Mumbai
Mumbai, also known as Bombay, is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12.5 million. Mumbai is the centre of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which is among the most populous metropolitan areas in the world with a population of over 23 million. Mumbai lies on the Konkan coast on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named a alpha world city. Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires out of any city in Asia.
The seven islands that constitute Mumbai were earlier home to communities of Marathi language-speaking Koli people. For centuries, the seven islands of Bombay were under the control of successive indigenous rulers before being ceded to the Portuguese Empire, and subsequently to the East India Company in 1661, as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza in her marriage to Charles II of England. Beginning in 1782, Mumbai was reshaped by the Hornby Vellard project, which undertook reclamation of the area between the seven islands from the Arabian Sea. Along with the construction of major roads and railways, the reclamation project, completed in 1845, transformed Mumbai into a major seaport on the Arabian Sea. Mumbai in the 19th century was characterised by economic and educational development. During the early 20th century, it became a strong base for the Indian independence movement. Upon India's independence in 1947, the city was incorporated into Bombay State. In 1960, following the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, a new state of Maharashtra was created with Mumbai as the capital.
Mumbai is the financial, commercial, and entertainment capital of India. Mumbai is often compared to New York City, and is home to the Bombay Stock Exchange, situated on Dalal Street. It is also one of the world's top ten centres of commerce in terms of global financial flow, generating 6.16% of India's GDP, and accounting for 25% of the nation's industrial output, 70% of maritime trade in India, and 70% of capital transactions to India's economy. The city houses important financial institutions and the corporate headquarters of numerous Indian companies and multinational corporations. The city is also home to some of India's premier scientific and nuclear institutes and the Hindi and Marathi film industries. Mumbai's business opportunities attract migrants from all over India.
Etymology
The name Mumbai originated from Mumbā or Mahā-Ambā—the name of the patron Hindu goddess Mumbadevi of the native Koli community—and from ā'ī, meaning "mother" in Marathi. By some accounts, the Koli community of Kathiawar and Central Gujarat introduced their deity Mumba from Kathiawar, where her worship continues to this day. However, other sources disagree.The oldest known names for the city are Kakamuchee and Galajunkja; these are sometimes still used. Portuguese writer Gaspar Correia recorded the name "Bombaim" after 1512 in his Lendas da Índia. Some Anglophone authors have suggested this came from a supposed Galician-Portuguese phrase bom baim, "good little bay", with no scientific basis. In 1516, Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa used the name Tana-Maiambu: Tana appears to refer to the adjoining town of Thane and Maiambu to Mumbadevi. The form Bombaim is still commonly used in Portuguese. Many variant names were recorded in the 16th and the 17th centuries. After the English gained possession of the city in the 17th century, the Portuguese name was anglicised to Bombay. Ali Muhammad Khan, imperial dewan or revenue minister of the Gujarat province, in the Mirat-i Ahmedi called the city Manbai.
The French traveller Louis Rousselet, who visited in 1863 and 1868, stated in 1877 that "Etymologists have wrongly derived this name from the Portuguese Bôa Bahia, or, not knowing that the tutelar goddess of this island has been, from remote antiquity, Bomba, or Mumba Devi, and that she still... possesses a temple". British officer and scholar John Briggs concurred that the name Bombay was a corruption of "Mumby", for a temple to Mumba Devi.
By the late 20th century, the city was called Mumbai or Mambai in Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Kannada and Sindhi, and Bambai in Hindi. The Government of India officially changed the English name to Mumbai in November 1995. This came at the insistence of the Marathi nationalist Shiv Sena party, which had just won the Maharashtra state elections, and mirrored similar name changes across India. Shiv Sena argued that the name 'Bombay' echoed British colonial rule. While Mumbai is still called Bombay by some residents and by some Indians from other regions, mention of the city by a name other than Mumbai has become controversial.
People from Mumbai
A resident of Mumbai is called Mumbaikar in Marathi, in which the suffix -kar means a 'resident of'. The term had been in use for quite some time, but it gained popularity after the official name change to Mumbai. Older terms such as Bombayite are used infrequently.History
Early history
Mumbai is built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands: Isle of Bombay, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old Woman's Island. Pleistocene sediments found along the coast near Kandivali suggest that the islands were inhabited since the South Asian Stone Age. Perhaps at the beginning of the Common Era, they were occupied by the Koli fishing community.In the 3rd century BCE, the islands formed part of the Maurya Empire, ruled by the Buddhist emperor Ashoka. The Kanheri Caves in Borivali were excavated in the first century CE, and served as a centre of Buddhism in Western India. The city was known as Heptanesia to the Greek geographer Ptolemy in 150 CE. The Mahakali Caves in Andheri were cut out between the 1st century BCE and the 6th century CE.
Between the 2nd century BCE and 9th century CE, the islands came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties: Satavahanas, Western Satraps, Abhira, Vakataka, Kalachuris, Konkan Mauryas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas, before being ruled by the Shilaharas from 810 to 1260. Some of the oldest edifices in the city are the Jogeshwari Caves, Elephanta Caves, Walkeshwar Temple, and Banganga Tank.
File:Hajiali.jpg|thumb|The Haji Ali Dargah was built in 1431, when Mumbai was under the rule of the Gujarat Sultanate.
King Bhimdev founded his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century and established his capital in Mahikawati. The Pathare Prabhus, among the earliest known settlers of the city, were brought to Mahikawati from Saurashtra in Gujarat around 1298 by Bhimdev. The Delhi Sultanate annexed the islands in 1347–48 and controlled it until 1407. During this time, the islands were administered by the Muslim Governors of Gujarat, appointed by the Delhi Sultanate. The islands were later governed by the independent Gujarat Sultanate, established in 1407. As a result, numerous mosques were built, including the Haji Ali Dargah in Worli. Erected in 1431, the structure pays homage to the Muslim saint, Haji Ali. From 1429 to 1431, the islands were a source of contention between the Gujarat Sultanate and the Bahmani Sultanate of Deccan. In 1493, Bahadur Khan Gilani of the Bahmani Sultanate attempted to conquer the islands but was defeated.
Portuguese and British rule
Apprehensive of the power of the Mughal emperor Humayun, Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat was obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein with the Portuguese Empire on 23 December 1534. According to the treaty, the Seven Islands of Bombay, the nearby strategic town of Bassein and its dependencies were offered to the Portuguese. The territories were surrendered on 25 October 1535.The Portuguese assisted their Roman Catholic religious orders in Bombay. They called the islands by various names, taking the written form Bombaim. The islands were leased to Portuguese officers during their regime. The Portuguese Franciscans and Jesuits built churches in the city, such as the St. Michael's Church at Mahim, St. John the Baptist Church at Andheri, St. Andrew's Church at Bandra, and Gloria Church at Byculla. They also built fortifications like the Bombay Castle, Castella de Aguada, and Madh Fort. The English vied with the Portuguese hegemony over Mumbai, recognising its strategic natural harbour and its isolation from land attacks. By the middle of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire forced the English to acquire a station in western India. On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, gave most of the islands to the English Empire, as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles.
In accordance with the Royal Charter of 27 March 1668, England leased these islands to the English East India Company in 1668 for a sum of £10 per annum. The population quickly rose from 10,000 in 1661 to 60,000 in 1675. The islands were subsequently attacked by Yakut Khan, the Muslim Koli admiral of the Mughal Empire, in October 1672, Rickloffe van Goen, the Governor-General of Dutch India on 20 February 1673, and Siddi admiral Sambal on 10 October 1673.
In 1687, the English East India Company transferred its headquarters from Surat to Mumbai. The city eventually became the headquarters of the Bombay Presidency. The islands again suffered incursions from Yakut Khan in 1689–90. The Portuguese presence ended when the Marathas under Peshwa Baji Rao I captured Salsette in 1737, and Bassein in 1739.
By the middle of the 18th century, Mumbai expanded into a major trading town, receiving a huge influx of migrants from across India. The British occupied Salsette on 28 December 1774. With the Treaty of Surat, the British gained control of Salsette and Bassein, resulting in the First Anglo-Maratha War. The British secured Salsette from the Marathas through the Treaty of Purandar, and later through the Treaty of Salbai, signed to settle the outcome of the First Anglo-Maratha War.
From 1782 onwards, the city was reshaped with large-scale civil engineering projects to merge the seven islands of Bombay into one by means of a causeway, the Hornby Vellard, completed by 1784. In 1817, the British East India Company under Mountstuart Elphinstone defeated Baji Rao II, the last of the Maratha Peshwa in the Battle of Khadki. This brought almost the whole of the Deccan Plateau under British suzerainty and the Bombay Presidency. The success of the campaign marked the end of attacks by native powers.
On 16 April 1853, India's first passenger railway line was established, connecting Mumbai to the neighbouring town of Thana. During the American Civil War, the city became the world's chief cotton-trading market, resulting in an economic boom.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 transformed Mumbai into one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea. In September 1896, Mumbai was hit by a bubonic plague epidemic with a death toll of some 1,900 per week. About 850,000 people fled Mumbai, harming the textile industry. The Indian independence movement fostered the Quit India Movement in 1942 and the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in 1946.