Mumbai Municipal Corporation provides primary and secondary education in at least 10 languages, including English. Mumbai has developed its own patter, “Bombay speak”, which regular Hindi/Urdu speakers find rather comical. It is often caricatured in Indian films and plays. The Hindu population of Mumbai is largely Marathi, though most non-Marathi Mumbaikars are also Hindus, with Jains among the Gujaratis, and neo-Buddhists among the Dalits.
Local Muslim nawabs ruled this region, but handed it over to the Portuguese in 1534 in exchange for support against the Mughals. This was the beginning of Mumbai’s large Christian (mainly Roman Catholic) population and its numerous churches, which led to two separate areas in Mumbai coming to be known as “Portuguese Church”. A few churches retain their Portuguese facades: St Andrew’s in the suburb of Bandra is a fine example. There are also minor remains of Portuguese fortifications both on the main island and the much larger island of Salsette north of the city and now mostly incorporated in Greater Mumbai. (Also being developed is a New Mumbai on the mainland, a few miles across Mumbai harbor.) At Vasai (Bassein), 50 km (30 miles) from Mumbai, there are ruins of a Portuguese walled settlement.
In 1662 Charles II of England married Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. As part of the dowry, the British crown received the islands of Mumbai. This company of merchant-adventurers had for some time felt the need for an additional west-coast port, to supplement and ultimately to supplant Surat in Gujarat. Far-sighted governors of this period, such as Gerald Augiers, began the construction of the city and harbor, inviting the settlement of Gujarati merchants and Parsi, Muslim and Hindu manufacturers and traders to help develop the city. This led to the settlement of all these communities in Mumbai.
Cotton boom town
The slow transformation of the swampy islands during the 17th and 18th centuries gave way in the 19th century to rapid change. In 1858, the Honourable East India Company returned the islands to the British crown. In the 1850s came the steam engine and by the end of the century Mumbai was linked with central and northern India by the Great Indian Peninsular Railway and, some time later, with eastern India, too. During this period, Mumbai became an important cotton town. Raw cotton from Gujarat was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth and brought back to Mumbai for sale all over the country. Notwithstanding this, Mumbai’s cotton textile industry was established in this period, thanks to the persistence of Mumbai’s entrepreneurs. The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 and the opening of the Suez Canal gave further impetus to cotton exports. The city’s new-found wealth led to the construction of many impressive buildings.
