ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, Mumbai has increasingly been the subject of novels written in English; these novels are most often set before 1995, when the city was renamed, and depict the city as a main character who denes the identities of its residents, even as these inhabitants redene the city.1 These novels create a corpus of literature that constructs Bombay as more than just a mere backdrop to the plot, but as the beloved source of a character’s identity and the reviled cause of their destruction. I argue that this genre can be characterized by its emphasis on Bombay’s diverse population and overcrowding; by the struggles to dene individual identity in a city that changes so rapidly and constantly; by clashes between individual identity, local communal identities, and national identities; and by the impositions of local city, state, and national politics on everyday life. Predominately male, rst-person focalizers in Bombay novels reveal the imaginative constructions of Bombay created to assuage the alienation self-proclaimed Bombayites experience in their modern urban lives. The ever-growing list of Anglophone Bombay novelists contains diasporic and indigenous writers including, but not limited to Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, Dilip Chitre, Boman Desai, Farrukh Dhondy, Anosh Irani, Cyrus Mistry, Rohinton Mistry, Jerry Pinto, R. Raj Rao, Salman Rushdie, Manil Suri, Shashi Tharoor, Thrity Umrigar, and Ardashir Vakil. These novelists depict the city Bombay as a place dened by the inherent contradictions between its magical possibilities and harsh realities; its extreme riches and extreme poverty; its industry and disease; and its service and inefciency.
