With a population of 13 million, Mumbai is India's largest city and its most diverse, cosmopolitan and westernised.
Thriving alongside each other are the Bollywood film industry, some of the world's most opulent hotels and India's leading industrial and financial – all against a backdrop of extreme poverty.
Already India's financial centre, Mumbai boomed when India emerged as Asia's leading economy. Last year its stock markets hit record highs, fuelled by investors looking for a safe haven as the global credit crisis bit elsewhere.
The city is home to many of the country's industrial giants, including the Tata group, and new skyscrapers bear witness to the amount of new money pouring in. Shops and bars that would not look out of place in the most fashionable quarters of European capitals open every week.
Mumbai is a magnet to Indians seeking a better life. But many who arrive dreaming of Bollywood end up in prostitution or organised crime. The city's population has doubled in 25 years, with half living in slums. In some parts, 50,000 people are said to be crammed into each square kilometre.
As Bombay, the city grew to prominence under British colonial rule and is littered with monuments to the Raj. Next to the iconic Taj Mahal hotel, built in 1903 and combining Moorish, oriental and Florentine influences, is the Gateway of India, built to commemorate the arrival of George V in the city.
Bombay became Mumbai in 1995 when the newly elected government of the Hindu far-right Shiv Sena party rejected the colonial name in favour of that used by the Marathis, the region's indigenous ethnic group.
The city is no stranger to violence – conspicuous western influence and the gaping wealth gap fan the flames of centuries-old cultural and religious rivalries.
Among the worst atrocities has been the bombing of seven commuter trains within 15 minutes in July 2006. About 180 people were killed and a further 700 injured. A little-known Islamist group, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, claimed responsibility.
In 1960, more than 100 people were killed by police in riots after the Marathis had the city incorporated into their state in the face of attempts by the Gujurati merchant classes to declare it an independent city state.
In 1992, riots between Muslims and Hindus killed 900 people, mainly Muslims. Another 200,000 Muslims fled their homes.
A year later, a wave of bombings killed 257 people. The attacks were said to have been carried out by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated mafia in retaliation for the Muslim-Hindu clashes, and were thought to have been coordinated by the terrorist kingpin Dawood Ibrahim, who is linked to Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant groups.
The Bollywood action hero Sanjay Dutt was jailed for six years in 2007 for his part in the 1993 violence, having been found guilty of possessing three AK-56 rifles, a pistol and ammunition thought to have been obtained through the Mumbai underworld. He has been released on bail pending a review of the case.