Mumbai is a perfect mingle of different communities. Shattered many a times by terrorist attacks, yet the city of Mumbai holds the magnanimous attraction that could ignite your curiosity to know the city all about.
The course of Mumbai's history would have been different had the Portuguese not given the tiny island of Bom Bahia in dowry to their Royal Princess, Catherine of Raganza, when she married Charles II of England. The British had no idea of what they had got. They leased the islands for a pittance to the East India Company, which quickly realised their potential as an excellent natural harbour in the Arabian Sea. The Father of Bombay-Gerald Aungier, established courts of justice, and also encouraged people of all communities to settle in Bombay. This resulted in Gujaratis, Parsis, Hindu Banias and Arab traders fleeing from the oppression of Jesuits in Goa, to settle in Bombay, giving the city its vibrant cosmopolitan identity.
The city's present name comes from goddess Mumba, worshipped by the Koli fishermen, who were the Island's original inhabitants. And today Mumbai has some 15 million people, from billionaire tycoons to homeless pavement dwellers, living in this teeming megalopolis.
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