Mumbai: City of Dreams and Nightmares

— by Keith Carey

Mumbai, known as Bombay until 10 years ago, is a city of contradictions. It is India's richest city, yet it contains her largest slum, Dharavi. Though it was historically developed by people who had religious tolerance in mind, this has been the location for some of India's most bloody fighting between religious communities during the last 25 years. Mumbai is home to some of India's most conservative communities, but also some of her most liberal and westernized ones as well.

Yet in a city of between 12 and 17 million depending on which source you read, Mumbai is bound to be a place where you can find almost anything. Like the proverbial blind men who each touched an elephant in a different spot and came away with starkly different ideas of what an elephant was, one can come away from Mumbai with a totally different perspective depending on where you lived and who you met. Depending on which community you visited, you might think that this is a city of Hindus or Muslims; Jains, Zoroastrians, or Christians. And you would be right! To understand how Mumbai became this way, you will need to know something about her history. Let us start there.

A Brief History of Mumbai
The first known settlement for this part of India dates back to 600 BC. Three hundred years later this land became part of the Magadhan Empire ruled by the famous emperor Ashok. This empire eroded, leaving behind some Buddhist monks and Koli fishermen, whose goddess, Mumbadevi, gave this city her present name. By the late 1200s, a town called Mahim had grown up on one of the seven islands that now make up Mumbai. A hundred years later Gujarati Muslims captured it.

In the early 1500s, Mumbai got her first taste of European colonialism when Francis Almeida of Portugal sailed into her harbor. The Portuguese renamed this place Bom Bahia, meaning "the Good Bay" after they took it over from the Gujarati rulers. Portuguese missionaries reportedly forced some of the Koli fishermen to become Roman Catholics. There was little religious freedom under their rule. The Portuguese were not interested in building colonies in India, so in 1661, Catherine of Braganza gave Bom Bahia to Charles II of England as part of her marriage dowry.

Bombay Under British Rule
The new British colonizers, who Anglicized the name by renaming it again, this time as Bombay, leased it to the infamous East India Company. In 1669, Gerald Aungier became an East India Company president. He saw Bombay as a potential port that could rival others in the Subcontinent. To make this seemingly impossible dream become a reality, Aungier needed to lure local skilled workers to this malaria-ridden swampland. He did this by offering complete religious freedom, something that the former Portuguese rulers and local Indian chieftains denied. This proved to be a good move; many of India's best workers were Zoroastrians, Jews, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims. Many of the Muslim communities of neighboring Gujarat were, and still are, hard workers. Thus, we had the beginning of a tradition of religious plurality and tolerance. As the port developed, producing trade possibilities, the city grew in population and wealth. This process continued throughout the 18th century as Great Britain extended her influence by conquering local kingdoms.

The British Consolidate Their Power in the 19th Century
In 1817, the British Empire defeated the Marathas, and the way was set for them to have greater power in western India. They began a bold series of efforts to join the seven islands of Bombay into one land mass. Bombay remained in the control of the East India Company until a major revolt of Indian nationals in 1857, at which time the British crown took over.

A Zoroastrian Parsee started the first cotton mill in 1854, and his timing was very good. The American civil war of 1861-65 meant an interruption of England's cotton supply. Indian-grown cotton needed to be processed, so the British colonialists needed this Parsee's services. In 1869, the Suez Canal of Egypt opened up, shortening the route between Bombay and Europe. Bombay's importance as a port city for the British Empire expanded. The British developed an excellent railroad system to get raw materials to port. It was clear that the business of Bombay was business.

But not everyone was happy with the arrangement, especially many of the Parsee cotton merchants, some of whom financed the independence movement. Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu Bania, left South Africa and landed in Bombay in 1915 to help the cause. The "Quit India" declaration by the Indian National Congress on August 8, 1942 was almost prophetic; five years and a week later, India was released from the British Empire.

Current Challenges
By the time of Independence in 1947, Bombay was India's main port, financial and commercial center. Bombay's movie industry, commonly called Bollywood, portrayed this as a city of glamour and excitement. Indeed, today one-third of tax revenue in India is generated there! People from all over India poured into Bombay even faster than before.

According to a March, 1995 article in National Geographic, even slum dwellers in this city have jobs; they just don't have housing. Nor do they have adequate water, sanitation or roads. The city is growing too fast for the infrastructure to catch up.

But because of the prosperity of Mumbai, be it real or imagined, this city is home to members of almost every major, and many minor, ethnic groups and castes of India. Just as in the days of Gerald Aungier, Mumbai is still home to members of every religious group in India. For this reason, Bombay is especially important to reach for Christ.

Let us Pray!
Pray that some from every religious, ethnic and caste group in Mumbai will turn their allegiance to the King of Kings before this decade is over.

In the 1990s, there were interdenominational prayer efforts in Mumbai and other cities. Pray for tens of thousands of Mumbai Christians to join in these efforts and faithfully pray for the spiritual prosperity of their city.

Materialism is a major spiritual stronghold in Mumbai. Hindus have a special devotion to Ganesh, the god who helps one overcome obstacles and achieve prosperity. Pray that a true spirituality that leads the Hindus to Christ will become prevalent in Mumbai.

Ten years ago, the name of this city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai to honor the Hindu deity worshipped by the original Koli fishermen who lived there. Pray that the spirit of Christ will supercede the spirit of this goddess, Mumbadevi.