Mumbai is India's financial capital and the capital of Maharashtra state, a peninsula city of colonial Gothic architecture, Bollywood studios, and one of the world's busiest commuter rail networks. The Gateway of India and the Arabian Sea promenade of Marine Drive frame a city where fishing villages, glass office towers, and the largest film industry on earth sit within a few kilometres of each other.
Mumbai's history is a story of water turned into land and of trade turned into a metropolis. Seven marshy islands inhabited by the Koli fishing community and dotted with Buddhist rock-cut caves at Kanheri and Shaiva temples at Elephanta passed from the Silhara kings to the Gujarat Sultanate, then to Portugal in 1534 and to the English Crown in 1661 as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry. Charles II leased the islands to the East India Company for ten pounds a year in 1668, and from that bargain grew a fortified trading port that swallowed its own harbour: two centuries of reclamation, beginning with the Hornby Vellard, welded the islands into a single landmass. Cotton, the opium trade, the first railway in Asia in 1853, and the Suez Canal in 1869 turned Bombay into the industrial and financial capital of British India, ringed by textile mills and crowned with Victorian Gothic and, later, Art Deco architecture. It was the city where the Quit India movement was launched in 1942, where the last British troops sailed out under the Gateway of India in 1948, and where the collapse of the mills after the great strike of 1982 opened the way for finance, film and the towers that now define its skyline.
Historical timeline
Key moments that shaped Mumbai.
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1
Kanheri Caves Begun
Buddhist monks begin excavating the basalt hillside at Kanheri, creating over a hundred caves, chaityas, viharas and rock-cut cisterns that remain in use for a thousand years
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2
Elephanta Caves Carved
Shaiva rock-cut temples are carved on Gharapuri island, including the 6-metre Trimurti Sadashiva that becomes the defining sculpture of the Indian subcontinent's cave art
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3
Banganga Tank Built
Lakshman Prabhu, a minister of the Silhara dynasty, builds the sacred water tank on Malabar Hill that survives as the oldest continuously used structure in the city
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4
Islands Pass to the Gujarat Sultanate
The Sultanate of Gujarat takes the seven islands from the Silhara successors, ruling them as a minor coastal possession for nearly two centuries
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5
Treaty of Bassein Cedes the Islands to Portugal
Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat cedes the islands to Portugal, which names them Bom Bahia and builds churches, chapels and manor houses across the archipelago
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6
Bombay Given as a Royal Dowry
Portugal transfers Bombay to the English Crown as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza on her marriage to Charles II
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7
Leased to the East India Company
Charles II leases the islands to the East India Company for ten pounds a year in gold, and Gerald Aungier begins building the fort, courts and mint that create a trading town
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8
Company Headquarters Move from Surat
The East India Company shifts its western Indian headquarters from Surat to Bombay, making the harbour the commercial centre of the western coast
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9
Hornby Vellard Reclamation Begins
Governor William Hornby's causeway closes the Great Breach at Worli, beginning the reclamation works that over the next century fuse the seven islands into one landmass
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10
First Passenger Railway in Asia
On 16 April 1853 the first passenger train on the subcontinent runs the 34 kilometres from Bori Bunder to Thane, launching the railway age in India
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11
The American Civil War Cotton Boom
With American supply cut off, Bombay's cotton exports to Britain soar, creating vast fortunes, funding public buildings and ending in a spectacular crash in 1865
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12
Suez Canal Opens
The opening of the Suez Canal shortens the route to Europe and confirms Bombay as the premier port of British India, its harbour rebuilt with new docks and warehouses
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13
Victoria Terminus Completed
F. W. Stevens's Victoria Terminus, now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, opens as the grandest Victorian Gothic railway station in the empire outside London
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14
Bubonic Plague and the City Improvement Trust
A devastating plague epidemic kills tens of thousands and prompts the creation of the Bombay City Improvement Trust in 1898, which drives slum clearance, new roads and reclamation
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15
Gateway of India Completed
The basalt arch commemorating the 1911 visit of George V and Queen Mary is finished at Apollo Bunder, becoming the ceremonial front door of British India
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16
Quit India Movement Launched
On 8 August 1942 Mahatma Gandhi calls on the British to quit India at Gowalia Tank Maidan, now August Kranti Maidan, and is arrested the following morning
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17
The Last British Troops Depart
On 28 February 1948 the First Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry marches through the Gateway of India, the final British troops to leave independent India
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18
Maharashtra Formed with Bombay as Capital
After the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation, Bombay State is divided on 1 May 1960 and Bombay becomes the capital of the new Marathi-speaking state of Maharashtra
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19
The Great Bombay Textile Strike
Around a quarter of a million mill workers led by Datta Samant strike for over a year; the mills never recover, and Girangaon's industrial heart gives way to offices and towers
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20
Bombay Renamed Mumbai
The state government officially renames the city Mumbai after the goddess Mumbadevi, worshipped by the Koli community who inhabited the islands long before colonial rule
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21
The 26 November Attacks
Coordinated attacks strike the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the Oberoi Trident and other sites over four days, reshaping the city's security landscape
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22
UNESCO Inscribes the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles
The ensembles of Victorian Gothic public buildings and Art Deco apartment blocks facing the Oval Maidan and Marine Drive are added to the World Heritage List
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23
Atal Setu and the Coastal Road Open
The 21.8-kilometre Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, India's longest sea bridge, and the first phase of the Coastal Road open, the largest reshaping of the city's geography since the colonial reclamations
Historical eras
The chapters of Mumbai's past.
Caves, Kolis and Early Kingdoms
Buddhist monks carved Kanheri and Shaiva sculptors created Elephanta while the Koli fisherfolk worked the creeks; the Silhara dynasty left the Banganga Tank and the Walkeshwar temple complex on Malabar Hill
Sultanate and Portuguese Bom Bahia
The Gujarat Sultanate ruled the islands until the Treaty of Bassein handed them to Portugal in 1534, which built churches, chapels and manors and left a Catholic community whose descendants still live in Bandra, Khotachiwadi and the coastal villages
Company Port and the Making of One Island
Handed to England as a royal dowry and leased to the East India Company for ten pounds a year, Bombay grew from a fortified trading post into the Company's western capital, while the Hornby Vellard and successive causeways joined the seven islands into a single landmass
Cotton, Railways and Victorian Bombay
The first Indian railway of 1853, the cotton boom of the American Civil War and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 built an industrial city of mills, docks and monumental Gothic public buildings, followed by plague and the sweeping reforms of the City Improvement Trust
Nationalism and Art Deco Modernity
Bombay became a crucible of the freedom struggle, from Gandhi's years at Mani Bhavan to the launch of Quit India at Gowalia Tank, while Marine Drive and the Oval Maidan filled with the second largest collection of Art Deco buildings in the world
Mill City and Maharashtra
Independence brought Partition migration, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement that made Bombay the capital of Maharashtra in 1960, and the peak and then collapse of a textile industry that employed hundreds of thousands in the chawls of Girangaon
Financial Capital and Contemporary Mumbai
After the 1982 strike killed the mills, the city rebuilt itself around finance, film and services, renamed itself Mumbai in 1995, endured riots, bombings and the 2008 attacks, and now expands vertically and seaward through metro lines, the Coastal Road and the Atal Setu sea bridge
Historical sites
Places where Mumbai's past comes alive.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
The most extravagant railway station of the British Empire, completed in 1888 as Victoria Terminus and inscribed by UNESCO in 2004 for its fusion of Victorian Gothic Revival with Indian architectural traditions.
Where: Fort, South Mumbai
Admission: Adult: Free to view the exterior; platform ticket INR 10 (approx USD 0.11) for non-passengers entering the concourse | Child: Free
Elephanta Caves
A UNESCO-listed complex of rock-cut Shaiva temples on an island in Mumbai Harbour, dominated by the 6-metre three-headed Trimurti Sadashiva carved from living basalt.
Where: Gharapuri Island, Mumbai Harbour
Admission: Adult: INR 600 (approx USD 6.33) for foreign nationals; INR 40 (approx USD 0.42) for Indian nationals, plus ferry fare of about INR 240 (approx USD 2.53) return | Child: Free for children under 15
Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai
A UNESCO ensemble in which Victorian Gothic public buildings on one side of the Oval Maidan face the world's second largest collection of Art Deco apartment blocks on the other, spanning seventy years of Bombay's architecture.
Where: Oval Maidan, Fort and Marine Drive, South Mumbai
Admission: Adult: Free to walk the precinct and maidan; Bombay High Court and University buildings are viewed from outside except on organised heritage tours | Child: Free
Kanheri Caves
More than 110 Buddhist caves cut into a basalt outcrop inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park, carved and inhabited by monks across a thousand years and served by an ingenious rock-cut water system.
Where: Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali East
Admission: Adult: INR 600 (approx USD 6.33) for foreign nationals; INR 35 (approx USD 0.37) for Indian nationals, plus Sanjay Gandhi National Park entry of INR 85 (approx USD 0.90) | Child: Reduced rates for children; free for children under 15 at the caves
Banganga Tank and Walkeshwar Temple Complex
A stepped freshwater tank of 1127 on Malabar Hill, ringed by temples, ghats and dharamshalas, and the oldest structure in continuous use anywhere in Mumbai.
Where: Malabar Hill, South Mumbai
Admission: Adult: Free | Child: Free
Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya
The Gamdevi house that served as Mahatma Gandhi's Bombay headquarters from 1917 to 1934, now a memorial museum preserving his room, his spinning wheel and the library of his political years.
Where: Gamdevi, South Mumbai
Admission: Adult: Free; donations welcomed | Child: Free
August Kranti Maidan (Gowalia Tank)
The open ground where Mahatma Gandhi issued the Quit India call on 8 August 1942, renamed August Kranti Maidan and marked by a memorial pillar to the movement.
Where: Grant Road, South Mumbai
Admission: Adult: Free | Child: Free
Museums
Curated collections that tell Mumbai's story.
Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum
The oldest museum in Mumbai, opened in 1872 as the Victoria and Albert Museum and restored to its gilded Palladian splendour, devoted to the decorative arts and social history of the city.
Specialty: The decorative arts, industries and social history of Bombay
Hours: Thu-Tue 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM; closed Wednesdays and selected public holidays
Admission: Adult: INR 20 (approx USD 0.21) for Indian nationals; INR 100-200 (approx USD 1.05-2.11) for foreign nationals | Child: INR 10 (approx USD 0.11) for children aged 3-12 and students with valid identification
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya
Mumbai's principal museum, housed in George Wittet's domed Indo-Saracenic building of 1915, with some 70,000 objects spanning Indus Valley terracottas, Gandhara sculpture and Mughal miniatures.
Specialty: Indian art, archaeology and natural history from the Indus Valley to the Mughal court
Hours: Daily 10:15 AM - 6:00 PM; last entry 5:30 PM
Admission: Adult: INR 700 (approx USD 7.38) for foreign nationals; INR 100 (approx USD 1.05) for Indian nationals | Child: Free for children under 5; discounted rates for students with valid identification
RBI Monetary Museum
A free museum run by the Reserve Bank of India tracing 2,600 years of Indian money, from punch-marked silver coins to Mughal mohurs, colonial banknotes and modern currency.
Specialty: Indian coinage, paper currency, financial instruments and the history of money
Hours: Tue-Sun 10:45 AM - 5:15 PM; closed Mondays and bank holidays
Admission: Adult: Free | Child: Free
Historical tours
Guided experiences that bring history to life.
Heritage walking tours
Guided walks through the Fort precinct, Kala Ghoda and Ballard Estate cover the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles inscribed by UNESCO in 2018, typically lasting two to three hours and costing around INR 800-2,000 (approx USD 8.44-21.10) per person
Khotachiwadi and girgaon tours
Heritage trusts and resident-led groups run morning walks through Khotachiwadi's East Indian Christian lanes and the Girgaon wadis, generally two hours and priced from INR 600-1,500 (approx USD 6.33-15.82)
Elephanta island tours
Half-day excursions combine the return ferry from the Gateway of India with a guided reading of the Shaiva reliefs; site guides can also be hired at the cave entrance, and licensed guides typically charge INR 1,200-2,500 (approx USD 12.66-26.37) per group
Mill lands and girangaon tours
Walks through Lower Parel, Byculla and the surviving chawls trace the textile mill era and the 1982 strike that ended it, usually three hours and priced from INR 1,000-2,500 (approx USD 10.55-26.37)
Private car with guide tours
A full-day private car with a licensed guide covering South Mumbai's monuments, museums and Malabar Hill runs roughly INR 4,000-8,000 (approx USD 42.19-84.39) depending on vehicle and season