Opinion The maximum threat

There are other reasons why Mumbai commands a special status,and not just in India. A recent meeting of architects,historians,social scientists and town planners in Paris concluded that to qualify as a “great” city or “world city”,it must exert a significant impact upon global commerce,finance,media,art,fashion,research,technology,education and entertainment. Only a handful of cities met that criteria,and Mumbai is possibly the only Indian city that does. Technology may be a Bangalore monopoly,and the media perhaps more inclined to Delhi,the centre of political power,but in every other way,Mumbai makes the grade. Its near-legendary corporate czars are now global players,their business impact being felt in every continent. In fact,the most profitable technology company in India (TCS) is based in Mumbai,not Bangalore. In the global entertainment arena,Bollywood is now as well known as Hollywood. Canadian author Neil Frazer writes: “Global cities are the sites for global finance and other specialised service firms,the sites of key innovations,including innovations in services,and they are markets for the products and innovations produced.” No other innovation in service matches the global wonder of Mumbai’s unique dabba system.

There are others. Drive in from the airport,and you now cross the Worli Sea Link,a technical and engineering accomplishment that is a lesson in innovation. Take a detour past Antilla,the richest private residence in the world. It is humungous and distorted and vulgar but it’s also a scale of ambition that only Mumbai would demand. Innovation and ambition are as much part of the Mumbai character as the underworld and the slums. Then there is the iconography: the original gateway to India,it now has a permanent signature of that status,the Gateway of India and the ever-elegant arc of Marine Drive flirting with the Arabian Sea. All along,the crumbling art deco mansions,sea salt rubbed into their wounds,express their own peculiar symbol of defiance — you can hurt us but never bring us down. There is history hidden behind those decaying walls. Crawford Market is the bustling area in a semi-dilapidated 1869 building where many Mumbaikars buy fruit,vegetables and meat. None of them know that the bas-relief work on the building exterior was done by Lockwood Kipling,Rudyard’s father.

Modern history has made it what it is today. Almost everyone in Mumbai arrived here as an immigrant over the last century,giving the city a vibrancy and cosmopolitanism that is different from other cities. Nowhere else do you find that feeling of constant movement and vibrancy: only New York has that effect. Like New York,it has a very active citizenry whose pride of place and belonging sets it apart. It’s the one place where you can make a mark and also make a difference. The actor Judy Dench once said about New York: “The city has a great capacity to transform people.” Mumbai has done that to so many,the count is lost.

There’s a greater urgency required to ensure that Mumbai retains its special status and sense of destiny. As nation-states wane under the transforming power of globalisation,cities are growing in power,filling in the spaces being left vacant. Mumbai can play that role if politicians,bureaucrats and security agencies allow it to. There is a terrible irony emerging,a city where people find their freedoms — of choice,of opinions,of celebrations,of living — are finding those very freedoms under severe threat,and not just from the terrorists. Mumbai must survive — and thrive — if India is to survive and thrive.

dilip.bobb@expressindia.com