Indian cities are projected to be the home to an additional 250 million people by 2030. This growing population is putting increasing demands on municipal resources, with challenges for economists, planners and engineers. Yet, the projection also poses important questions for law and politics - who is validated as an urban citizen and who gets access to the city’s infrastructure? For slum residents in Mumbai, access to water hinges on Maharashtra state law, which prescribes that slum residents who can prove that they have lived in the city since before 1 January 1995 are entitled to receiving municipal water. In reality, research from Mumbai shows that the likelihood of getting access, as well as the quality and quantity of water accessed, differs between Hindu and Muslim areas, regardless of how long residents in these areas have lived in the city. I find that the Mumbai slum puts to test the notion of legality and illegality, coming out as a grey space conducted by its own special set of rules. It is in fact a historical discourse of belonging and the political landscape of the city which determines who receives municipal water connections and who does not. In this setting, the 1995 cut-off rule has served to create room for further exclusion. The courts of law continue to uphold and reinforce a rule that is arbitrary and unenforceable in the slum context. This paper is a case study of sub-groups in Mumbai slums trying to access water. Applied generally, this case study demonstrates how law, politics and even physical space can be aligned in a manner so as to systematically refuse access to a particular minority group.
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