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- Babri Masjid Mosque demolished in Ayodhya by Hindutva fanatics. Sparks
nationwide rioting. Five days of violence in Bombay as Hindus and Muslims
clash.
- Stock market boom leads to Harshad Mehta scandal as a small number
of stockbrokers are discovered to have rigged the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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- Second wave of violence in January and February results in hundreds
more deaths.
- In March serial bomb blasts occur at the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air
India building and elsewhere — attributed to Muslim retaliation.
- Sanjay Dutt, son of movie stars Nargis and Sunil Dutt (Congress-I
MP), is arrested for his alleged role in riots.
- Madhushree Dutta’s I Live in Behrampada, Suma Josson’s
Bombay’s Blood Yatra become video testimonies of the riots,
the journal Communalism Combat is launched.
- Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV takes 49 per cent in the indigenous
ZEE-TV channel, marking the permanent presence of multinational cable
TV channels in Bombay.
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- Hum Aapke Hain Koun becomes the most successful Hindi film
earning over $500 million in net ticket sales worldwide.
- Real estate prices peak, making office space in some areas the most
expensive in the world. The following year prices fall by 40 per cent.
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- Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata party coalition wins Maharashtra state
elections. Bombay is renamed Mumbai.
- Anand Patwardhan completes Father, Son and Holy War, the last
in his film trilogy on communalism in India.
- Release of Mani Rathnam’s controversial film Bombay set
during riots of 1992-3.
- Lakeeren Gallery opens, complementing Gallery Chemould, the city’s
first forum for new art.
- Artist Prabhakar Barwe dies.
- The Shiv Sena objects to a ‘nude’ advertisement featuring
models Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman for Tuff shoes, starting a series
of controversies over censorship.
- Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, launches short-lived ‘Free Home’
scheme for slum dwellers, inviting builders to re-house squatters while
profiting from the sale of land they occupied.
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- National Gallery of Modern Art opens with exhibition of Mumbai’s
famous progressive artists’ group of the 1940s — 50s.
- Art India magazine launched.
- Christie’s opens Mumbai office.
- The success of ‘Indipop’ and Bhangra rap worldwide contributes
to boom in Indian (non-film) music industry.
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- Commercial failure of former megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s comeback
film Mrityudaata is a set-back for Hindi film industry.
- Sakshi opens in refurbished mill shed becoming India’s largest
private art gallery.
- Statue of Dalit leader Babasaheb Ambedkar is desecrated in suburb
by an anonymous group, triggering statewide protests.
- Maverick trade unionist Datta Samant, leader of 1982-3 textile strike,
is gunned down by opponents.
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- M.F. Husain’s house is vandalised by Bajrang Dal activists protesting
against his nude painting of the goddess Saraswati made over 20 years
earlier.
- Protest following nuclear testing at Pokhran, Rajasthan. Pakistan
retaliates three weeks later.
- Pro-BJP Marathi play Mi Nathuram Godse Boltoi is banned by
the Maharashtra government.
- Artist Girish Dahiwale commits suicide.
- Mohile Parikh Centre for Visual Art becomes a venue for international
seminars on art practice and theory.
- State government starts building 55 flyovers, plans sea-bridges and
coastal highways in the city. Environmentalists protest.
- Shiv Sena launches attack on Deepa Mehta’s film Fire.
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- Kala Ghoda Festival established as major city art event combining
art, music and film together with city conservation effors supported
by public and private sectors.
- Artist Rummana Hussain dies.
- Shiv Sena-BJP coalition lose power to the middle ground NCP-Congress
coalition in state elections.
- 300,000 squatters evicted from Sanjay Gandhi National Park following
protests by environmentalists. Groups supporting rights of the 55 per
cent of Mumbai’s population living in slums fight for alternative
sites.
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- US President Bill Clinton meets young Indian entrepreneurs.
- M.F. Hussain completes film Gaja Gamini starring Madhuri Dixit.
- Population of Mumbai estimated to rise to 27.5 million by 2005, making
it the world’s second most populous city.
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