Added: 10/09/2005 |
Mumbai travel - be ready for changesDecided on Mumbai travel? Then get ready for changes, as Mumbai is one place where nothing is permanent except change. One of the most modern cities in India, Mumbai accepts you the way you are- bizarre, normal, mundane or plain crazy. The only hitch out here is always to be ready for a change. Changes are bricks on which the history of Mumbai has been built.
Mumbai is real, vibrant & full of energy. It's the commercial capital of India, a beautiful island full of beaches, India's answer to Hollywood, a land of opportunity & a shopper's delight. I guess you get interested in Mumbai travel if you have not decided on it yet. There's more - it's a place where you'd find a slum peacefully co-existing next to a multi storied building, a local train and bus plying at 1 am in the morning, people who'd go out of their way to help a lost stranger. I think it needless to say that Mumbai is also famous for being a financial carital of India.
In order to be ready for Mumbai travel you should know at least some facts about Mumbai history. Between the 9th and 13th centuries, the Indian ocean, and especially the Arabian Sea, was the world's center of commerce. Deep sea crafts made of wood tied together with ropes transported merchandise between Aden, Calicut, Cambay and cities on the West coast of Africa. Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta and other travellers passed by without ever making a landfall in these lands. Bombay changed hands many times. The islands belonged to the Silhara dynasty till the middle of the 13th century. The oldest structures in the archipelago--- the caves at Elephanta, and part of the Walkeshwar temple complex probably date from this time.
For years, the Dutch and the British tried to get information on the sea route to India, often by spying. Even the reports of such spies never bother to mention Bombay. Eventually, in 1661, Catherine of Braganza brought these islands to Charles II of England as part of her marriage dowry. The British East India Company received it from the crown in 1668, founded the modern city, and shortly thereafter moved their main holdings from Surat to Bombay. George Oxenden was the first governor of a Bombay whose place in history was finally secure.
Through the 18th century British power and influence grew slowly but at the expense of the local kingdoms. The migration of skilled workers and traders to the safe-haven of Bombay continued. The shipbuilding industry moved to Bombay from Surat with the coming of the Wadias. Artisans from Gujarat, such as goldsmiths, ironsmiths and weavers moved to the islands and coexisted with the slave trade from Madagascar. During this period the first land-use laws were set up in Bombay, segregating the British part of the islands from the black town
Already India's main port and commercial centre, the City of Gold lured the poverty stricken rural population and the expanding middle class equally. The population boom of the '50s and '60s was fuelled by the absence of opportunities in the rest of the country. The language riots, the reorganisation of Indian states and the see-saw politics of the country did not seem to affect the city. The glamour industry's flattering portrayal of Bombay seemed to be the reality. However, by the late '80s the other big Indian cities had choked in their own refuse and Bombay's roadahead seemed to be blighted. How this city, renamed Mumbai in the mid 90's copes with the challenge of controlling its political fragmentation, disastrous health problems and load of pollution by utilising its wealth of talent and manpower is a story to be told by future historians.
As you see Mumbai travel is promising to be interesting starting from the history of Mumbai and finishing with modern attraction of the city. Among the attractions that you will find in the city there are Essel World, the first and foremost amusement park; Ajanta caves; Flora Fountain, erected by the Agri-Horticultural society of Western India; a number of temples, Nehru Planetarium, and shopping centers and markets.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
