Mumbai Fables: A History of an Enchanted City

A sweeping cultural history of Indias largest city A place of spectacle and ruin, Mumbai exemplifies the cosmopolitan metropolis. It is not just a big city but also a soaring vision of modern urban life. Millions from India and beyond, of different ethnicities, languages, and religions, have washed up on its shores, bringing with them their desires and ambitions. Mumbai Fables explores the mythic inner life of this legendary city as seen by its inhabitants, journalists, planners, writers, artists, filmmakers, and political activists. In this remarkable cultural history of one of the world's most important urban centers, Gyan Prakash unearths the stories behind its fabulous history, viewing Mumbai through its turning points and kaleidoscopic ideas, comic book heroes, and famous scandalsthe history behind Mumbai's stories of opportunity and oppression, of fabulous wealth and grinding poverty, of cosmopolitan desires and nativist energies. Starting from the catastrophic floods and terrorist attacks of recent years, Prakash reaches back to the sixteenth-century Portuguese conquest to reveal the stories behind Mumbai's historic journey. Examining Mumbai's role as a symbol of opportunity and reinvention, he looks at its nineteenth-century development under British rule and its twentieth-century emergence as a fabled city on the sea. Different layers of urban experience come to light as he recounts the narratives of the Nanavati murder trial and the rise and fall of the tabloid Blitz , and Mumbai's transformation from the red city of trade unions and communists into the saffron city of Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena. Starry-eyed planners and elite visionaries, cynical leaders and violent politicians of the street, land sharks and underworld dons jostle with ordinary citizens and poor immigrants as the city copes with the dashed dreams of postcolonial urban life and lurches into the seductions of globalization. Shedding light on the city's past and present, Mumbai Fables offers an unparalleled look at this extraordinary metropolis.

A fascinating exploration of my favorite city, full of insider knowledge and sharp insights.--Salman Rushdie

Gyan Prakash brilliantly combines the historian's savoir faire with the savvy seductions of the urban raconteur. Mumbai Fables splendidly explores the shape-changing, scene-setting experience of a city that dares to restlessly reinvent its horizons. It is the challenge of the 'present' and the survival of the everyday, Prakash argues, that gives Mumbai its myth and reality. 'It's now or never,' the city seems to sing, 'tomorrow will be too late.'--Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University

Blending historical research with a novelistic spirit, Mumbai Fables fluidly unfolds the development of the city in a rich narrative that makes the story come alive. Prakash challenges our understanding of Mumbai's cosmopolitanism and his colorful descriptions enhance our view of the city in manifold ways. This is a great book.--Rahul Mehrotra, RMA Architects and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This fabulous book is lively and engaging, as well as profound and important. In clear and compelling prose Prakash unearths dynamic features of one of the most important cities in the world, achieving a large-scale portrait, from its origins to today. Rich with stories, this is a masterful sweep through a great city's history.--Philip J. Ethington, University of Southern California

Mumbai Fables tells the moving history of this city through extended vignettes and personal stories that are a pleasure to read. Providing countless insights, this superb book moves through different neighborhoods, time periods, and individuals, and wonderfully depicts the living city--the modern city--through five centuries of its existence.--Eric D. Weitz, author of Weimar Germany

Library Journal

In this finely researched account, Prakash (Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Princeton Univ.; Bonded Histories) examines the historical circumstances that led to the transformation of Bombay (now Mumbai) from seven island villages to the megalopolis of the present. Compelling backstories bring to light chapters in the city's history: Portuguese and British colonization; the reclamation of lands from the sea; the rise and fall of textile mills; union and working-class resistance to capitalism; communism that paved the way for the rise of the far-right Shiv Sena; the landmark trial that led to the abolition of juries; and the dysfunctional out-of-control city of the present. Prakash addresses the viewpoints of writers, the cinema industry, architects and urban planners, and tabloids, and he considers recent urban violence and terrorist attacks through the special angle of the Mumbai-set comic book series Doga (several strips are reproduced in color). VERDICT The book is scholarly yet accessible and will interest even the lay reader with its stories that illumine Bombay's past. Essential reading for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of Mumbai.—Ravi Shenoy, Naperville P.L., IL

"A place of spectacle and ruin, Mumbai exemplifies the cosmopolitan metropolis. It is not just a big city but also a soaring vision of modern urban life. Millions from India and beyond, of different ethnicities, languages, and religions, have washed up on its shores, bringing with them their desires and ambitions. Mumbai Fables explores the mythic inner life of this legendary city as seen by its inhabitants, journalists, planners, writers, artists, filmmakers, and political activists. In this remarkable cultural history of one of the world's most important urban centers, Gyan Prakash unearths the stories behind its fabulous history, viewing Mumbai through its turning points and kaleidoscopic ideas, comic book heroes, and famous scandals. Starting from the catastrophic floods and terrorist attacks of recent years, Prakash reaches back to the sixteenth-century Portuguese conquest to reveal the stories behind Mumbai's historic journey. Examining Mumbai's role as a symbol of opportunity and reinvention, he looks at its nineteenth-century development under British rule and its twentieth-century emergence as a fabled city on the sea. Different layers of urban experience come to light as he recounts the narratives of the Nanavati murder trial and the rise and fall of the tabloid Blitz, and Mumbai's transformation from the red city of trade unions and communists into the saffron city of Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena. Starry-eyed planners and elite visionaries, cynical leaders and violent politicians of the street, land sharks and underworld dons jostle with ordinary citizens and poor immigrants as the city copes with the dashed dreams of postcolonial urban life and lurches into the seductions of globalization. Shedding light on the city's past and present, Mumbai Fables offers an unparalleled look at this extraordinary metropolis"--Page [2-3] of dust jacket The mythic city The colonial Gothic The city on the sea The cosmopolis and the nation The tabloid and the city From red to saffron Planning and dreaming Avenger on the street Dreamworlds.