page_title: History of Mumbai
section_title: Indian freedom movement
hierarchical_section_title: History of Mumbai / British period / Indian freedom movement
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking down on the city of Bombay towards the south east, from the summit of Rajabai Tower, part of the University at Bombay.
context_page_description: Human habitation of Mumbai existed since the Stone Age, the Kolis and Aagri were the earliest known settlers of the islands. The Maurya Empire gained control of the islands during the 3rd century BCE and transformed it into a centre of Buddhist culture and religion. Later, between the 2nd century BCE and 9th century CE, the islands came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties: Satavahanas, Abhiras, Vakatakas, Kalachuris, Konkan Mauryas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas, before being ruled by the Silharas from 810 to 1260.
  King Bhimdev established his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century, and brought many settlers to the islands. The Muslim rulers of Gujarat captured the islands in 1348, and they were later governed by the Gujarat Sultanate from 1391 to 1534. The Treaty of Bassein between the Portuguese viceroy Nuno da Cunha and Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate placed the islands into Portuguese possession in 1534.
  The islands suffered incursions from Mughals towards the end of the 17th century. During the mid-18th century, the city emerged as an important trading town, with maritime trade contacts with Mecca and Basra.
context_section_description: The growth of political consciousness started after the establishment of the Bombay Presidency Association on 31 January 1885. The Bombay Millowners' Association was formed in February 1875 by Dinshaw Maneckji Petit in order to lourdes central school protect interests of workers threatened by possible factory and tariff legislation by the British. The first session of the Indian National Congress was held in Bombay from 28–31 December 1885. The Bombay Municipal Act was enacted in 1888 which gave the British Government wide powers of interference in civic matters. The Victoria Terminus of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, one of the finest stations in the world, was completed in May 1888. The concept of Dabbawalas (lunch box delivery man) originated in the 1890s when British people who came to Bombay did not like the local food. So the Dabbawala service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. On 11 August 1893, a serious communal riot took place between the Hindus and Muslims, when a Shiva temple was attacked by Muslims in Bombay. 75 people were killed and 350 were injured. In September 1896, Bombay was hit by a bubonic plague epidemic where the death toll was estimated at 1,900 people per week. Around 850,000, amounting to half of the population, fled Bombay during this time. On 9 March 1898, there was a serious riot which started with a sudden outbreak of hostility against the measures adopted by Government for suppression of plague. The riot led to a strike of dock and railway workers which paralysed the city for a few days. The significant results of the plague was the creation of the Bombay City Improvement Trust on 9 December 1898 and the Haffkine Institute on 10 January 1899 by Waldemar Haffkine. The Dadar-Matunga-Wadala-Sion scheme, the first planned suburban scheme in Bombay, was formulated in 1899–1900 by the Bombay City Improvement Trust to relieve congestion in the centre of the town, following the plague epidemics. The cotton mill industry was adversely affected during 1900 and 1901 due to the flight of workers because of the plague.
  The Partition of Bengal in 1905 initiated the Swadeshi movement, which led to the boycotting of British goods in India. On 22 July 1908, Lokmanya Tilak, the principal advocate of the Swadeshi movement in Bombay, was sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment, on the charge of writing inflammatory articles against the Government in his newspaper Kesari. The arrest led to huge scale protests across the city. The Bombay Chronicle started by Pherozeshah Mehta, the leader of the Indian National Congress, in 1910, played an important role in the national movement until India's Independence. Lord Willingdon convened the Provincial War Conference at Bombay on 10 June 1918, whose objective was to seek the co-operation of the people in the World War I measures which the British Government thought it necessary to take in the Bombay Presidency. The conference was followed by huge rallies across the city. The worldwide influenza epidemic raged through Bombay from September to December 1918, causing hundreds of deaths per day. The Lord Willingdon Memorial incident of December 1918 saw the handicap of Home Rulers in Bombay. The first important strike in the textile industry in Bombay began in January 1919. Bombay was the main centre of the Rowlatt Satyagraha movement started by Mahatma Gandhi from February — April 1919. The movement was started as a result of the Rowlatt Act, which indefinitely extended emergency measures during World War I in order to control public unrest.
  Following World War I, which saw large movement of India troops, supplies, arms and industrial goods to and from Bombay, the city life was shut down many times during the Non-cooperation movement from 1920 to 1922. In 1926, the Back Bay scandal occurred, when the Bombay Development Department under the British reclaimed the Back Bay area in Bombay after the financial crisis incidental to the post-war slump in the city. The first electric locomotives in India were put into 
caption: South-east view of Bombay from the Rajabai Clock Tower, 1919.
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