Mumbai

"Leaving aside the Presidency and confining oneself to the City of Bombay, there can be no doubt that the record of the city is the blackest. The first Hindu-Muslim riot took place in 1893. This was followed by a long period of communal peace which lasted up to 1929. But the years that have followed have an appalling story to tell.... Taking the total period of 9 years and 2 months from February 1929 to April 1938 the Hindus and Muslims of the City of Bombay alone were engaged in a sanguinary warfare for 210 days during which period 550 were killed and 4,500 were wounded. This does not of course take into consideration the loss of property which took place through arson and loot."

"Bombai also used to be considered a pearl of the Orient, with its necklace of lights along the corniche and its magnificent British Raj architecture. It was one of India's most diverse and plural cities, and its many layers of texture have been cleverly explored by Salman Rushdie—especially in '—and in the films of . It is true that there had been intercommunal fighting there, during the time in 1947-48 when the grand historic movement for Indian self-government was being ruined by Muslim demands for a separate state and by the fact that the Congress Party was led by a pious Hindu. But probably as many people took refuge in Bombay during that moment of religious bloodlust as were driven or fled from it. A form of cultural coexistence resumed, as often happens when cities are exposed to the sea and to influences from outside. —former Zoroastrians who had been persecuted in Persia—were a prominent minority, and the city was also host to a historically significant community of Jews. But this was not enough to content Mr. and his movement, who in the 1990s decided that Bombay should be run by and for his coreligionists, and who loosed a tide of goons and thugs on the streets. Just to show he could do it, he ordered the city renamed as "Mumbai," which is partly why I include it in this list under its traditional title."

"Architecturally, Bombay is one of the most appalling cities of either hemisphere. It had the misfortune to develop during what was, perhaps, the darkest period of all architectural history."

"The name of Mumbai is also connected in the spiritual tradition of the city. In the Sanskrit Sthala-Purana or local history, as related by city historian K. Raghunath in his book Hindu Temples of Bombay, published in 1900, it is explained that there was once an island in the city’s vicinity where lived a powerful giant named Mumbarak. The island was named after him. After engaging in great austerities, Mumbarak pleased Lord Brahma who gave him a blessing that he would be free from death at anyone’s hands, and would be successful in his undertakings. Upon receiving such a blessing, Mumbarak became a source of trouble to the people and the devas or gods. Therefore, the gods and people went to Lord Vishnu for a solution, that they be protected and the demon destroyed. Thereafter, both Vishnu and Shiva extracted a portion of their luster and made it into the Goddess Devi to destroy the giant. The Goddess beat the demon almost to death, and threw him on the ground and told him to ask for one last blessing. He begged that she join his name with hers and perpetuate that name on earth. The Goddess agreed and named herself Mumbadevi. In this way, the name Mumbai is connected with that tradition. “Mumbai” is the invocation of the Goddess for protection of the city."

"Bombay was central, had been so from the moment of its creation: the bastard child of a Portuguese-English wedding, and yet the most Indian of Indian cities. In Bombay all Indias met and merged. In Bombay, too, all-India met what-what-not-India, what came across the black water to flow into our veins. Everything north of Bombay was North India, everything south of it was South. To the east lay India’s east and to the west, the world’s West. Bombay was central; all rivers flowed into its human sea. It was an ocean of stories; we were its narrators, and everybody talked at once."

"Bombay was the safest city in the world and it continues to be the safest."

"When we talk of a resurgent Asia, people think of the great changes that have come about in Shanghai. I share this aspiration to transform Mumbai in the next five years in such a manner that people would forget about Shanghai and Mumbai will become a talking point."

"This is indeed India! the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations — the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined. Even now, after the lapse of a year, the delirium of those days in Bombay has not left me, and I hope never will."

"The kolis who succeeded the stone-age men on the island brought with them from Gujarat their patron goddess Mummai whom their descendants still worship in Kathiawar. The name of Bombay is derived from this koli goddess."

"Hark! from Salsette's once fair and flowery shore The jackall's cry, the tiger's hollow roar; Where dark-eyed -girls danced in beauty's pride, The toad spits venom now, and serpents glide."

"In the 60s, India still retained many of the trappings of a medieval country. We used to wait for cows as safe escorts in order to cross the traffic-filled British boulevards of Mumbai and naked sadhus were still seen walking in the city with their begging bowls. Repairs to the exterior of our apartment building were made from bamboo scaffolding, rising twenty stories and held together only with string! A village of fishermen, their fires, animals and tents, subsisted in the very middle of the downtown area. Gold smuggling supported the “District of Song”, the neighboring slum. In the midst of all of this, Homi Bhabha, like Kublai Khan, had built his Xanadu: the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), an ultra-modern paradise for scientists. Clean, air conditioned, efficiently run, this was where all this wonderful math was being done."

"Commenting on the 26/11 massacre of Mumbai, Bimal, Politburo member, was quoted in Hindustan Times, saying: ‘We do not support the way they attacked the Victoria station, where most of the victims were Muslims. At the same time, we feel the Islamic upsurge should not be opposed as it is basically anti-US and anti-imperialist in nature. We, therefore, want it to grow.’"

"Mainstream media coverage of these rampaging, cold-blooded murderous acts of jihad terrorism—perpetrated by a self-professed mujahideen organization (i.e., “The Deccan Mujahideen”2)—consistently ignored the clear ideological linkage to Islam. .... Blithely ignoring obvious Islamic and Muslim connections—credit taken for the attacks by a mujahideen organization;13 or testimony from a Turkish Muslim couple (Meltem and Seyfi Muessinoglu) briefly apprehended and then released unharmed by the jihadists because, “[w]hen the Muezzinoglus said they were Muslims, their captors told them that they would not be harmed”— some media (e.g., NPR) even voiced their own “speculations” about the possible culpability of “Hindu extremists,” an absurd calumny, stated in full paranoid transference mode by the Muslim Brotherhood: "A photograph published in Urdu Times, Mumbai, clearly shows that Mossad and ex-Mossad men came to India and met Sadhus and other pro-Hindutva elements recently. A conspiracy was clearly hatched.""

"On the floor of parliament, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram officially dismissed comments made by the Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay that implied Hindutva elements may have been involved in the Mumbai attacks. Antulay sparked a political controversy on December 17 with comments insinuating that the killing of Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare by the Mumbai terrorists was somehow linked to Karkare's investigation of bombings in which radical Hindus are suspected. The outlandish comments suggested that somehow Hindutva elements were in league with the Mumbai attackers, or used the attacks as cover to kill Karkare. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) immediately called for Antulay's resignation and protested with boisterous walkouts in parliament over the course of five days. Compounding matters, the Congress Party, after first distancing itself from the comments, two days later issued a contradictory statement which implicitly endorsed the conspiracy. During this time, Antulay's completely unsubstantiated claims gained support in the conspiracy-minded Indian-Muslim community. Hoping to foster that support for upcoming national elections, the Congress Party cynically pulled back from its original dismissal and lent credence to the conspiracy. Regardless of Chidambaram's dismissal (and Antulay's party-ordered retraction), the Indian Muslim community will continue to believe they are unfairly targeted by law enforcement and that those who investigate the truth are silenced. The entire episode demonstrates that the Congress Party will readily stoop to the old caste/religious-based politics if it feels it is in its interest."

"[India cannot] “jump on an entire nation” (Pakistan) just because some people from there came and did something.”"

"Nussbaum diluted the attempts to deal with the Mumbai terror attack of 2008, stating that ‘it’s important to consider Indian terrorism in a broader context. Terrorism in India is by no means peculiar to Muslims’. In discussions on the Mumbai attacks of 2008, she quickly diverts the discussion away from Islamic terror by citing the 2002 violence in Gujarat and the 2008 Hindu-Christian violence in Orissa, without giving the full context of either. By manipulating the contexts, she equates local communal incidents with terrorism: ‘All of this is terrorism, but most of it doesn’t reach the world’s front pages’. In this manner, she has been effective in shifting attention away from anti-India terrorism."

"I had broken the initial barrier and I had found a chink in his armour. If all had gone well, he would have been dead with a red string tied around his wrist like a Hindu. We would have found an identity card on his person with a fictitious name: Samir Dinesh Chaudhari, student of Arunodaya Degree and P.G. College, Vedre Complex, Dilkhushnagar, Hyderabad, 500060, resident of 254, Teachers Colony, Nagarabhavi, Bengaluru. Ramesh Mahale, Prashant Marde and Dinesh Kadam would have been on their way to Hyderabad to find more about him. There would have been screaming headlines in newspapers claiming how Hindu terrorists had attacked Mumbai. Over-the-top TV journalists would have made a beeline for Bengaluru to interview his family and neighbours. But alas, it had not worked that way and here he was, Ajmal Amir Kasab of Faridkot in Pakistan, and I was asking him, ‘Ki karan aya hai?’ (What are you here for?)"

"How exactly did they embark upon the sea journey? Kasab was asked. On the fifteenth day of Ramzan, they were taken to a hilly area, where in addition to the firing practice, they were trained to assemble bombs with timers. They were also schooled to dismantle and assemble an inflatable dinghy and taught to remove its sea valve. They were trained to surreptitiously plant bombs below the driver’s seat in running taxis. Soon their hair was cut and the beards shaved off. New clothes and shoes were purchased for them and they were also given watches set to Indian time. The labels on their clothes were removed to prevent identification. Their photographs were clicked to make fake identity cards to pass them off as Indian Hindus. To complete the Hindu impersonation, they were instructed not to forget tying the red sacred threads around their wrists before landing. They were then taken by a train to a LeT safe house in Azizabad in Karachi."

"This appears to be a pattern: whenever Muslim riots or bomb attacks target Hindus, it is thought acceptable to accuse the victims, in order to avoid possible revolts. Thus in 1993 in Mumbai, after eleven coordinated bomb blasts in Hindu majority areas, which killed 257 people and injured 713, the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar quickly cooked up a twelfth explosion ... in a Muslim area! “I have deliberately misled people,” he explained later, to show that both communities had been affected.” And to portray both communities’ potential to behave as “terrorists”. Truth and clarity of mind are the casualties."

"If Kasab was not taken alive, 26/11 would have been termed as ‘Hindu terror attack’ and RSS would have been banned."

"The series of blasts... are shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear and terror among our citizens. My heart reaches out and grieves for all those affected by these blasts and who have lost their near and dear ones."

""Pakistan strongly condemns the series of bomb blasts on commuter trains in Mumbai, India. This despicable act of terrorism has resulted in the loss of a large number of precious lives."

"It was a well-coordinated attack, and the terrorists had used the ‘pressure cooker bombs’ to turn the city’s lifeline into a ‘deathline’."

"Bombay is energetic, exuberant, sparkling, and has building stones of many kinds and colours … on your dyspeptic days you are apt to find … Bombay's [architecture] bumptious, even riotous. In your more genial moments you might apply the adjective … 'vital'."

"The first thing you notice about Mumbai is the first thing you notice about every place the British once occupied, which is how much of themselves they left there. The United States spent over a decade and trillions of dollars in Iraq, and the only physical evidence that remains is a concrete embassy compound, some airstrips, and a sea of steel shipping containers. Maybe because they never considered that they might leave, the British built entire cities out of stone, with railways to connect them. And they did it with reliably good taste. Too often lost in the hand-wringing over the evils of colonialism is the aesthetic contribution of the British Empire. The Brits tended to colonize beautiful places and make them prettier. Bermuda, New Zealand, Fiji, Cape Town—notice a theme? Style wasn’t an ancillary benefit; it was part of the point. Behind every Gurkha regiment marched a battalion of interior designers."

"Nowhere is the architectural contrast starker and more jarring than in Mumbai. India is on its way to becoming a rich country, and Mumbai is its financial capital. Signs of wealth abound, from ubiquitous cranes to the mobile phones that every chai vendor carries. Fewer people seem to be living on the streets of downtown Mumbai than in midtown Manhattan. The good news is there’s a building boom under way. The bad news is, the results are appalling. Much of the new architecture is ugly, of course, straight from the Soviet-occupied-Poland school of design, but the construction is also shoddy. Buildings put up ten years ago are streaked with rust from exposed rebar, their concrete peeling apart in flakes. Even the newest blocks seem temporary or half-finished, as if nobody cared enough to complete the job. Not unlike post-invasion Baghdad, actually."

"Meanwhile, at the south end of town, the Raj still dominates the skyline, and breathtakingly so. Is there a more attractive clock building outside Europe than the Rajabai Tower, completed in 1878? Does America have a single railway station that compares to the one Mumbai commuters have used since 1887? A single post office more impressive than the one the British built there in 1913? A more majestic municipal building than the Bombay High Court? The old section of Mumbai amounts to an open-air time capsule, substantially unchanged from the day Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten flew back to London. Unfortunately, nobody has cleaned up since. The old buildings are filthy and neglected, with broken shutters, missing windows, and front lawns piled with rubbish. Just a block or two from the Taj Mahal Hotel, near the ocean in one of the priciest parts of the city, there’s a row of wooden Victorian houses, large and ornate and beautiful. It looks like a postcard, but walk closer. The roofs have been patched with blue nylon tarps. The porches sag where the support beams have rotted. Each one verges on collapse. There’s something crushingly sad about all this, but also instructive. Empires end, usually more quickly than expected. They’re not always replaced by something better. Worth remembering at election time."

"Architecturally, Bombay is one of the most appalling cities of either hemisphere. It had the misfortune to develop during what was, perhaps, the darkest period of all architectural history."

"The houses of this country (Maharashtra) are exceedingly strong and built solely of stone and iron. The hatchet-men of the Government in the course of my marching do not get sufficient strength and power (i.e., time) to destroy and raze the temples of the infidels that meet the eye on the way. You should appoint an orthodox inspector (darogha) who may afterwards destroy them at leisure and dig up their foundations."

"The Mosque of Qutb al-Din Mubarak Khalji at Daulatabad, dated AH 718/AD 1318, is probably the earliest surviving Muslim structure in the Deccan. It is a square, 260 feet each way, assembled into the usual orthodox plan out of destroyed Hindu pillars, brackets, and beams… It is said that the star-shaped Jaina Temple built in the Chalukya style at Bodhan in the 9th or 10th century was, also, transformed into a Mosque during the reign of Muhammad Tughlaq (AH 726-52/AD 1325-51)"