Mumbai: Maharashtra

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, and the most populous city of India, with a estimated population of about 18 million (2005). Mumbai is located on Salsette Island, off the west coast of Maharashtra. Along with its neighbouring suburbs, it forms the world’s 4th most populous metropolitan area, with a population exceeding 20 million. The city has a deep natural harbour, which is the largest port in western India. The port handles over half of India’s passenger traffic and a significant amount of cargo.

Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment capital of India, and houses important financial institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies.

Mumbai has attracted migrants from all over India because of the immense business opportunities, and the relatively high standard of living, making the city a potpourri of various communities and cultures. The city is home to India’s film and television industry, known as Bollywood. Mumbai is also one of the rare cities to accommodate a national park, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, within its city limits.

Name

The appellation Mumbai is an eponym, etymologically derived from Mumba - the name of the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi, and Aai - mother in Marathi. In the 16th century, the Portuguese named the area Bom Bahia (Good Bay), later corrupted to Bomaim or Bombaim, by which it is still known in Portuguese. After the British gained possession, it was anglicised to Bombay. The name was officially changed to Mumbai in 1995, but “Bombay” is still used by the popular media and by many of the city’s inhabitants and famous institutions.

History

Present day Mumbai was originally an archipelago of seven islands. Artifacts found near Kandivali, in northern Mumbai indicate that these islands had been inhabited since the Stone Age. Documented evidence of human habitation dates back to 250 BC, when it was known as Heptanesia (Ptolemy) (Ancient Greek: A Cluster of Seven Islands). In the 3rd century BCE, the islands formed part of the Maurya Empire, ruled by the Buddhist emperor, Asoka. The Hindu rulers of the Silhara Dynasty later governed the islands until 1343, when the kingdom of Gujarat annexed them. Some of the oldest edifices of the archipelago - the Elephanta Caves and the Walkeshwar temple complex date from this era.

In 1534, the Portuguese appropriated the islands from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. They were ceded to Charles II of England in 1661, as dowry for Catherine de Braganza. These islands, were in turn leased to the British East India Company in 1668 for a sum of £10 per annum. The company found the deep harbour on the east coast of the islands to be ideal for setting up their first port in the sub-continent. The population quickly rose from 10,000 in 1661, to 60,000 in 1675; In 1687, the British East India Company transferred its headquarters from Surat to Bombay.

From 1817 onwards, the city was reshaped with large civil engineering projects aimed at merging all the islands in the archipelago into a single amalgamated mass. This project, known as the Hornby Vellard, was completed by 1845, and resulted in the total area swelling to 438 km².In 1853, India’s first passenger railway line was established, connecting Bombay to the town of Thane. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the city became the world’s chief cotton trading market, resulting in a boom in the economy and subsequently enhancing the city’s stature. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 transformed Bombay into one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea.

Over the next thirty years, the city grew into a major urban centre, spurred by an improvement in infrastructure and the construction of many of the city’s institutions. The population of the city swelled to one million by 1906, making it the second largest in India after Calcutta. It later became a major base for the Indian independence movement, with the Quit India Movement called by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 being its most rubric event. After independence, the city expanded to its present limits by incorporating parts of Salsette Island. It became the capital of the new linguistic state of Maharashtra in 1960.