Bombay Time was one of the two official time zones established in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
in 1884. The
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
was established during the
International Meridian Conference
The International Meridian Conference was a conference held in October 1884 in Washington, D.C., in the United States, to determine a prime meridian for international use. The conference was held at the request of U.S. President Chester A. ...
held at
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in 1884. It was then decided that India would have two time zones, Calcutta (now
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
), and Bombay (now
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
). Bombay Time was set at 4 hours and 51 minutes ahead of
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the Local mean time, mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, i ...
(GMT).
However, Bombay Time was difficult to convert to
Indian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time (IST), sometimes also called India Standard Time, is the time zone observed throughout India, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments. In military and avia ...
(IST) after it was adopted on 1 January 1906 as the official time zone of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. With public sentiment against the government, prominent barrister
Pherozeshah Mehta
Sir Pherozeshah Merwanjee Mehta (4 August 1845 – 5 November 1915) was an Indian politician and lawyer from Bombay. He was knighted by the British Government in India for his service to the law. He became the Municipal commissioner of Bombay ...
argued against the change. He managed to stall proceedings in the
Bombay Municipal Corporation
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC; IAST: ), also known as the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra. It is India's richest municipal corporation. The BMC ...
for a few days by arguing that the government did not take the people into confidence. Faced with rising public resentment over the trial, the government shelved the conversion, and Bombay Time was maintained until 1955.
[{{cite web , url=http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/dec2001/msg00221.html , title=Bombay time , date=2001-12-08 , accessdate=2006-08-13 , work=Mumbai-central.com , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928021025/http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/dec2001/msg00221.html , archive-date=28 September 2007 , url-status=dead ]
See also
*
Calcutta Time
Calcutta time was one of the two time zones established in British India in 1884. It was established during the International Meridian Conference held at Washington, D.C. in the United States. It was decided that India had two time zones: Calcu ...
*
Indian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time (IST), sometimes also called India Standard Time, is the time zone observed throughout India, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments. In military and avia ...
*
Madras Time
Madras Time was a time zone established in 1802 by John Goldingham, the first official astronomer of the British East India Company in India when he determined the longitude of Madras as 5 hours, 21 minutes and 14 seconds ahead of Greenwich Mean ...
*
Port Blair mean time
Port Blair mean time was the time zone of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India in the Bay of Bengal. The time zone was set up during the early 19th century and has been described as 17 minutes and 17 seconds (UTC+6:10:37) ahead of the Calcut ...
*
Railway time in India
*
Time in India
The Republic of India uses only one time zone (even though it spans across two geographical time zones) across the whole nation and all its territories, called Indian Standard Time (IST), which equates to UTC+05:30, i.e. five and a half hours a ...
*
UTC+05:30
References
Time zones
Time in India
Mumbai
1884 establishments in India
1955 disestablishments in India
fr:Heure de Bombay