Human Settlement means cluster of dwellings

Unit II of any type or size where human beings live.

Chapter 2 For this purpose, people may erect houses and
other structures and command some area or
territory as their economic support-base. Thus,
the process of settlement inherently involves
grouping of people and apportioning of territory
as their resource base.
Settlements vary in size and type. They
range from a hamlet to metropolitan cities. With
size, the economic character and social structure
of settlements changes and so do its ecology and
technology. Settlements could be small and
sparsely spaced; they may also be large and
HUMAN closely spaced. The sparsely located small
settlements are called villages, specialising in
SETTLEMENTS agriculture or other primary activities. On the
other hand, there are fewer but larger settlements
which are termed as urban settlements
specialising in secondary and tertiary activities.
The basic differences between rural and urban
settlements are as follows :
• The rural settlements derive their life
support or basic economic needs from
land based primary economic activities,
whereas, urban settlements, depend on
processing of raw materials and
manufacturing of finished goods on the
one hand and a variety of services on the
other.
• Cities act as nodes of economic growth,
provide goods and services not only to
urban dwellers but also to the people of
the rural settlements in their hinterlands
in return for food and raw materials. This
functional relationship between the urban
and rural settlements takes place through
transport and communication network.
• Rural and urban settlements differ in
terms of social relationship, attitude and
outlook. Rural people are less mobile and
therefore, social relations among them are
intimate. In urban areas, on the other
hand, way of life is complex and fast, and
social relations are formal.

T ypes of R ur
Rur al Settlement
ural
Types of the settlement are determined by the
extent of the built-up area and inter-house

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distance. In India compact or clustered village Semi-Clustered Settlements
of a few hundred houses is a rather universal
Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may
feature, particularly in the northern plains.
result from tendency of clustering in a
However, there are several areas, which have
restricted area of dispersed settlement. More
other forms of rural settlements. There are
often such a pattern may also result from
various factors and conditions responsible for
segregation or fragmentation of a large compact
having different types of rural settlements in
village. In this case, one or more sections of
India. These include: (i) physical features –
the village society choose or is forced to live a
nature of terrain, altitude, climate and
little away from the main cluster or village. In
availability of water (ii) cultural and ethenic
such cases, generally, the land-owning and
factors – social structure, caste and religion
dominant community occupies the central part
(iii) security factors – defence against thefts and
of the main village, whereas people of lower
robberies. Rural settlements in India can
strata of society and menial workers settle on
broadly be put into four types:
the outer flanks of the village. Such settlements
• Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated,
are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some
• Semi-clustered or fragmented,
parts of Rajasthan.
• Hamleted, and
• Dispersed or isolated.

Clustered Settlements
The clustered rural settlement is a compact or
closely built up area of houses. In this type of
village the general living area is distinct and
separated from the surrounding farms, barns
and pastures. The closely built-up area and its

Fig. 2.2 : Semi-clustered settlements

Hamleted Settlements
Sometimes settlement is fragmented into several
units physically separated from each other
bearing a common name. These units are locally
Fig. 2.1 : Clustered Settlements in the North-eastern states called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, etc. in
various parts of the country. This segmentation
intervening streets present some recognisable of a large village is often motivated by social
pattern or geometric shape, such as and ethnic factors. Such villages are more
rectangular, radial, linear, etc. Such settlements frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga
are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the
in the northeastern states. Sometimes, people Himalayas.
live in compact village for security or defence
reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of Dispersed Settlements
central India and in Nagaland. In Rajasthan,
scarcity of water has necessitated compact Dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India
settlement for maximum utilisation of available appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets
water resources. of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills

16 India : People and Economy

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 Ancient Towns
There are number of towns in India having
historical background spanning over 2000
years. Most of them developed as religious and
cultural centres. Varanasi is one of the important
towns among these. Prayag (Allahabad),
Pataliputra (Patna), Madurai are some other
examples of ancient towns in the country.

Medieval Towns
Fig. 2.3 : Dispersed settlements in Nagaland About 100 of the existing towns have their roots
with farms or pasture on the slopes. Extreme in the medieval period. Most of them developed
as headquarters of principalities and kingdoms.
dispersion of settlement is often caused by
extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and These are fort towns which came up on the
ruins of ancient towns. Important among them
land resource base of habitable areas. Many
areas of Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Himachal are Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra
and Nagpur.
Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.
Modern Towns
Urban Settlements
The British and other Europeans have
Unlike rural settlements, urban settlements developed a number of towns in India.
are generally compact and larger in size. Starting their foothold on coastal locations,
They are engaged in a variety of non- they first developed some trading ports such
agricultural, economic and administrative as Surat, Daman, Goa, Pondicherry, etc. The
functions. As mentioned earlier, cities are British later consolidated their hold around
functionally linked to rural areas around three principal nodes – Mumbai (Bombay),
them. Thus, exchange of goods and services Chennai (Madras), and Kolkata (Calcutta) –
is performed sometimes directly and and built them in the British style. Rapidly
sometimes through a series of market towns
and cities. Thus, cities are connected directly
as well as indirectly with the villages and also
with each other. You can see the definition of
towns in Chapter 10 of the book,
“Fundamentals of Human Geography.”

Evolution of Towns in India

Towns flourished since prehistoric times in
India. Even at the time of Indus valley
civilisation, towns like Harappa and
Mohanjodaro were in existence. The following
period has witnessed evolution of towns. It
continued with periodic ups and downs until
the arrival of Europeans in India in the
eighteenth century. On the basis of their Fig. 2.4 : A view of the modern city
evolution in different periods, Indian towns may
extending their domination either directly or
be classified as: through control over the princely states, they
• Ancient towns, • Medieval towns, and established their administrative centres, hill-
• Modern towns. towns as summer resorts, and added new civil,

Human Settlements 17

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 Table 2.1 : India – Trends of Urbanisation 1901-2011
Year Number of Urban Population % of Total Decennial
Towns/UAs (in Thousands) Population Growth (%)

1901 1,827 25,851.9 10.84 —-

1911 1,815 25,941.6 10.29 0.35
1921 1,949 28,086.2 11.18 8.27
1931 2,072 33,456.0 11.99 19.12
1941 2,250 44,153.3 13.86 31.97
1951 2,843 62,443.7 17.29 41.42
1961 2,365 78,936.6 17.97 26.41
1971 2,590 1,09,114 19.91 38.23
1981 3,378 1,59,463 23.34 46.14
1991 4,689 2,17,611 25.71 36.47
2001 5,161 2,85,355 27.78 31.13
2011* 6,171 3,77,000 31.16 31.08

*Source: Census of India, 2011 http.//www.censusindia.gov.in (Provisional)

administrative and military areas to them. Functional Classification of Towns

Towns based on modern industries also
evolved after 1850. Jamshedpur can be cited Apart from their role as central or nodal places,
as an example. many towns and cities perform specialised
After independence, a large number of towns services. Some towns and cities specialise in
have been developed as administrative certain functions and they are known for
headquarters, e.g., Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, some specific activities, products or services.
Gandhinagar, Dispur, etc., and industrial However, each town performs a number of
centres, such as Durgapur, Bhilai, Sindri, functions. On the basis of dominant or
Barauni. Some old towns also developed as specialised functions, Indian cities and towns
satellite towns around metropolitan cities, such can be broadly classified as follows:
as Ghaziabad, Rohtak, Gurugram around
Delhi. With increasing investment in rural areas, Administrative towns and cities
a large number of medium and small towns
Towns supporting administrative headquarters
have developed all over the country.
of higher order are administrative towns, such
Urbanisation in India as Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong,
Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar,
The level of urbanisation is measured in
Jaipur, Chennai, etc.
terms of percentage of urban population to
total population. The level of urbanisation in Industrial towns
India in 2011 was 31.16 per cent, which is
quite low in comparison to developed Industries constitute prime motive force of these
countries. Total urban population has cities, such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore,
increased eleven-fold during the twentieth Modinagar, Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.
century. Enlargement of urban centres and Transport Cities
emergence of new towns have played a
significant role in the growth of urban They may be ports primarily engaged in export
population and urbanisation in the country. and import activities such as Kandla, Kochchi,
( T a b l e 2. 1 ) . B u t t h e g r o w t h r a t e o f Kozhikode, Vishakhapatnam, etc., or hubs of
urbanisation has slowed down during last inland transport, such as Agra, Dhulia,
two decades. Mughalsarai, Itarsi, Katni, etc.

18 India : People and Economy

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Commercial towns
Towns and cities specialising in trade and
commerce are kept in this class. Kolkata, List the urban agglomerations/cities
Saharanpur, Satna, etc., are some examples. state-wise and see the state-wise
population under this category of cities.
Mining towns
These towns have developed in mineral rich Educational towns
areas such as Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi,
Ankaleshwar, Singrauli, etc. Starting as centres of education, some of the
towns have grown into major campus towns,
Garrisson Cantonment towns such as Roorki, Varanasi, Aligarh, Pilani,
Allahabad, etc.
These towns emerged as garrisson towns such
as Ambala, Jalandhar, Mhow, Babina,
Udhampur, etc. Religious and cultural towns
Varanasi, Mathura, Amritsar, Madurai, Puri,
Smart Cities Mission Ajmer, Pushkar, T irupati, Kurukshetra,
Haridwar, Ujjain came to prominence due to
The objective of the Smart Cities Mission their religious/cultural significance.
is to promote cities that provide core
infrastructure, a clean and sustainable Tourist towns
environment and give a decent quality of
life to its citizens. One of the features of Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla, Pachmarhi,
Smart Cities is to apply smart solutions to Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udagamandalam (Ooty),
infrastructure and services in order to make Mount Abu are some of the tourist destinations.
them better. For example, making areas The cities are not static in their function. The
less vulnerable to disasters, using fewer functions change due to their dynamic nature.
resources and providing cheaper services. Even specialised cities, as they grow into
The focus is on sustainble and inclusive metropolises become multifunctional wherein
development and the idea is to look at industry, business, administration, transport,
compact areas, create a replicable model, etc., become important. The functions get so
which will act like a lighthouse to other intertwined that the city can not be categorised
aspiring cities. in a particular functional class.

EXERCISES
1. Choose the right answers of the following from the given options.
(i) Which one of the following towns is NOT located on a river bank?
(a) Agra (c) Patna
(b) Bhopal (d) Kolkata

Human Settlements 19

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 (ii) Which one of the following is NOT the part of the definition of a town as
per the census of India?
(a) Population density of 400 persons per sq km.
(b) Presence of municipality, corporation, etc.
(c) More than 75% of the population engaged in primary sector.
(d) Population size of more than 5,000 persons.
(iii) In which one of the following environments does one expect the presence
of dispersed rural settlements?
(a) Alluvial plains of Ganga
(b) Arid and semi-arid regions of Rajasthan
(c) Lower valleys of Himalayas
(d) Forests and hills in north-east
2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.
(i) What are garrisson towns? What is their function?
(ii) What are the main factors for the location of villages in desert regions?
3. Answer the following questions in about 150 words.
(i) Discuss the features of different types of rural settlements. What are the
factors responsible for the settlement patterns in different physical
environments?
(ii) Can one imagine the presence of only one-function town? Why do the
cities become multi-functional?

20 India : People and Economy

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