Artist JSâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Barth's portrayal of the Fort fire from Malabar Hill. Pics/wikimedia commons

Two centuries ago, in a Bombay which was 50 years away from getting its first railway line, and whose seven islands were still in the process of getting stitched together, there was something it had in common with its present-day avatar: congestion. But it wasn't seen as a problem by the colonial rulers until a massive fire broke out on February 17, 1803, ravaging the Fort area and burning down 466 houses and five barracks. Such was the scale of devastation that the authorities were forced to rethink the idea of Bombay. Was it a garrison, a mercantile port or a city within a fort?