ABSTRACT
The Parsis also established a shipbuilding industry that was the basis of Bombay's economy until the nineteenth century. The Parsis, the British, and a substantial community of Sephardic Jews generally worked well together and devel oped Bombay into a sophisticated, tolerant city. Such coop eration was necessary for survival, as Bombay at this time was largely isolated from the rest of India, both because of geographical features such as the Western Ghāts mountains and political ones such as warfare by the Marāthās of central India.
