Sociology · Sociology of Indian Society

Chapter 15 : URBAN LIFE IN INDIA

Table of contents45 sections

1.URBAN LIFE IN INDIA
2.1. URBAN LIFE : MEANING AND CHARACTERISTICS
3.The City or Urban Area or Urban Community
4.Definitions of City and Urban Community
5.Characteristics of Urban Community
6.Key Terms
7.📌 Exam Tidbits
8.2. FACTORS OF URBANISATION IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT
9.Concepts of "Urban", "Urbanism" and "Urbanisation"
10.Urbanisation - A Global Trend
11.Importance of the Study of Urbanisation
12.Urbanisation in India: Historical Context
13.Some Trends in Urbanisation in India
14.Some Demographic Dimensions of Urbanisation in India
15.Factors or Causes of Urbanisation in India
16.Key Terms
17.📌 Exam Tidbits
18.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of the City
19.Advantages or Merits
20.Disadvantages or Demerits
21.Key Terms
22.📌 Exam Tidbits
23.4. Urban - Rural Contrast
24.Differences Between Rural and Urban Community
25.Some Other Differences
26.Key Terms
27.📌 Exam Tidbits
28.5. Rural - Urban Convergence
29.The Rural-Urban Continuum
30.Key Terms
31.📌 Exam Tidbits
32.6. Urban Influence on the Rural Community
33.9 Specific Influences
34.Key Terms
35.📌 Exam Tidbits
36.7. Cleavages and Conflicts Between Rural and Urban Sectors
37.Key Terms
38.📌 Exam Tidbits
39.8. Problems of Urban Society or Urbanisation
40.Key Terms
41.📌 Exam Tidbits
42.9. Some Suggestions to Face and to Solve Urban Problems
43.Key Terms
44.📌 Exam Tidbits
45.Quick-Recall Box

Chapter preview

URBAN LIFE IN INDIA

1. URBAN LIFE : MEANING AND CHARACTERISTICS

Urbanisation (the unprecedented growth of cities) is a recent global trend linked to the development process. While human ancestors lived in small primary groups for 5 to 6 thousand years, large cities containing the bulk of a society's population are a recent development.

Society Type	Speed of Urbanisation	Reason
Backward and stagnant societies	Rather slow	Cities fail to offer employment opportunities to people living in the countryside.
Rapidly growing economies	Faster	Newly established industries and other commercial establishments provide jobs.

The process slows down only when the urban proportion becomes very high (a stage reached in 30-odd developed industrialised countries; India is a developing nation and not in this list).
India has a 6000-year tradition of urban living, dating back to the Indus Valley cities of Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro. C.B. Mamoria in his Social Problems and Social Disorganisation in India notes: "These cities were centres of rich and varied urban culture and a progressing order of social life. They were well laid out with wide streets, market places, public offices, religious halls, community baths and drainage and sewage systems."
By the 1991 Census, India had 21.8 crores of urban dwellers (25.7% of the population).
Economic reforms (liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation) have further accelerated and complicated urbanisation, making big cities overcrowded centres of congestion, confusion, indefiniteness, and insecurity.

The City or Urban Area or Urban Community

The terms "city", "urban area", and "city community" are used interchangeably.

Robert Bierstedt in his The Social Order notes that the city is culture par excellence (the epitome of culture) and mankind's greatest work of art and artifice. He states: "The history of every civilisation is the history not of its countryside, but of its cities and towns. Civilisation means the city, and the city means civilisation. Man originally built the city, and the city, in turn, civilised man." He describes it as a manufactured environment of "bricks and steel and mortar and cement, of bridges and tunnels, of sidewalks and streets, of monuments and buildings, of elevators and subway…

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