Bombay Before Mumbai

'City of Gold', 'Urbs Prima in Indis', 'Maximum City': no Indian metropolis has captivated the public imagination quite like Mumbai. The past decade has seen an explosion of historical writing on the city that was once Bombay. This book, featuring new essays by its finest historians, presents a rich sample of Bombay's palimpsestic pasts. It considers the making of urban communities and spaces, the workings of power and the nationalist makeover of the colonial city. In addressing these themes, the contributors to this volume engage critically with the scholarship of a distinguished historian of this frenetic metropolis. For over five decades, Jim Masselos has brought to life with skill and empathy Bombay's hidden histories. His books and essays have traversed an extraordinarily diverse range of subjects, from the actions of the city's elites to the struggles of its most humble denizens. His pioneering research has opened up new perspectives and inspired those who have followed in his wake. Bombay Before Mumbai is a fitting tribute to Masselos' enduring contribution to South Asian urban history

'City of Gold', 'Urbs Prima in Indis', 'Maximum City': no Indian metropolis has captivated the public imagination quite like Mumbai. The past decade has seen an explosion of historical writing on the city that was once Bombay. This book, featuring new essays by its finest historians, presents a rich sample of Bombay's palimpsestic pasts. It considers the making of urban communities and spaces, the workings of power and the nationalist makeover of the colonial city. In addressing these themes, the contributors to this volume engage critically with the scholarship of a distinguished historian of this frenetic metropolis. For over five decades, Jim Masselos has brought to life with skill and empathy Bombay's hidden histories. His books and essays have traversed an extraordinarily diverse range of subjects, from the actions of the city's elites to the struggles of its most humble denizens. His pioneering research has opened up new perspectives and inspired those who have followed in his wake. Bombay Before Mumbai is a fitting tribute to Masselos' enduring contribution to South Asian urban history

A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us an insider’s view of this stunning metropolis. He approaches the city from unexpected angles, taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs, following the life of a bar dancer raised amid poverty and abuse, opening the door into the inner sanctums of Bollywood, and delving into the stories of the countless villagers who come in search of a better life and end up living on the sidewalks. As each individual story unfolds, Mehta also recounts his own efforts to make a home in Bombay after more than twenty years abroad. Candid, impassioned, funny, and heartrending, Maximum City is a revelation of an ancient and ever-changing world.

The history is told here how, within three centuries, seven west-coast islands evolved into the Bombay peninsula, then into a flourishing center for trade. It ultimately became the cosmo politan, high-rise metropolis of Mumbai.

Mumbai India s financial nerve centre & biggest port is a melting pot with a population of over fifteen million.Bursting at the seams, the crowded, pulsating city is not just a city of gold but also a city of dreams it is home to the Bollywood. BOMBAY: THEN Enriched with in-depth historical research and exclusive photographs, Bombay: Then documents the transformation of the once insignificant cluster of islets into one of the most exciting spots for cultural exchange in South Asia. Among other views, the book illustrates the Mankeshwar temple and the Rajabai Clock Tower wrapped in scaffolding; the construction of Victoria Dock and the opening of its massive underwater gates; a lush and sparsely populated Malabar Hill; a rare view of the interior of a Parsi fire temple; factory scenes inside the Royal Mint and the Times of India units; what the stock exchange looked like nearly a century ago; and many breath-taking aerial shots of this beautiful island-city. Bombay: Then is a sheer visual treat through extraordinary historical photographs. MUMBAI: NOW Mumbai India s financial nerve centre and biggest port is a melting pot with a population of over fifteen million. Bursting at the seams, the crowded, pulsating city is not just a city of gold but also a city of dreams it is home to the Hindi film industry, also known as Bollywood. Mumbai: Now captures the city s chaotic but spirited and robust present, and brings this shape-shifting, elusive city to you from the stories of the first Goan migrants to the lives of native Koli fishermen; from the tradition of dabbawalas to that of cutting chai; and from the potters in Dharavi to the pink flamingos in Sewri in a series of beautiful, moving pictures that capture the many moods and faces of Mumbai.

Traces the development of Indian cinema from the 1920s to the mid-1990s, before "Bollywood" erupted onto the world stage. Bombay before Bollywood offers a fresh, alternative look at the history of Indian cinema. Avoiding the conventional focus on India’s social and mythological films, Rosie Thomas examines the subaltern genres of the “magic and fighting films”—the fantasy, costume, and stunt films popular in the decades before and immediately after independence. She explores the influence of this other cinema on the big-budget masala films of the 1970s and 1980s, before “Bollywood” erupted onto the world stage in the mid-1990s. Thomas focuses on key moments in this hidden history, including the 1924 fairy fantasy Gul-e-Bakavali; the 1933 talkie Lal-e-Yaman; the exploits of stunt queen Fearless Nadia; the magical neverlands of Hatimtai and Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp; and the 1960s stunt capers Zimbo and Khilari. She includes a detailed ethnographic account of the Bombay film industry of the early 1980s, centering on the beliefs and fantasies of filmmakers themselves with regard to filmmaking and film audiences, and on-the-ground operations of the industry. A welcome addition to the fields of film studies and cultural studies, the book will also appeal to general readers with an interest in Indian cinema. At the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom,Rosie Thomas is Professor of Film, Faculty of Media, Arts, and Design, Director of the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, and Co-Director of the India Media Centre.

Mumbai has been extensively photographed over the past century. Like New York, it is a city full of men and women with aspirations of making it big in life. Mumbai is also known as a dream factory because of the overwhelming presence of its film industry, one of biggest in the world. This book collects nearly three decades of work from Raghu Rai, one of Indias foremost photojournalists. The pictures encompass life in all its manifestations from the high-rise skyscrapers to the gushing waves of the Arabian sea. It shows movement and activity that almost never ceases fairs and festivities, political demonstrations, films in the making, and the advertising and modelling scene.

These fourteen essays revisit Mumbai and the many facets of its political life over the last 100 years. They reveal the urban political and socio-cultural development of the city and together constitute an extremely readable and accessible biopgraphy of the city.