Maharashtra and Bombay
Bombay/Mumbai: The Postmodern City
Author(s): Mira Kamdar
Reviewed work(s):
Source: World Policy Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 75-88
Published by: and the
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40209533 .
Accessed: 07/09/2012 14:37
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp .
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World Policy
Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
REPORTAGE
Mira Kamdar is a seniorfellow at the World Policy Institute.
^^^
Bombay/Mumbai
^^^m
The Postmodern ity
C
^^^r
Mira Kamdar
Bombay is no longer Bombay. The official name of the city is now Mumbai, after a local female deity whose distinguishing characteristic is the lack of a mouth. In the wake of decolonization and the retreatof the
West, many cities in Asia that formerly sported Anglicized names have reindigenized them. We are now used to Beijing instead of Peking. We are getting used to Yangon for Rangoon. Across India, the recoveryof city names from Anglicized versions has been going on for some years:Barodais now
Vadodara,Poona is now Pune, Banaresis now Varanasi.But in Bombay'scase, there is much more at stake in changing the name to Mumbai than the simple recoveryof a name repressedunder colonial rule.
In I960, Bombay was made capital of the newly createdstate of Maharashtra. n
I
1966, the radicallypro-Maharashtrian arty, p the Shiv Sena, w;asfounded by a former newspapercartoonist, Bal Thackeray.The
Author(s): Mira Kamdar
Reviewed work(s):
Source: World Policy Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 75-88
Published by: and the
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40209533 .
Accessed: 07/09/2012 14:37
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp .
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World Policy
Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
REPORTAGE
Mira Kamdar is a seniorfellow at the World Policy Institute.
^^^
Bombay/Mumbai
^^^m
The Postmodern ity
C
^^^r
Mira Kamdar
Bombay is no longer Bombay. The official name of the city is now Mumbai, after a local female deity whose distinguishing characteristic is the lack of a mouth. In the wake of decolonization and the retreatof the
West, many cities in Asia that formerly sported Anglicized names have reindigenized them. We are now used to Beijing instead of Peking. We are getting used to Yangon for Rangoon. Across India, the recoveryof city names from Anglicized versions has been going on for some years:Barodais now
Vadodara,Poona is now Pune, Banaresis now Varanasi.But in Bombay'scase, there is much more at stake in changing the name to Mumbai than the simple recoveryof a name repressedunder colonial rule.
In I960, Bombay was made capital of the newly createdstate of Maharashtra. n
I
1966, the radicallypro-Maharashtrian arty, p the Shiv Sena, w;asfounded by a former newspapercartoonist, Bal Thackeray.The