Welcome to Mumbai, India
Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and is the most populous Indian city. It is located on an island off the west coast of India and has an estimated metropolitan population in 2005 of 17 million, making it the sixth largest metropolitan area in the world. Clustered along with its outlying satellite townships, it forms one of the world’s most populous conurbations. The city, which has a deep natural harbor, is also the largest port in western India, handling over half of the country’s passenger traffic. Mumbai is the commercial capital of India, and houses important financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies. Owing to the immense business opportunities available in Mumbai and the relatively high standard of living, it has attracted migrants from all over India and South Asia, making the city a potpourri of various communities and cultures. Within Mumbai is Bollywood, the epicenter of the country’s Hindi film and television industry, annually producing the world’s highest number of films. Mumbai is also one of the rare cities to accommodate a National Park within its municipal limits. The appellation Mumbai is an eponym, derived from Mumba: the name of the local Hindu goddess Mumbadevi and Aai, which means mother in Marathi. In the 16th century, the Portuguese named the area Bom Bahia, meaning Good Bay. Later corrupted to Bombaim, it is still known as such in Portuguese. After the British gained possession, it was anglicized to Bombay. The name was officially changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995. Bombay is still popularly used in the West and by many of the city’s inhabitants and institutions.
Politics in India
For most of its independent history, the Indian National Congress Party has controlled India’s national government. Following its position as the largest political organization in pre-independence India, Congress, usually led by a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family, enjoyed nearly unchallenged dominance over national politics for over forty years. In 1977, a united opposition (BJP) won the election and formed a non-Congress government for a short period. In 1996, the BJP, with its right wing ideology based on Hinduism became the largest single party, and established for the first time a serious opposition to the left wing ideology of Congress. In 1999, the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) along with smaller parties and became the first non-Congress government to sustain the full five-year term. Short-lasting governments, with seven separate governments forming within that period, marked the decade prior to 1999. In the 2004 Indian elections the Congress party returned to power after winning the largest number of seats, by a narrow margin. Congress formed a government in alliance with the Communist Party of India and with several mostly-regional parties. The NDA, led by the BJP, currently forms the main opposition. All governments formed since 1996 have required party coalitions, with no single majority party, due to the steady rise of regional parties at the national level.
posted by Hills @ 12:25 AM
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