50 Fun Facts About Mumbai

Mumbai is the capital of which Indian state?

With about 12.5 million people in the city proper and 23 million in the metro region, it is India's most populous city and its financial capital.

The city's English name was officially changed from Bombay to Mumbai in which year?

The Shiv Sena party had just won the state elections and argued the old name echoed colonial rule.

The name Mumbai derives from Mumbadevi, patron goddess of which native fishing community?

The 'ai' ending means 'mother' in Marathi; the Portuguese wrote 'Bombaim' after 1512.

Mumbai was built on an archipelago of how many islands?

Ptolemy called the cluster Heptanesia in 150 CE; the Hornby Vellard causeway later joined them into one.

The islands passed to England in 1661 as part of whose dowry on her marriage to Charles II?

The Portuguese had held them since 1535; the East India Company then leased them for £10 a year from 1668.

England leased the islands to the East India Company in 1668 for what annual rent?

The population rose from 10,000 in 1661 to 60,000 in 1675, and the Company moved its headquarters from Surat in 1687.

Which engineering project, begun in 1782, merged the islands into one by reclaiming the sea between them?

Completed by 1784, with the wider reclamation done by 1845, it turned Bombay into a major Arabian Sea port.

India's first passenger railway, opened on 16 April 1853, ran from Bombay to which neighbouring town?

The 14-coach train took 57 minutes for the 34 km, stopping at Sion to take on water.

During which conflict did Bombay become the world's chief cotton-trading market?

The 1861–65 boom was followed by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, which made the city a great Arabian Sea port.

On 1 May of which year was the present state, with Bombay as capital, created after a movement to split Bombay State?

Gujarat was carved off at the same time; 105 protesters died and Flora Fountain became Hutatma Chowk, Martyrs' Square.

The Gateway of India was erected to commemorate the 1911 landing of which British monarch?

He was the first British monarch to visit India; the basalt arch was finished in 1924.

The last British troops in India marched out through the Gateway of India in which year?

They left with a 21-gun salute on 28 February, six months after independence.

CSMT, the city's great Indo-Gothic railway station, was officially known by what name until 1996?

Frederick William Stevens designed it in exuberant Indo-Gothic style; it opened in 1887, Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee year, and is a UNESCO site.

Mumbai has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Terminus, the Elephanta Caves and which other?

Art Deco lines Marine Drive and the Oval Maidan, facing the Gothic Revival university and High Court.

The Elephanta Caves in Mumbai Harbour are dedicated mainly to which Hindu god?

Their most famous carving is the three-faced Trimurti Sadashiva; the Portuguese named the island after elephant statues they found there.

Marine Drive's nickname, the Queen's Necklace, comes from what?

Pallonji Mistry built the 3-km promenade in 1940 on reclaimed land; Girgaon Chowpatty lies at its northern end.

The Bandra–Worli Sea Link, opened in 2009, is a cable-stayed bridge roughly how long?

Officially the Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link, its eight lanes join the western suburbs to South Mumbai; the Trans Harbour Link is now longer.

Mumbai's suburban trains, the 'locals', carry roughly how many commuters a day, in millions?

Spread over 450 km, the network runs 2,342 services a day and is Asia's oldest railway system.

Mumbai's dabbawalas do what for a living?

Some 5,000 of them work by bicycle and train, a system begun by Mahadeo Havaji Bachche in 1890.

Roughly how many lunchboxes do Mumbai's dabbawalas move each day?

The famous 'one mistake in 8 million' figure was an extrapolation by a Forbes writer; the magazine never certified them as six-sigma.

Vada pav, Mumbai's most famous snack, consists of a deep-fried potato dumpling served in what?

Nicknamed the Bombay burger, it dates from a Dadar station stall of 1966.

Who is credited with opening the first vada pav stall, outside Dadar railway station in 1966?

The Shiv Sena later championed the snack at 'vada pav jamborees' for mill workers.

Dharavi in central Mumbai, home to about a million people, covers roughly how much land?

Founded in 1884, it is one of the world's densest places and hosts about 15,000 single-room factories and a big recycling industry.

Bollywood is the industry making films in which language?

The name blends Bombay and Hollywood; it is only part of Indian cinema, and most sets are at Film City in Goregaon.

India's first feature-length film, Raja Harishchandra, was made by Dadasaheb Phalke in which year?

The first Indian talkie, Alam Ara, followed in 1931, four years after The Jazz Singer.

The first Indian sound film, Alam Ara (1931), was made in which language?

Ardeshir Irani produced the commercially successful talkie.

Which 1975 blockbuster starring Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan typifies the Bollywood 'masala' film?

Ramesh Sippy directed it.

The BSE, established in 1875, holds what distinction?

The city also houses the Reserve Bank of India, the National Stock Exchange and the securities regulator SEBI.

Mumbai generates about 6 percent of India's GDP and roughly what share of its maritime trade?

Three ports handle the traffic; the city also accounts for a quarter of industrial output.

In 2024, Mumbai overtook Beijing as the Asian city with the most what?

The 2024 Hurun Global Rich List counted 92 billionaires in Mumbai; in 2019 it was already among the world's top ten cities by billionaire count.

The Wankhede Stadium hosted the 2011 final of which tournament, when India became its first host nation to win?

India beat Sri Lanka; the ground also hosted Sachin Tendulkar's last international match and is home to the Mumbai Indians.

How many Ranji Trophy titles had Mumbai won by the end of 2023, the most of any side?

The first cricket Test in India was played at the Bombay Gymkhana; the city has two international grounds, Wankhede and Brabourne.

Which is Mumbai's biggest and most important festival, with almost 5,000 pandals set up across the city?

The state day on 1 May and the Marathi new year Gudi Padwa are the region's own holidays.

Mumbai is home to the world's largest population of which religious community, numbering about 60,000?

Parsis fled Iran after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia; their numbers are now declining rapidly.

The record 944 mm of rain that fell on Mumbai in a single day came on 26 July of which year?

Unplanned drainage and informal settlements make the city prone to monsoon flooding every year.

In which year did coordinated attacks kill 173 people over three days in Mumbai?

Ten attacks hit heritage landmarks and prestigious hotels; the city had earlier suffered 13 coordinated bombings in March 1993.

The Great Bombay Textile Strike of 1982 involved nearly how many workers?

It brought down the mill sector; the defunct cotton mills have since become prime redevelopment sites.

The Haji Ali Dargah in Worli, built in 1431, honours what kind of figure?

It dates from the Gujarat Sultanate's rule over the islands.

Which 1534 agreement handed the islands to Portugal?

Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat signed it, fearing the Mughals under Humayun; the islands changed hands on 25 October 1535.

Which caves in Borivali, excavated in the 1st century CE, were a centre of Buddhism in western India?

They lie inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park; the Mahakali Caves in Andheri are of similar age.

What is a resident of Mumbai called in Marathi?

The suffix '-kar' means 'resident of'; the older 'Bombayite' is now rare.

The first Marathi newspaper, Bombay Durpan, was founded in which year?

Balshastri Jambhekar started it; Marathi and English are the government's official languages in the city.

Which Trombay institution operated the CIRUS nuclear reactor, shut down in 2010?

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research is also based in the city.

The Mumbai Metro's first line opened in which year?

The airport's new T2 terminal had opened that February; the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport is the city's aviation hub.

Which two areas were reclaimed from the sea in the late 1960s and became major financial centres?

Nariman Point and the Bandra Kurla Complex are now the city's main financial districts.

Which is Mumbai's highest point, at 450 metres?

Northern Mumbai is hilly, while Salsette Island's east coast is mangrove swamp and its west coast sandy and rocky.

Which 1989 port across the creek at Nhava Sheva was built to relieve Mumbai Harbour?

New Bombay, now Navi Mumbai, had been founded in 1979 to absorb the city's growth.

Which architect designed the Gateway of India in Indo-Saracenic style?

His final design was sanctioned only in 1914, and construction of the basalt arch took until 1924.

Roughly how large is Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which lies partly within Mumbai's suburbs?

Also called Borivali National Park, it contains Tulsi and Vihar lakes and straddles the Mumbai suburban and Thane districts.

Besides Maharashtra, over which other state does the Bombay High Court have jurisdiction?

Its jurisdiction also covers the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.