BOMBAY, bom-bx', a province or presi dency of British India, stretching along the west side of the peninsula, and bounded on the north by Baluchistan, the Punjab, Rajputana; on the east by the native state of Indore, the Central Provinces, Berar and Haidarabad; on the south by Madras and Mysore; and on the west by the Arabian Sea. Politically' the presi dency consists of the British districts of Bom bay, Sind and Aden, with an area of 123,059 square miles and a population of 19,672,642, and of a number of native states with an area of 63,864 .square miles and a population of 7, 411,676. Its geographical limits include also the Portuguese 'settlements of Din, Damaun and Goa, and the important native state of Baroda, under the direct control of the Indian government. Most of the British territory was acquired by annexation from the Mahrattas, and by the lapse of Satara state. Sind was con quered in 1843. The chief cities are Bombay (Pop. 979,445), Poona '(Pop. 158,856), Ahmed adad (Pop. 216,777), Surat (Pop. 114,868) and Karachi (Pop. 151,903). The chief spoken lan guages are Marathi, used by nearly half the population; Gujrathi, used by the commercial classes; Kanarese and Sindhi. About three fourths of the population profess Hinduism, fully one-fifth are Mohammedans, the rest being Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Parsees, ab originals, etc.
The chief openings in the coast of Bombay are the gulfs of Cambay and Cutch, sepa rated by the of Kathiawar. The chief harbors are those of Bombay and Karachi. Physically the presidency consists of five dis tinct divisions; Sind in the north, flat desert is part, and mostly unproductive when not under itngation; Gujerat, a fertile alluvial plain, watered by the Taptee and Nerbudda rivers, the most populous region of the province; the Konkan, a mountainous country lying between the Western Ghats and the sea; the Deccan, a plain, without sufficient rainfall and devoid of vegetation during most of the year; finally the highly cultivated Karnatik plain, south of the river ICiltna. The chief mountain ranges are the Hala Mountains, west of the Indus, the Western Ghats, running north and south, near the coast, with an average elevation of 1,800 feet and peaks double that height, and the Sat Pura range, separating the basins of the Ner budda and the Taptee. The most important rivers are the Indus, Nerbudda and Taptee, all of which flow into the Arabian Sea; the Godavari and Kistna rise on the eastern slopes of the Ghats. Many short torrential rivers traverse the Konkan coastal strip. The forests of Sind consist chiefly of sisu, babul (a kind of acacia), bhan (a species of pop lar) and tamarisk; while from the forests of the western slopes of the Ghats are ob tained teak, blackwood, ebony, ironwood, babul, sandalwood and other valuable tim bers. The cocoanut and date palms, mango, jack, betel-nut, and myrobalans are other im portant indigenous vegetable products. Among the wild animals are the maneless lion of Gujerat the wild ass, leopard, • tiger, black bear, bison, antelopes and venomous snakes.
The climate varies greatly from one dis trict to another, two extremes being rep resented by upper Sind, with great heat and little rain, and the Konkan, with excessive rainfall, especially from June to October.
About three-fourths of the population are engaged in agriculture. The chief products are cotton, rice, millet, wheat, barley, dates, the cocoa-palm, oil-seeds, sugar and indigo. In 1912-13 the net area actually cropped was 25, 180,263 acres. The growth of cotton in Boni bay received a great impetus during the Ameri can Civil War; and although the great demand did not prove lasting, cotton continues to be a highly important crop, part of the produce be ing exported, and a considerable portion of it worked up in the cotton-mills of •Bombay city, Armedabad and Kandesh. Hand looms are also largely employed. Other important industries are silk-weaving, wood carving and metal working. The foreign trade of Bombay is very great; its imports, chiefly cotton piece goods, sugar, oils, metal and machinery, silks and other manufactures, exceed those of any other province in British India, while its ex ports, consisting of. raw cotton, seeds, wheat, opium, etc., are second only to those of Bengal. In 1905 there were 7,980 miles of railway, ex clusive of Sind; the chief lines are the Bombay, Baroda and Central India, northwards; the Great Indian Peninsular and Indian Midland, eastward; the Madras and Southern Mahratta, southeastward, of all of which Bombay city is the terminus; and the Northwestern Railway, the terminus of which is the port of Karachi. In 1912-13 the presidency expended 1,5,115,900 on education; there were 14,100 public educa tional institutions with 906,827 students and 3,020 private educational institutions with 80,858 students. The University of Bombay, one of the five in British India, was established in 1857. According to the census of '1911 the population in British territory numbered 19, 672,643, of whom only 1,372,826 were literates. The population of the native states was 7,411, 675, of whom 487,667 were literates.
The government of the presidency is ad ministered by a governor in council consisting of the governor as president, and two other members of the Indian Civil Service, all ap pointed by the Crown. There is also a legisla tive council of 48 members, 21 of whom are nominated, 21 elected, 4 ex-officio and 2 extra members. The native states are under the superintendence of British agents placed at the principal courts.
Bibliography.— Campbell, J., of the Bombay Presidency' (26 vols., Bombay 1896) ; Douglas, J., (Bombay and Western India> (London 1893) ; Edwards, S. M., The Rise of Bombay' (London 1902) ; Lee-Warner, Sir W., The Presidency of Bombay' (Lon don 1904) ; Malabari, B. M., (Bombay in the Making> (London 1910).