. Bombay continued to grow steadily but it remained isolated until the British defeated the Marathas and annexed portions of Western India in 1818. Although much of the British settlement in the old fort area was gutted by a fire in 1803, growth was spurred by the arrival of steam ships and the construction of the first railway in Asia from Bombay to Thana in 1853. In 1862, the seven islands were finally one and the city built much of its colonial-Gothic buildings around this time, the most splendid of them all being the Victoria Terminus. Cotton mills were built in the city and the American Civil War - which temporarily dried up Britain's supply of cotton - sparked Bombay's cotton boom. Finally, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the massive expansion of Bombay's docks cemented the city's future as India's primary port.