Kol or Cal; Mum or Bom - On Name Changes in India

A few days ago a friend of mine from the Czech Republic, guest blogged about his experiences in Mumbai.

As I added the words “A Czech’s take on Mumbai” to the title of his post, I realized that it was the only place the city?s name “Mumbai” had been used in a post specifically written about it. The older name “Bombay” however appeared over twenty times.

Online, I found a very interesting paper published at the University of California at Berkeley titled “The Politics of Name Changes in India” where the author says, in reference to Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta;

“most non-Indians still have no idea that they are now named Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata”

Bombay, the city I love and am proud to call my own had its name changed to Mumbai in 1995 ? twelve years ago! I remember the entire furor the name caused back then; all the questions about whether we were a city (and indeed a country) advancing or regressing, whether going back to past or more ‘Indianized’ names would make us less international. I remember how many people vowed never to call the city by its new name, as a means of protest.

When Bombay was changed to Mumbai, the then ruling party responsible for the name change claimed that the native Kolis had “named the island Mumbai, after their divine protectress” and that Mumbai” was a derivation of the name “Mumbadevi”, a goddess worshipped by the Kolis.

However records state that it was the Portuguese colony on the islands was called “Bom Bahia”, meaning “Good Bay” or “Good Harbor”. This colony, not any ancient settlement, was given to King Charles II of England as his dowry for marrying the Portuguese princess Catherine de Braganza in 1661, at which point the name was anglicized to “Bombay”.