Page 442 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

440  SOUTHWESTERN INDIA

A PORTRAIT OF

SOUTHWESTERN INDIA

The southwest is a region of many and varied splendours. Its three states, Goa,
Maharashtra and Karnataka, contain golden beaches, wooded hills, serene villages
along the picturesque Arabian Sea coastline, and two of India’s most cosmopolitan
cities – Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore).
Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra, is India’s culture and, often by dreams of
largest and most populous city, as well as making it big in films. While Mumbai
its commercial and financial capital. It is is remarkably cosmopolitan, it has
also home to the world’s largest cinema on occasion experienced sectarian
industry, popularly known as Bollywood. strife since the rise of the militant
The city presents extraordinary and Hindu rightwing Shiv Sena Party.
sometimes shocking contrasts – Maharashtra is a vast state, its
the glamorous world of film stars population of over 100 million
and business tycoons exists side by making it politically important,
side with the squalor of slums and and major industries based
shantytowns, where over five on cotton, sugar, engineering
million people (more than one- Green coconut goods and processed foods
third of Mumbai’s population) live. The lending it economic vitality. Strawberry
dominant image, however, is that fields and grape vineyards dot its rich
of an upbeat, street-smart city full agricultural hinter land, but the most
of dynamism and joie de vivre. prized crop remains the Alphonso mango,
Mumbai’s population includes Hindus, a particularly sweet and luscious variety,
a sizeable number of Muslims and which is exported across the world.
Christ ians, as well as Jews, Parsis and other Central Maharashtra has two World
communities from different parts of India, Heri tage sites to its credit, at Ajanta and
drawn by its vibrant entrepreneurial Ellora (see pp480–85). The murals and

Little fishing boats in Mumbai’s harbour, against a backdrop of the city’s skyscrapers

440-441_EW_India.indd 440 26/04/17 11:47 am
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Date 5th December 2012
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