From Soviet Guidance to Rupee Symbol: IIT Bombay’s legacy in spotlight amid name change row

The 1961 Institutes of Technology Act declared all IITs as Institutes of National Importance. Over the decades, IIT Bombay expanded steadily with new departments, advanced research centres, interdisciplinary labs, incubators, and a postgraduate ecosystem that would produce thousands of researchers.

But the rise of IIT Bombay was also inseparable from the city that housed it, a city whose own history of names reflects centuries of shifting rule, culture, and political imagination.

Mumbai to Bombay, and Mumbai again: A layered history

Long before its colonial-era name, the region now called Mumbai finds mention as early as 250 BCE in Greek sources. As per government historical accounts stated in Mumbai City’s official government history page, available at mumbaicity.gov.in, the island cluster formed part of Emperor Ashoka’s Mauryan empire and later came under the Shilahara dynasty till 1343 CE.

The city’s indigenous identity draws from Mumba Devi, the patron deity of the Koli fishing community. “Mumbai” combines ‘Mumba’ (the Mother goddess) and ‘Aai’ (mother), anchoring the city in a native linguistic and cultural tradition. The colonial names, however, came much later.

In 1534, the Portuguese seized the seven islands of present-day Mumbai from Bahadur Shah, then Sultan of Gujarat, under the Treaty of Bassein. Once in control, they referred to the cluster of islands as “Bom-baim”, a name some historians believe was derived from bom baim or “good little bay,” a reference to its natural harbour.

More than a century later, the territory changed hands not through war but through a dynastic alliance. In 1661, the Portuguese handed the islands to the British Crown as part of the dowry when Catherine of Braganza married King Charles II of England.

The British, however, were initially unable to administer the region directly and, in 1668, Charles II leased the islands to the British East India Company for a nominal annual rent. Under the Company’s governance, the name “Bombaim” was Anglicised to “Bombay”, and the city rapidly grew into a commercial, military, and administrative centre over the next two centuries.

Eventually, in 1995, the state government officially adopted “Mumbai”, reasserting the city’s pre-colonial heritage and aligning its English name with its Marathi linguistic roots.

The push to rename IIT Bombay as IIT Mumbai, therefore, is not occurring in isolation, it fits into a legacy of reclaiming cultural identity, even as it challenges decades of institutional branding.

A name that carries weight, and the anxieties around changing it

According to recent political statements, the Maharashtra government plans to request the Centre to initiate the renaming process. But the move has already sparked apprehensions within academic and alumni circles.

One concern stems from global visibility. “IIT Bombay” is a brand carried across research publications, international collaborations, faculty profiles, alumni networks, patents, start-ups, and rankings. For many, altering the name risks diluting a legacy that has taken 65 years to build.

There is also a procedural layer: since IIT Bombay is governed under the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, changing its official name would require a parliamentary amendment. This goes beyond mere administrative requirements; it would imply a change in the institute’s signages – logos, names, banners, official documents going all the way back to its inception, then add to this the academic records in patents, research papers, published content and much more.