NEW DELHI — There is a European quality to India.

Like the European Union today, the Indian republic is a confederation of regions and attitudes with little affection between them and vastly different levels of governance, productivity and historical good fortune. And all of them, of course, are stuck with a uniform currency. The inefficient and the irresponsible are subsidized by the hard-working and the responsible, who also have to tolerate a free flow of migrants from the poor states. At least Europe does not have to pretend to be a single nation.

Mumbai is the Germany of India. The city accounts for more than a third of India’s income tax revenue, nearly half its corporate tax revenue and a quarter of its industrial output. It has long complained that it has carried the burden of the nonperforming losers and has received little in return.

Mumbai has a third-rate infrastructure. It has one-tenth the roads of Delhi. Its obsolete local trains, which are not air-conditioned, are stuffed with more than twice their capacity at peak hours. People dangle from open doors. Some sit on roofs. (Though it must be said few look distressed by the necessity.)

This great city, the capital of Maharashtra State, does not have a subway system. Preliminary work has just started after decades of planning. One newly constructed sea bridge, unremarkable by Asian standards, has become a source of extreme pride for the people of Mumbai, as if the municipality had also created the panorama of the Arabian Sea.