Mumbai, India was rocked by a series of coordinated terror attacks last week that left over 170 people dead and several hundred injured.

Because of India’s rising prominence in the world that can be attributed to a booming economy and a large, well-educated population, the attacks were front-page news stories.

CNN’s blanket coverage was interrupted only by snippets of odd Black Friday-related happenings, including a death by trampling. There also was little mention of either Iraq or Afghanistan.

All eyes instead seemed focused on India. As this thorough news coverage on the other side of the world shows, the attacks drew the world’s attention to Mumbai’s – and India’s – increasing global prominence.

Mumbai, formerly Bombay, has always been among India’s most cosmopolitan and vibrant cities. Thirteen million people make their home in this teeming metropolis. It is the home of Bollywood, the famed Indian film industry. The vast majority of India’s major companies have headquarters or offices in the city, as do many foreign companies who have recently invested or started operations in India.

That prominence and recent global high profile contributed, at least in part, to making Mumbai a lucrative target for terrorists, as proved through several means.

Tourists

Thousands of Western tourists are in the city on any given day, as are many high-level employees of foreign companies.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Westerners visiting other parts of the world for business and pleasure. However, to the convoluted minds that plan and carry out terrorist atrocities, harming people from many different countries at once guarantees increased global publicity and recognition of whatever it is they claim to represent.

News reports of the attacks show that locales frequented by foreigners were systematically targeted.

Hotels, a popular café and an American-supported Jewish center were all attacked. Most of the foreigners killed were at these locations, as would be expected.

The very fact that these expatriate bastions exist and are commonly known shows how common foreigners in Mumbai truly have become.

It is profoundly troubling that their mere presence would attract violence against them.

Geography

The problems of Mumbai’s rising prominence are exacerbated by geography.

Situated on the Arabian Sea coast in Western India, Mumbai is a crossroads of the Middle East and South Asia. In centuries past, this meant that the city was a hub of trade and the exchange of ideas. In today’s world, that means Mumbai is distressingly close to the violent extremism espoused in much of the Arabian Peninsula.

Furthermore, Mumbai’s proximity to South and North India means it is also lashed by domestic regional upheavals. In a society as blindingly multiethnic as India, those upheavals are not to be taken lightly. India’s archrival Pakistan also is not far away.

This means that groups based in Pakistan can easily strike Mumbai, as was the case in the July 2006 train bombings, and may well prove to be the case in this most recent round of violence.

In the case of Mumbai, the geographical attributes that made it such a fast-growing and attractive city for domestic and international commerce has also been somewhat of an Achilles’ heel.

The international commerce has definitely been a boon for the city, but also has made a relatively accessible target even more lucrative.

The positives

The attacks have highlighted some undeniably positive aspects of the rise of Mumbai and India. The nation has always had a relatively free press. Increased revenues and investments have allowed that press to greatly develop and rival the world’s best.

This was evidenced by CNN’s Indian affiliate, CNN-IBN providing the vast majority of material that CNN broadcast stateside.

This is a stark contrast to most other newsworthy situations, in which Atlanta-based CNN’s own journalists and crews collect and report the news. In this age of worldwide instantaneous telecommunications, having a developed and capable world-standard press is both a necessity and indicator of a true global standing.

The Mumbai attacks also showed India’s military strength and competence. India turned down all offers of foreign commando and rescue teams. The country really didn’t need help controlling the situation. Mumbai’s police forces and Indian military commandos regained control of all the occupied sites within two days.

They did it in the idle of crowded urban areas while facing prepared gunmen holed up inside buildings and holding hostages.

To the forces’ credit, it does not appear that anyone other than the terrorists were killed in the rescue attempt.

This is a welcome, but unusual statistic. The Russian military’s 2002 rescue attempt at a theater in Moscow, for example, killed 129 hostages held by a terrorist group.

A country’s military ability is one of the oldest indicator’s of its power and prominence among nations. As shown in the past few days, India is not lacking in this area.

Overall, the attacks were a tragic indicator of Mumbai’s ascent to a global-level destination, much like New York, London and Bali – which were all rocked by terror attacks. Mumbai indeed has arrived, so to speak, and that may not be a completely good thing.

However, as the coverage and response to the attacks show, Mumbai as a city and India as a nation are ready for the challenges that are sure to come with their continuing rise on the world stage. This crisis has been quelled, and, though battered, Mumbai appears stronger and better prepared for whatever other trials may come in the future.

Munim Deen is a microbiology senior. His column usually appears every other Tuesday.