HISTORY OF MUMBAI
Formerly Known As: Bombay
Famous As: Financial And Commercial Capital Of India
Best Time To Visit Mumbai: October To March
An aboriginal tribe of fishermen called "Koli",
were the earliest known inhabitants, though Palaeolithic stone implements
found at Kandivli, in Greater Bombay, indicate human occupation during the
Stone Age. The area was known as Heptanesia to the ancient Greek
astronomer and geographer Ptolemy and was a center of maritime trade with
Persia and Egypt in 1,000 BC. It was part of Ashoka's empire in the 3rd
century BC and was ruled in the 6th to 8th century AD by the Chalukyas,
who left their mark on "Gharapuri" (Elephanta Island).
The
Walkeswar temple at Malabar Point was probably built during the rule of
Shilahara chiefs from the Konkan coast (9th-13th century). Under the
Yadavas of Dogiri (1187-1318) the settlement of Mahikavati (Mahim) on the
island (which became Bombay island) was founded in response to raids by
the Khilji dynasty of Hindustan in 1294. Descendants of these settlers are
found in contemporary Mumbai (Bombay), and most of the place-names on the
island date from this era. In 1348 the island was conquered by invading
Muslim forces and became part of the kingdom of Gujarat.
A Portuguese attempt to conquer Mahim failed in 1507, but in 1534 Sultan
Bahadur Shah, the ruler of Gujarat, ceded the island to the Portuguese. In
1661 it came under British control as part of the marriage settlement
between King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza, sister of the king of
Portugal. The crown ceded it to the East India Company in 1668.
In the beginning, compared to Kolkatta and Chennai, Mumbai (Bombay) was
not a great asset to the company but merely helped it keep a toehold on
the West Coast. On the mainland the Mughals, the Marathas, and the
territorial princes in Gujarat were more powerful. Even British naval
power was no match for the Mughals, Marathas, Portuguese, and Dutch. By
the turn of the 19th century, external events helped stimulate the growth
of the city.
The decay of Mughal power in Delhi, the Mughal-Maratha rivalries, and the
instability in Gujarat drove artisans and merchants to the islands for
refuge, and Mumbai (Bombay) began to grow. With the destruction of Maratha
power, trade and communications to the mainland were established and those
to Europe were extended; Mumbai 's prosperity had begun.
Establishment Of A Trade Centre - Mumbai
In 1857 the first spinning and weaving mill was established, and by 1860
Mumbai (Bombay) had become the largest cotton market in India. The
American Civil War (1861-1865) and the resulting cutoff of cotton supplies
to Britain caused a great trade boom in Bombay. But, with the end of the
Civil War, cotton prices crashed and the bubble burst. By that time,
however, the hinterland had been opened, and Mumbai (Bombay) had become a
strong center of import trade.
With
the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Mumbai (Bombay) prospered, though
slums and unsanitary conditions steadily multiplied with its increasing
population. Plague broke out in 1896, and a City Improvement Trust was
established to open new localities for settlement and to erect dwellings
for the artisan classes.
An ambitious scheme for the construction of a seawall to enclose an area
of 525 hectares was proposed in 1918 but not finished until the completion
of what is now Netaji Subhash Road from Nariman Point to Malabar Point -
the first two-way road of its kind in India - after World War II. In the
postwar years the development of residential quarters in suburban areas
was begun, and the administration of Mumbai City through a municipal
corporation was extended to the suburbs of Greater Mumbai (Bombay). The
city had served as the former capital of Bombay Presidency and Bombay
State, and it was made the capital of Maharashtra State in 1960.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mumbai (Bombay) was a
center of both Indian nationalist and regional political activity. In 1885
the first session of the Indian National Congress (a focus of both
pro-Indian and anti-British sentiment until independence) was held in the
city, where subsequently, at its 1942 session, the Congress passed the "Quit
India" resolution, which demanded complete independence for India.
From 1956 until 1960 Mumbai (Bombay)was the scene of intense protests
against the two-language (Marathi-Gujarati) makeup of Bombay State, a
legacy of British imperialism, which led to the State's partition into the
modern States of Gujarat and
Maharashtra
.
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