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Artifacts found near Kandivali in northern Mumbai indicate that these islands had been inhabited since the Stone Age. Documented evidence of human habitation dates back to 250 BC, when it was known as Heptanesia (Ptolemy) (Ancient Greek: A Cluster of Seven Islands). In the 3rd century BC, the islands formed part of the Maurya Empire, ruled by the Buddhist emperor, Ashoka. During its first few centuries, control over Mumbai was disputed between the Indo-Scythian, Western Satraps and the Satavahanas. The Hindu rulers of the Silhara Dynasty later governed the islands until 1343, when Gujarat annexed them. Some of the oldest edifices of the archipelago – the Elephanta Caves and the Walkeshwar temple complex date from this era.
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In 1534, the Portuguese appropriated the islands from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. They were ceded to Charles II of England in 1661, as dowry for Catherine de Braganza. These islands, were in turn leased to the British East India Company in 1668 for a sum of £10 per annum. The company found the deep harbour on the east coast of the islands to be ideal for setting up their first port in the sub-continent. 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 Mumbai. The city eventually became the headquarters of the Bombay Presidency. |
From 1817 onwards, the city was reshaped with large civil engineering projects aimed at merging all the islands in the archipelago into a single amalgamated mass. This project, known as the Hornby Vellard, was completed by 1845, and resulted in the total area swelling to 438 km². In 1853, India's first passenger railway line was established, connecting Mumbai to the 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 and subsequently enhancing the city's stature.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 transformed Bombay into one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea. Over the next thirty years, the city grew into a major urban centre, spurred by an improvement in infrastructure and the construction of many of the city's institutions. The population of the city swelled to one million by 1906, making it the second largest in India after Calcutta. |
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As capital of the Bombay Presidency, it was a major base for the Indian Independence Movement, with the Quit India Movement called by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 being its most rubric event. After India's independence in 1947, it became the capital of Bombay State. In the 1950s, the city expanded to its present limits by incorporating parts of Salsette island which lay to the north. |
After 1955, when the State of Bombay was being reorganised along linguistic lines into the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, there was a demand that the city be constituted as an autonomous city-state. Bombay Citizens' committee, an advocacy group comprising of leading Gujarati industrialists lobbied for Mumbai's independent status. However, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement opposed this, and insisted that Mumbai be declared the capital of Maharashtra. Following protests in which 105 people were killed by police firing, Maharashtra state was formed with Mumbai as its capital on May 1, 1960. In 1996, the city was renamed Mumbai by the Shiv Sena government of Maharashtra, in keeping with their policy of renaming colonial institutions after historic local names and also was the demand of the local population. |
The city's secular fabric was torn apart in the riots of 1992–93, after large scale sectarian violence caused extensive loss of life and property. A few months later, a series of co-ordinated bombings at several city landmarks by Islamic extremists and the Bombay underworld killed around three hundred people. Over two hundred people were killed in the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings when several bombs exploded on the Mumbai Suburban Railway. Recently the city has seen a series of politically motivated assaults on the North Indian population by the members of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. From 26 November through 29 November, 2008, a group of armed Islamic terrorists launched attacks in the southern part of Mumbai, murdering nearly 200 people, injuring hundreds and taking hostages in multiple locations including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Trident Hotel, Leopold Café and the Jewish outreach center at Nariman House.
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