Page 449 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

SOUTHWESTERN INDIA  447

MUMBAI

Mumbai (formerly Bombay), capital of Maharashtra, is
India’s most dynamic, cosmopolitan and crowded city.
The country’s financial centre and its busiest port,
Mumbai is also home to the world’s biggest cinema
industry, popularly known as Bollywood. Some 20 million
people, from billionaire tycoons to homeless pavement
dwellers, live in this teeming megalopolis.

Consisting of seven swampy islands communities of Gujaratis, Parsis (see p451)
when the Portuguese acquired it in 1534, and Baghdadi, or Sephardic, Jews to
Bombay (from the Portuguese Bom Bahia Bombay, giving the city its vibrant
or “Good Bay”) came to the British Crown multicultural identity. The city has reverted
in 1661 as part of the dowry of Catherine to its local name, Mumbai, from Mumba-Ai
of Braganza, when she married Charles II. (Mother Mumbai), the patron goddess
Finding little use for the islands, the British worshipped by the Koli fishermen who
leased them to the East India Company, were the islands’ original inhabitants.
which quickly realized their potential as an India’s financial and entertainment
excellent natural harbour in the Arabian capital, Mumbai is a city of striking contrasts.
Sea. The rise of Bombay began in the late Skyscrapers stand next to stately Victorian
1600s, when the company relocated its and Art Deco buildings, traditional bazaars
headquarters here. By the 18th century, adjoin glittering shopping malls, and
Bombay had become the major city and opulent neighbourhoods are surrounded
shipbuilding yard on the western coast, by sprawling slums. Swelling Mumbai’s
and by the 19th century, land reclamations population are migrants from all over the
had joined the islands into the narrow country, who continue to flock to this “land
promontory that it is today. The promise of opportunities” in search of fame, fortune,
of commercial opportunities lured or just a bit part in a Bollywood movie.

Swirling traffic around Flora Fountain in the heart of Mumbai
The Gateway of India, Mumbai’s signature landmark

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