ABSTRACT
This chapter explores linkages between the colonial and the indigenous elite in the urbanization process of Bombay. Here the author argues how the accumulated capital from the opium trade in the western and central India was channelized in the urbanization of Bombay and played a pivotal role in the social stratification that was also reflected in the spatial organization of the city. This chapter focusses on the rise of class society in Bombay preceding the cotton boom because of the growing influx of the colonial capital which the author argues concretized after the factory-based industrialization. The chapter highlights the significant contribution of the Indians in the creation of a coastal colonial urban centre which challenges the otherwise dominant perception of the singular role of colonialism in shaping the so-called colonial cities.
