Sources and Related Material
Off-line Resources
Much of the information in these pages is gleaned from off-line resources. A significant fraction comes from newspapers. Some of these articles have been archived. Autobiographies and scholarly biographies are specially useful as historical sources. Maps and guide books for Bombay, from different times, are also useful sources of information. Finally, the following books were extremely useful, and are highly recommended reading--
- Empires of the Monsoon, by Richard Hall, Harper Collins, 1996. This is a wonderfully readable history of the Indian Ocean littoral in the last millennium.
- City of Gold, by Gillian Tindall, Penguin Books, 1992. This is a beautifully written piece of urban history, probably the first for Mumbai.
- Bombay- The Cities Within, by S. Dwivedi and R. Mehrotra. A beautifully produced book on urban history by a team consisting of an architect and a historian.
- Bombay: Metaphor for Modern India, by Sujata Patel and Alice Thorner, Oxford University Press, Bombay, 1995. This conference proceeding on aspects of Mumbai's public life is a good source of data.
- Bombay: Mosaic of Modern Culture, by Sujata Patel and Alice Thorner, Oxford University Press, Bombay, 1995. This conference proceeding is a good source for historical perspectives on the composite culture propagated by the entertainment industry.
The best fiction often gives the clearest picture of life in the city. Fortunately, Mumbai is the background to several wonderful novels and the subject of good reportage. A short selection--
- Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie.
- Such a Long Journey, by Rohinton Mistry.
- The City by the Sea, an article by Shiva Naipaul, is also insightful.
On-line Resources
Many other pages on Bombay have become available since 1995. The oldest (predating even these pages) was Manish Doshi's now extinct "The Gateway of India". The best named of all is Mumbai Central. Then there is the very useful Mumbainet.com. There are also several city newspapers on-line.