Following the continued support of England in the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, stemming from the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 and on the accession of a Catholic monarch in 1660, in 1661 the island of Mumbai was given to the British as part of a Royal Dowry, on the occasion of the marriage of King Charles II of England with the Portuguese Princess Infanta Catherine of Braganza.

According to the 2011 census Mumbai City district has a population of 3,085,411,[3] roughly equal to the nation of Mongolia[4] or the US state of Iowa.

Islam is the second-largest religion, Jainism is practiced by Gujaratis, while Buddhism is found among the Marathis.

However being one of the largest cities in the country, Mumbai has attracted speakers of a large number of languages.

Other languages with significant number of speakers in the district include Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, and Tamil.

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 35.96% of the population in the district spoke Marathi, 22.98% Hindi, 13.53% Urdu, 11.34% Gujarati, 2.93% Tamil, 2.57% Marwadi, 2.37% Telugu, 1.38% Konkani and 1.31% Bengali as their first language.