Bandra

In 1534, Diego da Silveira a pirate from the Mediterranean, entered Bandra's creek and burned the fishing town he found there. With that, Bandra came under the rule of the Portuguese crown.

This turmoil was the start of a long period of Christianization of Bandra. Father Manuel Gomes, a Catholic priest, was instrumental in increasing the Church's prominence in Bandra. In 1580, he baptized 2,000 fishermen. By the time he died 11 years later, Father Gomes' "invincible strength of soul", as one historian describes it, had helped convert close to 6,000 people in the area. Father Gomes also established St. Andrew's Church.

Bandra became a Portuguese possession when the Sultanate of Cambay ceded the region in the Treaty of St. Matthew, which was signed aboard the Portuguese brig Sao Mateus in Baçaim harbor in 1534 and aided by Governor-General Nuno da Cunha and Diego da Silveira. The Portuguese enfeoffed (gave) Bandra, Kurla, Mazgaon and four other villages in 1548 to António Pessoa as a reward for his military services. This was confirmed by the Royal Chancellery on 2 February 1550.

As these villages were given for a period of 'two lives', they reverted to the Crown after the death of Isabel Botelha, Pessoa's widow. The Jesuits, who had applied for acquisition of these villages in anticipation of Isabel's death, obtained them from the viceroy in 1568 and received royal confirmation in 1570.[6]

In 1661, when King Charles married Catherine of Portugal, the island of Bombay was given to England as part of the dowry.[7] However, Salsette Island, on which Bandra lay, was not part of this treaty and remained with the Portuguese.[8]

The Portuguese built additional churches in Bandra, one of the earliest being St. Andrew's Church in 1575. Their Jesuit missionaries, who learned local languages and cultures, attracted many Indian converts to Catholicism among the villagers on the island. Their descendants continued to support the six Catholic parish churches—Mount Carmel, St. Peter's, St. Andrew's, St. Theresa's, St. Anne's and St. Francis d'Assisi—that lie within an area of four square kilometres.[9]

Bandra became part of English territory with the signing of the Treaty of Surat in 1775, but was retroceded to the Marathas in 1779 during the First Anglo-Maratha War. In 1802, Bajirao II signed the Treaty of Bassein with the English, surrendering sovereignty and again ceding Bandra, and it remained under British control until 14 August 1947.

Arrival of Railways and development: On 12 April 1867, the first railway service was inaugurated, with one train per day between Virar and Bombay, as part of the then private rail company, BB&CI which was the earlier form of Western Railway. A grand railway station building for Bandra was inaugurated in 1869. The innovative aspects used in the design of this structure are visible to this day. On closer scrutiny, it is evident how railway tracks bunched together make up each of the iron pillars, that hold up the roof over the platforms. In 1873, with growing demands, the frequency of trains available was increased to 24 each day. In the early 1900s, the affluent Pathare Prabhu community lived in South Mumbai, and used their quaint bungalows in the Khar part of Bandra as weekend dwellings. Khar Danda was one of the original villages of the erstwhile larger Bandra. Back then, the local Bandra railway station was felt considerably far to alight from trains and hire 'tangas' (horse carriages) to get to their bungalows by these Bandra residents. Keeping such factors and the growing population in mind, the new railway station named 'Khar Road' was introduced adjoining Bandra Railway station on 1 July 1924. This development is the primary reason that the Khar part of Bandra started being referred to as a suburb by itself.[10] As late as the 1930s, Bandra had only one bus service from Pali Naka, Hill Road to the Railway station. Other people just walked to the nearest railway station. After World War II, the building boom began with an aim to accommodate immigrants. As of 2018, 940 trains stop daily at Bandra railway station.

Bandra was raised to the status of a municipality in 1876 and twas then expanded. In 1950, following independence, it was merged into the Bombay Municipal Corporation to form the Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay. Bandra consisted of many villages, among them Sherly, Malla, Rajan, Kantwady, Waroda, Ranwar, Boran, Khar Danda, Pali, and Chuim. These have almost been lost to urban development of the island.

Statue of Mother Mary at Mount Mary Church, Bandra.

The Bandra Fair is held during the eight days of the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lady, beginning 8 September, when people throng the church.[11][12]

The first school founded in Bandra after Bombay passed on to the English was St Andrew's Parish School, started by Fr. Francisco de Melo in 1780 to teach catechism to the children of the parish. This later became St. Andrew's High School.[13] The school is located in Bandra West.

St. Theresa's High School grew out of St. Andrew's Indian Christians' School, housed in a very dilapidated building situated in Old Khar. This school was founded in 1918. It was taken over by the Society of Divine Word (S.V.D). in 1952. It is counted among the best schools in Mumbai.[14]

St. Stanislaus High School was founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus. It started as a Native Boy's orphanage. It became a high school in 1923 and was the first English medium school in the suburbs. Later, it grew to be a full-fledged educational institution for day-scholars as well as boarders. What started out as a school for 40 orphans has grown to support 2,300 students. St. Stanislaus High School is located on Hill Road, in Bandra West. Cardinal Gracias High School is a convent school located in Bandra East. St. Joseph's Convent High School for girls is run by the nuns of the congregation of the Daughters of the Cross in Bandra West. It was built in 1865 (Bandra was then known as Bandora)[15] and boasts a beautiful chapel. The school has produced illustrious alumni over the years.[16] R.D. National College was originally set up in 1922 in Hyderabad, Pakistan under the guidance of Annie Besant. In the run-up to the Partition of India, it was relocated to its present site in 1949 in Bandra. The Thadomal Shahani Engineering College was established in 1983 by the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board. It was the first private engineering institute to be affiliated with the federal University of Mumbai to offer courses in Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology.

The Rizvi Education Complex, located off Carter Road, comprises the Rizvi College of Arts, Science and Commerce (established in 1985); Rizvi High School (established in 1985); Rizvi College of Engineering (established in 1998); Rizvi College of Architecture; Rizvi College of Hotel Management & Catering Technology; Rizvi Law College; Rizvi College of Education and the Rizvi College of Fashion Designing & Creative Arts[17] All are managed by the Rizvi Education Society, and may have the status of Muslim religious minority institution.

St. Andrew's College Of Arts, Science and Commerce is another famous college located in the heart of Bandra, just a few hundred metres away from St. Stanislaus High School. It offers various courses including Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Commerce and other certified courses related to retail and travel-tourism to name a few. St. Andrews boasts of one of the best auditoriums in the city.[18]

Bandra Lake, also called Bandra Talao or Motha Reservoir was constructed by a rich Konkani Muslim of Navapada (also spelt Naupada or Naopara), an adjoining village.[19]

The lake was later acquired by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. It was officially renamed Swami Vivekanand Sarovar. Paddle boating facilities and pisciculture (fish farming) activities were operational in this lake during the 1990s but have since stopped. This lake is now a heritage structure of "Heritage II" status.[19][20][21] The Portuguese also pronounced Bandra As Bandora.

As traffic in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region worsened, especially in South Mumbai, there was increased demand to construct a business district outside of Mumbai, in the suburbs. In the mid-2000s, the city of Bandra started an audacious task to reclaim lands on the Mithi River in the eastern portion of the city, near the Kurla border. The newly formed Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) has attracted several equity and technology firms, such as Blackstone, Google, and Amazon, who chose Bandra instead of Mumbai City for its location, lower-cost of land, and new development.

As the last suburb before entering Mumbai City, Bandra has for a while been strained with traffic, particularly around the railway station and S.V. Road. The development of a business centre has only exacerbated the traffic problems, as unlike other commercial hubs, Bandra's BKC is located between Bandra and Kurla stations and requires approximately 10-15 minute vehicular commute from either of the stations. Nearly 300,000 office-goers alight daily at Bandra Railway Station and take a taxi or bus to BKC. This has made Bandra among the busiest stations in India, surpassing Andheri and Bombay Central, and the second-busiest station in Maharashtra's Western Railway after Churchgate railway station.