Ancient yet modern, fabulously rich
yet achingly poor.
The city of Bombay originally
consisted of seven islands, namely Colaba, Mazagaon, Old Woman's
Island, Wadala, Mahim, Parel, and Matunga-Sion. This group of
islands, which have since been joined together by a series of
reclamations, formed part of the kingdom of Ashoka, the famous
Emperor of India.
After his death, these islands
passed into the hands of various Hindu rulers until 1343. In
that year, the Mohammedans of Gujerat took possession and the
Kings of that province of India ruled for the next two
centuries. The only vestige (mark) of their dominion over these
islands that remains today is the mosque at Mahim.
In 1534 the Portuguese, who already
possessed many important trading centers on the western coast,
such as Panjim, Daman, and Diu, took Bombay by force of arms
from the Mohammedans. This led to the establishment of numerous
churches which were constructed in areas where the majority of
people were Roman Catholics. There used to be two areas in
Bombay called "Portuguese Church". However, only one church with
Portuguese-style facade still remains; it is the St. Andrew's
church at Bandra. The Portuguese also fortified their possession
by building forts at Sion, Mahim, Bandra, and Bassien which,
although in disrepair, can still be seen. They named their new
possession as "Bom Baia" which in Portuguese means "Good Bay".
A hundred and twenty-eight years
later the islands were given to the English King Charles II in
dowry on his marriage to Portuguese Princess Catherine of
Braganza in 1662. In the year 1668 the islands were acquired by
the English East India Company on lease from the crown for an
annual sum of 10 pounds in gold; so little did the British value
these islands at that time. The Company, which was operating
from Surat, was in search for another deeper water port so that
larger vessels could dock, and found the islands of Bombay
suitable for development. The shifting of the East India
Company's headquarters to Bombay in 1687 led to the eclipse of
Surat as a principal trading center. The British corrupted the
Portuguese name "Bom Baia" to "Bombay". The Kolis used to call
the islands "Mumba" after Mumbadevi, the Hindu deity to whom a
temple is dedicated at Babulnath near Chowpatty's sandy beaches.
The first Parsi to arrive in Bombay
was Dorabji Nanabhoy Patel in 1640. The Parsis, originally from
Iran, migrated to India about 900 years ago. This they did to
save their religion, Zoroastrianism, from invading Arabs who
proselytized Islam. However, in 1689-90, when a severe plague
had struck down most of the Europeans, the Siddi Chief of
Janjira made several attempts to re-possess the islands by
force, but the son of the former, a trader named Rustomji
Dorabji Patel (1667-1763), successfully warded off the attacks
on behalf of the British with the help of the 'Kolis', the
original fisher-folk inhabitants of these islands. The remnants
of the Koli settlements can still be seen at Backbay
reclamation, Mahim, Bandra, Khar, Bassien and Madh island.
Sir George Oxenden became the first
British Governor of the islands, and was succeeded later by Mr.
Gerald Aungier who made Bombay more populous by attracting
Gujerati traders, Parsi ship-builders, and Muslim and Hindu
manufacturers from the mainland. He fortified defenses by
constructing the Bombay Castle (the Fort, since then vanished
except for a small portion of the wall) and provided stability
by constituting courts of law.
Between 1822 and 1838, cattle from
the congested fort area used to graze freely at the Camp Maidan
(now called Azad Maidan), an open ground opposite the Victoria
Terminus. In 1838, the British rulers introduced a 'grazing fee'
which several cattle-owners could not afford. Therefore, Sir
Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy spent Rs. 20,000 from his own purse for
purchasing some grasslands near the seafront at Thakurdwar and
saw that the starving cattle grazed without a fee in that area.
In time the area became to be known as "Charni" meaning grazing.
When a railway station on the BB&CI railway was constructed
there it was called Charni Road.
The Zoroastrian Towers of Silence on
Malabar hill were built by Seth Modi Hirji Vachha in 1672. The
Zoroastrians believe in venerating the earth, fire, and water
and hence they prefer to expose their dead to the elements and
flesh-eating birds within the confines of the Towers of Silence.
The first fire-temple was also built in the same year by Seth
Vachha opposite his residence at Modikhana within the British
fort. Both of the these structures can still be seen today
although they have been expanded and strengthened.
The inroads of the sea at Worli,
Mahim, and Mahalaxmi turned the ground between the islands into
swamps making Bombay an extremely unhealthy place at that time.
Many commuters going to the Fort by boat between islands lost
their lives when there was a storm during the monsoons (July to
September). During the next 40 years much was done to improve
matters. Reclamation work to stop the breeches at Mahalaxmi and
Worli were undertaken. The Hornby Vellard was completed in 1784,
during the Governorship of Mr. Hornby. In 1803 Bombay was
connected with Salsette by a causeway at Sion. The island of
Colaba was joined to Bombay in 1838 by a causeway now called
Colaba Causeway and the Causeway connecting Mahim and Bandra was
completed in 1845 at the total cost of Rs.1,57,000 donated
entirely by Lady Avabai Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, wife of the first
baronet Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy with a stipulation that no toll
would be charged to citizens for its use by the government.
Initially the cost was estimated at Rs.100,000 but as the work
commenced in 1842 the cost escalated. When the initial sum was
exhausted and work about to stop Lady Jeejeebhoy once again
dipped in to her personal purse with a second donation to the
treasury of Rs.57,000.
Sir Robert Grant (1779-1838)
governed Bombay from 1835 to 1838 and was responsible for the
construction of a number of roads between Bombay and the
hinterland. The Thana and Colaba Causeways were built during his
tenure as well as the Grant Medical College attached to the Sir
Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy (J.J.) Group of hospitals.
On Saturday 16th of April, 1853 a
21-mile long railway line, the first in India, between Bombay's
Victoria Terminus and Thana was opened. The Great Indian
Peninsular (GIP) and the Bombay Baroda and Central India (BB&CI)
Railway were started in 1860 and a regular service of steamers
on the west coast was commenced in 1869. Also during this period
Bombay enjoyed great economic wealth. Raw cotton from Gujerat
was shipped to Lancashire in England through Bombay port, and
after being spun and woven into cloth, returned to be sold in
the Indian market. The outbreak of the American Civil War in
1861 increased the demand for cotton in the West and several
personal fortunes were made during this period from the
resulting trade. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought
the West closer to Bombay, and as the city became more
prosperous, many schemes were launched for reclaiming additional
land and building more roads and wharves. Bombay began to
attract fortune hunters by the hundreds and the population had
swelled from 13,726 in 1780 to 644,405 in 1872, in a little less
than a hundred years. By 1906 the population of Bombay was to
become 977,822.
In 1858, following the First War of
Independence (the British called it the "Sepoy Mutiny") of 1857
in which the Rani of Jhansi and her infant son strapped on her
back were killed, the East India Company was accused of
mismanagement and the islands reverted to the British Crown. In
1862 Sir Baartle Frere was appointed Governor, an office which
he held until 1867. By 1862 the town had spread over the lands
reclaimed through constructions of causeways and it is from this
date we have the rise of the modern city of Bombay. In 1864 a
fountain was to be erected in his honour at the Victoria Gardens
by the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India. Somehow, the
plans were changed at the last moment and the fountain, named
after the Greek goddess Flora, was placed in the centre of the
city on what used be known as Hornby Road. Unfortunately, no
plaque was placed on the fountain to commemorate the name of
Governor in whose memory it was supposed to have been erected.
Around 1860 the piped water supply
from Tulsi and Vehar lakes (and later Tansa) was inaugurated.
One reform which met with much superstitious opposition, before
it was implemented, was the sealing and banning the use of water
from open wells and tanks that bred mosquitoes. A good drainage
system was also constructed at the same time. However, several
decades later, the same wells were to serve Bombay by providing
non-potable water to supplement the same from the lakes. This
was true especially during those years when the monsoons failed
to provide sufficient water in the catchment areas of the lakes.
However, well water is now used all over the city to supplement
the water received from the lakes.
The later half of the 19th century
was also to see a feverish construction of buildings in Bombay,
many of which such as, the Victoria Terminus, the General Post
Office, Municipal Corporation, the Prince of Wales Museum,
Rajabai Tower and Bombay University, Elphinstone College and the
Cawasji Jehangir Hall, the Crawford Market, the Old Secretariat
(Old Customs House) and the Public Works Department (PWD)
Building, still stand today as major landmarks. The Gateway of
India was built to commemorate the visit of king George V and
Queen Mary for the Darbar at Delhi in 1911.
The docks at Bombay are a monument
of the industry, enterprise and integrity of the Wadia family
which moved in from Surat at the instigation of the British. In
1870 the Bombay Port Trust was formed. In 1872, Jamshedji Wadia,
a master ship-builder constructed the "Cornwalis", a frigate of
50 guns, for the East India Company, a success which led to
several orders from the British Navy. In all the Wadias, between
1735-1863 built 170 war vessels for the Company, 34 man-of-war
for the British Navy, 87 merchant vessels for private firms, and
three vessels for the Queen of Muscat at Bombay docks.
The Princess Dock was built in the
year 1885 and the Victoria Dock and the Mereweather Dry Docks in
1891. Alexandra Dock was completed in 1914. The closing years of
the 19th Century were tragic for Bombay as the bubonic plague
caused great destruction of human life once more. One
significant result of the plague was the creation of the City
Improvement Trust which in later years encouraged the
development of the suburbs for residential purposes to remove
the congestion in the city.
As Bombay's superintendent of police
in 1885, Charles Forjett was a favourite of the Indian people.
Many wept openly when he returned to England. He sacked British
constables who unduly harassed the locals and cracked down on
the Parsi mafia which was involved in the liquor business in the
Falkland Road area, which included the famous "Play House" which
the locals corrupted to "pillhouse". The "Pillhouse" area would
acquire notoriety in later years as the infamous "cages" area
housing Bombay's infamous red-light district.
Lord Sandhurst governed Bombay
between 1895 and 1900 and it was during his tenure that the Act
was passed which constituted the City Improvement Trust which,
among other things, built the Sandhurst Road in 1910 and handed
it over to the municipality. The Sandhurst Road railway station
(upper level) was built in 1921.
As a result of a mysterious fire
which started in one of its holds, on a very hot summer's day on
Friday April 14, 1944, the ship "Fort Stikine" (7420 tons) blew
up in the Bombay docks. At the time the ship was about to unload
a lethal combination of cargo of dried fish and cotton bales
(loaded from Karachi), timber, gun powder, ammunition, and gold
bars from London (the latter to stabilize the Indian Rupee,
which was sagging due to the Second World War and fear of
invasion from Japan). The gold bullion was valued at approx. two
million Pounds Sterling at that time. Nobody is certain as to
how the fire started but the two explosions which followed were
so loud that windows rattled and/or shattered as far away as
Dadar, a distance of 8 miles. The destruction in the docks and
surrounding area was immense and several hundred dock workers
were killed instantly. A majority of brave men of the Bombay
Fire Brigade, who answered the call to duty immediately after
the first blast, lost their lives in the second explosion (a
monument has been erected in the docks in their honour). The
population of the city was panic stricken as rumours spread
rapidly that the explosions signaled the commencement of
hostilities by the Japanese on the same style as the surprise
attack on Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian islands in December
1941. The Japanese were in fact nowhere near Bombay since they
were engaged in fighting a losing battle with the British army
in Burma at that time. Nevertheless, the Bombay Central (BB&CI)
and Victoria Terminus (GIP) stations were packed to capacity
with terrorized people fleeing the city in whichever train they
could board for their villages with all belongings they could
carry. At the time of the explosion, one of the gold bars
crashed through the roof of the third floor apartment of a Parsi
named D.C. Motivala more than a mile from the docks. He promptly
returned the gold bar to the authorities. Almost all of the
other gold bars were subsequently recovered from different parts
of the city; the last ones to be found were hauled up from the
bottom of the sea in the docks. However, during normal dredging
operations carried out periodically to maintain the depth of the
docking bays one or two gold bars were found intact sporadically
as late as the 1970s and returned to the British government. The
government took full responsibility for the disaster and
monetary compensation was paid to citizens who made a claim for
loss or damage to property.
The Port Trust Railway from Ballard
Pier to Wadala was opened in 1915. Along this railway were built
grain and fuel oil depots. The kerosene oil installations were
developed at Sewri and for petrol at Wadala. In the same year
the first overhead transmission lines of the Tata Power Company
were erected, and in 1927 the first electric locomotives
manufactured by Metropolitan Vickers of England were put into
service for passenger trains up to Poona and Igatpuri on the GIP
railway and later electric multiple unit (EMUs) commuter trains
ran up to Virar on the BB&CI railway and up to Karjat and Kasara
of the GIP railway. During the Second World War these EMUs were
joined together to form long trains which carried troops and
small arms and ammunition to and from Bombay to the hinterland.
The Fort (downtown) area in Bombay
derives its name from the fact that the area fell within the
former walled city, of which only a small fragment survives as
part of the eastern boundary wall of the St. George's Hospital.
In 1813 there were 10,801 persons living in the fort, 5,464, or
nearly 50%, of them Parsis. With the growth of the city more
people came from the Fort to such suburbs as Byculla, Parel,
Malabar Hill, and Mazagaon. European sports clubs for cricket
and other games came in to existence early in the 19th Century.
The Bombay Gymkhana was formed in 1875 exclusively for
Europeans. Other communities followed this example, and various
Parsi, Muslim, and Hindu gymkhanas were started nearby with
fierce sports competitions among them being organized on a
communal basis. This was opposed by several secular minded
persons, such as the late A.F.S. Talyarkhan, and sports teams
based on community, especially cricket teams, came to an end
gradually after independence from British rule in 1947.
The historic session of the All
India Congress Committee began on the 7th of August 1942. Its
venue was the Gowalia Tank Maidan, where the congress was born
in 1885. It was at this session that the "Quit India" call was
given by Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian National Congress
leaders. The Indian leaders were arrested by the British soon
afterwards but the momentum of the Quit India movement could not
be stopped and led to the final withdrawal of the British on 15
August 1947. The last British troops on Indian soil left for
England through the archway of the Gateway of India on that day.
They bade farewell from where they had entered 282 years before.
The people of Bombay, in a gesture of generosity wished them bon
voyage, forgetting the bitter memories of the fight for
independence. Today the maidan from where the call to "Quit
India" was given is called the "August Kranti Maidan".
After independence the Congress
party led by Jawaharlal Nehru at the Center was swept to power
in most of the Indian States, which were constituted on the
basis of language spoken by the majority of its people. The
Bombay State included the city as its seat of government. In
1960 the state of Bombay was split into Maharashtra and Gujarat
states again on linguistic basis, the former retaining Bombay
city as its capital. The Congress party continued to administer
Maharashtra until 1994 when it was replaced by the Shiv
Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition.
With the success of the back-bay
reclamation scheme in the late 1960s and early 1970s Nariman
Point became the hub of the business activity. Several offices
shifted from the Ballard Estate to Nariman Point which
ultimately became one of the most expensive real estate in the
world as high demand pushed prices to astronomical limits.
Nariman Point is named after K.F. Nariman, president of the
Bombay Provincial Congress Committee and former mayor of Bombay.
Churchgate Street was also renamed as Veer Nariman Road after
independence.
The Stock Exchange at Bombay was
established in 1875 as "The Native Share and Stockbrokers
Association" which has evolved over the decades in to its
present status as the premier Stock Exchange in India. It is one
of the oldest in Asia having preceded even the Tokyo Stock
Exchange which was founded in 1878. In the early days the
business was conducted under the shade of a banyan tree in front
of the town hall. The tree can still be seen in the Horniman
Circle Park. In 1850 the Companies Act was passed and that
heralded the commencement of the joint stock companies in India.
The American Civil War of 1860 helped Indians to establish
brokerage houses in Bombay. The leading broker at the time,
Premchand Roychand, assisted in framing conventions, ground
rules and procedures for trading which are respected even now.
He was the first Indian broker who could speak and write in
fluent English. The exchange was established with 318 members
with a fee of Re. 1/-. This fee has gradually increased over the
years and today it is a over a crore.
In January 1899, the Brokers' Hall
was inaugurated by James M. MaClean, M.P. After the First World
War the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was housed in an old
building near the Town Hall. In 1928, the present plot of land
was acquired surrounded by Dalal Street, Bombay Samachar Marg,
and Hammam Street. A building was constructed in 1930 and
occupied in December of that year.
In 1995 the operations and dealings
of the BSE were fully computerized and thus the famous out-cry
system of share trading was replaced by screen based trading as
in other modern stock exchanges around the world. Today Bombay
is the financial and business capital of India. The BSE is
housed in the 28-storied Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers in the same
place where the old building once stood. Sir Phiroze Jamshedji
Jeejeebhoy was the Chairman of the Exchange from 1966 till his
death in 1980. The building has been named after him since its
construction commenced during his Chairmanship and was completed
just as he passed away.
