History
Mumbai is built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands:
Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old Woman's
Island (also known as Little Colaba). Pleistocene sediments found near
Kandivali in northern Mumbai by British archaeologist Todd in 1939
suggest that these islands were inhabited since the Stone Age.Their
earliest known inhabitants were the Kolis, a fishing community. In the
third century BCE, the islands formed part of the Maurya Empire, ruled
by the Buddhist emperor, Ashoka of Magadha.[23]. Buddhist monks,
scholars, and artists created the artwork, inscriptions, and sculpture
of the Kanheri Caves in the mid third century BCE[24] and Mahakali
Caves.[25] The city then was known as Heptanesia (Ancient Greek: A
Cluster of Seven Islands) to the Greek geographer Ptolemy in 150 CE.
Later, between second century BCE and ninth century CE, the islands
came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties: Satavahanas,
Western Kshatrapas, Abhiras, Vakatakas, Kalachuris, Konkan Mauryas,
Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas, before being ruled by the Silhara dynasty
from 810 to 1260 Raja Bhimdev founded his kingdom in the region in the
12th or 13th century, and established his capital in Mahikawati
(present day Mahim). The Pathare Prabhus, one of the earliest known
settlers of the city, were brought to Mahikawati from Saurashtra by
Bhimdev.[28] The Muslim rulers of Gujarat annexed the islands in
1348.[26] They were later governed by the Gujarat Sultanate from 1391
to 1534.[29] The Sultanate's patronage led to the construction of many
mosques, prominent being the Haji Ali Dargah in Mahim, built in honour
of the Muslim saint Haji Ali in 1431. From 1429 to 1431, the islands
were a source of contention between the Gujarat Sultanate and the
Bahamani Sultanate of Deccan.[29] In 1493, Bahadur Khan Gilani of the
Bahamani Sultanate attempted to conquer the islands, but was defeated.
A white building with one minaret on an island seen at sunset
The Haji Ali Dargarh was built in 1431, when Mumbai was under the
Gujarat Sultanate
The Mughal Empire, founded in 1526, was the dominant power in the
Indian subcontinent during the mid-16th century.[32] Growing
apprehensive of the power of the Mughal emperor Humayun, Sultan Bahadur
Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate was obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein
with Portuguese settlers on 23 December 1534. According to the treaty,
the seven islands of Bombay, the nearby strategic town of Bassein and
its dependencies were offered to the Portuguese. The territories were
later surrendered on 25 October 1535. The Portuguese were actively
involved in the foundation and growth of their Roman Catholic religious
orders in Bombay. Some of the oldest Catholic churches in the city such
as the St. Michael's Church at Mahim, St. John the Baptist Church at
Andheri, and St. Andrew's Church at Bandra, date from the Portuguese
era.[33] On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England
and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed
the islands in possession of the British Empire, as part of Catherine's
dowry to Charles.[34] However, Salsette, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli, Sion,
Dharavi, and Wadala still remained under Portuguese possession. From
1665 to 1666, the British managed to acquire Mahim, Sion, Dharavi, and
Wadala.[35]
These islands were in turn leased to the British East India Company in
1668 for a sum of £10 per annum by the Royal Charter of 27 March 1668.
The population quickly rose from 10,000 in 1661, to 60,000 in 1675. The
islands were subsequently attacked by Yakut Khan, the Siddi admiral of
the Mughal Empire, in October 1672, Rickloffe van Goen, the
Governor-General of Dutch India on 20 February 1673,[39] and Siddi
admiral Sambal on 10 October 1673.In 1687, the British East India
Company transferred its headquarters from Surat to Bombay. The city
eventually became the headquarters of the Bombay Presidency. Following
the transfer, Bombay was placed at the head of all the Company's
establishments in India. Towards the end of the 17th century, the
islands again suffered incursions from Yakut Khan in 1689-90. The
Portuguese presence ended in Bombay when the Marathas under Peshwa Baji
Rao I captured Salsette in 1737, and Bassein in 1739. Later, the
British occupied Salsette on 28 December 1774. With the Treaty of Surat
(1775), the British formally gained control of Salsette and Bassein,
resulting in the First Anglo-Maratha War. The British were able to
secure Salsette through the Treaty of Purandar (1776), and later
through the Treaty of Salbai (1782), signed to settle the outcome of
the First Anglo-Maratha War.
Ships in Bombay Harbour (c. 1731). Bombay emerged as a significant
trading during the mid-18th century
From 1782 onwards, the city was reshaped with large-scale civil
engineering projects aimed at merging all the seven islands into a
single amalgamated mass. This project, known as the Hornby Vellard, was
completed by 1784. On 16 April 1853, India's first passenger railway
line was established, connecting Bombay to the neighbouring town of
Thane.[48] During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city became
the world's chief cotton trading market, resulting in a boom in the
economy that subsequently enhanced the city's stature. The opening of
the Suez Canal in 1869 transformed Bombay into one of the largest
seaports on the Arabian Sea.[50] In September 1896, Bombay was hit by a
bubonic plague epidemic where the death toll was estimated at 1,900
people per week. About 850,000 people fled Bombay and the textile
industry was adversely affected. As the capital of the Bombay
Presidency, it witnessed the Indian independence movement, with the
first session of the Indian National Congress in 1885, the Quit India
Movement in 1942 and the The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny in 1946 being its
most notable events. After India's independence in 1947, the territory
of the Bombay Presidency retained by India was restructured into Bombay
State. The area of Bombay State increased, after several erstwhile
princely states that joined the Indian union were integrated into
Bombay State. Subsequently, the city became the capital of Bombay
State. In April 1950, Greater Bombay District came into existence with
the merger of Bombay Suburbs of Salsette and Bombay City for the
purposes of municipal administration.
A stone statue of torch-bearers as seen at night. A fountain with a
white base is in the background
Hutatma Chowk ("Martyr's Square") was built as a memorial to the
Samyukta Maharashtra movement
In the Lok Sabha discussions in 1955, the Congress party demanded that
the city be constituted as an autonomous city-state. In 1956, the
States Reorganisation Committee recommended a bilingual state for
Maharashtra-Gujarat with Bombay as its capital. Bombay Citizens'
Committee, an advocacy group comprising of leading Gujarati
industrialists lobbied for Bombay's independent status. In the 1957
elections, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement opposed these proposals,
and insisted that Bombay be declared the capital of Maharashtra.[60]
Following protests by the movement in which 105 people were killed by
police, Bombay State was reorganised on linguistic lines on 1 May
1960.[61] Gujarati-speaking areas of Bombay State were partitioned into
the state of Gujarat. Maharashtra State with Bombay as its capital was
formed with the merger of Marathi-speaking areas of Bombay State, eight
districts from Central Provinces and Berar, five districts from
Hyderabad State, and numerous princely states enclosed between
them.[63]
In the late 1960s, Nariman Point and Cuffe Parade were reclaimed and
developed.[64] The following decades saw massive expansion of the city
and its suburbs. 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. 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 Jawaharlal Nehru
Port, which currently handles around 60% of India's maritime cargo, 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.
The past two decades have seen an increase in violence in the hitherto
largely peaceful city. Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in
Ayodhya, the city was rocked by the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992–93 in
which more than 1,000 people were killed.[68] On 12 March 1993, a
series of 13 co-ordinated bombings at several city landmarks by Islamic
extremists and the Bombay underworld resulted in 257 deaths and over
700 injuries.[69] In 2006, 209 people were killed and over 700 injured
when seven bombs exploded on the city's commuter trains.[70] A series
of ten coordinated attacks by armed terrorists for three days resulted
in 173 deaths, 308 injuries, and severe damage to several important
buildings.[71] Despite these incidents, Mumbai remains a major trading
centre that has evolved to become a global financial hub.[72] For
several decades it has been the site for the concentration of India's
financial services, and a focus for both infrastructure development and
private investment.[73] From being an ancient fishing community and a
colonial centre of trade, Mumbai has become the subcontinent's largest
port and home of the world's most prolific film industry
