History of Mumbai
Encyclopedia
The history of Mumbai recounts the growth of a collection of seven islands on the west coast of India
, becoming the commercial capital of the nation, and one of the most populous cities in the world. Although human habitation existed since the Stone Age
, the Kolis, a fishing community, were the earliest known settlers of the islands. The Maurya Empire
gained control of the islands during the 3rd century BCE, and transformed it into a centre of Hindu
and Buddhist
culture and religion. Later, between the 2nd century BCE and 9th century CE, the islands came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties: Satavahana
s, Abhiras, Vakatakas, Kalachuri
s, Konkan Mauryas, Chalukyas
and Rashtrakutas
, before being ruled by the Silharas
from 810 to 1260.
King Bhimdev
established his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century, and brought many settlers to the islands. The Muslim rulers of Gujarat captured the islands in 1348, and they were later governed by the Gujarat Sultanate
from 1391 to 1534. The Treaty of Bassein
between the Portuguese viceroy Nuno da Cunha
and Bahadur Shah
of the Gujarat Sultanate placed the islands into Portuguese possession in 1534. Charles II of England
received possession of the islands in 1661 as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza
, daughter of King John IV of Portugal
, and leased them to the English East India Company in 1668.
The islands suffered incursions from Mughal
s towards the end of the 17th century. During the mid-18th century, the city emerged as an important trading town, with maritime trade contacts with Mecca
and Basra
. Economic and educational development characterised the city during the 19th century with the first-ever Indian railway line beginning operations between Mumbai and neighbouring Thane
in 1853. The city became a strong base for the Indian independence movement
during the early 20th century and was the epicentre of the Rowlatt Satyagraha of 1919 and Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946. After India's independence
in 1947, the territory of Mumbai Presidency retained by India was restructured into Mumbai State. The area of Mumbai State increased, after several erstwhile princely states that joined the Indian union were integrated into Mumbai State.
In 1960, following protests from the Samyukta Maharashtra movement
, the city was incorporated into the dominion of the newly created Maharashtra
State
from Mumbai State. The city's secular fabric was torn apart in the communal riots of 1992–93, while the bombings of 1993
caused extensive loss of life and property. The city was renamed Mumbai in 1996. Mumbai has suffered several terrorist attacks during the 21st century.
. Soon after its detachment, the peninsular region of the Indian plate drifted over the Réunion hotspot
, a volcanic hotspot in the Earth's lithosphere near the island of Réunion
. An eruption here some 65 mya is thought to have laid down the Deccan Traps
, a vast bed of basalt
lava
that covers parts of central India. This volcanic activity resulted in the formation of basaltic outcrops, such as the Gilbert Hill
, that are seen at various locations in the city. Further tectonic activity in the region led to the formation of hilly islands separated by a shallow sea. Pleistocene
sediments found near Kandivali
in northern Mumbai by British archaeologist Todd in 1939 indicate habitation since the Stone Age
. The present day city was built on what was originally an archipelago of seven islands of Mumbai Island, Parel
, Mazagaon
, Mahim
, Colaba
, Worli
, and Old Woman's Island
(also known as Little Colaba). The islands were coalesced into a single landmass by the Hornby Vellard
engineering project in 1784. By 1000 BCE, the region was heavily involved in seaborne commerce with Egypt
and Persia. The Koli fishing community had long inhabited the islands. They were Dravidian
in origin and included a large number of scattered tribes along the Vindhya Plateau
, Gujarat, and Konkan
. In Mumbai, there were three or four of these tribes. Their religious practices could be summed up as animism
, and could not be suppressed by the Aryan
invaders arriving in 350 BCE.
The islands were incorporated into the Maurya Empire
under Emperor Ashoka
of Magadha
in the third century BCE. The empire's patronage made the islands a centre of Hindu
and Buddhist
religion and culture. Buddhist monks, scholars, and artists created the artwork, inscriptions, and sculpture of the Kanheri Caves
in the mid third century BCE and Mahakali Caves
. After the decline of the Maurya Empire around 185 BCE, these islands fell to the Satavahana
s. The port of Sopara
(present-day Nala Sopara
) was an important trading centre during the first century BCE, with trade contacts with Rome. The islands were known as Heptanesia (Ancient Greek
: A Cluster of Seven Islands) to the Greek geographer Ptolemy
in 150 CE. After the end of the Satvahana rule in 250 CE, the Abhiras of Western Maharashtra and Vakataka
s of Vidarbha
held dominion over the islands. The Abhiras ruled for 167 years, till around 417 CE. The Kalachuri
s of Central India ruled the islands during the fifth century, which were then acquired by the Mauryas of Konkan in the sixth and early part of the seventh century. The Mauryas were feudatories of Kalachuris, and the Jogeshwari Caves
were constructed during their regime between 520 to 525. The Greek merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes
visited Kalyan
(near Mumbai) during 530–550. The Elephanta Caves
also dates back to the sixth century. Christianity arrived in the islands during the sixth century, when the Nestorian Church
made its presence in India. The Mauryan presence ended when the Chalukyas
of Badami
in Karnataka under Pulakesi II
invaded the islands in 610. Dantidurga
of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty
of Karnataka conquered the islands during 749–750.
The Silhara dynasty
of Konkan
ruled the region between 810 and 1260. The Walkeshwar Temple
was constructed during the 10th century and the Banganga Tank
during the 12the century under the patronage of the Silhara rulers. The Italian traveler Marco Polo
's fleet of thirteen Chinese ships passed through Mumbai Harbour
during May — September 1292. King Bhimdev
founded his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century and established his capital in Mahikawati (present day Mahim
). He belonged to either the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in Maharashtra or the Anahilavada dynasty of Gujarat. He built the first Babulnath temple
in the region and introduced many fruit-bearing trees, including coconut palms to the islands. The Pathare Prabhu
s, one of the earliest settlers of the city, were brought to Mahim from Patan
and other parts of Saurashtra in Gujarat around 1298 by Bhimdev during his reign. He is also supposed to have brought Palshi
s, Pachkalshis, Bhandari
s, Vadvals, Bhoi
s, Agri
s and Brahmin
s to these islands. After his death in 1303, he was succeeded by his son Pratapbimba
, who built his capital at Marol
in Salsette, which he named Pratappur. The islands were wrested from Pratapbimba's control by Mubarak Khan
, a self-proclaimed regent of the Khilji dynasty
, who occupied Mahim and Salsette in 1318. Pratapbimba later reconquered the islands which he ruled till 1331. Later, his brother-in-law Nagardev
for 17 years till 1348. The islands came under the control of the Muslim rulers of Gujarat in 1348, ending the sovereignty of Hindu rulers over the islands.
The islands were under Muslim rule from 1348 to 1391. After the establishment of the Gujarat Sultanate
in 1391, Muzaffar Shah I was appointed viceroy of north Konkan
. For the administration of the islands, he appointed a governor for Mahim
. During the reign of Ahmad Shah I (1411–1443), Malik-us-Sharq
was appointed governor of Mahim, and in addition to instituting a proper survey of the islands, he improved the existing revenue system of the islands. During the early 15th century, the Bhandari
s seized the island of Mahim from the Sultanate and ruled it for eight years. It was reconquered by Rai Qutb
of the Gujarat Sultanate. Firishta
, a Persian historian, recorded that by 1429 the seat of government of the Gujarat Sultanate in north Konkan had transferred from Thane
to Mahim. On Rai Qutb's death in 1429–1430, Ahmad Shah I Wali
of the Bahmani Sultanate
of Deccan
captured Salsette and Mahim.
Ahmad Shah I retaliated by sending his son Jafar Khan
to recapture the lost territory. Jafar emerged victorious in the battle fought with Ahmad Shah I Wali. In 1431, Mahim was recaptured by the Sultanate of Gujarat. The Sultanate's patronage led to the construction of many mosques, prominent being the Haji Ali Dargah
in Mahim
, built in honour the Muslim saint Haji Ali in 1431. After the death of Kutb Khan
, the Gujarat commandant of Mahim, Ahmad Shah I Wali again despatched a large army to capture Mahim. Ahmad Shah I responded with a large army and navy under Jafar Khan leading to the defeat of Ahmad Shah I Wali. During 1491–1494, the islands suffered sea piracies from Bahadur Khan Gilani
, a nobleman of the Bahamani Sultanate. After the end of the Bahamani Sultanate, Bahadur Khan Gilani and Mahmud Gavan
(1482–1518) broke out in rebellion at the port of Dabhol
and conquered the islands along with the whole of Konkan
. Portuguese explorer Francisco de Almeida
's ship sailed into the deep natural harbour of the island in 1508, and he called it Bom Bahia (Good Bay). However, the Portuguese paid their first visit to the islands on 21 January 1509, when they landed at Mahim after capturing a Gujarat barge in the Mahim creek. After a series of attacks by the Gujarat Sultanate, the islands were recaptured by Sultan Bahadur Shah
.
In 1526, the Portuguese established their factory at Bassein. During 1528–29, Lopo Vaz de Sampaio
seized the fort of Mahim from the Gujarat Sultanate, when the King was at war with Nizam-ul-mulk, the emperor of Chaul
, a town south of the islands. Bahadur Shah had grown apprehensive of the power of the Mughal
emperor Humayun
and he was obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein
with the Portuguese on 23 December 1534. According to the treaty, the islands of Mumbai and Bassein were offered to the Portuguese. Bassein and the seven islands were surrendered later by a treaty of peace and commerce between Bahadur Shah and Nuno da Cunha
, Viceroy of Portuguese India
, on 25 October 1535, ending the Islamic rule in Mumbai.
The Portuguese were actively involved in the foundation and growth of their religious orders in Mumbai. The islands were leased to Mestre Diogo
in 1534. The San Miguel (St. Michael Church
) in Mahim
, one of the oldest churches in Mumbai, was built by the Portuguese in 1540. Parel
, Wadala, Sion, and Worli
were granted to Manuel Serrão
between 1545 and 1548, during the viceroyalty of João de Castro
. Mazagaon
was granted to Antonio Pessoa
in 1547. Salsette was granted for three years to João Rodrigues Dantas
, Cosme Corres
, and Manuel Corres
. Trombay
and Chembur
were granted to Dom Roque Tello de Menezes
, and the Island of Pory (Elephanta Island
) to João Pirez
in 1548. Garcia de Orta
, a Portuguese physician and botanist, was granted the possession of Mumbai in 1554 by viceroy Pedro Mascarenhas
.
The Portuguese encouraged intermarriage with the local population, and strongly supported the Roman Catholic Church. In 1560, they started proselytising the local Koli, Kunbi, Kumbhar population in Mahim
, Worli
, and Bassein. These Christians were referred to by the British as Portuguese Christians, though they were Nestorian Christians who had only recently established ties with the Roman Catholic Church. During this time, Mumbai's main trade was coconuts and coir. After Antonio Pessoa
's death in 1571, a patent was issued which granted Mazagaon
in perpetuity to the Sousa e Lima family
. The St. Andrew Church
at Bandra was built in 1575.
The annexation of Portugal by Spain
in 1580 opened the way for other European powers to follow the spice routes to India
. The Dutch
arrived first, closely followed by the British. The first English merchants arrived in Mumbai in November 1583, and travelled through Bassein, Thane
, and Chaul
. The Portuguese Franciscans had obtained practical control of Salsette and Mahim by 1585, and built Nossa Senhora de Bom Concelho (Our Lady of Good Counsel) at Sion and Nossa Senhora de Salvação (Our Lady of Salvation) at Dadar
in 1596. The Battle of Swally
was fought between the British and the Portuguese at Surat in 1612 for the possession of Mumbai. Dorabji Nanabhoy
, a trader, was the first Parsi to settle in Mumbai in 1640. Castella de Aguada (Fort of the Waterpoint) was built by the Portuguese at Bandra in 1640 as a watchtower overlooking the Mahim Bay
, the Arabian Sea
and the southern island of Mahim. The growing power of the Dutch
by the middle of the seventeenth century forced the Surat Council of the British Empire to acquire Mumbai from King John IV of Portugal
in 1659. The marriage treaty of Charles II of England
and Catherine of Portugal on 8 May 1661 placed Mumbai in British possession as a part of Catherine's dowry to Charles.
was appointed the first Governor and General of the city, and his fleet arrived in Mumbai in September and October 1662. On being asked to hand over Mumbai and Salsette
to the English, the Portuguese Governor contended that the island of Mumbai alone had been ceded, and alleging irregularity in the patent, he refused to give up even Mumbai. The Portuguese Viceroy declined to interfere and Shipman was prevented from landing in Mumbai. He was forced to retire to the island of Anjediva in North Canara and died there in October 1664. In November 1664, Shipman's successor Humphrey Cooke
agreed to accept Mumbai without its dependencies. However, Salsette
, Mazagaon
, Parel
, Worli
, Sion, Dharavi
, and Wadala still remained under Portuguese possession. Later, Cooke managed to acquire Mahim, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala for the English. On 21 September 1668, the Royal Charter of 27 March 1668
, led to the transfer of Mumbai from Charles II to the English East India Company for an annual rent of £
10 (equivalent retail price index
of £1,226 in 2007). The Company immediately set about the task of opening up the islands by constructing a quay and warehouses. A customs house was also built. Fortifications were built around Mumbai Castle. A Judge-Advocate was appointed for the purpose of civil administration. George Oxenden became the first Governor of Mumbai under the English East India Company on 23 September 1668. Gerald Aungier
, who was appointed Governor of Mumbai on July 1669, established the first mint in Mumbai in 1670. He offered various business incentives, which attracted Parsis, Goans
, Jews, Dawoodi Bohras, Gujarati
Banias from Surat
and Diu, and Brahmins from Salsette. He also planned extensive fortifications in the city from Dongri
in the north to Mendham's Point
(near present day Lion Gate
) in the south. The harbour was also developed during his governorship, with space for the berthing of 20 ships. In 1670, the Parsi businessman Bhimjee Parikh imported the first printing press into Mumbai. Between 1661 and 1675 there was a sixfold increase in population from 10,000 to 60,000. Yakut Khan
, the Siddi
admiral of the Mughal Empire
, landed at Mumbai in October 1672 and ravaged the local inhabitants there. On 20 February 1673, Rickloffe van Goen
, the Governor-General of Dutch India
attacked Mumbai, but the attack was resisted by Aungier. On 10 October 1673, the Siddi
admiral Sambal
entered Mumbai and destroyed the Pen and Nagothana rivers, which were very important for the English and the Maratha
King Shivaji. The Treaty of Westminster
concluded between England and the Netherlands in 1674, relieved the British settlements in Mumbai of further apprehension from the Dutch. In 1686, the Company shifted its main holdings from Surat
to Mumbai, which had become the administrative centre of all the west coast settlements then. Mumbai was placed at the head of all the Company's establishments in India.
Yakut Khan
landed at Sewri
on 14 February 1689, and razed the Mazagon Fort
in June 1690. After a payment made by the British to Aurangzeb
, the ruler of the Mughal Empire, Yakut evacuated Mumbai on 8 June 1690. The arrival of many Indian and British merchants led to the development of Mumbai's trade by the end of the seventeenth century. Soon it was trading in salt, rice, ivory, cloth, lead and sword blades with many Indian ports as well as with the Arabian cities of Mecca
and Basra
.. By 1710, the construction of Mumbai Castle was finished, which fortified the islands from sea attacks by European pirates and the Marathas. By 26 December 1715, Charles Boone
assumed the Governorship of Mumbai. He implemented Aungier's
plans for the fortification of the island, and had walls built from Dongri
in the north to Mendham's point in the south. He established the Marine force, and constructed the St. Thomas Cathedral in 1718, which was the first Anglican
Church in Mumbai. In 1728, a Mayor's court was established in Mumbai and the first reclamation was started which was a temporary work in Mahalaxmi
, on the creek separating Mumbai from Worli
. The shipbuilding industry started in Mumbai in 1735 and soon the Naval Dockyard was established in the same year.
In 1737, Salsette
was captured from the Portuguese by Maratha
Baji Rao I
and the province of Bassein was ceded in 1739. The Maratha victory forced the British to push settlements within the fort walls of the city. Under new building rules set up in 1748, many houses were demolished and the population was redistributed, partially on newly reclaimed land. Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia
, a member of the Wadia family of shipwrights and naval architects from Surat
, built the Mumbai Dock in 1750, which was the first dry dock to be commissioned in Asia. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Mumbai began to grow into a major trading town and soon Bhandari
s from Chaul
in Maharashtra, Vanjaris
from the Western Ghat
mountain ranges of Maharashtra, Africans
from Madagascar, Bhatias from Rajasthan
, Vaishya Vani
s, Goud Saraswat Brahmins, Daivajnas from konkan, ironsmiths and weavers from Gujarat migrated to the islands. In 1769, Fort George was built on the site of the Dongri Fort
and in 1770, the Mazagaon docks were built. The British occupied Salsette, Elephanta
, Hog Island
, and Karanja
on 28 December 1774. Salsette, Elephanta, Hog Island, and Karanja were formally ceded to the British East India Company
by the Treaty of Salbai
signed in 1782, while Bassein and its dependencies were restored to Raghunathrao
of the Maratha Empire. Although Salsette was under the British, but the introduction of contraband goods from Salsette to other parts of Mumbai was prevented. The goods were subjected to Maratha regulations with respect to taxes and a 30% toll was levied on all goods into the city from Salsette.
In 1782, William Hornby assumed the office of Governor of Mumbai, and initiated the Hornby Vellard
engineering project of uniting the seven islands into a single landmass. The purpose of this project was to block the Worli creek
and prevent the low-lying areas of Mumbai from being flooded at high tide. However, the project was rejected by the British East India Company in 1783. In 1784, the Hornby Vellard project was completed and soon reclamations at Worli
and Mahalaxmi
followed. The history of journalism in Mumbai commenced with publication of the Mumbai Herald in 1789 and the Mumbai Courier in 1790. In 1795, the Maratha army defeated the Nizam
of Hyderabad
. Following this, many artisans and construction workers from Andhra Pradesh
migrated to Mumbai and settled into the flats which were constructed by the Hornby Vellard. These workers where called Kamathis
, and their enclave was called Kamathipura
. The construction of the Sion Causeway
(Duncan Causeway) commenced in 1798. The construction of the Sion Causeway was completed in 1802 by Governor Jonathan Duncan. It connected Mumbai Island to Kurla
in Salsette. On 17 February 1803, a fire raged through the town, razing many localities around the Old Fort, subsequently the British had to plan a new town with wider roads. On May 1804, Mumbai was hit by a severe famine, which led to a large scale emigration. On 5 November 1817, the British East India Company under Mountstuart Elphinstone
defeated Bajirao II, the Peshwa
of the Maratha Empire, in the Battle of Kirkee
which took place on the Deccan Plateau
. The success of the British campaign in the Deccan witnessed the freedom of Mumbai from all attacks by native powers.
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The educational and economic progress of the city began with the Company's military successes in the Deccan. The Wellington Pier (Apollo Bunder) in the north of Colaba
was opened for passenger traffic in 1819 and the Elphinstone High School
was established in 1822. Mumbai was hit by a water famine in 1824. The construction of the new mint commenced in 1825. With the construction of a good carriage road up the Bhor Ghat
during the regimes of Mountstuart Elphinstone
and Sir John Malcolm
gave better access of the Mumbai Island to the Deccan. This Ghat, which was opened on 10 November 1830, facilitated trade in a large measure. By 1830, regular communication with England started by steamers navigating the Red
and Mediterranean Sea
. In July 1832, the Parsi riots took place in consequence of a Government order for the destruction of pariah dogs which infested the city. The Asiatic Society of Mumbai (Town Hall) was completed in 1833, and the Elphinstone College
was built in 1835. In 1836, the Chamber of Commerce was established.
In 1838, the islands of Colaba
and Little Colaba
wrre connected to Mumbai by the Colaba Causeway
. In the same year, monthly communication was established between Mumbai and London. The Bank of Mumbai, the oldest bank in the city, was established in 1840, and the Bank of Western India in 1842. The Cotton Exchange was established in Cotton Green
in 1844. Avabai Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy
funded the construction of the Mahim Causeway
, to connect Mahim
to Bandra and the work was completed in 1845. The Commercial Bank of India, established in 1845, issued exotic notes with an interblend of Western and Eastern Motifs. On 3 November 1845, the Grant Medical College and hospital, the third in the country, was founded by Governor Robert Grant
. The earliest riots occurred at Mahim
in 1850, in consequence of a dispute between two rival factions of Khojas. Riots broke out between Muslims and Parsis in October 1851, in consequence of an ill-advised article on Prophet Muhammad
which appeared in the Chitra Gnyan Darpan newspaper. The first political organization of the Mumbai Presidency, the Mumbai Association, was started on 26 August 1852, to vent public grievances to the British. The first-ever Indian railway line began operations between Mumbai and neighbouring Thane
over a distance of 21 miles on 16 April 1853. The Mumbai Spinning and Weaving Company was the first cotton mill
to be established in the city on 7 July 1854 at Tardeo
in Central Mumbai. The Mumbai, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI) was incorporated in 1855.
The University of Mumbai
was the first modern institution of higher education to be established in India in 1857. The Commercial Bank, the Chartered Mercantile, the Agra and United Service, the Chartered and the Central Bank of Western India were established in Mumbai attracting a considerable industrial population. The outbreak of the American Civil War
in 1861 increased the demand for cotton in the West, and led to an enormous increase in cotton-trade. The Victoria Gardens
was opened to the public in 1862. The Mumbai Shipping and Iron Shipping Companies were started in 1863 to make Mumbai merchants independent of the English. The Mumbai Coast and River Steam Navigation Company was established in 1866 for the maintenance of steam ferries between Mumbai and the nearby islands; while the opening of the Suez Canal
in 1869 revolutionized the marine trade of Mumbai. The Mumbai Municipal Corporation was established in 1872, providing a modern framework of governance for the rapidly-growing city. The Mumbai Port Trust
was promulgated in 1870 for the development and administration of the port. Tramway communication was instituted in 1873. The Mumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), originally set up as a tramway company: Mumbai Tramway Company Limited, was established in 1873. Violent Parsi-Muslim riots again broke out in February 1874, which were caused by an article on Prophet Muhammad published by a Parsi resident. The Mumbai Gymkhana was formed in 1875. The Mumbai Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in Asia, was established in 1875. Electricity arrived in Mumbai in 1882 and Crawford Market
was the first establishment to be lit up by electricity. The Mumbai Natural History Society was founded in 1883. Mumbai Time, one of the two official time zones in British India, was established in 1884 during the International Meridian Conference
held at Washington, D.C in the United States. Mumbai time was set at 4 hours and 51 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time
(GMT) using the 75th east meridian. The Princess Dock
was built in 1885 as part of a scheme for improving the whole foreshore of the Mumbai harbour.
The growth of political consciousness started after the establishment of the Mumbai Presidency Association on 31 January 1885. The Mumbai Millowners' Association was formed in February 1875 by Dinshaw Maneckji Petit
in order to protect interests of workers threatened by possible factory and tariff legislation by the British. The first session of the Indian National Congress
was held in Mumbai from 28–31 December 1885. The Mumbai Municipal Act was enacted in 1888 which gave the British Government wide powers of interference in civic matters. The Victoria Terminus
of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway
, one of the finest stations in the world, was completed in May 1888. The concept of Dabbawala
s (lunch box delivery man) originated in the 1890s when British people who came to Mumbai did not like the local food. So the Dabbawala service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. On 11 August 1893, a serious communal riot took place between the Hindus and Muslims, when a Shiva
temple was attacked by Muslims in Mumbai. 75 people were killed and 350 were injured. In September 1896, Mumbai was hit by a bubonic plague epidemic
where the death toll was estimated at 1,900 people per week. Around 850,000, amounting to half of the population, fled Mumbai during this time. On 9 March 1898, there was a serious riot which started with a sudden outbreak of hostility against the measures adopted by Government for suppression of plague. The riot led to a strike of dock and railway workers which paralysed the city for a few days. The significant results of the plague was the creation of the Mumbai City Improvement Trust on 9 December 1898 and the Haffkine Institute
on 10 January 1899 by Waldemar Haffkine
. The Dadar-Matunga-Wadala-Sion scheme, the first planned suburban scheme in Mumbai, was formulated in 1899–1900 by the Mumbai City Improvement Trust to relieve congestion in the centre of the town, following the plague epidemics. The cotton mill industry was adversely affected during 1900 and 1901 due to the flight of workers because of the plague.
The Partition of Bengal
in 1905 initiated the Swadeshi movement
, which led to the boycotting of British goods in India. On 22 July 1908, Lokmanya Tilak
, the principal advocate of the Swadeshi movement in Mumbai, was sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment, on the charge of writing inflammatory articles against the Government in his newspaper Kesari. The arrest led to huge scale protests across the city. The MumbaiChronicle started by Pherozeshah Mehta
, the leader of the Indian National Congress
, in 1910, played an important role in the national movement until India's Independence. Lord Willingdon
convened the Provincial War Conference at Mumbai on 10 June 1918, whose objective was to seek the co-operation of the people in the World War I measures which the British Government thought it necessary to take in the Mumbai Presidency. The conference was followed by huge rallies across the city. The worldwide influenza epidemic raged through Mumbai from September to December 1918, causing hundreds of deaths per day. The Lord Willingdon Memorial incident of December 1918 saw the handicap of Home Rulers in Mumbai. The first important strike in the textile industry in Mumbai began in January 1919. Mumbai was the main centre of the Rowlatt Satyagraha movement started by Mahatma Gandhi
from February — April 1919. The movement was started as a result of the Rowlatt Act
, which indefinitely extended emergency measures during World War I in order to control public unrest.
Following World War I, which saw large movement of India troops, supplies, arms and industrial goods to and from Mumbai, the city life was shut down many times during the Non-cooperation movement
from 1920 to 1922. In 1926, the Back Bay scandal occurred, when the Mumbai Development Department under the British reclaimed the Back Bay area in Mumbai after the financial crisis incidental to the post-war slump in the city. The first electric locomotives in India were put into service from Victoria Terminus to Kurla
in 1925. In the late 1920s, many Persians migrated to Mumbai from Yazd
to escape the drought in Iran. In the early 1930s, the nationwide Civil disobedience movement against the British Salt tax spread to Mumbai. Vile Parle
was the headquarters of the movement in Bombay under Jamnalal Bajaj
. On 15 October 1932 industrialist and aviator J.R.D. Tata pioneered civil aviation
in Bombay by flying a plane from Karachi
to Bombay. Bombay was affected by the Great Depression
of 1929, which saw a stagnation of mill industry and economy from 1933 to 1939. With World War II, the movements of thousands of troops, military and industrial goods and the fleet of the Royal Indian Navy
made Bombay an important military base for the battles being fought in West Asia and South East Asia. The climatic Quit India rebellion was promulgated on 7 August 1942 by the Congress in a public meeting at Gowalia Tank
. The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 18 February 1946 in Bombay marked the first and most serious revolt by the Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy against British rule. On 15 August 1947, finally India was declared independent. The last British troops to leave India, the First Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, passed through the arcade of the Gateway of India
in Bombay on 28 February 1948, ending the 282 year long period of the British in Bombay .
After the Partition of India
on 15 August 1947, over 100,000 Sindhi
refugees from the newly created Pakistan
were relocated in the military camps five kilometres from Kalyan
in the Bombay metropolitan region
. It was converted into a township in 1949, and named Ulhasnagar
by the then Governor-General of India, C. Rajagopalachari
. In April 1950, Greater Bombay District came into existence with the merger of Bombay Suburbs and Bombay City. It spanned an area of 235.1 km² (90.77 sq mi) and inhabited 23.39 lakh
s of people in 1951. The Municipal Corporation
limits were extended up to Jogeshwari along the Western Railway
and Bhandup
along the Central Railway. This limit was further extended in February 1957 up to Dahisar
along the Western Railway and Mulund on the Central Railway. In the 1955 Lok Sabha
discussions, when Bombay State
was being re-organised along linguistic lines into the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, there was a demand from the Congress
, that the city be constituted as an autonomous city-state. But the States Reorganisation Committee
recommended a bi-lingual state for Maharashtra-Gujarat, with Bombay as its capital However, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement
opposed this, and insisted that Bombay be declared the capital of Maharashtra. The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
was established in 1958 at Powai
, a northern suburb of Bombay. Following protests by the Samyukta Maharashtra movement in which 105 people were killed by police firing, Maharashtra State was formed with Bombay as its capital on 1 May 1960. Flora Fountain
was renamed Hutatma Chowk
("Martyr's Square") as a memorial to the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.
In the early 1960s, the Gujarati
and Marwaris
communities owned majority of the industry and trade enterprises in the city, while the white-collar jobs were mainly sought by the South India
n migrants to the city. The Shiv Sena
party was established on 19 June 1966 by Bombay cartoonist Bal Thackeray
, out of a feeling of resentment about the relative marginalization of the native Marathi people
in their native state Maharashtra. In the 1960s and 1970s, Shiv Sena cadres became involved in various attacks against the South Indian communities, vandalising South Indian restaurants and pressuring employers to hire Marathis. In the late 1960s, Nariman Point
and Cuffe Parade
were reclaimed and developed. During the 1970 Bombay-Bhiwandi
riots, many Muslim places of worship were attacked by Shiv sena activists.Naturally this led to much resentment and tensions between Muslim and Hindu communities. Though the Shiv Sena was attributed to curbing religious violence, their methods were questioned. After much corruption allegations and political fumbles the Shiv Sena lost a considerable chunk of popularity. Family infighting and more corruption charges have crippled the party. Furthermore the party does not reflect the viewpoint of most Mumbai residents, who are more open to globalisation. During the 1970s, coastal communication increased between Bombay and south western coast of India, after introduction of ships by the London based trade firm Shepherd. These ships facilitated the entry of Goan
and Mangalorean Catholics to Bombay.
Nehru Centre
, was established in 1972 at Worli
in Bombay. The Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority
(BMRDA) was set up on 26 January 1975 by the Government of Maharashtra
as an apex body for planning and co-ordination of development activities in the Bombay metropolitan region
. Nehru Science Centre
, India's largest interactive science centre, was established in 1972 at Worli in Bombay. In August 1979, a sister township of New Bombay
was founded by City and Industrial Development Corporation
(CIDCO) across Thane
and Raigad
districts to help the dispersal and control of Bombay's population. The Great Bombay Textile Strike
was called on 18 January 1982 by trade union leader Dutta Samant
, where nearly 250,000 workers and more than 50 textile mills in Bombay
went on strike. On 17 May 1984, riots broke out in Bombay, Thane
, and Bhiwandi after a saffron flag was placed at the top of a mosque. 278 were killed and 1,118 were wounded. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port was commissioned on 26 May 1989 at Nhava Sheva
with a view to de-congest Bombay Harbour
and to serve as a hub port for the city. In December 1992 – January 93, over 1,000 people were killed and the city paralyzed by communal riots
between the Hindus and the Muslims caused by the destruction of the Babri Mosque
in Ayodhya. A series of 13 co-ordinated bomb explosions took place in Bombay on 12 March 1993, which resulted in 257 deaths and 700 injuries. The attacks were believed to be orchestrated by mafia don Dawood Ibrahim
in retaliation for the Babri Mosque demolition. In 1996, the newly-elected Shiv Sena
-led government renamed the city of Bombay to the native name Mumbai, after the Koli Goddess Mumbadevi. Soon colonial British names were shed to assert or reassert local names, such as Victoria Terminus being renamed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
on 4 March 1996, after the 17th century Marathi King Shivaji.
During the 21st century, the city suffered several bombings. On 6 December 2002, a bomb placed under a seat of an empty BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport
) bus exploded near Ghatkopar
station in Mumbai. Around 2 people were killed and 28 were injured. The bombing occurred on the tenth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. On 27 January 2003, a bomb placed on a bicycle exploded near the Vile Parle
station in Mumbai. The bomb killed 1 and injured 25. The blast occurred a day ahead of the visit of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
, the then Prime Minister of India
to the city. On 13 March 2003, a bomb exploded in a train compartment, as the train was entering the Mulund station in Mumbai. 10 people were killed and 70 were injured. The blast occurred a day after the tenth anniversary of the 1993 Bombay bombings. On 28 July 2003, a bomb placed under a seat of a BEST bus exploded in Ghatkopar. The bomb killed 4 people and injured 32. On 25 August 2003, two blasts in South Mumbai
– one near the Gateway of India
and the other at Zaveri Bazaar in Kalbadevi
occurred. At least 44 people were killed and 150 injured. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it had been hinted that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba
was behind the attacks.
Mumbai was lashed by torrential rains on 26–27 July 2005, during which the city was brought to a complete standstill. The city received 37 inches (940 millimeters) of rain in 24 hours — the most any Indian city has ever received in a single day. Around 83 people were killed. On 11 July 2006, a series of seven bomb blasts took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway
in Mumbai at Khar
, Mahim
, Matunga
, Jogeshwari, Borivali
, and one between Khar and Santa Cruz
. 209 people were killed and over 700 were injured. According to Mumbai Police
, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba
and Students Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI). In 2008, the city experienced xenophobic attacks by the activists of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
(MNS) under Raj Thackeray
on the North Indian migrants in Mumbai. Attacks included assault on North Indian taxi drivers and damage of their vehicles. There were a series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks by 10 armed Pakistani men using automatic weapons and grenades which began on 26 November 2008 and ended on 29 November 2008. The attacks resulted in 164 deaths, 308 injuries, and severe damage to several important buildings.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, becoming the commercial capital of the nation, and one of the most populous cities in the world. Although human habitation existed since the Stone Age
South Asian Stone Age
The South Asian Stone Age covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in South Asia. Evidence for the most ancient anatomically modern Homo sapiens in South Asia has been found in the cave sites of Batadomba lena and Beli lena in Sri Lanka.In Mehrgarh, in what is today western...
, the Kolis, a fishing community, were the earliest known settlers of the islands. The Maurya Empire
Maurya Empire
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in ancient India, ruled by the Mauryan dynasty from 321 to 185 BC...
gained control of the islands during the 3rd century BCE, and transformed it into a centre of Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
culture and religion. Later, between the 2nd century BCE and 9th century CE, the islands came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties: Satavahana
Satavahana
The Sātavāhana Empire or Andhra Empire, was a royal Indian dynasty based from Dharanikota and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh as well as Junnar and Prathisthan in Maharashtra. The territory of the empire covered much of India from 230 BCE onward...
s, Abhiras, Vakatakas, Kalachuri
Kalachuri
Kalachuri Empire is this the name used by two kingdoms who had a succession of dynasties from the 10th-12th centuries, one ruling over areas in Central India and were called Chedi or Haihaya and the other southern Kalachuri who ruled over parts of Karnataka...
s, Konkan Mauryas, Chalukyas
Chalukya dynasty
The Chalukya dynasty was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty, known as the "Badami Chalukyas", ruled from Vatapi from the...
and Rashtrakutas
Rashtrakuta Dynasty
The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian Subcontinent between the sixth and the 10th centuries. During this period they ruled as several closely related, but individual clans. Rastrakutas in inscriptions represented as descendants of Satyaki, a Yadava well known...
, before being ruled by the Silharas
Silhara dynasty
The Hindu Silhara dynasty ruled the region around present-day Mumbai between 810 and 1240.They were split into three branches; one branch ruled North Konkan, the second South Konkan , while the third ruled what is now known as modern districts of Satara, Kolhapur and Belgaon between 940 to 1215...
from 810 to 1260.
King Bhimdev
Raja Bhimdev
Bhimdev II or Raja Bhimdev also known as Raja Bimba was a 11th century king who had his capital in Mahikawati, the present-day Mahim, in Mumbai, India....
established his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century, and brought many settlers to the islands. The Muslim rulers of Gujarat captured the islands in 1348, and they were later governed by the Gujarat Sultanate
Gujarat Sultanate
The Gujarat Sultanate was an independent kingdom established in the early 15th century in Gujarat. The founder of the ruling Muzaffarid dynasty, Zafar Khan was appointed as governor of Gujarat by Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad bin Tughluq IV in 1391, the ruler of the principal state in north India at the...
from 1391 to 1534. The Treaty of Bassein
Treaty of Bassein (1534)
The Treaty of Bassein was signed by Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat and Portugal on December 23, 1534 while on board the galleon São Mateus. Based on the terms of the agreement, the Portuguese Empire gained control of the city of Bassein, as well as its territories, islands, and seas...
between the Portuguese viceroy Nuno da Cunha
Nuno da Cunha
Nuno da Cunha was a governor of Portuguese possessions in India from 1528 to 1538.He was the son of Antónia Pais and Tristão da Cunha, the famous Portuguese navigator, admiral and ambassador to Pope Leo X....
and Bahadur Shah
Bahadur Shah of Gujarat
Sultan Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah , who reigned 1526-1535 and 1536-1537, was a sultan of Gujarat Sultanate, a late medieval independent kingdom in India.-Early years:...
of the Gujarat Sultanate placed the islands into Portuguese possession in 1534. Charles II of England
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
received possession of the islands in 1661 as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza was a Portuguese infanta and queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles II.She married the king in 1662...
, daughter of King John IV of Portugal
John IV of Portugal
|-|John IV was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1640 to his death. He was the grandson of Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, who had in 1580 claimed the Portuguese crown and sparked the struggle for the throne of Portugal. John was nicknamed John the Restorer...
, and leased them to the English East India Company in 1668.
The islands suffered incursions from Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
s towards the end of the 17th century. During the mid-18th century, the city emerged as an important trading town, with maritime trade contacts with Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
and Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
. Economic and educational development characterised the city during the 19th century with the first-ever Indian railway line beginning operations between Mumbai and neighbouring Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...
in 1853. The city became a strong base for the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
during the early 20th century and was the epicentre of the Rowlatt Satyagraha of 1919 and Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946. After India's independence
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
in 1947, the territory of Mumbai Presidency retained by India was restructured into Mumbai State. The area of Mumbai State increased, after several erstwhile princely states that joined the Indian union were integrated into Mumbai State.
In 1960, following protests from the Samyukta Maharashtra movement
Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti
http://ekmarathimanoos.blogspot.com/2009/01/belgaum-border-dispute-bleeding-wound.htmlSanyukta Maharashtra Samiti , roughly translated as United Maharashtra Committee, was an organisation that spearheaded the demand in the 1950s for the creation of a separate Marathi-speaking state out of the ...
, the city was incorporated into the dominion of the newly created Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
State
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
from Mumbai State. The city's secular fabric was torn apart in the communal riots of 1992–93, while the bombings of 1993
1993 Mumbai bombings
The 1993 Bombay bombings were a series of 13 bomb explosions that took place in Bombay , Maharashtra, India on Friday, 12 March 1993. The coordinated attacks were the most destructive bomb explosions in Indian history...
caused extensive loss of life and property. The city was renamed Mumbai in 1996. Mumbai has suffered several terrorist attacks during the 21st century.
Pre-historic period
Geologists believe that coast of western India came into being around 100 to 80 mya after it broke away from MadagascarMadagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. Soon after its detachment, the peninsular region of the Indian plate drifted over the Réunion hotspot
Réunion hotspot
The Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which currently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The Chagos-Laccadive Ridge and the southern part of the Mascarene Plateau are volcanic traces of the Réunion hotspot....
, a volcanic hotspot in the Earth's lithosphere near the island of Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
. An eruption here some 65 mya is thought to have laid down the Deccan Traps
Deccan Traps
The Deccan Traps are a large igneous province located on the Deccan Plateau of west-central India and one of the largest volcanic features on Earth. They consist of multiple layers of solidified flood basalt that together are more than thick and cover an area of and a volume of...
, a vast bed of basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
lava
Lava
Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...
that covers parts of central India. This volcanic activity resulted in the formation of basaltic outcrops, such as the Gilbert Hill
Gilbert Hill
Gilbert Hill is a monolith column of black basalt rock in Andheri, in Mumbai, India. The rock has a sheer vertical face and was formed when molten lava was squeezed out of the Earth's clefts during the Mesozoic Era about 65 million years ago. During that era, molten lava had spread around most of...
, that are seen at various locations in the city. Further tectonic activity in the region led to the formation of hilly islands separated by a shallow sea. Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
sediments found near Kandivali
Kandivali
Kandivali, or Kandivli is the name of a suburb of Mumbai, India. It is also the name of the railway station in Kandivali suburb, on the Western Railway line of the Mumbai suburban railway.- History :...
in northern Mumbai by British archaeologist Todd in 1939 indicate habitation since the Stone Age
South Asian Stone Age
The South Asian Stone Age covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in South Asia. Evidence for the most ancient anatomically modern Homo sapiens in South Asia has been found in the cave sites of Batadomba lena and Beli lena in Sri Lanka.In Mehrgarh, in what is today western...
. The present day city was built on what was originally an archipelago of seven islands of Mumbai Island, Parel
Parel
Lower Parel or Parel is central part of Mumbai. It is also lends its name to two railway stations on the Mumbai suburban railway. Most of the mills in Mumbai used to be in this area till some years ago...
, Mazagaon
Mazagaon
Mazagaon, also spelled Mazgaon and Mazagon , and pronounced by the Catholics as 'Mazgon' or 'Maz-a-gon' and the Marathi-speakers as Mazhgav. It is one of the seven islands of Mumbai. It is part of South Mumbai and can be reached by Byculla Station on the Central railway line and Dockyard Road...
, Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
, Colaba
Colaba
Colaba is a part of the city of Mumbai, India, and also a Lok Sabha constituency. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Candil...
, Worli
Worli
-History:Worli was one of the original seven islands that constituted the city of Mumbai. Although primarily a fishing village, the Worli Fort, a British fort that is now in ruins, is located there. Its original resident was the legendary Dishankeshwar Kalsi who has also been recognized in several...
, and Old Woman's Island
Old Woman's Island
The Old Woman's Island, also known as Little Colaba is one of the seven islands composing the city of Mumbai, India, and part of the historic Old Bombay....
(also known as Little Colaba). The islands were coalesced into a single landmass by the Hornby Vellard
Hornby Vellard
The Hornby Vellard was a project to build a causeway uniting all seven islands of Bombay into a single island with a deep natural harbour. The project was started by the governor William Hornby in 1782 and all islands were linked by 1838...
engineering project in 1784. By 1000 BCE, the region was heavily involved in seaborne commerce with Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Persia. The Koli fishing community had long inhabited the islands. They were Dravidian
Dravidian peoples
Dravidian peoples is a term used to refer to the diverse groups of people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers of around 220 million are found mostly in Southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka,...
in origin and included a large number of scattered tribes along the Vindhya Plateau
Vindhya Range
The Vindhya Range is a range of older rounded mountains and hills in the west-central Indian subcontinent, which geographically separates the Indian subcontinent into northern India and Southern India.- Introduction :...
, Gujarat, and Konkan
Konkan
The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...
. In Mumbai, there were three or four of these tribes. Their religious practices could be summed up as animism
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
, and could not be suppressed by the Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
invaders arriving in 350 BCE.
Age of indigenous empires
Maurya Empire
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in ancient India, ruled by the Mauryan dynasty from 321 to 185 BC...
under Emperor Ashoka
Ashoka
Ashok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...
of Magadha
Magadha
Magadha formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas or kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganga; its first capital was Rajagriha then Pataliputra...
in the third century BCE. The empire's patronage made the islands a centre of Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
religion and culture. Buddhist monks, scholars, and artists created the artwork, inscriptions, and sculpture of the Kanheri Caves
Kanheri Caves
The Kanheri Caves are a group of rock-cut monuments, located north of Borivali on the western outskirts of Mumbai, India, deep within the green forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It is 6 km from the National Park Main Gate & 7 km from Borivali Station. Tourists can go in after...
in the mid third century BCE and Mahakali Caves
Mahakali Caves
The Mahakali Caves are a group of 19 rock-cut monuments built between 1st century BCE and 6th century CE....
. After the decline of the Maurya Empire around 185 BCE, these islands fell to the Satavahana
Satavahana
The Sātavāhana Empire or Andhra Empire, was a royal Indian dynasty based from Dharanikota and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh as well as Junnar and Prathisthan in Maharashtra. The territory of the empire covered much of India from 230 BCE onward...
s. The port of Sopara
Sopara
Sopara or Soparaka was an ancient port town and the capital of the ancient Aparanta. The site of this ancient town is located near the present day Nala Sopara town in the Thane district of the state Maharashtra, India.Nala Sopara is one of the busiest western suburbs of Mumbai city...
(present-day Nala Sopara
Nala Sopara
Nala Sopara is one of the suburbs of Mumbai city. It is a town within the Mumbai Conurbation. The town lies in Thane district of Maharashtra state in India. The population of the city is 184,664 . It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway ...
) was an important trading centre during the first century BCE, with trade contacts with Rome. The islands were known as Heptanesia (Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
: A Cluster of Seven Islands) to the Greek geographer Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
in 150 CE. After the end of the Satvahana rule in 250 CE, the Abhiras of Western Maharashtra and Vakataka
Vakataka
The Vākāṭakas were a royal Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-third century CE. Their kingdom is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the south as well as from the Arabian Sea in the western to the...
s of Vidarbha
Vidarbha
Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maharashtra state made up of Nagpur Division and Amravati Division. Its former name is Berar . It occupies 31.6% of total area and holds 21.3% of total population of Maharashtra...
held dominion over the islands. The Abhiras ruled for 167 years, till around 417 CE. The Kalachuri
Kalachuri
Kalachuri Empire is this the name used by two kingdoms who had a succession of dynasties from the 10th-12th centuries, one ruling over areas in Central India and were called Chedi or Haihaya and the other southern Kalachuri who ruled over parts of Karnataka...
s of Central India ruled the islands during the fifth century, which were then acquired by the Mauryas of Konkan in the sixth and early part of the seventh century. The Mauryas were feudatories of Kalachuris, and the Jogeshwari Caves
Jogeshwari Caves
The Jogeshwari Caves are some of the earliest Buddhist cave temples sculptures located in the Mumbai suburb of Jogeshwari, India. The caves date back to 520 to 550 CE. The caves are located off the Western Express Highway, and are surrounded by encroachments. The caves are used as a temple by the...
were constructed during their regime between 520 to 525. The Greek merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes
Cosmas Indicopleustes
Cosmas Indicopleustes was an Alexandrian merchant and later hermit, probably of Nestorian tendencies. He was a 6th-century traveller, who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian...
visited Kalyan
Kalyan
Kalyan is a city in Thane district of Maharashtra, and a major railway station lying at the junction of the north-east and south-east lines of the suburban Mumbai division of the Central Railway, 53 km north-east of Mumbai. Kalyan is also a major Taluka place, a tehsil of the Thane district...
(near Mumbai) during 530–550. The Elephanta Caves
Elephanta Caves
The Elephanta Caves are a network of sculpted caves located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri in Mumbai Harbour, to the east of the city of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra...
also dates back to the sixth century. Christianity arrived in the islands during the sixth century, when the Nestorian Church
Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ʻIttā Qaddishtā w-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi d-Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical...
made its presence in India. The Mauryan presence ended when the Chalukyas
Chalukya dynasty
The Chalukya dynasty was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty, known as the "Badami Chalukyas", ruled from Vatapi from the...
of Badami
Badami
Badami , formerly known as Vatapi, is a town and headquarters of a taluk by the same name, in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka, India. It was the regal capital of the Badami Chalukyas from 540 to 757 AD. It is famous for rock cut and other structural temples...
in Karnataka under Pulakesi II
Pulakesi II
Pulakesin II is the most famous ruler of the Chalukya dynasty. In his reign the Chalukyas of Badami saw their kingdom extend over most of the Deccan.-Early life and accession:...
invaded the islands in 610. Dantidurga
Dantidurga
Dantidurga , also known as Dantivarman or Dantidurga II was the founder of the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta. His capital was based in Gulbarga region of Karnataka...
of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty
Rashtrakuta Dynasty
The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian Subcontinent between the sixth and the 10th centuries. During this period they ruled as several closely related, but individual clans. Rastrakutas in inscriptions represented as descendants of Satyaki, a Yadava well known...
of Karnataka conquered the islands during 749–750.
The Silhara dynasty
Silhara dynasty
The Hindu Silhara dynasty ruled the region around present-day Mumbai between 810 and 1240.They were split into three branches; one branch ruled North Konkan, the second South Konkan , while the third ruled what is now known as modern districts of Satara, Kolhapur and Belgaon between 940 to 1215...
of Konkan
Konkan
The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...
ruled the region between 810 and 1260. The Walkeshwar Temple
Walkeshwar Temple
Walkeshwar Temple , also known as the Baan Ganga Temple, is a temple dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva located in Walkeshwar, near Malabar Hill neighborhood, in South Mumbai precinct of the city of Mumbai, India...
was constructed during the 10th century and the Banganga Tank
Banganga Tank
Banganga or Banganga Tank is an ancient water tank which is part of the Walkeshwar Temple Complex in Malabar Hill area of Mumbai in India.-History:...
during the 12the century under the patronage of the Silhara rulers. The Italian traveler Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
's fleet of thirteen Chinese ships passed through Mumbai Harbour
Mumbai Harbour
Mumbai Harbour , or Front Bay, is a natural deep-water harbor in the southern portion of the Ulhas River estuary. The narrower, northern part of the estuary is called Thane Creek. The harbor opens to the Arabian Sea to the south...
during May — September 1292. King Bhimdev
Raja Bhimdev
Bhimdev II or Raja Bhimdev also known as Raja Bimba was a 11th century king who had his capital in Mahikawati, the present-day Mahim, in Mumbai, India....
founded his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century and established his capital in Mahikawati (present day Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
). He belonged to either the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in Maharashtra or the Anahilavada dynasty of Gujarat. He built the first Babulnath temple
Babulnath
Babulnath is an ancient Shiva temple in Mumbai, India. Shiva in the form of the Lord of the Babul tree is the main deity in this temple. The faithful climb up to the temple and obtain Darshan of the shivling and obtain blessings of the Lord. It is also possible to take an elevator up to the temple...
in the region and introduced many fruit-bearing trees, including coconut palms to the islands. The Pathare Prabhu
Pathare prabhu
Pathare Prabhu is one of the Hindu communities in the city of Mumbai . These people are among earliest settlers in the city. They are known to have one of the oldest academic traditions amongst Hindus on par with Brahmins. They were amongst the first of the Hindus to adopt to British educational...
s, one of the earliest settlers of the city, were brought to Mahim from Patan
Patan district
Patan district is one of the 26 districts of Gujarat state in western India. This district is located in northern Gujarat and bounded by Banaskantha district in the north and northeast, Mehsana district in the east and southeast, Surendranagar district in the south and Kutch District and the Kutch...
and other parts of Saurashtra in Gujarat around 1298 by Bhimdev during his reign. He is also supposed to have brought Palshi
Palshi
The Palshis are an ethnic community native to Mumbai. They are the priests of Prabhus, who had migrated to Mumbai during the 13th century during the reign of Raja Bhimdev.- References :* http://books.google.co.in/books?id=miD5YO05jpUC&pg=PA42&dq=palshis...
s, Pachkalshis, Bhandari
Bhandari
For other uses, see Bhandari .Bhandari caste is among the sea-faring warrior castes of ancient and medieval India. They migrated southward from Rajputana in early 1100 and subsequently spread over different parts of India...
s, Vadvals, Bhoi
Bhoi
The Bhois are an ethnic community native to Maharashtra, Gujarat,Western Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states in India. In Maharashtra, the Bhois originally lived in Mumbai, Nashik, Dhulia, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri and Sholapur districts of Maharshtra. Presently, the...
s, Agri
Agri (Maharashtra)
The Agris are an ethnic community native to Mumbai. They had migrated to Mumbai during the 13th century during the reign of Raja Bhimdev....
s and Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
s to these islands. After his death in 1303, he was succeeded by his son Pratapbimba
Pratapbimba
Pratapbimba was the son of Raja Bhimdev and he ruled the islands of Mumbai from 1303 to 1331. After Bhimdev's death in 1303, he was succeeded by his son Pratapbimba, who built his capital at Marol in Salsette, which he named Pratappur...
, who built his capital at Marol
Marol
Marol is a part of the bigger suburb of Andheri in Mumbai. Marol consists of the area Marol village, Marol Naka, Marol Depot, Marol Maroshi Bus Station, Military Road, Marol Pipeline, Vijay Nagar, Bhavani Nagar, parts of JB Nagar, and parts of Marol MIDC. Its proximity to the international...
in Salsette, which he named Pratappur. The islands were wrested from Pratapbimba's control by Mubarak Khan
Mubarak Khan
Mubarak Khan also Mubarak Khilji named himself regent of Khilji Dynasty after escaping an assassination attempt on him by Malik Kafur, once his father's trusted general...
, a self-proclaimed regent of the Khilji dynasty
Khilji dynasty
The Khilji Sultanate was a dynasty of Turko-Afghan Khalaj origin who ruled large parts of South Asia from 1290 - 1320. They were the second dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate of India...
, who occupied Mahim and Salsette in 1318. Pratapbimba later reconquered the islands which he ruled till 1331. Later, his brother-in-law Nagardev
Nagardev
Nagardev was the son-in-law of Raja Bhimdev and brother-in-law of Pratapbimba. He ruled the islands of Mumbai from 1331 to 1347 or 1348. In 1347, Nika Malik, a General of the Delhi Sultanate made a three pronged attack on Thana, Mahim, and Rarjapore near Marol. He lost his life whild defending his...
for 17 years till 1348. The islands came under the control of the Muslim rulers of Gujarat in 1348, ending the sovereignty of Hindu rulers over the islands.
Islamic period
Gujarat Sultanate
The Gujarat Sultanate was an independent kingdom established in the early 15th century in Gujarat. The founder of the ruling Muzaffarid dynasty, Zafar Khan was appointed as governor of Gujarat by Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad bin Tughluq IV in 1391, the ruler of the principal state in north India at the...
in 1391, Muzaffar Shah I was appointed viceroy of north Konkan
Konkan
The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...
. For the administration of the islands, he appointed a governor for Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
. During the reign of Ahmad Shah I (1411–1443), Malik-us-Sharq
Malik-us-Sharq
Malik-us-Sharq was the Governor of Mahim, a village in Mumbai, India when the city was under the Gujarat Sultanate. He was appointed governor during the reign of Ahmad Shah I of the Gujarat Sultanate. In addition to instituting a pi-oper survey of the land, he did a great deal towards the...
was appointed governor of Mahim, and in addition to instituting a proper survey of the islands, he improved the existing revenue system of the islands. During the early 15th century, the Bhandari
Bhandari
For other uses, see Bhandari .Bhandari caste is among the sea-faring warrior castes of ancient and medieval India. They migrated southward from Rajputana in early 1100 and subsequently spread over different parts of India...
s seized the island of Mahim from the Sultanate and ruled it for eight years. It was reconquered by Rai Qutb
Rai Qutb
Rai Qutb was an officer of the Gujarat Sultanate who had conquered Mahim, a village in Mumbai, India. During the early 15th century, the Bhandaris seized the island of Mahim from the Sultanate and ruled it for eight years. It was reconquered by Rai Qutb of the Gujarat Sultanate...
of the Gujarat Sultanate. Firishta
Firishta
Firishta or Ferishta, full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah , was born in 1560 and died in 1620 and he was a Persian historian. The name Firishta means angel or one who is sent in Persian.-Life:...
, a Persian historian, recorded that by 1429 the seat of government of the Gujarat Sultanate in north Konkan had transferred from Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...
to Mahim. On Rai Qutb's death in 1429–1430, Ahmad Shah I Wali
Ahmad Shah I Wali
Ahmed Shah Al Wali Bahamani ruled the Kingdom of Bidar from 1422 to 1436 and was a great patron of arts and culture. He brought artisans from Iran, including the metal-worker Abdulla-bin-Kaiser, who was the father of bidriware, the inlaying of zinc alloy with silver and gold.Ahmed Shah's, and his...
of the Bahmani Sultanate
Bahmani Sultanate
The Bahmani Sultanate was a Muslim state of the Deccan in southern India and one of the great medieval Indian kingdoms...
of Deccan
Deccan Plateau
The Deccan Plateau is a large plateau in India, making up the majority of the southern part of the country. It rises a hundred meters high in the north, rising further to more than a kilometers high in the south, forming a raised triangle nested within the familiar downward-pointing triangle of...
captured Salsette and Mahim.
Ahmad Shah I retaliated by sending his son Jafar Khan
Jafar Khan (Gujarat Sultanate)
Prince Jafar Khan was the son of Ahmad Shah I, King of Gujarat Sultanate from 1411 - 1443. In 1429-1430, Ahmad Shah I Wali of the Bahmani Sultanate of Deccan captured Salsette and Mahim in Bombay. Ahmad Shah I retaliated by sending his son Jafar Khan to recapture the lost territory. Jafar emerged...
to recapture the lost territory. Jafar emerged victorious in the battle fought with Ahmad Shah I Wali. In 1431, Mahim was recaptured by the Sultanate of Gujarat. The Sultanate's patronage led to the construction of many mosques, prominent being the Haji Ali Dargah
Haji Ali Dargah
The Haji Ali Dargah is a mosque and dargah located on an islet off the coast of Worli in the Southern part of Mumbai. Near the heart of the city proper, the dargah is one of the most recognisable landmarks of Mumbai....
in Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
, built in honour the Muslim saint Haji Ali in 1431. After the death of Kutb Khan
Kutb Khan
Kutb Khan was the commandant of Mahim, a village in Mumbai, India during the 15th century when the city was under the Gujarat Sultanate.-References:*...
, the Gujarat commandant of Mahim, Ahmad Shah I Wali again despatched a large army to capture Mahim. Ahmad Shah I responded with a large army and navy under Jafar Khan leading to the defeat of Ahmad Shah I Wali. During 1491–1494, the islands suffered sea piracies from Bahadur Khan Gilani
Bahadur Khan Gilani
Bahadur Khan Gilani was an officer of the Gujarat Sultanate. During 1491–1494, the islands of Bombay were wrested from Gilani's control by the Bahamani general Mahmud Gavan....
, a nobleman of the Bahamani Sultanate. After the end of the Bahamani Sultanate, Bahadur Khan Gilani and Mahmud Gavan
Mahmud Gavan
Mahmud Gavan was an officer of the Bahamani Sultanate of Deccan. The greatness of this monarchy came to an end with the unjust and cruel murder of the celebrated minister Mahmud Gavan who had been a protege of that minister, broke out in rebellion at the port of Dabhol and soon became master of the...
(1482–1518) broke out in rebellion at the port of Dabhol
Dabhol
Dabhol is a small seaport town in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in India. •- History :Hardly a trace remains of the once-flourishing port of Dabhol , on the north bank of the mouth of the Vashishti River in the Konkan region of India.In the 15th and 16th C., Dabul was an opulent Muslim trade...
and conquered the islands along with the whole of Konkan
Konkan
The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...
. Portuguese explorer Francisco de Almeida
Francisco de Almeida
Dom Francisco de Almeida , also known as "the Great Dom Francisco" , was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492...
's ship sailed into the deep natural harbour of the island in 1508, and he called it Bom Bahia (Good Bay). However, the Portuguese paid their first visit to the islands on 21 January 1509, when they landed at Mahim after capturing a Gujarat barge in the Mahim creek. After a series of attacks by the Gujarat Sultanate, the islands were recaptured by Sultan Bahadur Shah
Bahadur Shah of Gujarat
Sultan Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah , who reigned 1526-1535 and 1536-1537, was a sultan of Gujarat Sultanate, a late medieval independent kingdom in India.-Early years:...
.
In 1526, the Portuguese established their factory at Bassein. During 1528–29, Lopo Vaz de Sampaio
Lopo Vaz de Sampaio
Lopo Vaz de Sampaio was an administrator of the Portuguese Empire. He was also the captain of Vasco da Gama, a famous Portuguese explorer. During 1528-29, Lopo Vaz de Sampaio seized the fort of Mahim from the Gujarat Sultanate, when the King was at war with Nizam-ul-mulk, the emperor of Chaul, a...
seized the fort of Mahim from the Gujarat Sultanate, when the King was at war with Nizam-ul-mulk, the emperor of Chaul
Chaul
Chaul is a former city of Portuguese India, now in ruins. It is located 60 km south of Mumbai, in Raigad District of Maharashtra state in western India....
, a town south of the islands. Bahadur Shah had grown apprehensive of the power of the Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
emperor Humayun
Humayun
Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun was the second Mughal Emperor who ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of northern India from 1530–1540 and again from 1555–1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his kingdom early, but with Persian aid, he eventually regained an even larger one...
and he was obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein
Treaty of Bassein (1534)
The Treaty of Bassein was signed by Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat and Portugal on December 23, 1534 while on board the galleon São Mateus. Based on the terms of the agreement, the Portuguese Empire gained control of the city of Bassein, as well as its territories, islands, and seas...
with the Portuguese on 23 December 1534. According to the treaty, the islands of Mumbai and Bassein were offered to the Portuguese. Bassein and the seven islands were surrendered later by a treaty of peace and commerce between Bahadur Shah and Nuno da Cunha
Nuno da Cunha
Nuno da Cunha was a governor of Portuguese possessions in India from 1528 to 1538.He was the son of Antónia Pais and Tristão da Cunha, the famous Portuguese navigator, admiral and ambassador to Pope Leo X....
, Viceroy of Portuguese India
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
, on 25 October 1535, ending the Islamic rule in Mumbai.
Portuguese period
Mestre Diogo
Mestre Diogo was a Portuguese nobleman. He was sent to India in 1533 by King John III of Portugal to promote the religious interests of the Portuguese. The islands of Bombay were leased to Mestre Diogo in 1534. He died in 1548.-References:*...
in 1534. The San Miguel (St. Michael Church
St. Michael's Church (Mumbai)
St. Michael's Church is one of the oldest Catholic churches as well as one of oldest existing Portuguese buildings in Mumbai. The church is situated in Mahim, located at the intersection of L.J. Road and Mahim Causeway. Due to its location, it is also informally known as Mahim Church...
) in Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
, one of the oldest churches in Mumbai, was built by the Portuguese in 1540. Parel
Parel
Lower Parel or Parel is central part of Mumbai. It is also lends its name to two railway stations on the Mumbai suburban railway. Most of the mills in Mumbai used to be in this area till some years ago...
, Wadala, Sion, and Worli
Worli
-History:Worli was one of the original seven islands that constituted the city of Mumbai. Although primarily a fishing village, the Worli Fort, a British fort that is now in ruins, is located there. Its original resident was the legendary Dishankeshwar Kalsi who has also been recognized in several...
were granted to Manuel Serrão
Manuel Serrão
Manuel Serrão was a Portuguese nobleman. The villages of Parel, Wadala, Sion, and Worli in Bombay were granted to Manuel Serrão for 412 pardaos between 1545 and 1548, during the viceroyalty of João de Castro.-References:...
between 1545 and 1548, during the viceroyalty of João de Castro
João de Castro
Dom João de Castro was a Portuguese naval officer and fourth viceroy of Portuguese India. He was called Castro Forte by poet Luís de Camões. Castro was the son of Álvaro de Castro, civil governor of Lisbon...
. Mazagaon
Mazagaon
Mazagaon, also spelled Mazgaon and Mazagon , and pronounced by the Catholics as 'Mazgon' or 'Maz-a-gon' and the Marathi-speakers as Mazhgav. It is one of the seven islands of Mumbai. It is part of South Mumbai and can be reached by Byculla Station on the Central railway line and Dockyard Road...
was granted to Antonio Pessoa
Antonio Pessoa
António Pessoa was a Portuguese soldier who had authority over Mazagaon, a huge island in Bombay from 1547 to 1571.-References:*...
in 1547. Salsette was granted for three years to João Rodrigues Dantas
João Rodrigues Dantas
João Rodrigues Dantas was a Portuguese nobleman. The island of Salsette in Bombay was divided into the provinces of Malar and Marol and granted for three years to João Rodrigues Dantas along with Cosme Corres and Manuel Corres.-References:...
, Cosme Corres
Cosme Corres
Cosme Corres was a Portuguese nobleman. The island of Salsette in Bombay was divided into Malar and Marol and granted for three years to Cosme Corres along with João Rodrigues Dantas and Manuel Corres .-References:...
, and Manuel Corres
Manuel Corres
Manuel Corres was a Portuguese nobleman. The island of Salsette in Bombay was divided into Malar and Marol and granted for three years to Manuel Corres along with Cosme Corres and João Rodrigues Dantas .-References:...
. Trombay
Trombay
Trombay is a northeastern suburb in Mumbai, India, with Mankhurd as the closest railway station on the Harbour Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway.-History:...
and Chembur
Chembur
Chembur is a suburban neighbourhood in eastern Mumbai, India. It is 22 km from downtown Mumbai and 20 km from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport...
were granted to Dom Roque Tello de Menezes
Dom Roque Tello de Menezes
Dom Roque Tello de Menezes was a Portuguese nobleman. The villages of Trombay and Chembur in Bombay were granted to him.-References:...
, and the Island of Pory (Elephanta Island
Elephanta Island
Elephanta Island is one of a number of islands in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai, India...
) to João Pirez
João Pirez
João Pirez was a Portuguese nobleman. The Island of Pory in Bombay was leased to João Pirez in 1548 by viceroy João de Castro. The rent to be paid was 105 pardaos.-References:...
in 1548. Garcia de Orta
Garcia de Orta
Garcia de Orta was a Portuguese Renaissance Sephardi Jewish physician and naturalist. He was a pioneer of tropical medicine.- Life :...
, a Portuguese physician and botanist, was granted the possession of Mumbai in 1554 by viceroy Pedro Mascarenhas
Pedro Mascarenhas
Pedro Mascarenhas was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator. He was the first European to discover the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 1512...
.
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
, Worli
Worli
-History:Worli was one of the original seven islands that constituted the city of Mumbai. Although primarily a fishing village, the Worli Fort, a British fort that is now in ruins, is located there. Its original resident was the legendary Dishankeshwar Kalsi who has also been recognized in several...
, and Bassein. These Christians were referred to by the British as Portuguese Christians, though they were Nestorian Christians who had only recently established ties with the Roman Catholic Church. During this time, Mumbai's main trade was coconuts and coir. After Antonio Pessoa
Antonio Pessoa
António Pessoa was a Portuguese soldier who had authority over Mazagaon, a huge island in Bombay from 1547 to 1571.-References:*...
's death in 1571, a patent was issued which granted Mazagaon
Mazagaon
Mazagaon, also spelled Mazgaon and Mazagon , and pronounced by the Catholics as 'Mazgon' or 'Maz-a-gon' and the Marathi-speakers as Mazhgav. It is one of the seven islands of Mumbai. It is part of South Mumbai and can be reached by Byculla Station on the Central railway line and Dockyard Road...
in perpetuity to the Sousa e Lima family
Sousa e Lima family
The Sousa e Lima family were granted the possession of the Mazagaon island of Bombay. They had authority over the islands for several years until the British annexed it. The Portuguese Jesuits had set up their base at Mazagaon, and claimed ownership of the land...
. The St. Andrew Church
St. Andrew's Church (Mumbai)
St. Andrew's Church is one of the oldest churches in Bombay built by the Portuguese Jesuits. It was built in 1575. It stands on the sea-shore of the Bandra suburb of Bombay.-References:*...
at Bandra was built in 1575.
The annexation of Portugal by Spain
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
in 1580 opened the way for other European powers to follow the spice routes to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The Dutch
Dutch Empire
The Dutch Empire consisted of the overseas territories controlled by the Dutch Republic and later, the modern Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire, but based on military conquest of already-existing...
arrived first, closely followed by the British. The first English merchants arrived in Mumbai in November 1583, and travelled through Bassein, Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...
, and Chaul
Chaul
Chaul is a former city of Portuguese India, now in ruins. It is located 60 km south of Mumbai, in Raigad District of Maharashtra state in western India....
. The Portuguese Franciscans had obtained practical control of Salsette and Mahim by 1585, and built Nossa Senhora de Bom Concelho (Our Lady of Good Counsel) at Sion and Nossa Senhora de Salvação (Our Lady of Salvation) at Dadar
Dadar
Dadar is a place in Mumbai, and is also a railway station on both the Western and Central lines of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network. Dadar is situated in the heart of Mumbai, and Dadar station is the only railway station common to both the Central and Western lines...
in 1596. The Battle of Swally
Battle of Swally
The naval Battle of Swally took place on 29–30 November 1612 off the coast of Suvali , a village near the city of Surat, Gujarat, India, and was a victory for four English East India Company galleons over four Portuguese naus and 26 barks .-Importance:This relatively small naval battle is...
was fought between the British and the Portuguese at Surat in 1612 for the possession of Mumbai. Dorabji Nanabhoy
Dorabji Nanabhoy
Dorabji Nanabhoy was reputedly the first Parsi to arrive on the islands where the modern Indian city of Mumbai is located. Nanabhoy is said to have been a businessman-trader who had migrated from Gujarat....
, a trader, was the first Parsi to settle in Mumbai in 1640. Castella de Aguada (Fort of the Waterpoint) was built by the Portuguese at Bandra in 1640 as a watchtower overlooking the Mahim Bay
Mahim Bay
Mahim Bay is a large bay, part of the Arabian Sea in Mumbai India. The southern end is Worli, northern end is Bandra Reclamation and Mahim is in the centre. The bay was named after the islands of Mahim and Salsette were merged in the early 19th century...
, the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
and the southern island of Mahim. The growing power of the Dutch
Dutch Empire
The Dutch Empire consisted of the overseas territories controlled by the Dutch Republic and later, the modern Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire, but based on military conquest of already-existing...
by the middle of the seventeenth century forced the Surat Council of the British Empire to acquire Mumbai from King John IV of Portugal
John IV of Portugal
|-|John IV was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1640 to his death. He was the grandson of Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, who had in 1580 claimed the Portuguese crown and sparked the struggle for the throne of Portugal. John was nicknamed John the Restorer...
in 1659. The marriage treaty of Charles II of England
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
and Catherine of Portugal on 8 May 1661 placed Mumbai in British possession as a part of Catherine's dowry to Charles.
Struggle with native powers
On 19 March 1662, Abraham ShipmanAbraham Shipman
Abraham Shipman was an Englishman appointed as governor of Bombay during the period of the Honourable East India Company. He assumed the office in March 1662 and died in office in October 1664, but did not gain possession of Bombay....
was appointed the first Governor and General of the city, and his fleet arrived in Mumbai in September and October 1662. On being asked to hand over Mumbai and Salsette
Salsette Island
Salsette Island is an island in Maharashtra state on India's west coast. The metropolis of Mumbai and the city of Thane lie on this island, making it the 14th most populous island and the fourth most densely populated island in the world, after Migingo Island in Kenya, Ap Lei Chau in Hong Kong,...
to the English, the Portuguese Governor contended that the island of Mumbai alone had been ceded, and alleging irregularity in the patent, he refused to give up even Mumbai. The Portuguese Viceroy declined to interfere and Shipman was prevented from landing in Mumbai. He was forced to retire to the island of Anjediva in North Canara and died there in October 1664. In November 1664, Shipman's successor Humphrey Cooke
Humphrey Cooke
Humphrey Cooke, known in Portuguese chronicles as Inofre Coque, was the first English governor of the Bombay Presidency during the rule of the Honourable East India Company....
agreed to accept Mumbai without its dependencies. However, Salsette
Salsette Island
Salsette Island is an island in Maharashtra state on India's west coast. The metropolis of Mumbai and the city of Thane lie on this island, making it the 14th most populous island and the fourth most densely populated island in the world, after Migingo Island in Kenya, Ap Lei Chau in Hong Kong,...
, Mazagaon
Mazagaon
Mazagaon, also spelled Mazgaon and Mazagon , and pronounced by the Catholics as 'Mazgon' or 'Maz-a-gon' and the Marathi-speakers as Mazhgav. It is one of the seven islands of Mumbai. It is part of South Mumbai and can be reached by Byculla Station on the Central railway line and Dockyard Road...
, Parel
Parel
Lower Parel or Parel is central part of Mumbai. It is also lends its name to two railway stations on the Mumbai suburban railway. Most of the mills in Mumbai used to be in this area till some years ago...
, Worli
Worli
-History:Worli was one of the original seven islands that constituted the city of Mumbai. Although primarily a fishing village, the Worli Fort, a British fort that is now in ruins, is located there. Its original resident was the legendary Dishankeshwar Kalsi who has also been recognized in several...
, Sion, Dharavi
Dharavi
Dharavi is a slum and administrative ward, over parts of Sion, Bandra, Kurla and Kalina suburbs of Mumbai, India. It is sandwiched between Mahim in the west and Sion in the east, and spread over an area of 175 hectares, or...
, and Wadala still remained under Portuguese possession. Later, Cooke managed to acquire Mahim, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala for the English. On 21 September 1668, the Royal Charter of 27 March 1668
Royal Charter of 27 March 1668
The Royal Charter of 27 March 1668 was an agreement between the British Empire and the British East India Company. It led to the transfer of Bombay from Charles II of England to the British East India Company for an annual rent of £10...
, led to the transfer of Mumbai from Charles II to the English East India Company for an annual rent of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
10 (equivalent retail price index
Retail Price Index
In the United Kingdom, the Retail Prices Index or Retail Price Index is a measure of inflation published monthly by the Office for National Statistics. It measures the change in the cost of a basket of retail goods and services.-History:...
of £1,226 in 2007). The Company immediately set about the task of opening up the islands by constructing a quay and warehouses. A customs house was also built. Fortifications were built around Mumbai Castle. A Judge-Advocate was appointed for the purpose of civil administration. George Oxenden became the first Governor of Mumbai under the English East India Company on 23 September 1668. Gerald Aungier
Gerald Aungier
Gerald Aungier was the second Governor of Bombay. He was made the president of the Surat factory and the governor of Bombay in 1672, which posts he held till 1675...
, who was appointed Governor of Mumbai on July 1669, established the first mint in Mumbai in 1670. He offered various business incentives, which attracted Parsis, Goans
Goans
Goan is the demonym used to describe the people of the Indian state of Goa who form an ethno-linguistic group which is a result of assimilation of Indo-Portuguese, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Proto-Australoid, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Greeks and Indo-Iranians ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries.They speak...
, Jews, Dawoodi Bohras, Gujarati
Gujarati people
Gujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
Banias from Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
and Diu, and Brahmins from Salsette. He also planned extensive fortifications in the city from Dongri
Dongri
-See also:*Dongri Fort...
in the north to Mendham's Point
Mendham's Point
Mendham's Point is a locality near the present day Lion Gate at Colaba in Mumbai. Until 1760, the English buried their dead at Mendham's Point. Gerald Aungier, Governor of Bombay, had planned extensive fortifications for Bombay from Dongri in the north to Mendham's Point in the south.-References:****...
(near present day Lion Gate
Lion Gate (Mumbai)
Lion Gate is a locality in Mumbai, India. The old heritage building of the Naval Dockyard starts from Lion Gate.-References:* from Indian Navy...
) in the south. The harbour was also developed during his governorship, with space for the berthing of 20 ships. In 1670, the Parsi businessman Bhimjee Parikh imported the first printing press into Mumbai. Between 1661 and 1675 there was a sixfold increase in population from 10,000 to 60,000. Yakut Khan
Yakut Khan
Yakut Khan was a Siddi Naval Admiral and administrator of Janjira Fort who first served under Bijapur Sultanate and later under the Mughal Empire. His real name was Siddi Qasim Khan but was given the title of Yakut Khan by Emperor Alamgir...
, the Siddi
Siddi
The Siddi, Siddhi, or Sheedi , also known as Habshi, are an Indian and Pakistani ethnic group of Afro-Arab and/or Black African descent. The Siddi population is currently estimated to be 20,000–55,000, with Gujarat and Hyderabad in India the main population centre. Siddis are mainly Sufi Muslims,...
admiral of the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
, landed at Mumbai in October 1672 and ravaged the local inhabitants there. On 20 February 1673, Rickloffe van Goen
Rickloffe van Goen
Rickloffe van Goen was the Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company. On 20 February 1673, he with his fleet of 6,000 men attacked Bombay. Soon, The Treaty of Westminster concluded between England and the Netherlands in 1674, relieved the British settlements in Bombay of further apprehension...
, the Governor-General of Dutch India
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
attacked Mumbai, but the attack was resisted by Aungier. On 10 October 1673, the Siddi
Siddi
The Siddi, Siddhi, or Sheedi , also known as Habshi, are an Indian and Pakistani ethnic group of Afro-Arab and/or Black African descent. The Siddi population is currently estimated to be 20,000–55,000, with Gujarat and Hyderabad in India the main population centre. Siddis are mainly Sufi Muslims,...
admiral Sambal
Siddi Sambal
Siddi Sambal was the Siddi admiral of the Mughal Empire. On 10 October 1673, he and his fleet entered Bombay without permission from the British. They destroyed the Pen and Nagothan rivers which were very important for the British and the Maratha King Shivaji....
entered Mumbai and destroyed the Pen and Nagothana rivers, which were very important for the English and the Maratha
Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian imperial power that existed from 1674 to 1818. At its peak, the empire covered much of South Asia, encompassing a territory of over 2.8 million km²....
King Shivaji. The Treaty of Westminster
Treaty of Westminster (1674)
The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 was the peace treaty that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Signed by the Netherlands and England, it provided for the return of the colony of New Netherland to England and renewed the Treaty of Breda of 1667...
concluded between England and the Netherlands in 1674, relieved the British settlements in Mumbai of further apprehension from the Dutch. In 1686, the Company shifted its main holdings from Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
to Mumbai, which had become the administrative centre of all the west coast settlements then. Mumbai was placed at the head of all the Company's establishments in India.
Yakut Khan
Yakut Khan was a Siddi Naval Admiral and administrator of Janjira Fort who first served under Bijapur Sultanate and later under the Mughal Empire. His real name was Siddi Qasim Khan but was given the title of Yakut Khan by Emperor Alamgir...
landed at Sewri
Sewri
Sewri is a suburb of Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway.Neighbouring stations: Cotton Green, Wadala Road....
on 14 February 1689, and razed the Mazagon Fort
Mazagon Fort
The Mazagaon Fort was a British fort in Mazagaon, Mumbai, in the India state of Maharashtra, built around 1680. The fort was razed by the Siddi general, Yakut Khan in June 1690...
in June 1690. After a payment made by the British to Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
, the ruler of the Mughal Empire, Yakut evacuated Mumbai on 8 June 1690. The arrival of many Indian and British merchants led to the development of Mumbai's trade by the end of the seventeenth century. Soon it was trading in salt, rice, ivory, cloth, lead and sword blades with many Indian ports as well as with the Arabian cities of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
and Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
.. By 1710, the construction of Mumbai Castle was finished, which fortified the islands from sea attacks by European pirates and the Marathas. By 26 December 1715, Charles Boone
Charles Boone
Charles Boone was a British governor of the Bombay Presidency during the period of the Honourable East India Company, serving from 1715 to 1722....
assumed the Governorship of Mumbai. He implemented Aungier's
Gerald Aungier
Gerald Aungier was the second Governor of Bombay. He was made the president of the Surat factory and the governor of Bombay in 1672, which posts he held till 1675...
plans for the fortification of the island, and had walls built from Dongri
Dongri
-See also:*Dongri Fort...
in the north to Mendham's point in the south. He established the Marine force, and constructed the St. Thomas Cathedral in 1718, which was the first Anglican
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
Church in Mumbai. In 1728, a Mayor's court was established in Mumbai and the first reclamation was started which was a temporary work in Mahalaxmi
Mahalaxmi (location)
Mahalaxmi is a neighbourhood within Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway.-History:Mahalaxmi Temple is one of the most famous temples of Mumbai. Built around 1785, the history of this temple is supposedly connected with the building of the Hornby Vellard...
, on the creek separating Mumbai from Worli
Worli
-History:Worli was one of the original seven islands that constituted the city of Mumbai. Although primarily a fishing village, the Worli Fort, a British fort that is now in ruins, is located there. Its original resident was the legendary Dishankeshwar Kalsi who has also been recognized in several...
. The shipbuilding industry started in Mumbai in 1735 and soon the Naval Dockyard was established in the same year.
In 1737, Salsette
Salsette Island
Salsette Island is an island in Maharashtra state on India's west coast. The metropolis of Mumbai and the city of Thane lie on this island, making it the 14th most populous island and the fourth most densely populated island in the world, after Migingo Island in Kenya, Ap Lei Chau in Hong Kong,...
was captured from the Portuguese by Maratha
Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian imperial power that existed from 1674 to 1818. At its peak, the empire covered much of South Asia, encompassing a territory of over 2.8 million km²....
Baji Rao I
Baji Rao I
Shrimant Baji Rao Balaji Bhatt , also known as Baji Rao I, was a noted general who served as Peshwa to the fourth Maratha Chhatrapati Shahu from 1719 until Baji Rao's death. He is also known as Thorale Baji Rao...
and the province of Bassein was ceded in 1739. The Maratha victory forced the British to push settlements within the fort walls of the city. Under new building rules set up in 1748, many houses were demolished and the population was redistributed, partially on newly reclaimed land. Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia
Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia
Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia was a Parsi from Surat, India and was a member of the Wadia family of shipwrights and naval architects.Known for his high standards of workmanship, Lovji Wadia secured contracts with the British East India Company to build ships and docks in Bombay in 1736...
, a member of the Wadia family of shipwrights and naval architects from Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
, built the Mumbai Dock in 1750, which was the first dry dock to be commissioned in Asia. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Mumbai began to grow into a major trading town and soon Bhandari
Bhandari
For other uses, see Bhandari .Bhandari caste is among the sea-faring warrior castes of ancient and medieval India. They migrated southward from Rajputana in early 1100 and subsequently spread over different parts of India...
s from Chaul
Chaul
Chaul is a former city of Portuguese India, now in ruins. It is located 60 km south of Mumbai, in Raigad District of Maharashtra state in western India....
in Maharashtra, Vanjaris
Vanjari (caste)
The Vanjari is a community in India; they live spread throughout the country but have a sizeable population in the state of Maharashtra. They are also present in parts of Andhra Pradesh particularly in the districts of Telangana region, which abounded in rich pastures.A Vanjari or a trader seems to...
from the Western Ghat
Western Ghats
The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...
mountain ranges of Maharashtra, Africans
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...
from Madagascar, Bhatias from Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
, Vaishya Vani
Vaishya Vani
Vaishya Vani, is a trader/merchant community hailing from the western coast of India, residing in the Konkan division of Maharashtra, Goa,some parts of coastal and central Karnataka, and Kerala. This community commonly known as Vanis and sometimes Kudali Vanis...
s, Goud Saraswat Brahmins, Daivajnas from konkan, ironsmiths and weavers from Gujarat migrated to the islands. In 1769, Fort George was built on the site of the Dongri Fort
Dongri Fort
The Dongri Fort or the Dongri Hill Fort is a fort in Mumbai , India. It is located in the Dongri area. It is in a dilapidated condition and is declared 'endangered'.-References:* *...
and in 1770, the Mazagaon docks were built. The British occupied Salsette, Elephanta
Elephanta Island
Elephanta Island is one of a number of islands in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai, India...
, Hog Island
Hog Island, Mumbai
Hog Island is an island which lies in the Bombay Harbour about ten miles east of the Apollo pier. It gets its English name because it was here that ships used to be hogged.-References:* from Thana District Gazetteer...
, and Karanja
Karanja, Raigad
Karanja or Uran Island is a town in Raigad district about eight miles long and four broad, lies, in the south-east of Mumbai Harbour, about six miles south-east of the Carnac pier in Mumbai.-References:* from raigad...
on 28 December 1774. Salsette, Elephanta, Hog Island, and Karanja were formally ceded to the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
by the Treaty of Salbai
Treaty of Salbai
The Treaty of Salbai was signed on May 17, 1782, by representatives of the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company after long negotiations to settle the outcome of the First Anglo-Maratha War. Under its terms, the Company retained control of Salsette and acquired guarantees that the...
signed in 1782, while Bassein and its dependencies were restored to Raghunathrao
Raghunathrao
Raghunathrao was Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy from 1773 to 1774. He was instrumental in the downfall of the Peshwa clan.-Early life:Raghunathrao, also known as "Raghoba" and "Ragho Bharari," was the younger brother of Nanasaheb Peshwa. His father was Peshwa Bajirao I & mother was Kashibai....
of the Maratha Empire. Although Salsette was under the British, but the introduction of contraband goods from Salsette to other parts of Mumbai was prevented. The goods were subjected to Maratha regulations with respect to taxes and a 30% toll was levied on all goods into the city from Salsette.
In 1782, William Hornby assumed the office of Governor of Mumbai, and initiated the Hornby Vellard
Hornby Vellard
The Hornby Vellard was a project to build a causeway uniting all seven islands of Bombay into a single island with a deep natural harbour. The project was started by the governor William Hornby in 1782 and all islands were linked by 1838...
engineering project of uniting the seven islands into a single landmass. The purpose of this project was to block the Worli creek
Worli creek
Worli creek is a creek located in the Worli suburb of Mumbai, India. The Hornby Vellard project was started to block the Worli creek and prevent the low-lying areas of Bombay from being flooded at high tide.-References:*...
and prevent the low-lying areas of Mumbai from being flooded at high tide. However, the project was rejected by the British East India Company in 1783. In 1784, the Hornby Vellard project was completed and soon reclamations at Worli
Worli
-History:Worli was one of the original seven islands that constituted the city of Mumbai. Although primarily a fishing village, the Worli Fort, a British fort that is now in ruins, is located there. Its original resident was the legendary Dishankeshwar Kalsi who has also been recognized in several...
and Mahalaxmi
Mahalaxmi (location)
Mahalaxmi is a neighbourhood within Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway.-History:Mahalaxmi Temple is one of the most famous temples of Mumbai. Built around 1785, the history of this temple is supposedly connected with the building of the Hornby Vellard...
followed. The history of journalism in Mumbai commenced with publication of the Mumbai Herald in 1789 and the Mumbai Courier in 1790. In 1795, the Maratha army defeated the Nizam
Nizam
Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad popularly known as Nizams of Hyderabad was a former monarchy of the Hyderabad State, now in the states of Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , and Maharashtra in India...
of Hyderabad
Hyderabad State
-After Indian independence :When India gained independence in 1947 and Pakistan came into existence in 1947, the British left the local rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one of the new dominions or to remain independent...
. Following this, many artisans and construction workers from Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
migrated to Mumbai and settled into the flats which were constructed by the Hornby Vellard. These workers where called Kamathis
Kamathis
Kamathis are a group of people from Mumbai, India who had migrated to the city from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. In 1795, the Maratha army defeated the Nizam of Hyderabad. Following this, many artisans and construction workers from Andhra Pradesh migrated to Bombay and settled into the flats...
, and their enclave was called Kamathipura
Kamathipura
Kamathipura is Mumbai's oldest and Asia's largest red-light district . It was first settled after 1795 with the construction of various causeways that connected the erstwhile seven islands of Bombay, initially known as Lal Bazaar, it got its name from the Kamathis of Andhra Pradesh state, who as...
. The construction of the Sion Causeway
Sion Causeway
Sion Causeway is a major causeway in Bombay, India which connects Sion in Bombay with Kurla in Salsette. The construction of the causeway began in 1798 and was completed in 1805 by Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay , at a cost of £5,037 . In 1826, its breadth was doubled and improved at a...
(Duncan Causeway) commenced in 1798. The construction of the Sion Causeway was completed in 1802 by Governor Jonathan Duncan. It connected Mumbai Island to Kurla
Kurla
Kurla is a suburb of Mumbai. It is also the name of one the busiest railway stations on the Mumbai suburban railway on the central and harbour railway lines of Mumbai...
in Salsette. On 17 February 1803, a fire raged through the town, razing many localities around the Old Fort, subsequently the British had to plan a new town with wider roads. On May 1804, Mumbai was hit by a severe famine, which led to a large scale emigration. On 5 November 1817, the British East India Company under Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population...
defeated Bajirao II, the Peshwa
Peshwa
A Peshwa is the titular equivalent of a modern Prime Minister. Emporer Shivaji created the Peshwa designation in order to more effectively delegate administrative duties during the growth of the Maratha Empire. Prior to 1749, Peshwas held office for 8-9 years and controlled the Maratha army...
of the Maratha Empire, in the Battle of Kirkee
Battle of Khadki
The Battle of Khadki took place at Khadki on November 5, 1817 between the forces of the British East India Company and those of Bajirao II, the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire...
which took place on the Deccan Plateau
Deccan Plateau
The Deccan Plateau is a large plateau in India, making up the majority of the southern part of the country. It rises a hundred meters high in the north, rising further to more than a kilometers high in the south, forming a raised triangle nested within the familiar downward-pointing triangle of...
. The success of the British campaign in the Deccan witnessed the freedom of Mumbai from all attacks by native powers.
City development
Colaba
Colaba is a part of the city of Mumbai, India, and also a Lok Sabha constituency. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Candil...
was opened for passenger traffic in 1819 and the Elphinstone High School
Elphinstone High School
Elphinstone High School was a school established in 1822 in Bombay, India in honour of Mountstuart Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay . In 1834 the Elphinstone Institute was founded, which started the Elphinstone College. The English medium school in Bombay was renamed as the Elphinstone High...
was established in 1822. Mumbai was hit by a water famine in 1824. The construction of the new mint commenced in 1825. With the construction of a good carriage road up the Bhor Ghat
Bhor Ghat
Bhor Ghat or Bor Ghat, Bhore Ghaut, is a mountain passage located between Karjat and Khandala in Maharashtra, India along the railway line and between Khopoli and Khandala....
during the regimes of Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population...
and Sir John Malcolm
John Malcolm
Major-general Sir John Malcolm was a Scottish soldier, statesman, and historian-Early life:Born at Burnfoot, Dumfriesshire, Malcolm was the son of George Malcolm, a gentleman farmer of Eskdale and Burnfoot. Jock, as he was then known, was one of the four Malcolm brothers who attained knighthoods...
gave better access of the Mumbai Island to the Deccan. This Ghat, which was opened on 10 November 1830, facilitated trade in a large measure. By 1830, regular communication with England started by steamers navigating the Red
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. In July 1832, the Parsi riots took place in consequence of a Government order for the destruction of pariah dogs which infested the city. The Asiatic Society of Mumbai (Town Hall) was completed in 1833, and the Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College is an institution of higher education affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges of the University of Mumbai. It was exalted as a prestigious seat of learning during the British Raj and is generally observed for its vibrant alumni...
was built in 1835. In 1836, the Chamber of Commerce was established.
Colaba
Colaba is a part of the city of Mumbai, India, and also a Lok Sabha constituency. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Candil...
and Little Colaba
Old Woman's Island
The Old Woman's Island, also known as Little Colaba is one of the seven islands composing the city of Mumbai, India, and part of the historic Old Bombay....
wrre connected to Mumbai by the Colaba Causeway
Colaba Causeway
The Colaba Causeway is a commercial street , and a major causeway or land link between Colaba and the Old Woman's Island in the city of Mumbai, India....
. In the same year, monthly communication was established between Mumbai and London. The Bank of Mumbai, the oldest bank in the city, was established in 1840, and the Bank of Western India in 1842. The Cotton Exchange was established in Cotton Green
Cotton Green
Cotton Green is a suburb of Mumbai, and a noted residential and commercial area east of Parel, in central Mumbai, 8 km north of Colaba. It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway, which lies along the Harbour line, which is a part of the Central...
in 1844. Avabai Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy
Avabai Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy
Avabai, Lady Jeejeebhoy was the wife of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, 1st baronet. She is best known for having funded the construction of the Mahim causeway in Mumbai , which serves today as an important link between the island city of Mumbai with its north-western suburbs.-Personal life:Avabai was...
funded the construction of the Mahim Causeway
Mahim Causeway
The Mahim Causeway is a vital link road connecting the city of Mumbai with its northern suburbs. The causeway links the neighbourhoods of Mahim to the south with Bandra to the north....
, to connect Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
to Bandra and the work was completed in 1845. The Commercial Bank of India, established in 1845, issued exotic notes with an interblend of Western and Eastern Motifs. On 3 November 1845, the Grant Medical College and hospital, the third in the country, was founded by Governor Robert Grant
Robert Grant (MP)
Sir Robert Grant GCH was a British lawyer and politician.He was born in India, the son of Charles Grant, chairman of the Directors of the Honourable East India Company, and younger brother of Charles Grant, later Lord Glenelg. Returning home with their father in 1790, the two brothers were entered...
. The earliest riots occurred at Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
in 1850, in consequence of a dispute between two rival factions of Khojas. Riots broke out between Muslims and Parsis in October 1851, in consequence of an ill-advised article on Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
which appeared in the Chitra Gnyan Darpan newspaper. The first political organization of the Mumbai Presidency, the Mumbai Association, was started on 26 August 1852, to vent public grievances to the British. The first-ever Indian railway line began operations between Mumbai and neighbouring Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...
over a distance of 21 miles on 16 April 1853. The Mumbai Spinning and Weaving Company was the first cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
to be established in the city on 7 July 1854 at Tardeo
Tardeo
Tardeo or Tardeo Road is a residential and commercial locality of South Mumbai, from Nana Chowk to Haji Ali Junction...
in Central Mumbai. The Mumbai, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI) was incorporated in 1855.
The University of Mumbai
University of Mumbai
The University of Mumbai , is a state university located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was known as the University of Bombay until 1996 when the city of Bombay was renamed as Mumbai. The affiliated colleges of the university are spread throughout the city of Mumbai and four coastal districts in...
was the first modern institution of higher education to be established in India in 1857. The Commercial Bank, the Chartered Mercantile, the Agra and United Service, the Chartered and the Central Bank of Western India were established in Mumbai attracting a considerable industrial population. The outbreak of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in 1861 increased the demand for cotton in the West, and led to an enormous increase in cotton-trade. The Victoria Gardens
Jijamata Udyaan
Jijamata Udyaan formerly Victoria Gardens, and also known as Veermata Jijabai Bhonsle Udyan, is a zoo and garden located at Byculla, in the heart of Mumbai, India. It was laid out in 1861.It is one of the oldest zoos in India.One can find a variety of species of birds and other creatures in this...
was opened to the public in 1862. The Mumbai Shipping and Iron Shipping Companies were started in 1863 to make Mumbai merchants independent of the English. The Mumbai Coast and River Steam Navigation Company was established in 1866 for the maintenance of steam ferries between Mumbai and the nearby islands; while the opening of the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
in 1869 revolutionized the marine trade of Mumbai. The Mumbai Municipal Corporation was established in 1872, providing a modern framework of governance for the rapidly-growing city. The Mumbai Port Trust
Mumbai Port Trust
Mumbai Port, earlier known as Bombay Port, lies midway on the West coast of India, on the natural deep-water harbor of Mumbai. The harbor spread over is protected by the mainland of Konkan to its east and north and by the island city of Mumbai to its west...
was promulgated in 1870 for the development and administration of the port. Tramway communication was instituted in 1873. The Mumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), originally set up as a tramway company: Mumbai Tramway Company Limited, was established in 1873. Violent Parsi-Muslim riots again broke out in February 1874, which were caused by an article on Prophet Muhammad published by a Parsi resident. The Mumbai Gymkhana was formed in 1875. The Mumbai Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in Asia, was established in 1875. Electricity arrived in Mumbai in 1882 and Crawford Market
Crawford Market
Crawford Market is one of South Mumbai's most famous markets. It is named after Arthur Crawford, the first Municipal Commissioner of the city. The Market was later named after Mahatma Jotirao Phule after a long struggle by the President of Mahatma Phule Smarak Samiti, Mukundraoji Bhujbal Patil...
was the first establishment to be lit up by electricity. The Mumbai Natural History Society was founded in 1883. Mumbai Time, one of the two official time zones in British India, was established in 1884 during the International Meridian Conference
International Meridian Conference
The International Meridian Conference was a conference held in October 1884 in Washington, D.C., in the United States to determine the Prime Meridian of the world. The conference was held at the request of U.S. President Chester A...
held at Washington, D.C in the United States. Mumbai time was set at 4 hours and 51 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
(GMT) using the 75th east meridian. The Princess Dock
Princess Dock
The Princess Dock was built in 1885 in Bombay as part of the scheme for improving the whole foreshore of the Bombay Harbour. Its cost was approximated at a million sterlings. The Elephanta Islands can be seen three or four miles off this dock eastwards....
was built in 1885 as part of a scheme for improving the whole foreshore of the Mumbai harbour.
Indian freedom movement
Dinshaw Maneckji Petit
Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, 1st Baronet , Parsi entrepreneur and founder of the first textile mills in India. He was also the grandfather of Rattanbai Petit Jinnah, who later became the wife of the founder of Pakistan, Mr...
in order to protect interests of workers threatened by possible factory and tariff legislation by the British. The first session of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
was held in Mumbai from 28–31 December 1885. The Mumbai Municipal Act was enacted in 1888 which gave the British Government wide powers of interference in civic matters. The Victoria Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway
Great Indian Peninsular Railway
The Great Indian Peninsula Railway was a predecessor of the Indian Central Railway, whose headquarters was at the Boree Bunder in Bombay . The Great Indian Peninsula Railway was incorporated on August 1, 1849 by an act of the British Parliament. It had a share capital of 50,000 pounds...
, one of the finest stations in the world, was completed in May 1888. The concept of Dabbawala
Dabbawala
A dabbawala ; also spelled as dabbawalla or dabbawallah; literally meaning , is a person in India, most commonly found in the city of Mumbai, who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office...
s (lunch box delivery man) originated in the 1890s when British people who came to Mumbai did not like the local food. So the Dabbawala service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. On 11 August 1893, a serious communal riot took place between the Hindus and Muslims, when a Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
temple was attacked by Muslims in Mumbai. 75 people were killed and 350 were injured. In September 1896, Mumbai was hit by a bubonic plague epidemic
Mumbai plague epidemic
The Mumbai plague epidemic was a bubonic plague epidemic that stuck the city of Mumbai in the late nineteenth century. The plague killed thousands, and many fled the city leading to a drastic fall in the population of the city.-Causes:...
where the death toll was estimated at 1,900 people per week. Around 850,000, amounting to half of the population, fled Mumbai during this time. On 9 March 1898, there was a serious riot which started with a sudden outbreak of hostility against the measures adopted by Government for suppression of plague. The riot led to a strike of dock and railway workers which paralysed the city for a few days. The significant results of the plague was the creation of the Mumbai City Improvement Trust on 9 December 1898 and the Haffkine Institute
Haffkine Institute
The Haffkine Institute was established on 10, January, 1899 by Dr. Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine, an orthodox Jewish Russian scientist from the Pasteur Institute, that aasigned him to work in India, then in the throes of major plague and cholera outbreaks...
on 10 January 1899 by Waldemar Haffkine
Waldemar Haffkine
Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, CIE was a Russian Jewish bacteriologist, whose career was blighted in Russia because "he refused to convert to Russian Orthodoxy." He emigrated and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed an anti-cholera vaccine that he tried out successfully...
. The Dadar-Matunga-Wadala-Sion scheme, the first planned suburban scheme in Mumbai, was formulated in 1899–1900 by the Mumbai City Improvement Trust to relieve congestion in the centre of the town, following the plague epidemics. The cotton mill industry was adversely affected during 1900 and 1901 due to the flight of workers because of the plague.
Partition of Bengal (1905)
The decision of the Partition of Bengal was announced on 19 July 1905 by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The partition took effect on 16 October 1905...
in 1905 initiated the Swadeshi movement
Swadeshi movement
The Swadeshi movement, part of the Indian independence movement, was an economic strategy aimed at removing the British Empire from power and improving economic conditions in India by following the principles of swadeshi , which had some success...
, which led to the boycotting of British goods in India. On 22 July 1908, Lokmanya Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...
, the principal advocate of the Swadeshi movement in Mumbai, was sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment, on the charge of writing inflammatory articles against the Government in his newspaper Kesari. The arrest led to huge scale protests across the city. The MumbaiChronicle started by Pherozeshah Mehta
Pherozeshah Mehta
Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, KCIE was an Parsi Indian political leader, activist, and a leading lawyer, who was knighted by then British Government in India for his service to the law...
, the leader of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
, in 1910, played an important role in the national movement until India's Independence. Lord Willingdon
Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon
Major Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon was a British Liberal politician and administrator who served as Governor General of Canada, the 13th since Canadian Confederation, and as Viceroy and Governor-General of India, the country's 22nd.Freeman-Thomas was born in England and...
convened the Provincial War Conference at Mumbai on 10 June 1918, whose objective was to seek the co-operation of the people in the World War I measures which the British Government thought it necessary to take in the Mumbai Presidency. The conference was followed by huge rallies across the city. The worldwide influenza epidemic raged through Mumbai from September to December 1918, causing hundreds of deaths per day. The Lord Willingdon Memorial incident of December 1918 saw the handicap of Home Rulers in Mumbai. The first important strike in the textile industry in Mumbai began in January 1919. Mumbai was the main centre of the Rowlatt Satyagraha movement started by Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
from February — April 1919. The movement was started as a result of the Rowlatt Act
Rowlatt Act
The Rowlatt Act was a law passed by the British in colonial India in March 1919, indefinitely extending "emergency measures" enacted during the First World War in order to control public unrest and root out conspiracy...
, which indefinitely extended emergency measures during World War I in order to control public unrest.
Non-cooperation movement
The non-cooperation movement was a significant phase of the Indian struggle for freedom from British rule which lasted for years. This movement, which lasted from September 1920 to February 1922 and was led by Mohandas Gandhi, and supported by the Indian National Congress. It aimed to resist...
from 1920 to 1922. In 1926, the Back Bay scandal occurred, when the Mumbai Development Department under the British reclaimed the Back Bay area in Mumbai after the financial crisis incidental to the post-war slump in the city. The first electric locomotives in India were put into service from Victoria Terminus to Kurla
Kurla
Kurla is a suburb of Mumbai. It is also the name of one the busiest railway stations on the Mumbai suburban railway on the central and harbour railway lines of Mumbai...
in 1925. In the late 1920s, many Persians migrated to Mumbai from Yazd
Yazd
Yazd is the capital of Yazd Province in Iran, and a centre of Zoroastrian culture. The city is located some 175 miles southeast of Isfahan. At the 2006 census, the population was 423,006, in 114,716 families....
to escape the drought in Iran. In the early 1930s, the nationwide Civil disobedience movement against the British Salt tax spread to Mumbai. Vile Parle
Vile Parle
Vile Parle , also known as "Parla", is a suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle is also the name of the railway station in this suburb, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. The name "Vile Parle" has...
was the headquarters of the movement in Bombay under Jamnalal Bajaj
Jamnalal Bajaj
Jamnalal Bajaj was an Indian industrialist, a philanthropist, and Indian independence fighter. He was also a close associate and follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is known to have adopted him as his son. Several institutions in India bears his name, including the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of...
. On 15 October 1932 industrialist and aviator J.R.D. Tata pioneered civil aviation
Civil aviation
Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work together to establish common standards and recommended practices...
in Bombay by flying a plane from Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
to Bombay. Bombay was affected by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of 1929, which saw a stagnation of mill industry and economy from 1933 to 1939. With World War II, the movements of thousands of troops, military and industrial goods and the fleet of the Royal Indian Navy
Royal Indian Navy
The Royal Indian Navy was the naval force of British India. Along with the Presidency armies and the later British Indian Army it comprised the Armed Forces of British India....
made Bombay an important military base for the battles being fought in West Asia and South East Asia. The climatic Quit India rebellion was promulgated on 7 August 1942 by the Congress in a public meeting at Gowalia Tank
Gowalia Tank
Gowalia Tank Maidan is a park in central Mumbai where Mahatma Gandhi issued the Quit India speech on 8 August 1942 decreeing that the British must leave India immediately or else mass agitations would take place...
. The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 18 February 1946 in Bombay marked the first and most serious revolt by the Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy against British rule. On 15 August 1947, finally India was declared independent. The last British troops to leave India, the First Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, passed through the arcade of the Gateway of India
Gateway of India
Its design is a combination of both Hindu and Muslim architectural styles, the arch is in Muslim style while the decorations are in Hindu style. The Gateway is built from yellow basalt and reinforced concrete. The stone was locally obtained, and the perforated screens were brought from Gwalior.The...
in Bombay on 28 February 1948, ending the 282 year long period of the British in Bombay .
Independent India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
on 15 August 1947, over 100,000 Sindhi
Sindhi people
Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province Formerly of British India, now in Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity...
refugees from the newly created Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
were relocated in the military camps five kilometres from Kalyan
Kalyan
Kalyan is a city in Thane district of Maharashtra, and a major railway station lying at the junction of the north-east and south-east lines of the suburban Mumbai division of the Central Railway, 53 km north-east of Mumbai. Kalyan is also a major Taluka place, a tehsil of the Thane district...
in the Bombay metropolitan region
Mumbai metropolitan area
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region /Mumbai Metropolitan Area is the metropolitan area consisting of the metropolis of Mumbai and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of seven municipal corporations and fifteen smaller municipal councils...
. It was converted into a township in 1949, and named Ulhasnagar
Ulhasnagar
Ulhasnagar Ulhasnagar, also referred to as Sindhunagar, has an estimated population of 472,943 people .The name derives from the Ulhas river which flows through it. Kalyan is situated near Ulhasnagar. The city is home to many types of businesses....
by the then Governor-General of India, C. Rajagopalachari
C. Rajagopalachari
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari , informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer and statesman. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India...
. In April 1950, Greater Bombay District came into existence with the merger of Bombay Suburbs and Bombay City. It spanned an area of 235.1 km² (90.77 sq mi) and inhabited 23.39 lakh
Lakh
A lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand . It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and is often used in Indian English.-Usage:...
s of people in 1951. The Municipal Corporation
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
The Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika is the civic body that governs the city of Mumbai and is India's richest municipal organisation. Its annual budget is even more than that of some of the small states of India. It is also known as Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai or the Brihanmumbai...
limits were extended up to Jogeshwari along the Western Railway
Western Railway (India)
The Western Railway is one of the 16 zones of Indian Railways, and is among the busiest railway networks in India. The major railway routes of Indian Railways which come under Western Railways are: Ratlam - Mumbai Central, Surat - Mumbai, Surat - Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad - Vadodara and Palanpur -...
and Bhandup
Bhandup
Bhandup is a suburb of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, in the state of Maharashtra, India and is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Central Railway line....
along the Central Railway. This limit was further extended in February 1957 up to Dahisar
Dahisar
Dahisar is a suburb of Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line, situated in Dahisar suburb. Located on the city limits of Mumbai, Dahisar is the last suburb and railway station within the Mumbai Suburban District; past...
along the Western Railway and Mulund on the Central Railway. In the 1955 Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
discussions, when Bombay State
Bombay State
The Bombay State was a state of India, dissolved with the formation of Maharashtra and Gujarat states on May 1, 1960.-History:During British rule, portions of the western coast of India under direct British rule were part of the Bombay Presidency...
was being re-organised along linguistic lines into the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, there was a demand from the Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
, that the city be constituted as an autonomous city-state. But the States Reorganisation Committee
States Reorganisation Act
The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries and governance of India's states and territories. The act reorganised the boundaries of India's states along linguistic lines, and amended the Indian Constitution to replace the three types of states, known as Parts A, B,...
recommended a bi-lingual state for Maharashtra-Gujarat, with Bombay as its capital However, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement
Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti
http://ekmarathimanoos.blogspot.com/2009/01/belgaum-border-dispute-bleeding-wound.htmlSanyukta Maharashtra Samiti , roughly translated as United Maharashtra Committee, was an organisation that spearheaded the demand in the 1950s for the creation of a separate Marathi-speaking state out of the ...
opposed this, and insisted that Bombay be declared the capital of Maharashtra. The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , popularly known as IIT Bombay or IITB, is a public research university located in Powai, Mumbai...
was established in 1958 at Powai
Powai
Powai is a suburb situated in the north-east of the city of Mumbai, India. The word Powai comes from Padmavati a Hindu Goddess , whose temple is situated on the banks of Lake Powai...
, a northern suburb of Bombay. Following protests by the Samyukta Maharashtra movement in which 105 people were killed by police firing, Maharashtra State was formed with Bombay as its capital on 1 May 1960. Flora Fountain
Flora Fountain
Flora Fountain, at the Hutatma Chowk , is an ornamentally and exquisitely sculpted architectural heritage monument located at the southern end of the historic Dadabhai Naoroji Road, called the Mile Long Road, at the Fort business district in the heart of South Mumbai, Mumbai, India...
was renamed Hutatma Chowk
Hutatma Chowk
Hutatma Chowk is the official name of a square in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.The square hosts Flora Fountain and was known by that name until 1960. It was officially renamed in 1960 in memory of the members of Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, who lost their lives when police fired upon their...
("Martyr's Square") as a memorial to the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.
In the early 1960s, the Gujarati
Gujarati people
Gujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
and Marwaris
Marwaris
Marwari or Marwadi or Rajasthani people are Indian ethnic group, that inhabit the Rajasthan region of India. Their language Rajasthani is a part of the western group of Indo-Aryan languages....
communities owned majority of the industry and trade enterprises in the city, while the white-collar jobs were mainly sought by the South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
n migrants to the city. The Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena , is a political party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray...
party was established on 19 June 1966 by Bombay cartoonist Bal Thackeray
Bal Thackeray
Bal Keshav Thackeray , popularly known as Balasaheb Thackeray, is an Indian politician, founder and chief of the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, and Marathi ethnocentric party active mainly in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.Born in Pune, Thackeray began his professional career...
, out of a feeling of resentment about the relative marginalization of the native Marathi people
Marathi people
The Marathi people or Maharashtrians are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. Their language Marathi is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages...
in their native state Maharashtra. In the 1960s and 1970s, Shiv Sena cadres became involved in various attacks against the South Indian communities, vandalising South Indian restaurants and pressuring employers to hire Marathis. In the late 1960s, Nariman Point
Nariman Point
Nariman Point is Mumbai's premier business district and country's first central business district. It was named after Khursheed Framji Nariman, a Parsi visionary. The area is situated on land reclaimed from the sea. It had the distinction of having the highest commercial real estate rental space...
and Cuffe Parade
Cuffe Parade
Cuffe Parade is an upmarket neighbourhood in South Mumbai. It is in the southernmost region of the city just north of Navy Nagar. To the north of Cuffe Parade lies Badhwar Park, Ambedkar Nagar the slum area of the Cuffe Parade.-History:...
were reclaimed and developed. During the 1970 Bombay-Bhiwandi
Bhiwandi
Bhiwandi is a city, in the district of Thane, in the western state of Maharashtra, in India, located 20 km to the north-east of Mumbai and 15 km to the north-east of Thane city...
riots, many Muslim places of worship were attacked by Shiv sena activists.Naturally this led to much resentment and tensions between Muslim and Hindu communities. Though the Shiv Sena was attributed to curbing religious violence, their methods were questioned. After much corruption allegations and political fumbles the Shiv Sena lost a considerable chunk of popularity. Family infighting and more corruption charges have crippled the party. Furthermore the party does not reflect the viewpoint of most Mumbai residents, who are more open to globalisation. During the 1970s, coastal communication increased between Bombay and south western coast of India, after introduction of ships by the London based trade firm Shepherd. These ships facilitated the entry of Goan
Goan Catholics
The Goan Catholics are an ethno-religious community of Roman Catholics and their descendants from the state of Goa, located on the west coast of India. They are Konkani people and speak the Konkani language...
and Mangalorean Catholics to Bombay.
Nehru Centre
Nehru Centre was conceived in 1972 in Bombay, India. It includes the Nehru Planetarium: A centre for scientific study of astronomy and for meeting of scientists and scholars for discussions and lectures-External links:*...
, was established in 1972 at Worli
Worli
-History:Worli was one of the original seven islands that constituted the city of Mumbai. Although primarily a fishing village, the Worli Fort, a British fort that is now in ruins, is located there. Its original resident was the legendary Dishankeshwar Kalsi who has also been recognized in several...
in Bombay. The Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority
Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority , commonly abbreviated as MMRDA, is a body of the Government of Maharashtra that is responsible for the infrastructure development of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region...
(BMRDA) was set up on 26 January 1975 by the Government of Maharashtra
Government of Maharashtra
Government of Maharashtra is the government for the state of Maharashtra in Western India.It is an elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the legislative assembly for a 5 year term.-Ministers:...
as an apex body for planning and co-ordination of development activities in the Bombay metropolitan region
Mumbai metropolitan area
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region /Mumbai Metropolitan Area is the metropolitan area consisting of the metropolis of Mumbai and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of seven municipal corporations and fifteen smaller municipal councils...
. Nehru Science Centre
Nehru Science Centre
Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai is India's largest interactive science center, located in Worli. The centre is named after India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The centre started with the 'Light and Sight' exhibition in 1977 and then a Science Park was built in 1979...
, India's largest interactive science centre, was established in 1972 at Worli in Bombay. In August 1979, a sister township of New Bombay
Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai is a Planned Satellite City on the west coast of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was developed in 1972 as a twin city of Mumbai, and is the largest planned city on the planet, with under the jurisdiction of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and a total area of . Navi Mumbai...
was founded by City and Industrial Development Corporation
City and Industrial Development Corporation
The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra or CIDCO is a city planning organization created by the Government of Maharashtra. CIDCO was formed on 17 March 1970 under the Indian Companies Act of 1956...
(CIDCO) across Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...
and Raigad
Raigad district
Raigad District , also known as Raigarh District, is a district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is located in the Konkan region. The district was renamed after Raigad, the fort which was the former capital of the Maratha leader Shivaji, and is located in the interior regions of the district,...
districts to help the dispersal and control of Bombay's population. The Great Bombay Textile Strike
Great Bombay Textile Strike
The Great Bombay Textile Strike was a textile strike called on 18 January 1982 by the mill workers of Bombay under trade union leader Dutta Samant. The purpose of the strike was to obtain bonus and wage increases...
was called on 18 January 1982 by trade union leader Dutta Samant
Dutta Samant
Dr. Dutta Samant was an Indian politician and trade union leader, who is most famous for leading 200-300 thousand textile mill workers in the city of Bombay on a year-long strike in 1982, which triggered the closure of most of the textile mills in the city.-Trade union and...
, where nearly 250,000 workers and more than 50 textile mills in Bombay
Girangaon
Girangaon was a name commonly used to refer to an area now part of central Mumbai, India, which at one time had almost 130 textile mills, with the majority being cotton mills. Girangaon covered an area of , not including the workers' housing...
went on strike. On 17 May 1984, riots broke out in Bombay, Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...
, and Bhiwandi after a saffron flag was placed at the top of a mosque. 278 were killed and 1,118 were wounded. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port was commissioned on 26 May 1989 at Nhava Sheva
Nhava Sheva
Nhava Sheva, officially Jawaharlal Nehru Port, is the 6th largest port and the largest container port in India. Located in Maharashtra, the port on the Arabian Sea is accessed via Thane Creek.- History :...
with a view to de-congest Bombay Harbour
Mumbai Harbour
Mumbai Harbour , or Front Bay, is a natural deep-water harbor in the southern portion of the Ulhas River estuary. The narrower, northern part of the estuary is called Thane Creek. The harbor opens to the Arabian Sea to the south...
and to serve as a hub port for the city. In December 1992 – January 93, over 1,000 people were killed and the city paralyzed by communal riots
Bombay Riots
The Bombay Riots usually refers to the riots in Mumbai, in December 1992 and January 1993, in which around 900 people died. An estimated 575 Muslims and 275 Hindus died, and 2,000 people were injured in the riots. . An investigative commission was formed under Justice B.N. Srikrishna, but the...
between the Hindus and the Muslims caused by the destruction of the Babri Mosque
Babri Mosque
The Babri Mosque , was a mosque in Ayodhya, a city in the Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh, on Ramkot Hill . It was destroyed in 1992 when a political rally developed into a riot involving 150,000 people, despite a commitment to the Indian Supreme Court by the rally organisers that the mosque...
in Ayodhya. A series of 13 co-ordinated bomb explosions took place in Bombay on 12 March 1993, which resulted in 257 deaths and 700 injuries. The attacks were believed to be orchestrated by mafia don Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim , also known as Dawood Ebrahim, and Sheikh Dawood Hassan, is the head of the organized crime syndicate [[D-Company]] in Mumbai. He is currently on the wanted list of Interpol for organised crime and counterfeiting. He was No. 4 on the Forbes' World's Top 10 most dreaded criminals...
in retaliation for the Babri Mosque demolition. In 1996, the newly-elected Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena , is a political party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray...
-led government renamed the city of Bombay to the native name Mumbai, after the Koli Goddess Mumbadevi. Soon colonial British names were shed to assert or reassert local names, such as Victoria Terminus being renamed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
on 4 March 1996, after the 17th century Marathi King Shivaji.
Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport
The BEST ) is Mumbai's public transport service and electricity provider....
) bus exploded near Ghatkopar
Ghatkopar
Ghatkopar is a suburban neighbourhood of eastern Mumbai. It is also a railway station serviced by Central Railway line of the Mumbai suburban railway.-History:...
station in Mumbai. Around 2 people were killed and 28 were injured. The bombing occurred on the tenth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. On 27 January 2003, a bomb placed on a bicycle exploded near the Vile Parle
Vile Parle
Vile Parle , also known as "Parla", is a suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle is also the name of the railway station in this suburb, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. The name "Vile Parle" has...
station in Mumbai. The bomb killed 1 and injured 25. The blast occurred a day ahead of the visit of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...
, the then Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
to the city. On 13 March 2003, a bomb exploded in a train compartment, as the train was entering the Mulund station in Mumbai. 10 people were killed and 70 were injured. The blast occurred a day after the tenth anniversary of the 1993 Bombay bombings. On 28 July 2003, a bomb placed under a seat of a BEST bus exploded in Ghatkopar. The bomb killed 4 people and injured 32. On 25 August 2003, two blasts in South Mumbai
South Mumbai
South Mumbai , sometimes incorrectly referred to by English Media as "SoBo" , the southern-most precinct of the city of Mumbai, India, comprises the city's main business localities and its adjoining areas...
– one near the Gateway of India
Gateway of India
Its design is a combination of both Hindu and Muslim architectural styles, the arch is in Muslim style while the decorations are in Hindu style. The Gateway is built from yellow basalt and reinforced concrete. The stone was locally obtained, and the perforated screens were brought from Gwalior.The...
and the other at Zaveri Bazaar in Kalbadevi
Kalbadevi
Kalbadevi is an old neighbourhood in Mumbai , India. It is named after the Hindu Goddess of the same name. Postal code 400002. Kalbadevi area is one of the busiest areas during peak hours. The area has mostly traders in watches, bicycles, steel utensils, etc.Kalbadevi is within walking distance...
occurred. At least 44 people were killed and 150 injured. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it had been hinted that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
was behind the attacks.
Mumbai Suburban Railway
The Mumbai Suburban Railway system, part of the public transport system of Mumbai, is provided for by the state-run Indian Railways' two zonal Western Railways and Central Railways. The system carries more than 6.99 million commuters on a daily basis. It has the highest passenger densities of any...
in Mumbai at Khar
Khar, Mumbai
Khar is a suburb of Mumbai, north of Bandra and south of Santa Cruz. For the suburb's corresponding railway station see Khar Road.The suburb of Khar also has the fishermen folk area , also known as Khar Danda...
, Mahim
Mahim
Mahim is a neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station in Mahim area, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. In ancient times, the area was known as Maijim, Mejambu, Mahikawati....
, Matunga
Matunga
Matunga is a district located in the central part of Mumbai. It is a railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway network. This station is called Matunga on the Central railway line, Matunga Road on the Western line and King's Circle, on the Harbour Line...
, Jogeshwari, Borivali
Borivali
Borivali or Borivli a suburban area located in the north-west section of Mumbai island. Borivali is approximately from Mumbai Airport and from Churchgate Railway Station...
, and one between Khar and Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz (Mumbai)
Santacruz or Santa Cruz is a section of the municipality of Mumbai. The Santacruz railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway, the Domestic Terminal of the Mumbai Airport and one campus of the University of Mumbai are all located in Santacruz....
. 209 people were killed and over 700 were injured. According to Mumbai Police
Mumbai Police
The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...
, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
and Students Islamic Movement of India
Students Islamic Movement of India
The Students Islamic Movement of India is an Islamic student organization that was formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in April 1977. The stated mission of SIMI is the ‘liberation of India’ from Western materialistic cultural influence and to convert its Muslim society to live according to Muslim...
(SIMI). In 2008, the city experienced xenophobic attacks by the activists of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is a political party based in Maharashtra operating on the motto of "Sons of the Soil". It was founded on the March 9, 2006 in Mumbai by Raj Thackeray after he left the Shiv Sena due to differences with Uddhav Thackeray and sidelining in major decisions like...
(MNS) under Raj Thackeray
Raj Thackeray
Raj Shrikant Thackeray is the founder and president of the right-wing Marathi ethnocentric regional political party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in the state of Maharashtra, India...
on the North Indian migrants in Mumbai. Attacks included assault on North Indian taxi drivers and damage of their vehicles. There were a series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks by 10 armed Pakistani men using automatic weapons and grenades which began on 26 November 2008 and ended on 29 November 2008. The attacks resulted in 164 deaths, 308 injuries, and severe damage to several important buildings.
See also
- Bombay Before the BritishBombay Before the British"Bombay Before the British", often referred to by its acronym "BBB", was a three year research project in the fields of History of Architecture and History of Urbanism, funded by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through its Science and Technology Foundation.The...
- Growth of MumbaiGrowth of MumbaiThe following is a timeline of the growth of Mumbais population over the last four centuries:* 1661: 10,000 inhabitants* 1664: 15,000* 1673: 60,000 * 1675: 60,000* 1718: 16,000...
- Mumbai bombings
- List of forts in Mumbai
- List of Governors of Bombay
- Timeline of Mumbai eventsTimeline of Mumbai eventsThe History of Mumbai, can be traced back to 600 BC, when evidences of the first known settlement, here have been discovered.-up to 18th century:* 600 BC — First known permanent .* 300 BC — Part of Ashokas Empire.* 900 to 1300 — part of Hindu Silhara dynasty....
External links
- Portuguese India History: The Northern Province: Bassein, Bombay-Mumbai, Damao, Chaul from Dutch Portuguese Colonial History
- Century City Time Line – Bombay from TateTate-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
- A collection of pages on Mumbai's History from Time Out (Mumbai)
- The Mumbai Project from Hindustan TimesHindustan TimesHindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....