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Essay – Mumbai, Maximum City: Modernity and Inequalities in Emerging India [CA v1.0] Use the following documents to write an essay (of 1 or 2 pages) about Mumbai, Maximum City: Modernity and Inequalities in Emerging India. To help you, some suitable topics: •
Mumbai, Gateway of India
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Tradition and Modernity in Mumbai
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Inequalities in Mumbai
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Mumbai and Globalization
Illustration 1: Map of India
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Illustration 2: Map of Mumbai, 2010 (src)
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Expats plan your move to Mumbai (Relocation guide), 2013 [3 min. 45]
Illustration 3: Mumbai University cricket fields, 2010 (src)
Illustration 4: Dharavi slum in Mumbai
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"The Mumbai shanty town featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire offers a better model than does western architecture for ways to house a booming urban population in the developing world, Prince [of Wales] Charles said yesterday. Dharavi, a Mumbai slum where 600,000 residents are crammed into 520 acres, contains the attributes for environmentally and socially sustainable settlements for the world's increasingly urban population, he said. The district's use of local materials, its walkable neighbourhoods, and mix of employment and housing add up to "an underlying intuitive grammar of
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design that is totally absent from the faceless slab blocks that are still being built around the world to 'warehouse' the poor". […] He shared a platform with Jockin Arputham, founder of the National Slum Dwellers Federation of India, who attacked attempts by foreign investors to clear large parts of Dharavi and replace them with 23-storey apartments". Booth, Robert, "Charles declares Mumbai shanty town model for the world", The Guardian, Friday 6 February 2009 (src)
Illustration 5: The Imperial towers (240 meters), central Mumbai, 2010 (src)
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Illustration 6: Mukesh Ambani's [22nd richest person in the world] $1 Billion Antilia House (src)
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"Mumbai, India's entertainment capital and home to Bollywood, is one of the most prolific centers of film production in the world. […] Bollywood is not a name for the Indian filmmaking industry; it is a name for the country's Hindi film industry […] The Indian film industry is the biggest in the world, with the American counterpart placing third — behind Nollywood, Nigeria's equivalent. According to India's censor board, more than 1600 films were produced in the country in 2012. Even in India, Bollywood is not the biggest industry in terms of output. Last year, more films were produced in Tamil (262) and Telugu (256) than in Hindi (221). Nevertheless, when it comes to global presence, box-office sales and far-reaching influence, Bollywood's might exceeds that of India's other film industries […] Along with being India's most populous city, Mumbai is also its wealthiest. The city is the hotbed of so many sectors in India that it simultaneously serves as the setting for various stories that would entail different locations in, say, the U.S. The city hosts India's stock market [Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange] and its entertainment industry; it's also a haven for the mafia […] the city is a true melting pot of cultures and languages. […] This prevalence of multiple societies adds to the storytelling potential of the city: A story about almost every community can be told with a Mumbai setting. […] Today, every major American studio -- from Walt Disney to 20th Century Fox -- has a presence in India, either by itself or via partnership. This has been a two-way exchange: the Mumbai-based Reliance group is now the parent company of Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks". Maheshwari, Laya, "Why Is Bollywood Such a Powerful Industry? Mumbai Provides An Answer", October 29th, 2013
Illustration 7: Mumbai SEZ (src) [Rs = indian rupees ; crore = 10,000,000; lakh = 100,000]
