Bombay Presidency set up by the British covered present day Gujarat, western Maharashtra, northwestern provinces of Karnataka, Sindh of Pakistan, and Aden in Yemen. The Presidency of Yemen.
A major portion of Bombay Presidency was under British rule, while certain regions were under the occupation of princely Indian states. The Presidency of Bombay was surrounded by the Kingdom of Mysore and Madras Presidency in the south, Hyderabad and Central Provinces in the east, Rajputana, Punjab and Baluchistan in the north , and the Arabian Sea in the west. The total area of approximately 188,750 square miles comprised 122990 square miles of British dominion and 65,760 square miles of Indian princely sates.
British settlement in western India began in Surat in Gujarat in 1618. In 1661, the seven islands of Mumbai namely Wadals, Parel, Old Woman's Island, Mazagaon, Matunga-Sion, Mahim, and Colaba were received by King Charles II as dowry for his wedding to Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza. Subsequently in 1668, the East India Company took lease of these islands from the British king for an annual sum of 10 pounds in gold. By 1687, Bombay Presidency was established as the most prized possession of the then British Empire.
After the First Anglo - Maratha War that lasted from 1774 - 1782 and the Treaty of Salbai, Bharuch was given to the Scindias of Maharashtra, and Salsette was possessed by the British. With the end of the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1803, the districts of Kalra and Bharuch were handed over to the East India Company. The Presidency of Bombay had four commissariats
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(administrative divisions) namely, Gujarat (northern part), Deccan (central portion), Carnatic (southern part), and Sind. These four commissariats were further sub-divided into twenty-six districts: Ahmedabad, Ahmednagar, Belgaum, Bharuch, Bijapur, Bombay City, Dharwar, Hyderabad, Kaira, Karachi, Khandesh (demarcated into two divisions in 1906), Kolaba, Nasik, North Kanara, Panch Mahal, Parkar, Poona, Ratnagiri, Satara, Shikarpur, Sholapur, Surat, Thane, Thar, and Upper Sind Frontier. Each of these districts had a district and an assistant judge.
The princely states within the Bombay Presidency were divided into two geographical groups, the northern and the southern. The northern or Gujarat territories included Baroda, Kutch, Mahi Kantha, Palanpur, and Rewa Kantha. The Maratha or southern territories included Akalkot, Kolhapur, Maratha Jagirs, Satara, and Sawantwari. Each of these princely states were put under the supervision of a British agent posted in the respective capitals.
The population of Bombay Presidency according to the 1901 census was approximately 25.5 million, of which nearly 20 million were Hindus, about 4.5 million were Muslims and the remaining were Christians, Jains, and Zoroastrians. Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi, and Kannada were the main languages spoken in this Presidency.
Agriculture was the main occupation of the inhabitants settled in Bombay Presidency. Cotton, oilseeds, wheat, millet, sugarcane, chillies, tobacco, and turmeric are the main crops of this region. Cotton milling and weaving are the major industries in this part of India.
Bombay Presidency was made a regular province through an act passed in 1935. The history of Bombay Presidency is significant in the study of Indian history.
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