Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is an island city located on India's west coast; with a population of 18 million people, it is one of the largest cities in the world. Mumbai is responsible for more than half of India's foreign trade, has become a center for the country's global dealings in financial and producer services, and constitutes 40 percent of the state's annual direct central revenue. Since India's economic liberalization reforms in 1985 and 1991, Mumbai's economy, particularly the southwest area of Nariman Point, has increasingly globalized.

Mumbai occupies a key site in the Indian modern economic and cultural imagination. The city has often been described as inevitably cosmopolitan, given its economic and cultural diversity, drawing Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and others. The ...