Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay

The Taj Mahal Hotel, designed by two Indian architects and completed by a British engineer, opened its doors in December 1903. It was built for Jamshetji Tata (1839–1904), founder of the conglomerate Tata Group of Industries, even today one of India's major corporations. The assertion that Tata had this luxury hotel built as a response to being denied admittance to the whites-only Watson Hotel has been recently contested. Instead, Tata may have been prompted by a desire to build a hotel that would celebrate Bombay (now Mumbai) as an important metropolis and encourage tourists to visit the city.

The choice to name this magnificent building after the Taj Mahal appears to be purposeful. The reference not only evokes an image of sublime beauty and architectural excellence as associated with the Mughal monument, but also alludes to the central place that it held in the popular imagination at home and abroad. Jamshetji may even have desired his hotel to rival the Taj Mahal's status as India's most-visited destination.

Local and international responses to attacks on the hotel in November 2008 attest to its stature as an important landmark of Mumbai.