FROM SEVEN
ISLANDS TO
ONE LEGENDARY CITY.
Mumbai was not always Mumbai. What is now the most populous city in India was once a cluster of seven islands — Bombay, Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Mahim, Mazgaon, Parel and Worli — inhabited by the Koli fishing community for thousands of years.
The Portuguese arrived in 1534, and the British East India Company followed in 1661 when the islands were gifted to King Charles II as part of a royal dowry. The British saw the natural harbour's potential and began the monumental land reclamation that slowly merged the islands into the peninsula we know today.
IT'S AN EMOTION."
By the 20th century, Bombay had become the commercial capital of India — the gateway for cotton trade, home to the first Indian stock exchange, birthplace of the Indian film industry and the beating heart of the nation's financial system.
Renamed Mumbai in 1995, the city wears its Marathi heritage proudly while still being the home of every language, faith, cuisine and dream that India contains. This is the city.
Mumbai's Dharavi, often called Asia's largest slum, is also one of its most productive economies — generating an estimated ₹1,000 crore annually through leather, textiles and recycling industries.