(i) Bombay as capital city : Bombay became the capital of the Bombay Presidency in 1519. after the Maratha defeat in the Anglo – Maratha war. The city quickly expanded. With the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders and bankers as well as artisans and shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay.
(ii) Industrialisation: The establishment of textile mills led to a fresh surge in migration. The first cotton textile mill in Bombay was established in 1854. By 1921, there were So cotton mills with about 1,46,000 workers. Only about one-fourth of Bombay’s inhabitants between 1881 and 1931 were born in Bombay ,the rest came from outside. Large numbers flowed in from the nearby district of Ratnagiri to work in the Bombay mills.
(iii) Introduction of railways: The first railway was introduced from Bombay to Thane in 1853 It was at the junction head of two major railways. The development of railway encouraged an even higher scale of migration into the city.
(iv) Famines: Famines in the dry regions of Kutch drove large number of people into Bombay in 1888-89. The flood of migrants in some years created panic and alarm in official circles.
(v) Bombay as a film city: By 1925. Bombay had become India’s film capital. Most of the people in the film industry were themselves migrants who came from cities like Lahore. Calcutta. Madras, etc
