Question

why the population of Bombay become rise in middle 19th century

Answer 1

Four reasons for Bombay’s expansion :
(i) When Bombay became the capital of Bombay Presidency in 1819, the city expanded. With the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders, bankers, as well as artisans and shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay.

(ii) When textile mills were established in Bombay there was fresh surge of migration.The first cotton textile mill in Bombay was established in 1854. In 1921, there were 85 cotton mills with about 146,000 workers.
About one-fourth of Bombay’s inhabitants between 1881 and 1931 were born in Bombay,the rest were migrants from nearby district of Ratnagiri to work in Bombay mills.

(iii) Bombay was a junction of two major railways. This encouraged an even higher scale of migration into the city. For example, famine in dry regions of Kutch drove large number to Bombay in 1888-89.

(iv) Bombay became a premier city of India in the late 19 th century. It dominated maritime trade of India and its population expanded from 644, 405 on 1572 to nearly, 1,500,000 in 1941.





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