Mumbai History and Story of Mumbai

In place of the present day city was 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. They were known as Heptanesia (Ancient Greek: A Cluster of Seven Islands) to the Greek geographer Ptolemy in 150 CE. 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. Later, between second century BCE and ninth century CE, the islands came under the control of successive dynasties: Satavahanas, Abhiras, Vakatakas, Kalachuris, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas, before being ruled by the Silhara dynasty from 810 to 1260. Raja Bhimdev founded his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century and established his capital in Mahikawati (present day Mahim). He brought settlers of various communities from Saurashtra and Deccan to Mahikawati. The Muslim rulers of Gujarat annexed the islands in 1348.[21] They were later governed by the Gujarat Sultanate from 1391 to 1534. From 1491 to 1494, the islands suffered several sea piracies from Bahadur Khan Gilani, a nobleman of the Bahamani Sultanate.

In 1534, the Portuguese appropriated the seven islands of Bombay from Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate by the Treaty of Bassein. However, the seven islands were later surrendered, on 25 October 1535. They were ceded to Charles II of England in 1661, as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal. 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. 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.[34] The islands suffered incursions from the Mughals in the late 17th century.
The Gateway of India was built to commemorate the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary in India in 1911

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. 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. 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 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 and Bombay City.
Flora Fountain was renamed Hutatma Chowk ("Martyr's Square") 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. Following protests by the movement in which 105 people were killed by police, Bombay State was reorganised on linguistic lines on 1 May 1960. 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.

The city's secular fabric was torn apart in the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992–93 in which more than 1,000 people were killed. 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. In 2006, 209 people were killed and over 700 injured when seven bombs exploded on the city's commuter trains. A series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks by armed gunmen from 26 November 2008 to 29 November 2008 resulted in 164 deaths, 308 injuries, and severe damage to several important buildings.