Unit 14

Urban Sociology in lndia

Contents
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Urban Sociological Studies i n lndia
14.3 Historical Comparative Studies
14.4 Ecological Studies
14.5 Studies on Urbanisation and Urban Growth
14.6 Urban Poverty, Housing and Slums
14.7 Caste, Class and Ethnic Formations
14.8 Conclusion
14.9 Further Reading
Learning Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
a describe some of the urban sociological studies done in India;
discuss the historical comparative studies in urban area;
a explain the ecological urban studies;
a discuss some of the studies on urbanisation and urban growth;
a describe the studies done on urban poverty, housing and slums i n
India, and
a discuss the caste, class and ethnic formations that are found i n urban
societies.

14.1 Introduction
Urbanization i n lndia is not a modern phenomenon. A very rich traditional .
process of urbanisation, which dates back to the lndus Valley Civilisation
(2500 B.C.), existed i n India. The urbanisation process diffused to other
parts of the country notwithstanding some temporal and spatial discontinuity
i n urban growth. The spread of urbanisation in lndia happened under the
impact of varied factors operating during early, medieval and modern
periods. Although lndia thus had a long history of urbanisation and urban
spread, any systematic study on the lndian urban phenomena began only
i n early 20thcentury at a time when urban sociology was getting recognition
as a distinct branch of Sociology i n the U.S.A. and other western countries.
The birth and growth of urban sociology in lndia was rather slow. The
reasons for this can be attributed t o many factors. If we look at the
geographical differentiation of lndian land into rural and urban areas, we
can see that the vast majority of the lndian population lives in the so-
called rural areas. Populations i n those areas, which are demarcated as
urban, are only less than 30% (2001 census). This was one of the major
factors which held against the requirement for a scientific discipline to
study urban phenomena i n lndia. But the majority criterion, however,
9
 cannot annihilate the significant variations i n the institutional and U~rbanSociology
in lndia
organisational behaviour of the people i n the urban context (Rao 1991).
Rao argues that the study of urban social structure and organisation is
relevant i n the context of wider theoretical problems of lndian society.
As you know, at present, the urban field is subjected to multidisciplinary
research involving disciplines such as economics, geography, history, political
science, and demography besides sociology. According to Rao a more direct
source for a sociological study of urbanism and urbanisation come from
the studies of sociologically relevant aspects of urban social life and of
segments of urban population, relating to issues such as immigration,
caste system, occupational segmentation, family organisation, politics and
religion etc. The birth and growth, and the state of urban sociology in
lndia as a distinct branch of sociology discipline can be examined by taking
stock of the studies on urban social settings in lndia that contributed to
the development of the discipline. Since it is beyond the scope of this unit
to include all the sociologically relevant urban studies, we will limit our
discussions to some selected areas that fall under urban sociology.

14.2 Urban Sociological Studies in lndia

The studies of towns and cities i n lndia on aspects of urban social life are
not too many. In lndia urban sociology developed as a branch of sociology,
which itself is a comparatively young social science discipline. Professor
Patrick Geddes, a notable town planner and sociologist, established the
first department of sociology i n the University of Bombay i n 1920, around
the tirne when studies about cities and city life were getting much attention
due to the initiatives of the Chicago School. According to Patrick Geddes,
cities are a concrete image of civiliziation. He initiated a few urban studies
i n India. Geddes wanted to revive indigenous customs and use them for
modern town planning i n India. He believed that social processes and
spatial form are related and therefore by changing the spatial form it is
possible to change social structure as well. Geddes wrote around forty
town-planning reports ,in lndia between 1914 and 1924 at the behest of
various institutions and government agencies, which were included i n the
work Town Planning Towards City Development. These not only put forward
-
novel ideas about preserving and reviving lndian urban centres but were
also an important archive about the status of lndian cities i n the early
decades of the twentieth century (Meller, Helen 1990).
Although Patrick Geddes initiated urban studies i n lndia it took a few
more decades for the subject to take off as an area of study. According to
M.S.A. Rao the reasons for the neglect may be due to the predominant
view among the sociologists that the distinction between rural and urban
sociology is not meaningful due to its lower level of urbanisation and also
due to the perception that there was no distinction between the traditional
city and the village as both were elements of the same civilisation.
The three Trend Reports (D'Souza 1974, 1985; Kosambi 1994) commissioned
by lndian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR) have reviewed the
literature of urban studies i n lndia since the 1950s. This gives a fair idea
of the amount of work that had been done on urban social skttings in
India. In these reports i n order to make the survey of urban sociMogical
studies i n India, the field of urban sociology has been divided into a number
of subject areas to learn how far studies i n each area have been made.
These are urbanisation, city and region, urban functions, urban internal
structure, emerging urban systems, urban social organisation, urban
community development, urban social problems and urban planning.
161
 --
Urban Sociology The process of urbanisation and urbanism in India attracted the attention
of scholars on and off since the 1950s. D'Souza (1974) observes that social
scientists began t o show real interest i n urban studies after the 1951
census report, which revealed high growth of urban population i n India.
Max Weber, Arnold Toynbee, Milton Singer, Robert Redfield, G.S. Ghurye,
Radhakamal Mukherjee, D.N. Majumdar and Gideon Sjoberg are a few
scholars t o name who showed interest i n urban phenomena in India. Prof.
G.S. Ghurye, successor of Patrick Geddes at University of Bombay, showed
keen interest i n studying the urban situation i n India. He worked on the
comparative and historical aspects of urbanisation and also studied rural-
urban relations. He concentrated on the ecological, political and cultural
aspects of ancient and medieval cities i n the context of civilisation. This is
reflected i n his article Cities of lndia published i n 1953. Max Weber (1962)
has offered a comparative historical account of cities, with special attention
t o the institution of caste i n the context of lndian cities. He argued that
while t h e caste system accounted for t h e continuity of the main
characteristics i n traditional lndian cities, it obstructed the emergence of ,
citizenry, social and legal equality, fraternisation and autonomy of modern
lndian cities.
Sjoberg (1964) catogarises lndian cities into pre-industrial and industrial
considering industrialisation as the key variable. But Rao (1974) is of the
opinion that the process of urbanization i n lndia is complex and that
categorisation of lndian cities on the basis of one factor will be too simplistic,
although he agrees that British colonialism is a cut off point i n the history
of lndian urbanisation. Toynbee studies the location and shifting of capital
cities. Redfield and Singer engaged i n studying the organisation of great
tradition i n lndian cities, as well as the sacred geography and functions of
lndian cities in terms of their cultural role.
Prof. Radhakamal Mukherjee initiated social ecological studies of lndian
cities at Lucknow University, Besides sociologists, geographers have also
contributed t o the social ecological studies of towns and cities. ~ c o b g i c a l
studies may not be of much value t o the sociologists, but they are a
valuable source material t o follow up both the social processes and
implications of ecological phenomena (Rao 1991).
The 1971 census recorded a high rate of growth of urban population,
which again attracted the interest of many more scholars into the study
of cities and associated issues, which resulted i n gaining fast development
of urban sociology in lndia (D'Souza 1974). The problems of rural-urban
migration, urban development, and other related areas such as
demography, neighborhoods, slums, stratification, education, ethnic conflict
and movements, kinship, religion, politics, economy, social problems, and
impact of urbanization on rural areas attracted the attention of many
sociologists and social anthropologists (Rao 1982). 'Thus, i n 1970s there
were some good studies on lndian urbanism (Ghosh (1973), Dimock and
lnden (1970), Hambly (1968), King (1978), Saberwal (1978). There were
a number of important studies on urbanisation related social problems i n
towns and cities. Sociologically relevant studies on problems like
prostitution, beggary, juvenile delinquency and slums i n the urban context
have been carried out both by social workers and urban sociologists. Many
well-known slum studies were conducted (Desai and Pillai 1970, 1972,
Wiebe 1975, D'Souza 1978, 1979) during this period. Several edited volumes
of papers on urban themes were published as proceedings of a conference
of special number of journals devoted t o urban issues (Sandhu 2003).
Demographic studies of towns and cities have been made based on the
162 Census Reports and National Sample Surveys. Kingsley Davis, Ashish Bose,
\
Sovani and others have made significant contributions to urban demographic Urban Sociology
in lndia
analysis. These studies enable us to know more about the magnitude and
scale of urbanisation i n our country. D'Souza observed that most of the
studies conducted during the periods of 1950s, 60s and 70s are largely
empirical generalisations about the urban phenomenon most of which
lacked the rigour of scientific method (D'Souza 1985).

In the 1980s and afterwards there was a remarkable growth i n urban

studies, although certain areas received more attention (such as
urbanization patterns and trends, migration studies, social problems i n
urban areas) i n research, while other areas (metropolitisation, regional
planning, spatial structure of cities) were not explored much. A number of
studies have been conducted on urban problems of slums and squatter
settlements i n the 1980s (Misra and Gupta 1981, Rao and Rao 1984, Jha
1986, Kaldate 1989, Sandhu 1989) and i n the 1990s (Rao, R.N. 1990, Das
1993, Desai 1995, De Wit 1996, Purewal 2000, Lobo and Das 2001).

Box 84.1 : Some Basic Questions in the Study of Urbanism and

Urbanisation

"A Study of urban social structure and organisation, apart from

contributing t o a fuller understanding of lndian social institutions,
has relevance i n the context of wider theoretical problems.
Urbanisation is a world-wide process and it has been considered not
only as an index of economic development but also as an important
factor of social change. It has been argued, on the basis of Western
experience, that urbanisation means a breakdown of traditional social
institiltions and values. In the lndian context this means, among
other things, that the caste system will change into the class system,
nuclear families will emerge from joint families and religion will
become highly secularized. These hypotheses assume that urbanisation
i n lndra is the same as Westernisation, and ignore the existence of
traditional urbanization on which modern urbanization had its first
impact. The "breakdown" hypotheses, therefore, mislead one into
asking the wrong questions, while it would be more realistic t o
formulate the questions as follows : What changes have come about
as a result of interaction between traditional and modern urbanisation?
Which aspects of caste, kinship and religion have changed i n the
new urban context? What are the new forms of associations,
relationships and interactions, that have emerged i n the cities, and
i n what respects have the traditional ones got intermeshed with new
forms of behaviour? What is the impact of such changes i n the urban
situation on rural life? These questions rightly focus on the changes
i n the traditional urban situation instead of taking the rural context
as representing the traditional social institutions o f India. "
(Rao, M.S.A, Bhat C. 8 KadeKar, L.N. (ed.) 1991:2).

There were some more government initiatives i n the 1980s and 1990s i n
conductirig urban studies. The National Commission on Urbanisation
published its five-volume report. It highlighted the problems of urbanisation
at the grassroots, sub-state and state level. The government o f lndia
encouraged the city studies for the preparation of a national report on
the state of lndian cities as an after effect of the 1996 Istanbul conference
on Habitat by UN's Center for Human Settlement (UNCHS). Moreover the
National IJrban Observatory established by the government of lndia is
Urban Sociology planning to promote urban databases at the city level as a part of the local
urban observatories i n accordance with UNCHS guidel.ines and suggestions.
Sandhu (2002) observes that all these efforts will provide a more congenial
environment for urban studies i n India.
In the preceding section we had seen the development of Urban Sociology
i n lndia by having an overview of the urban studies conducted since the
1920s. We have seen urban studies i n lndia were concentrated on different
aspects of evolution of the city and city life. Based on these different
perspectives let us make a broad categorisatiori of urban studies and have
a look at some of the studies i n each of them.

Reflection and Action 14.1

region and compare it with that of the other region. Write an essay
of about three pages on the "Comparison of Rural and Urban Social
Organisation" based on your observation.

Compare your essay with those of other learners at the Study Center.

14.3 Historical Comparative Studies

Urban studies have evoked much interest i n historical and comparative
perspectives on the origin and growth of cities or urban centers. Many
scholars perceive cities i n the wider context of the history of civilisation.
Some even believe that history of civilisation should be written i n terms of
the history of cities and that the city i s the symbol of civilisation. The
history of India's urbanization i s centuries old. Scholars have attempted to
classify Indian pre-modern and modern cities based on different criteria
such as function of the cities, size and population of the cities etc. According
t o Rao India's urbanism has essentially been shaped by three civilisations.
The Hindu, during the early period; the Muslim, during the medieval period;
and the Christian, during the modern period. The rulers representing
these civilisations tried to impose elements of their culture on the urban
life of India. Moreover, the urban settlement patterns i n lndia often show *
juxtaposition of old and new. Thus historical perspective adds an important
dimension to our understanding of the urban situation i n India.
There are a handful of studies on urbanism i n historical India. Authors
such as A. Ghosh (The City in Early Historical lndia 1973) and M.S.A. Rao
(Traditional Urbanism and Urbanisation 1974) have dealt with urbanism
and cities i n early historical India. In his essay Rao analyses the urban
styles of lives and processes i n pre-colonial lndia i n the framework of
civilization. He points out that there is not one Hindu civilisation or great
tradition but a multiplicity of civilisations which accounted for vaned urban
institutions, styles and images i n a situation of interaction. He describes
varied patterns of urbanism and urbanisation i n terms of ecological features,
social organisation of religions, artistic, scientific, technological, economic
and political activities and rural urban networks. In the context of urbanism
and urbanisation i n traditional India, he argues that the towns and villages
formed a part of the civilisational process, with structural continuities and
organisational differences.
164
There are other studies, which discuss various aspect's of urbanism during Urban Sociology
the later periods of history. Edward C. Dimock and Robert B. lnden (The in lndia
City in Pre-British Bengal 1970) described the cities in pre-British Bengal
as gathered from the Mangala Kavya Literature. Gavin Hambly (Cities of
Mughal lndia 1968) and Hameeda Khatoon Naqvi (Urbanisation and Urban
Centres Under the Mughals 1971) dealt with cities and urbanization during
the Mughal period. The influence of British colonial period on urban
development in lndia also was an interesting theme for scholars of urban
sosiology. In his study Antony D. King (Colonial Urban Development: Culture,
Social Power and Environment 1976) examines the evolution of Delhi
under British rule when it became the dual city. He looks out for the
symbolic meanings and hidden values implicit in British approaches to urban
design and planning. Satish Saberwal (Indian Urbanism: A Socio-historical
Perspective 1978) has given some glimpses into Indian urbanism during
the historical period. Meera Kosambi (Three Colonial Port Cities in lndia
1988) studies the urban morphology of the three colonial port cities of
Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, which according to her, share a distinctive
pattern that i s part of their colonial past. Basic features are a nucleus
with a European-style fort and open esplanade, segregated, residential
areas for Europeans and Indians, a central business district, and peripheral
military and manufacture zones; the features that other cities lack.
The colonial city has always posed a problem in i t s conceptualisationbecause
of different forms of colonial expansion and domination. Fox (Tezibazaar:
Colonial Town in Prismatic Society 1977) argues that the colonial cities
form a part of a type of state society called prismatic society. According
to Fred Riggs (1964), such state societies are prismatic in that they combine
pre-industrial and industrial institutions and refract them into new social
forms. That means such urban centers are subjected to the impact of
industrialisation under Western political and economic influence without
getting industrialised themself. Fox illustrates this in his case study of a
small administrative town of Tezibazaar under the colonial era, particularly
in the context of transition of its governance from the traditional elite,
through British bureaucrats and their overlords, to the new elites elected
through modern electoral machinery. He argues that the colonial rule
fossilised the economic productivity and how the colonial industrial states
economically exploited and politically subdued their colonial dependencies.
Fox notes that prismatic society was earlier consideredtransitional between
traditional and modern. But such societies have assumed a stiability of
permanency of their own.
A different approach to study colonial city i s to study them in the Marxian
framework of imperialism and exploitation and dependency theory. Moonis
Raza and Atiya ~ a b i bi n their study of Characteristics of Colonial
Urbanisation - A Case study of the Satellitic Primacy of Calcutta examine
the growth of Calcutta into satellitic primate of the metropolitan economy
under the colonial situation. The authors emphasise the need to analyse
the colonial urbanisation i n the framework of the development of
underdevelopment under imperialist exploitation since the processes of
urbanisation are closely interrelated to those of economic development.
According to them Calcutta, a satellitic primate, was neither able to sustain
itself as a metropolis nor induce the development of i t s hinterland. Calcutta
grew but did not develop during the colonial era and i t s growth was a
reflection not of the healthy process of urbanisation but rather of the
diseased process of urban assertion.
Yet coming back to the urban studies in historical perspective, there are
some studies that deal with particular towns and cities in their historical
Urban Sociology perspectives. B.C. Dutta (1970) and Devendra Handa (1970) provide brief
historical descriptions of two of the ancient cities of Punjab, Sunet and
Rupar respectively. Some of the major urban centers such as Ahemadabad
(Gillian 1968)) Varanasi (A.N. Singh 1969) and Calcutta (Sinha 1968) have
also been viewed historically. The historical approach has also been adopted
i n studying certain aspects of the social organization of urban communities
such as caste system i n Madras during the period of British Merchant
Government (Roche 1975), and the leadership i n Bombay during the period
1840-1885 (Dobbin 1972). The relationship between the urban and rural
areas has also been studied historically i n a work dealing with Saurashtra
(Spodek 1976 cf D'Souza 1985).

14.4 Ecological studies

,
The historical events and the culture of the people in India played a pivotal
role i n shaping the existing ecological structures of lndian cities. Weinstein
(1986) points out some prominent subjective elements that influence
ecological structures i n lndian cities. These are local cultural views, ethnic .
and caste loyalties, traditional segregation principles, particularistic canons
of neighborhood desirability, and norms of intensive land use. If we look
into the evolution of morphology of lndian cities, we can see that even the
cities of the lndus Valley Civilisation were planned having formal layout in
a regular grid. But the later cities, which grew around the temples or
royal palaces within the fortress, were irregular and amorphous.

Reflection and Action 14.2

Take a map of an lndian city like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai etc. Find
out the different functions o f different areas i n the map eg.
residential colonies, institutional areas, corporate offices, etc. Choose
the different residential areas in the map and find out about the
socio-economic and occupational background of the people who stay
i n these colonies.
Write a report on the "Social Stratification and Structure of the
City" i n about three to five pages based on your map reading of the
city chosen by you.
Discuss your report with those of other students at your Study Center.

The ancient texts and the archeological findings ofancient cities shed
light t o the ecological structure of lndian cities of ancient days. Political
treatises like the Arthasastra and the works on architecture and design -
such as Agnipurana, the Manasara, and the Sukranitisara which date
back to 500 B.C. to A.D. 300 have described i n detail the norms pertaining
to the spatial structure of different types of cities. The salient features of
ancient cities were a fortress, religious institutions and the socio-economic
separation of people into distinct neighborhoods or natural areas (Ghurye
1961 cf. Rao 1991). Though all the scriptures seem to provide a general
pattern for the construction of cities there are certain slight variations.
While Arthasastra prescribes the positioning of royal and administrative or
the temple at the centre of the city Agnipurana specifies the temples at
the corners of the city wall and the shops are to be at the centre of the
city. As per Sukranitisara, an architectural treatise, the royal palace, court
council buildings, museum and the residences of the officials shall be a t
the centre o f the City (Berry and Spodek 1971). The residential pattern of
different caste groups were also prescribed i n these scriptures. The four
varnas of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Shudra are t o be grouped
respectively to the north, east, south and west of the royal palace and the llrban Sociology '
in lndia
outcastes outside the city walls.
Even during the pre-British period the urban centers in lndia showed power
polatisation - with socially, financially and politicallyinfluential people at
the center and less influential mass at the as depicted i n
Sjoberg's (1955) model. With the advent of British colonialism and the
sequential appearance of functionally distinct elements of military garrison,
civil administration and railway colony i n the lndian cities, marked changes
i n the settlement order of the native cities came (Smailes 1969). Even
before independence itself the cleavages between different functional
settlement units began t o be blurred giving way to the social gradation of
native society (Rao 1991).
The planned development of the post-independence period has brought
about significant changes i n the internal structure of the lndian cities
(Rao 1991: 87). 'The government created a separate town-planning
department t o prepare the development plans of urban areas. The
government also introduced western models of town planning to give a
facelift to the lndian cities. The most noteworthy feature of urban planning
of the post independence period was that there had been a clear cut
separation of various land uses such as industrial, commercial, educational,
instilutional, administrative, residential etc. There was also an
unprecedented growth i n higher educational institutions, universities, and
research institutions spreading over hundreds of acres i n large cities (Ibid).
Thus, there was a gradual change i n the residential pattern of lndian
cities during the post independence period.
Urban ecology and morphology of lndian cities became the subject matter
of study for a good number of sociologists and geographers. The studies
done on the residential pattern of lndian cities (Berry and Rees (1969),
Singh (1975), Brush (1975, 1977) shows the changing urban way of life i n
the Indian cities, as well as the new segmentation pattern of the urban
residential spaces on the basis of class and status. Prof. G.S. Ghurye and
his students such as Bopegamage (1957), Venkatarayappa (1957),
Rajagopalan (1962), Mohsin (1963) showed keen interest i n studying the
morpliology and ecological structure of lndian cities. Since 1969 there had
been a handful of studies on the ecological structure of various lndian
cities based on the factorial ecological approach. Berry and Rees (1969),
Weinstein (1974, 1986), Brush (1977, 1986) are a few to name.
Brian Berry and Philip Rees (1969) on the basis of a factor analysis and six
other major cities i n lndia observed that communal or religious and caste
status is being transformed into class status, and this i n turn has led t o
the dominant spatial pattern of high status neighbourhoods i n central
areas and low status on the periphery. other studies also prove this
Inference. Other scholars such as N.K. Bose (1965) who studied Calcutta
and Mehta (1968) who studied Poona city also agree with the findings of
Berry and Rees on the residential segregation of distinct socio-economic
groups. Brush (1975) from an analysis of the socio-economic structure of
Bombay and Delhi perceives apart from the city center the residential
colonies of elites (new elites specifically) are coming up i n a sectoral
fashion i n the outer zones of the city.
Some of the studies dealing with the internal structure of cities delineate
and describe different aspects of urban communities while certain others
show how the structure has evolved. Some seek to explain the underlying
factors i n the changing structure such as land use pattern, land values,
residential patterns etc. (D'Souza 1974). Gist (1957) studies the morphology
. . 167
.
Urban Sociology of Bangalore city using 1941 and 1951 census data. He found that caste,
education and occupational characteristics are co-related and he believed
that the impact of industrial technology, large-scale economic organization,
modern transportation and western status values will bring about changes
i n the ecological structure of Bangalore. John E. Brush i n his study
Morphology of lndian Cities (1962) examines the relationships of the
physical structure of lndian cities with the social aspects, in the light of
the historical circumstances influencing their origins and evolution.
Arthur E. Smailes argues the historical development of two distinct part of
the city - the indigenous city and the British annexes-resulted in dualism
i n the morphology of lndian cities. In many lndian cities the major
morphological periods identified are pre-railway (pre-1853), railway-British
(1853-1947) and the post independence. He also outlined the major
morphological elements of India, cities as : a) old walled city, b) modern
extramural extension, c) cantonment, d) civil lines, e) railway colony, f )
post 1947 estates and residential colonies.
Many scholars adopted factorial ecology approach to analyse the ecological
structure of various lndia cities. Factorial ecology approach i s an
improvement over social area analysis. In this method factor analytic
techniques are used to identify the underlying structural dimensions from
a set of socio-economic characteristics selected for variation i n the
structure. Berry and Spodek (1971) make an in-depth study of traditional
styles of lndian culture as they affect residence patterns through a factor
analysis of five lndian cities. They show that i n cities under study the basis
for residential segregation i s transformed from caste to class status and
i n the course of this process, residual caste status and class status reinforce
each other so that the dominant spatial pattern remains that of high
status neighbourhoods i n t h e c e n t r a l area and t h e low-status

generating transforming the utban structure.

Weinstein i n his study Subjective Components of Urban Ecological Structure:
A Theoretical Statement and an Application to fwo lndian Cities (1986)
shows that the emerging ecological structure of lndian cities i s not entirely
based on objective components of city life. He argues that rather than .
the traditional objective features of urban ecological structure, like, physical
distance, location of transport routes etc., the subjective elements of
local cultural views, ethnic and caste loyalties, traditional segregation .
principles, particularistic canons of neighbourhood desirability etc. are
more prominent i n influencing urban ecological structure. Pragati Gihar
(2003) analyses various elements of the spatial and social structures found
i n varying nature i n different parts of the city. The work contributes to
the theoretical understanding of the spatio-social structures prevalent i n
urban areas which may further point out the uneven degree of urbanization
and i t s implications on the social and cultural life of the people living in
different localities i n the city

14.5 Studies on Urbanisation and Urban Growth

According to the 2001 Census, lndia i s home to more than one-sixth of
the world's population and 28%of i t s people live i n urban areas. There are
35 urban agglomerations each with a population of more than one million,
and about 37 per cent of the total ucban population lives i n these million-
plus cities. 'The two largest - Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi (including the
capital, New Delhi) - had population of more than 9 million'each. In the
168 last 60 years the percentage of urban population to the total population
 (urbanisation) doubled from 13.86 (1941) t o 27.78% (2001). The absolute Urban Sociology
number of urban population (urban growth) increased even more.
Urbanisation i n lndia i s proceeding at a modest pace. According t o the
2001 census, there has been an increase of 2.1 per cent i n the proportion
of urban population over the 1991 census. Urbanisation and urban growth
are two different concepts. Urbanisation refers t o the percentage of the
total population, which i s concentrated i n urban settlements as well as to
a rise i n the percentage. Urban growth refers to the percentage increase
i n the absolute size of the urban population. The pattern of urbanisation
and urban growth i n lndia shows a relatively Low rate of urbanisation and
high rate of urban growth (Bose 1973).
As we said earlier urbanisation i n lndia i s not a new phenomenon. However,
proper documentation of urban growth and related aspects began t o be
recorded along with the census survey only. The population growth i n the
cities as well as growth of market towns occurred during the colonial
'
period due t o increase i n commerce and commercialisation of agriculture.
The growth i n small-scale industries resulted i n the development of large
towns. Cotton textiles and other industries caused the concentration on
population location-based and i n the development of urban centers. Thus
there was a gradual growth of urban areas i n India. The development of
trade, cornrnerce, industry, transport, communication and construction
etc. all led to a faster rise i n the percentage of urban population. There
had been some good studies - Kingsley Davis (1951), Turner (1962),
Huser (1957), Sovani (1966), Ashish Bose (1970, 1973, 1975, 1992, 1993,
1998, 2001), Fisher (1972), Singh (1973), Premi, M.K. (1985, 1994,
1996), Ramachandra, R. (1989), Rao (1986), Mishra, R.P. and Kamalesh
Mishra (1998), Sandhu, R.K. (2003), Kundu A. (1994, 2000)
Sivaramakrishnan eta1 (2005) - on the morphology of urbanisation i n
lndia concentrating of issues such as increased urban growth i n larger
cities, inter and intra city urban variations, migration patterns, urban
governance etc. Most of the studies on urbanisation are based on
census data.
The processes of urbanisation and urban growth have been studied by
social scientists from various dimensions. The demographic studies
concentrate on the rate of urban growth and related aspects. Studies on
migration consider migration as significant factor i n urbanisation.
Urbanisation has far reaching effects on larger societal processes and
social institutions such as family and kinship. Certain urban studies focused
on this aspect also. Now let us see what are the issues covered i n the
urban studies of each of these areas.

Box 14.2 Urban Studies with Policy Implications

Policy oriented urban research has gained momentum i n lndia during
the post-independence period. Urban researchers turned their
attention t o this area due to the deterioration of civic amenities i n
the urban centers which resulted from the increased concentration
of urban population, industrial and tertiary activities i n a few large
cities. The thrust of these studies was to give direction t o the future
urban growth i n the country. A provision for making a Master Plan
for metropolitan cities was included i n the Third Five Year Plan.
Several government-sponsored studies were conducted based on the.
analysis of land use and socio-economic structure t o prepare
development plans.
Urban Sociology
Most of these studies adopted a holistic approa~ktowards the study
of cities studying various aspects at the same time. The Master
Plans developed based on these studies were not so successful.
Moreover the growing complexity o f city economy and that of
managing the infrastructure and public utilities revealed the
inadequacies of the holistic approaches and prompted the scholars
to focus on particular segments of the economy on specific problems.
A good number of studies had been undertaken i n the 1970s and
1980s (Agarwal 1976, Srivastava 1976, Papola 1981, Subramaniam
1982) that restrict their scope to one or a few sectors of micro
economy.
Source: (Kundu, A. 1992)

llrban Demographic Studies: Kingsley Davis (1951) i s one of the foremost

to study the urbanisation pattern i n lndia using census data. Although his
predictions did not prove to be correct, he made an attempt to predict
the future course of urbanisation and urban growth with the turn of the
century i n India. N.V. Sovani (1966) i n his study Urbanisation and Urban
lndia argued that while Indian urbanisation had many resemblances i n
form to that of the West, it differed from the latter i n content. For him
the process of urbanisation plays a socially dynamic role and it will continue
to do so. In Urbanisation in lndia (1970) Ashish Bose analysed the pattern
of urbanisation, i t s structural characteristics and some related problems.
The focus of examination for K.C. Zacharia was the role played by internal ,
migration i n the process of urbanisation. For this purpose he analysed the
census data since 1901. Ashok Mitra (1967) i n his paper A Functional
Classification of Towns in lndia attempts t o make a composite classification
of towns using a triangular coordinate technique on the basis of industrial
classification of workers i n the 1961 census. P.B. Desai (1969) studies the
changes i n the size and sex composition of India's population over a period
of sixty years using census data. 'The work examines the relationship of
sex composition with other demographic variables like age structure,
migration, working force and the geographical distribution of urban
population.

Ashish Bose did a good number of urbanisation studies from the demographic
perspective. Urbanisation In lndia (Prakasha Rao 1983) deals with the
process o f urbanisation i n India. Giriraj Gupta analyses the major ,
components of urban social organisation such as structure, growth, culture
migration, slums and various forms of mobility and interaction. Lakshmi
Narayan (1986) examines the historical and demographic dimensions of
the growth of metropolitan cities i n India. Weinstein, J. (1992 Urban
growth in India: Demographic and Socio-cultural prospects) studies the
numerical and qualitative aspects of the ~ r o w t hof the Indian urban
population with the benefit of data from the last 4 censuses of 1951-
1981. Roy, B. K. (1993 Urban Growth in India: Its contemporary Relevance)
examines the urban growth i n lndia i n general with relevance to urban
agglomerations of major significance on the basis of the Census of 1991.
Debnath Mookherjee and Hoerauf (2004 Cities in Transition: Monitoring
Growth Trends in Delhi Agglomeration 1991-2001) studies the differential
growth pattern of peripheral urban centers of Delhi urban agglomeration
i n terms of size and location relative to the core units utilising the census
data for the period of 1991-2001. He examines the number and growth
of census towns and urban core and indicates a change i n the urban
structure of Delhi urban agglomeration.
Urbanisation and Migration: Migrants constitutes a sizable section of urban Urba~nSociology
India. Rural t o urban migration i s a principal source of urbanisation. There in lndia
had been studies on the streams and patterns of migration i n lndia by
urban sociologists. Ashish Bose (1973) presented some data for different
migratiorl streams for 1961 and 1971 utilising the respective census data.
Ashok Mitra (1968) and Narain, V. (1976) studied the 1961 census t o bring
out some special features of rural t o urban migration and their implications
for rural-urban relations. Chatterjee, A. (1974) makes a comparative
study of migration streams in 1961 and 1971. Premi (1980) too makes a
comparative study but has concentrated on female migrants.
Chatterjee, M. (1971) has shown that the stability of migration is a function
of distance from the native place as well as of occupational status. The
longer the distance from the native place, the greater the percentage of
migrants who regard their stay i n the city as temporary, and relatively
more migrants from the lower prestige occupations than those from the
higher occupations regard their stay inthe city as temporary. It is also
argued that the volume of migration tends to decrease with the increase
i n distance and that at shorter distances females are more migratory than
males, but at longer distances males are more migratory than females.
Singh, .J. P. (1984) examines and proves these theoretical arguments with
regard to rural t o urban migration, based on census data, i n the states of
Kerala and West Bengal i n a comparative manner. Premi and Tom (1985)
examined the phenomenon of migration t o Indian cities using 1971 census
data. They focused on the city characteristics of size, growth rate,
functional specialisation etc. In another study M.K., Premi (1986) i n
Migration to Cities in lndia analyses the phenomenon of migration i n the
growth of class 1 cities.
Migration does not take place at random, but it follows certain patterns.
S.W. Sangh and K.W.S. Yadava (1974) studied the rural migrants to urban
areas and pointed out that the number of migrants to a place at a given
point of time is related t o the number of migrants at an earlier point of
time. K.W.S. Yadava (1987, 1988) further studied the volume, pattern,
dehn~entsand consequences of rural urban migration i n India. Selvaraj
and Rao (1993) studied consequences of rural urban migration.
Impact of Urbanisation on Social Institutions: The family structure and
the intra and inter family relations are affected by the process of
urbanisation. The cross cultural influence i n the urban areas and i t s diverse
nature in terms of ethnic, religious, linguistic, etc., backgrounds leads to
the breaking of the old community bonds and formation of new
relationships. There had been studies conducted on urban families by
scholars. Studies by I.P. Desai (1964), Kapadia, K.M. (1969), A.D. Ross
have pointed out that urban joint family i s gradually replaced by nuclear
family with the shrinking of family size and confining the kinship relation
to two or three generation only. I t has been shown that though the structure
of urban family is changing, the spirit of individualism is not growing i n
the families (I.P. Desai 1964). Desai in his study observed that though
most of the families are residentially nuclear, functionally and i n terms of
property they are joint. Apart from these, Ross found through her study
(1962) that in urban settings the typical form of family unit i s small joint
famiiy. Moreover the relations with one's distant kin i s weakening or
breaking. And the households seem to be more of an egalitarian kind
rather than concentrating around the head of the family as seen in the
traditional patriarchal family. Even i n the midst of such changes the family \
ethos remain morq o*s the same.
171
Urban Sociology Sylvia Vatuk who has done research on the lndia family and kinship system
i n urban settings maintains that the ideal of family jointness i s upheld i n
urban settings although living may be separate. The extended family acts
as a ceremonial unit and close ties with the agnatic extended family are
maintained. She also finds that there is an increasing tendency towards
individualising marital bond and decline of practices such as [levirate widow
inheritance, widow remarriage, marriage by exchange, polygyny etc. Thus,
features such as diminishing family size, reductions i n functions of family,
emphasis on conjugal relationship etc. are pointed out as the major changes
of urban family structure.
But there are views which go in opposition to this argument. Conklin
(1976) i n his study The Household in Urban lndia makes a factor analysis
of hou ehold composition using census data in Karnataka state and reveals
1
that ur anisation i s not associated with a decline in complex households.
.The census data show urban household size increasing as fast in lndia as
rural household size and the urbanite and the villager are equally i n favor
'
of the joint household in practice and in theory. It i s conclidded that the
relationship between urbanisation and household composition in lndia i s
neither simple nor i s the process unidirectional.

14.6 Urban Poverty, Housing and Slums

Poverty i n lndia i s a widespread phenomenon seen both i n rural and urban
areas. The poor in cities suffer from various deprivations such as lack of
access to employment; adequate housing and infrastructure; and social
protection and lack of access to health, education and personal security
etc. Slums or hutment dwellings have become an inevitable part of the
urban landscape and living place for the urban poor in India. Non-availability
of accommodation near the workplace, high cost of land, and inability to
pay rent have forced several millions of urban residents to take shelter in
slums. Many of these slums are awful, devoid of basic amenities like water
supply, electricity, sewerage, bathroom, toilet, etc., (Rao 1991). Urban
poverty, housing and slums have attracted the attention of social scientists
of all streams.
Studies focusing on the problem of urban slums began in the late 1950s. In
the late fifties and early sixties the Planning Commission studied the problems
of slums and housing. But these primarily were statistical analyses of
housing, emphasizing the gravity of the problem. Bharat Sevak Samaj's
study on the slums of old Delhi (1958) was the first major work on an
Indian slum. A lot more studies followed by different authors studying the
problem of urban poverty and housing i n different urban centers situated
i n various States i n India. Dandekar and Rath in their study Poverty i n
lndia (1970) point out that in the urban context, poverty and slums intersect
with each other. Most people who are poor live i n slums and most of the
slum dwellers are poor. According to them urban poverty i s an extension
of rural poverty and the proportion of urban poor i s far more than the
corresponding proportion of rural poor. And their argument was that
solving the problem of rural poverty could solve the problem of urban
poverty as well.
There had been other studies which examined the problem of urban poverty
from the standpoint of the urban poor and slum dwellers. Andrea Manefee
Singh and Alfred De Souza (1980) compile several papers systematically on
slum and pavement dwellers i n some of the metropolitan cities and other
urban centres. Victor D'Souza (1978) formulates a new theory of urban
slums and poverty i n India. He attributes the genesis and the persistence
172
of the problem of urban poverty to the fact that the poor and slum Urban Sociology
in lndia
dwellers are, by and large, socio-culturally marginalto the dominant sections
of the community in which they live. This approach shifts the responsibility
for the solution of the problem from the victims to the society.
There had been studies analysing different dimensions of urban poverty
such as avenue of employment available to the urban poor (Van Den Bobaert
(1978), Sethuraman, S.V. (1978)), nutritional levels of urban poor (Judith
Katona (1978)). There had also been a number of descriptive studies on
slum life, some of which aimed at testing the prevailing notions about the
urban poor and others yielding some important and interesting
generalizations. Paul Wiebe (1975 and 1978) in his study on Madras slums
conclutles that some of the negative assumptions about the urban poor
that they suffer from the culture of poverty, that slum life is socially
disorganized, that there is a duality between slum and non-slum people
and so on, do not hold good in the case of this population. M.K.A. Siddiqui
(1969) and Owen M. Lynch (1974) also confirm this argument. Scholars
such as Tapan Mazumdar (1978), Khatu (1977), Ratna Naidu (1978)
Venkatarayappa (1976) studied the situations of urban poor i n various

There were a number of studies on the situation of poverty and slum and
housing of Mumbai city. Vandana Desai's research (1995) tries to discover
the intricacy of the social fabric and political dynamics of Mumbai slums.
Studies by Jha S.S. (1986 Structure of Urban Poverty: The Case of Bombcly
Slums), Jeremy Seabrwk (Life and Labour in a Bombay Slum 1987) are
also some significant ones in this regard. Kalapana Sharma (2000) describes
and views from a different angle the life in Dharavi, Asia's largest slum
intuited in Mumbai, the city where half the population lives i n slums. In
situated discussing Dharavi Sharma narrates the way the city developed
through migrations and settlements, displacements and resettlements, its
shape, both geographical and metaphorical, driven by an elite who carved
out for themselves the core, hugged all the urban services to themselves
and relegated the underclass to the periphery, displacing them through
demolitions, as they once again reclaimed the periphery and poverty to
make k t their core. The author looks at Dharavi as representing Mumbai's
real cosmopolitanism, a place where people from different regions of
lndia have forged new identities and lives through sheer grit and
determination (Hindu 2000).

14.7 Caste, Class and Ethnic Formations

People who migrate into urban centers belong to different caste, class,
language and regional backgrounds. In a country like lndia where tradition
and culture provide primordial identities, immigrants tend to maintain
their ethnic identities in the urban settings too. So also social organisations
such as caste, class, region, language etc. plays a significant role in lndian
urban social formation making ethnicity an inevitable part of the lndian
urban environment. The ethnic groups maintain their distinct identity in
the midst of the social and cultural heterogeneity of the city life. Sociologists
had been attracted to study the nature and dynamics of ethnic formations
in lndian cities.
M.S. Gore (1970) examines the degree of adjustment and integration of
south lndian migrants in the city of Bombay. Vijaya Punekar (1969) analysed
inter group interaction and boundary maintenance among the various
ethnic groups formed on the basis of linguistic and regional identities in
Bangalore. She found manifest neighbourhoods only among one's own
173
Urban Sociology linguistic or regional group. %Theissue of integration of south Indian migrants
were studied by Andrea Menefee Singh (1979) i n Delhi and Nair, K.S.
(1978) i n Poona. In both the studies it has been found that the majority of
the migrants belong to the high caste Brahmins and they have white collar
jobs. In both the places the migrants have not imbibed the mode of life of
the local members, instead they recreated in the host communities the
conditions of their home communities. Susan Lewandowski (1983) studied
on the ethnic formations of Kerala migrants in the city of Madras. The
studies of later period (Syed Ali 2003) show that more than caste or class,
regional and linguistic affinity forms the basis of ethnic formations i n
urban areas. Gopa Sabharwal (2006) i n her study Ethnicity and Class:
Social Divisions in an Indian City, attempts to define the concept ethnicity
i n the urban context.

14.8 Conclusion
In this unit we have seen the origin and development of Urban Sociology ,
through the studies done by sociologists on urban social realities in India.
For this purpose we carried out briefly a review of research done on urban
settings. Although some scientific studies began i n the 1920s, major
contributions i n this field commenced around the 1950s. Social scientists
started showing keen interest i n the urban phenomena and various related
social issues after the publication of the 1950 census report, which showed
an enormous urban growth. There had been studies on various dimensions
of urban phenomena. From the quantum of work done i n the area it can
be said that urban sociology has been established as a distinct branch of
Sociology now.

14.9 Further Reading

Rao, M.S.A. (ed.) 1991. A Reader i n Urban Sociology Orient Longman:
New Delhi.