I was reading a book on Rudyard Kipling, the celebrated writer who lived in India during the British Raj and wrote a lot about India and well-known as the author of the “Jungle Book”.

Many interesting facts about the British India can be found  in the book. It is stated that in the early stages of the British Rule, the term ‘Indian’ was meant for the British living in India. The Indian people were called as ‘natives’. This terms gradually changed after the  First War of Independence, Sepoy Mutiny according to British. The ‘Indian’ was changed to  ‘Anglo-Indian’ and ‘native’ to ‘nigger’.

It is stated that small children were generally entrusted to ‘ayahs’ to look after, who were Indian women. The children were even breast-fed by the ayahs and were much  more attached to the ayahs than to their parents, who were mostly engaged with their jobs and social functions.

With regrd to the name of Bombay, it is stated that the old name was Mumbai. It was the Portugese, who reached there for business in the end of the 15th century , who gave the name ‘Bom Bhai’ (Good Bay) which became Bombay. And now the name is restored to ‘Mumbai’ itself.