It took several days for me to hear that Mombai India was

[yy4me]

formally Bombay. Where have I been all this time and when did the name change? I try to keep in touch with goings-on but this one missed me. Anyone else?

[Madam Mossfern]

1. I think its more of a pronunciation change

than a name change. Like Beijing and Peking.

[liberalpragmatist]

5. Not really

Mumbai is the name of the city in the local languages, Marathi and Gujurati. Most Indians, however, called the city by the name Bombay (and most still do).

The name change was political -- a nationalist, neo-Fascist political party (the Shiv Sena) -- changed the name in the mid-90s as a political statement against non-Marathi speakers (a large proportion of the Bombay/Mumbai population) and against the British.

Most Indians really roll their eyes at the numerous name changes in India over the past decade. The issue is a real political football.

[DS1]

2. 1996

[frazzled]

3. 1995: Here's an excellent brief article explaining the change

http://www.slate.com/id/2145650/?nav=fix

[FredStembottom]

4. I send a lot of air-freight to mumbai.....

....and for years I have assumed it was one of those obscure industrial areas that have sprung up to dominance as America deflates. Like Clonmel in Ireland and Guangzhou (sp?) in China.

Now they tell me it's a new version of BomBay!

So.... you're not alone, yy4me! :blush:

[IntravenousDemilo]

9. Well, Guanzhou used to be called Canton. Not too obscure. n/m

[FredStembottom]

16. oops...not the one I meant.

Will post the one I mean after Senior Moment clears!

[liberalpragmatist]

6. Honestly, most Indians still call it Bombay

The name change is very controversial. It was an expressly political move by a far-right political party.

There have been numerous name changes throughout India the past decade-and-a-half.

For example...

* Madras is now Chennai
* Calcutta is now Kolkata
* Bengalore is now (as of early 2008) Bengaluru
* Trivandrum is now Thiruvananthapuram.

My Indian relatives still call all these cities by their original names.

[codjh9]

7. I dunno -I've heard 'Mumbai' for years now.

[Recursion]

8. "Bombay" is how the Brits spelled the Portuguese pronunciation of "Mumbai"

And since transliteration from Devangari to the Roman alphabet is not always exact particularly as regards nasals like "m" and "n" (eg, "pundit" could also be transliterated "pumdint" or "pandiht" depending on what scheme you're using), it's never been an exact science.

[IntravenousDemilo]

10. I'm expecting them to rename Bollywood as Mullywood eventually. n/m

[tritsofme]

11. I think it is absolutely dispicable for the media to keep the public in the dark about this.

Everyone in America recognizes the city of Bombay, but many fewer are familiar with Mumbai.

The fact they are the same city should have been made clear throughout this crisis.

[Midlodemocrat]

12. We must watch different news channels. I heard everyone

discussing it start out saying the city formerly known as Bombay. :shrug:

[Nexus7]

13. Boy, you people are seriously under-informed

It's been called Mumbai for ages now. It's their damn city, they can call it whatever they want. Some of you seem to be going off on the party that pushed the name change, hey, if the reich-wing parties in the US were happy with changing names of cities and leaving it at that, we should be so lucky.

[yy4me]

15. I wasn't "going off" on them. Somehow I missed this information

and rarely hear much about India. Since I work all day, I do not really watch the evening news. My basic cable is not worth watching. I read the paper every AM and it is because of the terrorist events in Mombai, I read a reference to it formerly being Bombay.

I'm the first to admit I don't know everything I should but was in no way disparaging the name. Just wondering.

[Nexus7]

17. And I wasn't going off on you either :)

I was referring to another poster who brought the Shiv Sena into this.

[Cleita]

14. I heard the story that the colonial British called it Bombay, but it was

originally Mombai and it sounded like Bombay to them.

[Amonester]

18. or maybe they just 'enjoyed' to "bomb it"

(since they were an imperialist 'empire')

[Catherine Vincent]

19. I didn't know they renamed Bombay either.

They should have left it alone. I liked the sound of Bombay. Another one I liked is Calcutta. I don't know why. :)