São Paulo and Bombay both began to develop under similar circumstances in the 1950s when there was an urban explosion all over the world. Although it started ten years later, Bombay’s growth was more significant than São Paulo’s because it occurred over a shorter period. This population explosion was undoubtedly one of the indirect effects of the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, but it was also spurred by the first wave of “economic liberalization” initiated by Indira Gandhi in the 1980s. Generally speaking, it is these circumstances that enabled Mumbai to overtake São Paulo and be ranked among the world’s top megacities.