In choosing Mumbai as its venue, the State of Architecture (SOA) exhibition perhaps paid a belated tribute to the city. Bombay was the city where the Indian capitalist class first emerged. Industrial wealth in the post-independence period was ensured by state protection and subsidisation, and later by monopoly licenses bought by extending a helping hand to the political class (Khilnani, 2004). This close relationship was soon to become an important fount for art patronage and support. Mumbai would supply the institutions, the fora and the associations where new expressions and ideas were sought for a promising post-colonial experiment. New monuments and cities were to be erected. A nation was to be built.