The Mumbai (formerly Bombay) District of the state of Maharashtra had been an important center of the Indian Freedom Movement. It formed a potent ground for the development of several important events in the history of the freedom movement of India; one of them being the Tilak Swaraj Fund.
In the Nagpur session of Congress which was held on December 1921, a decision was taken to create the All-India Tilak Memorial Swaraj Fund (in the memory of Bal Gangadhar Tilak) to raise funds for the Non-Cooperation Movement. Bombay played a central role in the collection of funds for it. When the All-India Congress Committee met at Bezwada (now Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh) on March 31, 1921, they devised a constructive program wherein amongst other aims, it was decided to raise one crore rupees by the end of June 1921. Bombay played the central arena of activity for Mahatma Gandhi from April to June 1921. He devised several measures to build the fund and strategized to raise 60 lakhs from Bombay and 40 lakhs from the rest of the country. Support for the Fund came from multiple angles and received a thunderous response, and even surpassed the target.
The overwhelming support and generosity that Bombay displayed earned itself the sobriquet “Bombay the Beautiful” by Gandhi in the Young India magazine on July 6, 1921.
Source: Indian Culture Portal