Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) Political capital
of Maharashtra, and commercial capital of India, Mumbai is many
cities in one. As the world's largest textiles market, a major
industrialcentre and the country's busiest port handling over
40 percent of India's maritime trade, it contributes around 50
percent of the national exchequer. The city hums with activity,
and its more than eight million residents and three million commuters
seem to be constantly on the move. Natural increase and steady
rural migration have quadrupled Bombay's population over the last
40 years. Theoriginal island of Bombay consolidating a number
of earlier islands-is only 24 kilometres (15 miles) long and some
four kilometres (2.5 miles) wide at its broadest point, and has
a population density of over 43,000 persons per square kilometre
(100,000 per square mile), amongst the highest in the world. Pavement
dwellers and slums coexist with modem skyscrapers and gracious
colonial buildings, obsolete textile mills with impressive modem
factories, Christian churches with Hindu temples in a medley of
contradictions that makes Mumbai a product of the Indian past
that holds the key to the present and the future.
Perhaps
the appropriate place to begin exploring Bombay's colonial legacy
is the Gateway of India. Built to commemorate the royal
visit of George V and Queen Mary in 1911 but only completed in
1924, the gateway is a combination of European and Indian ceremonial
architecture. The last British troops marched out through this
gate when India became independent in 1947. Today it is a favourite
haunt of tourist.
Holidays India 