How many islands do you see?

Study the picture alongside carefully and answer this questionmdashhow many islands do you see Itrsquos not a trick question and your first answer seven will be correctOld timers and students of Mumbai history will recognise this number and remember the fairy tale Once upon a time circa 1600 most of the Konkan coast was ruled by the Portuguese including an archipelago with several islands one of them Bombaim which is Portuguesespeak for BombayThe British also in the area had their eyes on those islands The British East India Company headquartered in Surat thought the bay would be perfect for a fort and a port They had been negotiating with the Portuguese viceroy since 1652 but the talks were going nowhereLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsThen came a royal wedding Portugalrsquos King John IV offered the hand of his daughter Catherine of Braganza to King Charles II Although other brides were on offer from countries such as France and Spain Charles II chose Catherinersquos hand and we assume the rest of her As dowry King John IV promised the British king jewels worth 400000 crowns bills of exchange to double that amount the rights to free trade with Brazil and the East Indies Tangiersmdashand as tadka the island of Bombaim and its dependencies on Indiarsquos North Konkan coast The word ldquodependenciesrdquo unfortunately was left undefinedAccording to the usual beginnerrsquos history of Mumbai the history of this city officially started when the British acquired BombayThatrsquos poppycock of course For some months now Irsquove been rooting around in Mumbai history for the book Irsquom working on Bombai The Many Lives of a Megalopolismdashand a surprising little factoid jumped out Not only did the British not get the island in 1661 but they couldnrsquot agree with the Portuguese on how many islands there were in the archipelago and which ones were included in the dowryItrsquos a problem of enumeration During high tide the Brits argue many islands disappear under water and their number goes down But when the sea recedes therersquos land everywhere and you cannot tell some islands apart from their neighbours In many places you can walk over from one island to the nextAccording to the Portuguese there are only four islandsmdashColeo Colaba Bombaim Bombay Varel Worli and Mahim In their interpretation the dowry offers just one of these islands Bombaim to the BritishThe British however can see only two islands here and want both Colaba with its nearby Old Womanrsquos Island and one large island they called Bombay which contains Colaba Old Womanrsquos Island Bombay Worli Mahim Parel Mazagon Bombay to them was a single large island interwoven with tidal creeks and inletsThe quibbling goes on for four years In 1665 Humphrey Cooke the wily British governor adopted a baitandswitch strategy He agreed to all the Portuguese terms and definitions and took possession of just Bombay islandmdashbut almost at once marched into Mahim declaring it to be part and parcel of Bombay ldquoI never took boat to pass our men when I took the possession of itrdquo he argued ldquoAnd at all times you may go from one place to the other dry shod I cannot imagine how they can make them two islandsrdquoThe viceroy protested loudly that just because Cooke can walk to Mahim from Bombay does not make it English property He can see where the governor is going with this at low tide you can also walk from Bombay to Salsette crossing Mahim and BandraIt took seven years to reach an agreement but finally the British got their sevenislandswhichareactuallyoneisland in 1668Charles II had no idea what to do with these little pearls in a distant ocean Administering them from a continent away was proving costly On September 21 that year as broke as only a king can be he struck a deal with the East India Company to lease all seven islands to them for a mere pound10 a year provided they lent him pound50000 at 6 per cent interestGovernor Cookersquos stubborn insistence that the sea around the islands should be treated as land is the logic that has been creating Mumbai for the next three centuries and into the fourth Mumbai has found its greatness through the realestate miracle of turning water into land The most ambitious land grab of them all is happening before our eyes as the sea is banished yet again further back than it has ever been to make way for slick coasthugging expressways that will link Colaba to Versova touching every ward in betweenAbout the number of islands it was not two or four or even just seven The British added seven more to the seven islands in the dowry and reclaimed the sea in between to create one crowded restless city our Mumbai But nine islands remained According to one old map they were Madh Muriksa Manori Sheva Nhava Karanja Cross Island Butcher Island and Elephanta IslandDo the mathmdashthatrsquos 23 islands in all not sevenYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper