Mumbai

I

Introduction

Mumbai (formerly Bombay), city in western India, capital of Maharashtra State, a port on the Arabian Sea, on the low-lying Mumbai, Trombay, and Salsette islands. It is the financial centre of India and a major national commercial, transport, and manufacturing hub. In 2001 the urban agglomeration of Mumbai had a population of 16.4 million, which is projected to reach 27.4 million by 2015. Mumbai has a cosmopolitan population with representatives of almost every linguistic and religious group of India, as well as a significant foreign population. The most widely spoken languages are Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi, and English.

Mumbai harbour, a broad, sheltered bay located between the city and the mainland, is one of the world’s greatest natural harbours. The port receives a large portion of the nation’s total imports and is a shipping point for goods produced in western India. Two major railways terminate in Mumbai, providing services to all parts of India, and the city is served by a major international airport on Salsette Island (1971). Climatically, mid-June to early October is an extremely wet, hot, and humid time of year. Population 11,914,398 (2001).

II

Economy

Mumbai is one of the most important centres in India for the production of cotton textiles. Other leading industries include printing and publishing, shipbuilding and repairing, and the manufacture of chemicals, machinery, metals, metal products, and fertilizers. Mumbai is also the centre of India’s large film industry, and colloquially termed “Bollywood” (after Bombay, the previous name, and Hollywood), which greatly exceeds the output of the Hollywood film industry in the number of films produced annually. A number of national daily newspapers, including the Times of India, are based in the city. Mumbai is the financial centre of the country, and located in the city are the headquarters of the Reserve Bank of India (the national bank), a mint, and two stock exchanges. Mumbai Stock Exchange, founded in 1875, is the oldest in Asia and the largest in India. In the city at Trombay there is a nuclear power plant (1957). Tourism is of significant economic importance to the city. The fine sandy beaches at Juhu, on the Arabian Sea coast, and Chowpatty, on the northern shore of Back Bay, are popular destinations for both domestic and overseas visitors.

III

Places of Interest

Mumbai has a mixture of architectural styles that reflect the long colonial presence in the city as well as the phenomenal recent growth. One of the most famous landmarks in Mumbai is a structure known as the Gateway of India, often the first sight beheld by sea travellers arriving at the city. Colonial monuments in Mumbai include the Presidency Secretariat, which was built in a Venetian Gothic style and developed into the administrative and legislative headquarters of Bombay State after India’s independence in 1947; the University Hall, in a 15th-century French style; the University Library and Rajabai Clock Tower, in an early Gothic design; and the High Court, which has a high tower in an early English style. The Municipal Building, a combination of Oriental and Gothic architecture, stands in front of the terminus, and has a 78-m (256-ft) high stone dome.

In the east, on the harbour, is a district known as the Fort, which contains the main public buildings of Mumbai and many commercial establishments. In the south-eastern part of the city, on the east side of Back Bay along Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road (formerly known as Marine Drive), lie the low-rise skyscrapers of the 1940s, while in the south-west of the peninsula are the Malabar and Cumbala hills. The hills were once home to Europeans when living quarters in the central Fort area became congested.

Parks include Victoria Gardens, which has a zoo, and Hajiali Park, with a racecourse and a sports stadium. The Parsi Towers of Silence, a sacred place where the Parsi people lay out their dead; Babulnath Temple, the Hanging Gardens, and Kamala Nehru Park, which features a scenic view of Mumbai, are all located on Malabar Hill. Sanjay Gandhi National Park, established as Borivali National Park in 1974, covers an area of around 104 sq km (40 sq mi) to the north of Mumbai. Wildlife supported by the park’s rich and diverse habitats includes jaguars, leopards, chevrotains, langurs, and civets. At the centre of the park are the Kanheri Caves, a complex of more than 100 Buddhist cave temples excavated in the face of a single hill, containing elaborate carvings dating from between the 1st century bc and the 9th century ad. Elephanta Caves, a series of grottoes featuring six rock-cut temples, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The complex, which dates from the 7th century, is situated on the island of Elephanta in Mumbai harbour. The city’s Victorian Gothic Revival railway station—the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly known as the Victoria Terminus)—was added to the World Heritage List in 2004. Educational institutions in the city include the University of Mumbai (1857), the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (1945), one of the six branches of the Indian Institute of Technology (1958), and an academy of architecture. Also of note is the large Prince of Wales Museum of Western India (1905).

IV

History

That the area was settled in ancient times is attested to by the carvings of the Kanheri Caves temple complex on nearby Elephanta Island. The area was incorporated in the kingdom of Gujarat in 1348. In 1534 it was acquired by the Portuguese, who named the harbour Bom Bahia (beautiful bay), from which the European name for the city was derived. The site was ceded to the English in 1661; in 1668 it was leased to the British East India Company, which made its headquarters there in 1672.

Land reclamation projects were undertaken in the 18th and 19th centuries. Industrial development began in the 1850s with the construction of the railway and the establishment of the first cotton-spinning mill. The cotton-textile industry boomed during the American Civil War when United States cotton shipments to Great Britain were interrupted. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 added greatly to the port’s prominence by significantly reducing the sailing time to Britain; it also gave Mumbai a greater comparative advantage over Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), a factor enhanced by business dealings with the oil-rich rulers of the Gulf area, especially since the 1970s. The city was formerly capital of Bombay Presidency and Bombay State and in 1960 became the capital of the newly created state of Maharashtra. On May 4, 1995, the state government decided to rename the city Mumbai. In 1920 the first airport in India opened in Mumbai. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre was completed in 1957.

A terrorist attack on Mumbai’s railway system in July 2006 killed more than 180 people. The coordinated bombings occurred aboard seven commuter trains within 15 minutes of each other during the evening rush-hour. No group claimed responsibility for the atrocity and despite Pakistan’s claims that the terrorists did not originate there, it was widely believed that Islamic militants were responsible.