Website articles (21) Courtesy: Alamy
24 December 2025

Japan in Bombay: trade, faith and community

BY

The earliest sizeable presence of Japanese expatriates in India was in colonial Bombay and its Presidency. The Japanese came for trade, but their engagement with the port city and its cotton hinterland went beyond commerce to include spiritual life and later, India’s national movement. This chapter, ‘Geographies of Exchange between Japan and India’, traces their community, religion, social infrastructure, and commercial and cultural contributions to Bombay.

Website articles (21) Courtesy: Alamy
18 December 2025

Japan in Bombay: trade, faith and community

BY

The earliest sizeable presence of Japanese expatriates in India was in colonial Bombay and its Presidency. The Japanese came for trade, but their engagement with the port city and its cotton hinterland went beyond commerce to include spiritual life and later, India’s national movement. This chapter, ‘Geographies of Exchange between Japan and India’, traces their community, religion, social infrastructure, and commercial and cultural contributions to Bombay.

Porch__Port_House Courtesy:
5 September 2024

Bombay-Antwerp: A tale of two port cities

BY

Mumbai and Antwerp share a history from the 18th century. Traffic between the two ports expanded with Belgium among the top three European countries trading with Bombay. After the Second World War, both cities developed a chemical industrial complex adjoining their ports. Today their centuries-old connections have come full circle with an active collaboration between their port authorities.

1-Handelsbeurs-foto-middenplein Courtesy:
6 June 2024

The global Indian diamantaire network

BY

Recent changes in Belgian and EU tax law and regulation have resulted in some Antwerp-based Palanpuri Jain diamond traders shifting base to the newly booming Dubai diamond market. But Antwerp dominates the diamond business for this enterprising community, where 400 families continue to stay and use it as a gateway to the European market for diamonds cut and polished in Surat and Mumbai in India.

Photo 1 Courtesy: Suresh Mehta and 'Fragrant Folios: The Palanpur Story' by Jitendra C. Mehta and Amrit Gangar.
9 May 2024

A century of Bombay-Antwerp diamond trade

BY

In Antwerp's global diamond exchanges that trade in rough and polished stones, the Gujarati-speaking Palanpuri Jain merchants are known as intrepid businessmen with a reputation for keeping their word. These traits has enabled them to live and work amongst Hassidic Jewish diamantaires and cutters-polishers who dominated this market. They carved a niche for themselves in small diamonds. Bombay played a key role in their success.

Reserve Bank India Courtesy: Shapoorji Pallonji
2 May 2024

A central bank for India in Bombay

BY

The Reserve Bank of India entered its 90th year on 1 April. From the 1940s to 1960s it was critical in protecting India’s interests at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, and conserving India’s Forex by managing a Rupee trade with the East Bloc. Today, it is among Mumbai’s several historic financial institutions and has navigated India’s economy through turbulent geopolitical and geoeconomic events.

SifraExcerpt Courtesy: Sarmaya Arts Foundation
7 March 2024

Japan in Bombay and its presidency

BY

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is currently visiting Japan for the 16th India-Japan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue. The bilateral, which began 130 years ago with Bombay’s cotton trade, has deepened into a Special Strategic and Global Partnership in defence, digital technologies, semiconductor supply chains, clean energy, trade and connectivity. The following book excerpt traces the origin of India-Japan trade ties.

ANI-20230705152949 Courtesy: ANI
10 August 2023

Bombay’s historic ties to Zanzibar

BY

On a recent visit to Tanzania, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announced the establishment of the first overseas campus of the premier Indian Institute of Technology Madras on its islands of Zanzibar in Africa. The choice of Zanzibar is significant: 180 years ago, it was the very first interface between Indian merchants and the East African mainland.

Screenshot 2023-05-12 145229 Courtesy: T20 India
15 May 2023

T20 Mid-Year Conference – At the heart of the Indo-Pacific: Why Mumbai Matters?

BY

On 10-12 May, 2023, Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director, Gateway House participated in the T20 Mid-year Conference hosted by Think20 and G20 in Mumbai. She delivered a special address on the integral position of Mumbai in the Indo-Pacific, pointing out the city’s historical, geopolitical, maritime, and commercial linkages with the Indian Ocean world.

Vank Cathedral Courtesy: Rasool Abassi/Wikimedia Commons
27 October 2022

India in the global Armenian network

BY

The 18th century wave of Armenian immigrants to India were at the forefront of reinforcing a national identity for the Armenian people who lived dispersed across the world and without an independent country. The English colonial city of Madras was an important Armenian trading hub soon became home to an Armenian liberation movement