On the Arabian Sea

A young woman's traditional dupatta scarf flutters in the sea breeze as she overlooks the high-rises of Mumbai on a ferry boat from the Elephanta Caves. India is struggling to balance the traditional and the modern as it grows into a world leader in the 21st century.

The word “posh” comes from Mumbai, and it still fits.

When British passengers sailed for the former Bombay, the empire’s major port of entry in India, wealthy Britons could specify special tickets -- Port Out, Starboard Home – to keep them on the cool, shady side of the ahip for the entire trip.

The remains of the empire, from the massive India Gate at the old harbor landing, to the many Christian (Roman Catholic) churches, to the banks, universities, government centers and insurance companies, persist. All that financial, physical and cultural infrastructure provided much of the foundation for the high-rises, the commerce, and the financial and entertainment industries that make Mumbai among the most modern cities in India. Along with the high-tech Bangalore, Mumbai is among India’s fastest-growing cities, surpassing Dehli in population, and perhaps cultural influence.

A young girl looks out at the domed roof of the Taj hotel, site of a 2008 terrorist attack, and next to it, the India Gate of the British Empire on the center of the old harbor in Mumbai.

Mumbai is the home of Bollywood, the largest producer of films in the world. The entertainment industry also produces music, television, videos, animation and advertising. It’s also the major media center, home of most of the nation’s media companies and outlets.

Business and communications industries are among the legacies of the “Britishers,” with whom the Indians have a love-hate relationship. “The Britishers gave us three things that pulled different states and regions together into one country: the English language, the railroads and cricket,” said our friend Sangeet Seth, owner and CEO of the Velvet Apple hotel chain, where we stayed in Delhi.

“They also gave you uniform roads and laws,” I added.

Banana salesmen sell their fruit in the shade of the many roots and trunks of a banyan tree in Mumbai. The unique banyan sends out roots from its branches. One tree can cover an acre of land.

Still, the Indians feel a certain resentment of the British, who colonized them, reducing their 5,000-year-old culture to subservience in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The word “coolie,” though generally used describe low-status Chinese laborers, originated in India.

So the Indians seem to try a little harder to preserve and show off their culture and achievements than other cultures, and they try a little more, it seems, to ignore their problems, such as poverty and corruption.

A golden Hindu temple rises at the edge of a waterfront slum in Mumbai surrounded by new high-rise apartments and businesses.

As the nation grows and modernizes, the entertainment industry of Mumbai and the tech industry of Bangalore are the prime examples of what it can accomplish.

We explored old and new Mumbai with a visit to the old waterfront, and a trip to the Elephanta Caves, a center of worship on an island a few miles off the coast of India in the Arabian sea. Still-unknown Hindu worshippers deepened the caves and carved out giant statues, temples and living quarters in the rock from the second century before the Christian era through the 11^th century afterward. There is no record of who made these caves or why they chose that spot.

Tourists take pictures in front of a giant likeness of the god Maheshmurti Shiva within the first of the Elephanta Caves.

Carl Lindquist and Kate Zibluk pause at the entrance to one of the Elephanta caves.

We came and went beside the India Gate, a huge arch erected in 1911, at the height of the British Empire before World War I,  for King George V and Queen Mary.  The gate marked the major port of entry for the British, the East India Company and the empire.

We sailed on a small ferry boat across the sea, and as usual, we were among the only westerners. We toured the caves and came back to a tour of the city.

The history, western-style opulence and the values that opulence represents attract envy and anger among some more traditionally oriented groups. The power and size attracts attention, too. In 2008, a group of two dozen terrorists sailed from Pakistan, took over the Taj hotel on the waterfront and  attacked a few other sites in the city, all but shutting it down for a week. They also killed several Indians and some western tourists.

The maitre' d of Leopold's, a famous Mumbai restaurant popular with ex-patriot westerners, pauses near the entrance of the establishment. The restaurant has preserved bullet holes from a 2008 terrorist attack in the upper part of the poster at left, and above the wall painting at right. Pakistani terrorists attacked the restaurant and killed several customers during their weeklong rampage.

The Indian army caught a great deal of criticism for allowing so small a force to control the hotel, and the attention of the world, for all that time. But many Indians are proud of the way the army handled the situation. Sam Sorami, our tour guide, explained that the army’s main objective was sparing civilians rather than routing the terrorists. He said it would have been easy to obliterate the historic hotel and the terrorists within, but many more innocent bystanders would have been injured or killed. “We did it right, and it took time,” Sorami said.

Security remains tight. Hotels and businesses screen cars and customers, and the navy retains a strong presence in the harbor.  There have been no instances of terror attacks since 2008. Indeed, the Pakistanis and the Indians are engaged in wide-ranging peace talks to secure their borders and solve their 60-year border dispute in Jammu and Kashmir in the far north.

Mumbai is warily moving forward, and quickly upward. Jammed between the high hills in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west, about the only way to grow is up, and apartments and businesses are increasingly housed in high-rises. Apartment living is a fairly recent phenomenon, Sorami said. “Most Indians didn’t live in apartments until about 20 years ago,” he said.

In Mumbai, they are moving into apartments and going to school and getting jobs. Of course, the slums and poverty are still here, but they are fewer than in Delhi or Agra.

And while Mumbai is growing up and cleaning up, the question remains of what culture and what values it is leaving behind. That’s among the major questions facing the largest democracy in the world as it grows into the 21^st century.