Unit 15

Level, Trends and Patterns

Contents
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Urbanization and Levels of Urbanization: Concepts
15.3 Urban Growth in India: Trends
15.4 Classification of towns by size and differential trends of Urbanization
15.5 Inter-state Variation in Urbanization
15.6 West Bengal Model
15.7 Changing Urban Employment Market and its Impact on Urbanization
15.8 Conclusion
15.9 Further Reading

Learning Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• explain the concept of urbanization and levels of urbanization
• describe the urban growth and its trends in India
• Classify towns by size and differential trends of urbanization
• discuss the inter-state variation in urbanization
• describe a model of West Bengal in this context and, finally
• discuss the changing urban employment market and its impact on urbanization

15.1 Introduction
Urbanization is commonly understood as a process by which an area and its population
assume “urban” character or features. The Population Census in India accords “urban”
status to a settlement when at least 70 per cent of its male workers are engaged in the
non-agricultural sector and when it satisfies some other standards regarding size and
density of population. When an area grows in size, density, and heterogeneity and
assumes urban social, cultural, economic, ecological, physical and political features and
declared as “urban” by the State administration it is called urban. Some ideal-type
features, which are generally taken as urban include non-agricultural occupations, a big
size population in a given area, high density of population, social and cultural

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heterogeneity of population, large-scale division of labour, an economy based primarily
on industry, commerce, tourism, concentration of facilities like modern communication
and transportation, banking, education, health, sports, courts, administration,
concentration of urban civic amenities like power and water supply, sanitation, garbage
clearance, parking, market complexes, parks, play grounds, community halls, theatre
halls and similar other facilities for public use, urban association based on contractual
relations rather than kinship or primordial relations, erosion or breakdown of traditional
values and norms and rise of new set of values, morality and norms (which are
rationalistic in nature), and a municipal or corporation administration, with provisions of
democratic decentralism and urban citizenship. Such general features of the “urban” are
called ideal typical because there is no fixity or concreteness of the levels to these
features to be called urban and even in the absence of some of these features a particular
area could be accorded urban status. Urbanization is actually a process where a non-urban
area becomes urban and a less urban area becomes more urban by assuming more and
more of these features. In the process of urbanization the urban people or the urbanites,
and the new entrants to the urban center get attuned to urbanism, or the urban way of life.

It is however debatable if there is only one particular way to urban life. The non-
European sociologists and anthropologists have argued that the characterization of urban,
as has been done above, is primarily Western and suffers from Western ethnocentrism.
Empirical studies of the African and Asian urban situations have confirmed that there
could be non-Western modes and levels of urbanization as well, where each country
would have their historical and contextual specificities, and some degree of continuation
of their cultural, social and political traditions, and the level of economic and
technological developments could also be different. The traditional social and cultural
forms are expected to continue in the urban areas. The level of civic amenities, the
physical looks of the cities, the structural arrangements, the level of consumerism would
also be different from those in the Western cities, although the influence of Western
modernity or post modernity in the cities of the less developed countries could also be
felt.

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15.2 Urbanization and Levels of Urbanization: Concepts
The level of urbanization is often defined in terms of proportion of urban population to
total population. This measure of urbanization attaches great value to the human and
social dimensions of urbanization as well. There are, however, two more important
measures of urbanization. The first one is that the towns serve the rural people in terms of
socio-economic change and the larger the rural people served by each town, on an
average, the lower the level of urbanization. Alternatively, when no rural people are left
to be served by town urbanization is taken to have reached its zenith. The second measure
of urbanization concerns the distance that the rural people have to cove to reach the
nearest urban center. The greater the distance, lower the level of urbanization. Because
such a situation would mean urban centers are fewer in number and the distance between
the urban centers is quite high. In a state with well-developed urban network people
cover smaller distances to reach the urban centers (Ramachandran, 1989: 121-122).

15.3 Urban Growth in India: Trends

Put against the level of urbanization in the world India’s urbanization level is still low,
although urbanization has gained some speed in the post-independence period. From the
1990 data we can see that 42.7 per cent of world population was living in urban areas.
There was wide gap in the level of urbanization between the more developed regions,
which had 72.7 per cent of the population as urban population, and the less developed
regions, with only 33.9 per cent of urban population. Among the continents Europe,
Oceania and Latin America had a very high level of urbanization with 73.1, 70.9 and 72.3
per cent of their population as urban population respectively. In contrast, Africa with 34.5
per cent of its population as urban population and Asia with only 29.9 per cent of its
population as urban population were the least urbanized among the continents. Again,
among the Asian regions Western Asia is more urbanized (with 58.2 per cent of its
population living in urban areas) than Eastern Asia (29.4 per cent), Southeastern Asia (29
per cent) and South Asia (27.8 per cent) (for details see Mitra, 1994: 48). Thus South
Asia, of which India is a part, is one of the least urbanized regions of the world.
According to 1991 census only 25.72 per cent of India’s population was living in urban
areas, which again is less than the South Asian standard.

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The annual growth rate of urban population in India has declined from 3.1 per cent during
1981-91 to 2.7 per cent during 1991-2001. The decade 1971-81 had recoded the highest
annual growth rate of 3.8 per cent but the last two decades have recorded decelerating
growth rates in India. The percentage of urban population has gone up from 23.73 in
1981 to 25.72 in 1991 and finally to 27.78 in 2001. The slow growth of urban population
in India goes against popular notions of “urban explosion” and against the most expert
predictions. The Planning Commission (1983), the Expert Committee for Population
Projections for the Eighth Plan, and the UN Study of World Urbanization Prospects
(1995, 2001) had predicted 3 – 4.4 per cent annual growth of urban population in the
1980s and 1990s. The UN projection of 3.2 per cent growth during 2000-10 and 2.8 per
cent during 2020-25 also seem to be unrealistic. Keeping in view that the growth rate of
total population is expected to be less than 1 per cent according to UN projection it would
require a very high rate of rural-urban migration to meet the projected level of
urbanization.

By way of explanation to the sluggish growth of urban population the scholars argue that
not only the natural growth rate of urban population has declined but also the city bound
migration of both male and female population has decelerated over the years. A study in
1983 suggests that contribution of rural-urban migration to urbanization declined over the
decades and stood at 22.6 percent in the 1980s. During 1971-81 the percentage of
intercensal migrants in urban areas declined from 18.5 to 16.9 and that of lifetime
migrants (male) from 33.6 to 32.4. The share of lifetime interstate migrants came down
from 11.2 per cent to 10.0 per cent. The 1991 Census also recorded further decline in
urban-bound migration rate. In the 1981-91 decade the decadal, lifetime and interstate
migration rates were 11.7, 26.0 and 8.0 respectively. The female migration to the urban
areas, which takes place primarily due to social and cultural factors, also slowed down
during the decade.

Table 1: Number of towns and growth of urban population over census years

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 Census Number of % of urban to total Annual
year towns population growth
1901 1827 10.84 -
1911 1915 10.29 0.03
1921 1949 11.18 0.79
1931 2072 11.99 1.75
1941 2250 13.86 2.77
1951 2843 17.29 3.47
1961 2365 17.97 2.34
1971 2590 19.91 3.21
1981 3378 23.34 3.83
1991 3768 25.72 3.09
2001 4368 27.78 2.73
Source: Census of respective years

Amitabh Kundu has identified four major reasons for the growth of urban population in
India: (a) natural increase, (b) growth of new towns outside agglomerations, (c) merging
of towns and jurisdictional changes in agglomerations, and (d) rural-urban migration.
Available data suggest that natural increase accounted for 61.3 per cent and 59.4 per cent
of the total increase in urban population in 1971-81 and 1981-91 decades respectively.
The 1991-2001 decade too experienced a decline in natural growth rate of urban
population. The share of component (b) in the total addition to urban population has
declined from 9.4 per cent in the 1980s to 6.2 percent in the 1990s. This indicates that the
rate of urban growth outside the existing agglomerations and urbanized regions has
slowed down over the decades. The third component, i.e., extension of municipal
boundaries, merging of old towns or inclusion of new towns in the existing urban
agglomerations, was considered a minor contributor to the growth of urban population in
the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The number of towns merged with existing neighbouring
towns was only 221 in 2001 and in 1991 the number was half of this. However, the share
of this factor to the growth of urban population went up from 7.6 per cent in 1991 to 13.0
percent in 2001. The contribution of the fourth factor has been estimated to be 21 per cent
in 1990s, which was marginally less than the figure for the previous decade. (Kundu,
2005: 105).
Classification of towns by size and differential trends of urbanization
On the basis of population size the Census of India has placed towns into six categories:

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 Class I town – 1,00,000 or more
Class II towns – From 50,000 to 99,999
Class III towns – From 20,000 to 49,999
Class IV towns – From 10,000 to 19,999
Class V – From 5,000 to 9,999
Class VI – Below 5,000

Table 2: Distribution of towns by category and census year

tux.kuk Js.kh I Js.kh II Js.kh III Js.kh IV Js.kh V Js.kh VI
1901 24 43 130 391 744 479
1911 23 40 135 364 707 485
1921 29 45 145 370 734 571
1931 35 56 183 434 800 509
1941 49 74 242 498 920 407
1951 76 91 327 608 1124 569
1961 102 129 437 719 711 172
1971 148 173 558 827 623 147
1981 218 270 743 1059 758 253
1991 300 345 947 1167 740 197
2001 393 401 1151 1344 888 191
Source: Census of India for respective years

Table 2 suggests that the number of large cities and medium towns (Class I to Class IV)
has grown significantly over the decades while the number of smaller towns in Class V
and Class VI has remained either stagnant or declined. The other trend is that growth in
number of cities before independence was rather slow and the number started increasing
at a faster rate in the post-independence period; the increase is particularly remarkable
from 1951 census. Intensification of developmental activities in and around the large
towns, investment in industrial production, increase of commerce, the increase in
agricultural productivity and evolution of smaller towns into bigger ones explain the
relatively faster urbanization in the post-independence period. This also explains the
reason behind the faster growth of larger cities and towns. Apart from rural-urban
migration from smaller towns to bigger ones has contributed to the faster growth of larger
towns. Migration of people from East and West Pakistan and from other neighbouring
countries has also contributed to the faster urban growth in the post-independence period.

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India being relatively advanced economy it has drawn migrants from poverty infested
Bangladesh and Nepal. The explosive demographic pressure in Bangladesh is continually
ejecting a significant part of its labour force to India even in recent years.

Table 3: Urban population in towns of different categories

tux.kuk Js.kh I Js.kh II Js.kh III Js.kh IV Js.kh V Js.kh VI
1901 26.00 11.29 15.64 20.83 20.14 6.10
1911 27.48 10.51 16.4 19.73 19.31 6.57
1921 29.70 10.39 15.92 18.29 18.67 7.03
1931 31.20 11.65 16.8 18.00 17.14 5.21
1941 38.23 11.42 16.35 15.78 15.08 3.14
1951 44.63 9.96 15.72 13.63 12.97 3.09
1961 51.42 11.23 16.94 12.77 6.87 0.77
1971 57.24 10.92 16.01 10.94 4.45 0.44
1981 60.37 11.63 14.33 9.54 3.58 0.50
1991 65.20 10.95 13.19 7.77 2.60 0.29
2001 68.67 9.67 12.23 6.84 2.36 0.23
Source: Census of India for respective years

Data presented in Table 3 further substantiate the top-heavy trend of urbanization. While
the percentage share of total urban population Class I cities has grown substantially from
26 in 1901 to 68.67 in 2001 the population share of towns of all other categories has
declined. The worst sufferers in the process are Class IV, V, and VI towns.
The higher growth rate of Class I cities is due to expansion of area and immigration. The
emergence of large satellite towns in close proximity and their subsequent integration
into the city agglomeration has helped faster growth of Class I cities. Most importantly,
the concentration of production and commercial activities, and development of
infrastructure-base have attracted migrants of different economic classes from the far-
flung places (Kundu, 2005: 107).

During 1981-1991, the metropolitan cities (cities with more than one million population)
grew by 3.25 per cent per annum against 2.83 per cent growth rate of other towns. During
1991-2001, however, the growth rate of the metropolitan towns has slowed down to 2.88
and for the common towns the rate has been 2.6 per cent. The share of population of the
million plus cities was 26.4 per cent in 1981, which has gone up to 32.5 per cent in 1991

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and to 37.8 per cent in 2001. The metropolitan cities have grown at a faster rate than class
I cities as well as towns of other categories.

The growth rate of capital cities (state as well as national) is also high. During 1981-91
the growth rate of capital cities was at par with that of the million plus cities, the growth
being 33.6 per cent in the decade. However, the percentage share of population of the
capital cities to total urban population increased marginally from 25.7 in 1991 to 25.9 in
2001.

Thus despite the higher growth rate of the class I cities, metropolitan cities and capital
cities it is not difficult to notice the slight decline in the growth rate of these cities in the
last decade in particular. Fall in the government investment in the urban infrastructure,
decline in the public sector, fall in the natural growth of population and dwindling
migration could be some of the reasons that can explain the relative slump in the growth
in the bigger cities in recent years.

15.5 Inter-State Variation in Urbanization

Since the forces of urbanization are unequally distributed the level and pattern of
urbanization in the States and Union Territories of Indian federation vary widely.
Following the 2001 Census it is observed that the States that are economically developed
experience higher rate of urbanization and account for a larger share of urban population.
Thus six relatively developed states, namely, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Punjab, and West Bengal together account for more than half the total urban
population of the country. The percentage share of urban population of all these states is
higher than the national average of 27.78, according to 2001 census. The share of urban
population of less developed States with less per capita income is much less than the
national average.
Following the findings of 2001 Census we can classify the Indian States and
Union Territories into three groups depending upon the levels of urbanization: Group A
consisting of States and UTs with higher level of urbanization (with an urban population
higher than the national average of 27.72 per cent), Group B consisting of States and UTs
with moderate level of urbanization (more than 20 per cent but less than the national

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average), and Group C consisting of States and UTs with low level urbanization (with
less than 20 per cent urban population to total population of the State or UT).

Group A
Delhi (93.01), Goa (49.77), Gujarat (37.35), Haryana (29.00), Karnataka (33.98),
Maharashtra (42.4), Mizoram (49.5), Punjab (33.95), Tamil Nadu (43.86), West Bengal
(28.03), Andaman and Nicobre Islands (32.67), Chandigarh (89.78) Daman & Diu
(36.26) Lakshadweep (44.47) and Pondicherry (66.57). The figures within the parenthesis
indicate percentage share as urban population in the respective State or UT.

Group B
Arunachal Pradesh (20.41), Chattisgarh (20.08), Jammu & Kashmir (24.88), Jharkhand
(22.25), Kerala (25.97), Madhya Pradesh (26.67), Manipur (23.88), Rajasthan (23.38),
Uttar Pradesh (20.78), Uttaranchal (25.59), and Dadra & Nagar Haveli (22.89).

Group C
Assam (12.72), Bihar (10.47), Himachal Pradesh (9.97), Meghalaya (19.63), Nagaland
(17.74), Orissa (14.97), Sikkim (11.1) and Tripura (17.02).

With four of the seven North-East Indian States figuring in Group C, it may be said that
this part of India is least urbanized. Two of the relatively economically backward East
zone States namely Bihar and Orissa too are among the States with low level of
urbanization. Earlier, following the trend up to 1981, Ramachandran had observed that
urbanization is at a lower level in states of North-East and in the Ganga plains of Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar, and in Orissa. In general terms, he observed, ‘western and southern
India are relatively highly urbanized while eastern and northern India are least urbanized’
(Ramachandran, 1989: 123). In recent years while some of the earlier trends continue it is
not difficult to see that the north Indian states and even some of North-East states are
experiencing urbanization at a faster rate.
Reflection and Action 15.1
If you live in a city or town, find out which category A, B or C it belongs to in terms of
the level of urbanization it has. If you live in a village, find out whether it is developing
the features of urban area or not in terms of its social, economic, occupational structure.

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Write a note on “The Level of Urbanization in My town/City/Village” based on your
finding in about two pages. Share your note with other students at your study centre.

During the 1991-2001 decade the urban population in India has grown by 2.27 per cent
annually. Among the states which have recorded a high growth rate (i.e, more than 3 per
cent annually) in the last decade are Arunachal Pradesh (7.00 per cent), Assam (3.09 per
cent), Chattisgarh (3.09), Delhi (4.14), Goa (3.32), Haryana (4.11), Jammu & Kashmir
(3.44), Meghalaya (3.16), Mizoram (3.27), Nagaland (5.27), Punjab (3.19), Sikkim
(4.83), Tamil Nadu (3.56), Andaman & Nicober Islands (4.40), Chandigarh (3.40), and
Dadra & Nagar Haveli (14.59). There is none among the States that has recorded a
negative growth. Among the UTs, however, Lakshadweep has recorded a negative
growth of –0.77 per cent. It is noteworthy that some of the States with low level of
urbanization figure among the States which have been experiencing higher rate of
urbanization in recent years, while many of the States with higher level of urbanization
(i.e, many of the Group A States) are experiencing urban deceleration. Among the major
States that have experienced very low rate of annual growth in the last decade are Andhra
Pradesh (1.37), Kerala (0.74), Manipur (1.21) and West Bengal (1.84).

The trend however was different until 1991 of the post-independence period. The states
like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Punjab already had high concentration of urban centers
and urban population but the rate of urban growth was either medium or low. On the
other hand, the relatively backward States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh and Orissa registered higher growth rate despite the fact that these States had
lower share of urban population. As an exception to this trend, economically advanced
states like Haryana and Maharashtra had both higher rate of growth and higher share of
urban population. Overall, the trend until 1991 negates the positive correlation between
economic development and urban growth. We have to look for other factors to explain
this puzzle. Possibly, higher incidence of rural poverty, regular occurrence of natural
disasters like drought and flood can also cause higher incidence of rural-urban migration
and hence higher rate of urban growth. The post-independence dualism in the
urbanization pattern, according to Kundu (2005: 108), be partially be attributed to ‘ …

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government investment in the district and taluka headquarters, programmes of urban
industrial dispersal, and transfer of funds from the states to local bodies through a need
based or what is popularly known as “a gap filling” approach’. The “lack of
diversification in agrarian economy” in these backward States also, as Kundu suggests,
has contributed to higher urban growth.

In the 1990s, with the economic liberalization gaining momentum, there has been
significant investment of foreign and corporate capital and expansion of commercial
activities in the economically advanced States. This precisely explains why the rate of
urbanization is high in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat. In
Karnataka and West Bengal the rate of urbanization is relatively low among these highly
urban states because these states, and particularly West Bengal, has been following a
policy of urban dispersal. The introduction of land reforms, infrastructure development of
small and medium sized towns, dispersal of production activities, introduction of
panchayats have probably put a check on the rate of urbanization and city-bound
movement of population. We have therefore considered the West Bengal case separately
in the following section.

15.6 West Bengal Model

India is a vast country and its economic and social development is marked by huge
regional disparities. The concentration of resources (both natural and human), the
historicity of the region, the geographical location of the state and proximity to
international borders, cross-border migration, the level of agricultural and industrial
development, the initiatives of the state government are some of the major factors that
influence the level of urbanization of that region. The end result is that there are different
patterns and levels of urbanization in different parts of the country.

West Bengal is one of the States, which has higher urban growth. In the last decade the
growth rate for India was 25.71 per cent, but for West Bengal it was 27.40 per cent. In
contrast to the rest of the country, where urban growth is large city-centric in West

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Bengal the trend of migration to metropolis has been arrested. In 1970s 70 per cent of
State’s urban population lived in Calcutta but in 1991 the share of metropolitan
population has declined to 59 per cent; the cities and towns other than Calcutta together
have a share of 41 per cent of the urban population in the State. Between 1971 and 1991
the number of class –I cities (with more than one lakh population) has doubled from 148
to 296 but in West Bengal the number of class-1 cities has grown five times and large
cities can now be seen in the distant districts from Calcutta. During the same period the
number of municipalities has grown by 43 per cent. As an impact of the spread of
urbanization all over the State there has been a significant achievement in terms of
control of natural growth rate of urban population. According to 1991 figures, West
Bengal had a decadal natural growth of 8.2 per cent against the national rate of 14.4 per
cent. Between 1981 and 1991 the natural growth rate in Maharashtra was 14.7 per cent
and in Tamil Nadu it was 11.2 per cent.

The balanced urban growth and urban spread have been possible primarily of two factors:
first, land reforms, rural development through panchayats and the resultant rise in
agricultural production, and (2) decentralized urbanization through the development of
small and medium-sized towns. Between 1980-81 and 1990-91 food-crop production in
West Bengal grew by 5.9 per cent against the national average of 2.8 per cent.
Agricultural growth has helped expansion of rural markets and increase of earning
opportunities. The calorie intake of average villager in West Bengal was less than the
national average in 1972-73 but in 1993-93 the average calorie intake of rural people in
West Bengal has exceeded the national average by 209 kilo calorie. As a result of a
distinct rise in the quality of life in rural areas the rate of rural-urban movement has been
largely controlled over the years.

With a view to achieve balanced urbanization the Government of West Bengal is now
focusing on (a) decentralized urban growth, (b) participation of people, especially the
people of economically backward classes and women in urban planning and in execution
of development programes, (c) democratic decentralization, and transparent and
responsible urban administration, (d) development of small and medium towns and rural

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development, (e) reduction of the gap between Kolkata (Calcutta) and other towns in
terms of per capita allocation of development fund, and (f) slum development and
development of quality of life of the urban poor, reduction of infant mortality and
population growth rate (For details see Bhattacharya, 2005: 82).

15.7 Changing Urban Employment Market and its Impact on

Urbanization
The concentration of industrial, commercial and development activities in the urban areas
create employment and earning opportunities which in turn not only sustain the urban
work force but also draws additional workforce from outside the urban areas, specially
from the poverty infested rural areas and economically stagnant small towns. After
economic liberalization the general economic trend is that while the corporate sector of
industry is growing the public sector and small-scale industries are either facing
stagnation or gradual decline. The fast growing high-tech corporate sector is capital
intensive and therefore the employment generation capacity of this sector is limited. The
public sector units have registered a negative growth of workforce in the 1990s and
thereafter. The National Sample Survey (NSSO 2001) has reported a steady decline in the
share of regular and salaried workers during this period. Since the large industries are
now resorting to subcontracting there has been a steady growth of casual and self-
employed workers and feminization of workforce. The large masses of urban workforce
in these casual and contractual jobs in the tertiary sector are highly exploited and lack
security of job and income. The Fourth Economic Census and Various Enterprise
Surveys by NSS (see Kundu 2001) have reported the waning capacity of the urban
informal sector, which was earlier termed as the “survival sector for the urban poor”, to
absorb the new entrants to the urban job market. The recent changes in the urban job
market have been reflected in the decline in the urban growth, particularly the falling rate
of growth of large cities.

Reflection and Action 15.2

Identify a business district or area in your neighbourhood. Select an industry or business
organization which employed more than 100 people. Find out which background these

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employees are coming from; what is their level of education and skill and what are their
promotion chances.

Write a report on “Profile of Urban Workers” based on your findings. Share it with your
Academic Counsellor and peers at your study centre

Another recent trend is that the large-scale industries in the private sector (national as
well as multinational) are coming up mostly outside the geographical limits of the large
cities because it is very difficult to find the required land within the cities. The supporters
of green movement are also contributing to this process. The investors do not mind this
because they get cheap land in the bargain. Thus new settlements develop around these
industries without immediately adding to total urban population.

Yet another factor that has contributed to the deceleration of urban growth in the recent
decades in the application of land ceiling, and control on location of industrial and
commercial units, rigid land use regime imposed through Master Plans. Such restrictions
have restricted the absorptive capacity of the cities.

In the post-independence India rural poverty has been more intense and widespread than
the urban poverty. With the growth of population the pressure of man on land has also
increased over the years. Although the ratio of non-agricultural occupation has increased
the non-agricultural sector in rural economy has failed to arrest the city-bound migration
of rural poor. In the recent years, however, the intensity of rural poverty is falling and the
gap between urban and rural poverty is also narrowing down. Also, when the
unemployment in urban areas is on the rise the rate of rural-urban migration is declining.

15.8 Conclusion
Urbanization does not mean the growth of urban population and concentration of
production and commercial activities alone; it would also mean a balanced development
of infrastructure, civic amenities and opportunities for all sections of the urbanites. It
would mean access to healthy environment, egalitarian development, democratic
empowerment, and decentralization of power and cultural uplift of the people. What

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would ultimately matter is the quality of life that the urban centers ensure to their
citizens.

Judging the current trend it is projected that by 2015 around 40 per cent of India’s
population would be living in urban areas and a large majority of this population would
inhabit the large cities. At present nearly 38 per cent of total urban population is
considered poor and about 35 per cent live in slums. About 44 per cent of urban families
manage with one room, between 70 and 80 lakh urban population are homeless; 52 per
cent of urban population do not have access to healthy sanitation; only about 24 per cent
own sanitary latrines; a large section of urban population does not have access to safe
drinking water; every year environmental pollution hands over untimely death to about
40,000 urbanites. When there is an estimated need of twenty thousand crore rupees to
provide the minimum urban amenities to its people the Indian Government is down sizing
the budgetary allocation for urban development. In 1951 the budgetary allocation for
urban development was 8 per cent but in 2005 it has been reduced to 2.6 per cent
(Bhattacharya, 2005: 56-83)

Asish Bose has observed that the post-independence urban legislations, particularly the
Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act of 1976, have the negative impact in the urban
land and housing market because these have affected the urban poor and have not helped
promote equity in the urban sector (Bose, 1995: 37). The National Commission on
Urbanization submitted its report in 1988 and in the report there suggested scrapping of
Urban Land Ceiling Act. The report was prepared as groundwork for the impending
economic liberalization. There was a general consensus, in line with World Bank
policies, that nothing should be subsidized and people must be made to pay for urban
services and public utilities.

With globalization process gaining speed in India one could see its impact on the future
trend of urbanization in India. The Indian cities would see a significant improvement in
the infrastructure as the cities would be showcased to attract FDI, the looks of the cities
would change fast and more speed would be injected in city life. The metropolitan
administration and the state governments are already moving in this direction. Since the

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corporate capital will not be available for development of infrastructure the State
governments shall have to borrow money from the international monetary agencies for
the purpose. As a part of structural adjustment the government would always want to cut
expenditure on the welfare sector and public services. We have already seen how the
health, transport, education, power, housing, telecommunication, television and
entertainment sectors are thrown open to the private capital. The urban land would be
sold to the corporate houses and as a result the urban poor and middle classes would lose
their control over precious urban land. We would see demolition of slums and squatter
settlements, extinction of water bodies and fallow land in and around the cities. The job
market that would be created in the corporate sector would be meant for the skilled
workers alone and this would not attract the rural unskilled labour force. With more and
more government services going private the urban poor would find it difficult to maintain
the minimum quality of life. In the era of globalization many of the public sector
production units are finding it difficult to compete with the corporate capital and as a
result many units are being closed down and thousands of industrial workers are being
rendered jobless. The impact of these changes has already been felt in terms of slowing
down of rural-urban migration and the rate of overall urban growth in the country. The
falling rate of natural growth of urban population would also have its bearing on the
urban growth rate in the years to come. With the urban areas already reaching the
saturation point in terms of accommodation of more people, and little land being
available for investment, there is a clear possibility that the cities would grow
horizontally and more and more new and planned townships would come up with support
of the private capital.

15.9 Further Reading

Kundu, Amitabh, 2005. ‘Urbanization and Urban Governance: Search for a Perspective
beyond Neo-Liberalism’, in Pachimbange Nagar Unnyoner Abhigyata, Proceedings of
the Seminar held at NBU on 5-6 February 2005: 101-124.

Ramachandran, R., 1989. Urbanization and Urban System in India, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.

16
17
References
Bhattacharya, Asok, 2005. ‘Khamatar Bikendrikaran O Pachimbanger Paurasabha:
Ekobinsha Satabdite Unnyonsil Dese Nagarayaner Bikalpa Dristibhangi’ in Pachimbange
Nagar Unnyoner Abhigyata, Proceedings of the Seminar held at NBU on 5-6 February
2005: 56-83.
Bose, Ashish, 1995. ‘Urbanization and Slums’ in Prodipto Roy and S Das Gupta (eds.)
Urbanization and Slums, New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications: 19-43.
Kundu, Amitabh, 2005. ‘Urbanization and Urban Governance: Search for a Perspective
beyond Neo-Liberalism’, in Pachimbange Nagar Unnyoner Abhigyata, Proceedings of
the Seminar held at NBU on 5-6 February 2005: 101-124.
Mitra, Arup, 1994. Urbanisation, Slums, Informal Sector Employment and Poverty: An
Exploratory Study, Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation.
Planning Commission, 1983. Task Forces on Housing and Urban Development, Vol. I,
Government of India, New Delhi.
Ramachandran, R., 1989. Urbanization and Urban System in India, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
United Nations, 1995. World Urbanization Prospects, New York: Population Division.
United Nations, 2001. World Urbanization Prospects (The 1999 revision), New York:
Population Division.

18
Unit 16
Marriage, Family and Kinship
Contents
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Impact of urbanization and social Change in India
16.3 Continuity and Change: The Institution of Marriage
16.4 Continuity and Change: The Institution of family
16.5 Continuity and Change: The Institution of Kinship
16.6 Conclusion
16.7 Further Reading

Learning Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to

• Discuss the impact of urbanization and social change in India
• Describe the kinds of changes that have occurred in the institution of marriage.
• Explain the changes that have occurred in the institution of family in India and finally
• Outline the changes that have occurred in the institution of kinship in India

16.1 Introduction
In this unit, as in the previous one, we are going to study the impact of the process of
urbanization on social institutions like marriage family and kinship in India. The Book 1 of
this course, MSOE-004: Urban Sociology has already familiarized you with the concept of
urban and the process of urbanization. You learnt about the origin and development of urban
sociology in the west as well as in India. It was explained to you very clearly that in India
urban structures have evolved since the very ancient times from Indus valley civilization to
contemporary period in India.

The forces of social change that have taken place in India, such as, the colonial impact,
introduction of modern education, better means of transport and communication and so on,
have had its impact on the different institutions in society. Their impact has been felt
throughout India but more so on the population living in the cities than the villages. In this
unit you will learn about the impact of urbanization on the social institutions of marriage,
family and kinship in urban India.
16.2 Impact of urbanization and social change in India

You must have studied the unit on urbanization (unit 25, MSO- 004 Sociology in India) which
is part of the M.A. (sociology) core course to refresh your memory, let me explain some
aspects of the process of urbanization.

Urbanization is a structural process of change which is associated with the movement or

migration of people from rural to urban areas. It is generally related to industrialization but it
is not always the result of industrialization. It results due to the concentration of large-scale
and small-scale industrial and commercial, financial and administrative set up in the cities,
technological development in transport and communication, cultural and recreational
activities.

Since, the process of urbanization is in excess of the process of industrialization in India, what
we often find is over urbanization. Here, a peculiar phenomenon can be observed in urban
areas. There is industrial growth without a significant shift of population from agriculture to
industry and of growth of urban population without a significant rise in the ratio of the urban
to the total population while in terms of ratio, there may not be a great shift from rural to
urban activity. But there is still a large migration of population from rural areas to urban areas.
As a result we find that urban areas, towns and cities are choked and there is lack of adequate
infrastructure and amenities to cope up with this large influx of population in most cities in
India.

As mentioned in unit 25 Urbanization, urbanization implies a cultural and social psychological

process whereby people acquire material and non-material culture, including behavioral
patterns, forms of organization, and ideas that originated in, or are distinctive of the city.
Although the flow of cultural influences is in both directions, i.e. from rural to urban and
urban to rural, but there is no doubt that the cultural influences created by the city on non
urban people are probably more pervasive than the influences exerted by the rural. The India
of urbanization may be better understood when interpreted as aspects of diffusion and
acculturation. Urbanization may be manifest either as intra- society or inter-society diffusion,
i.e. urban culture may spread to various parts of same society or it may have cross-cultural or
national boundaries and spread to other societies. It involves both borrowing and lending. On
the other side of the diffusion coin is acculturation, the process where by individuals acquire
the material possessions, behavioral patterns, social organizations bodies of knowledge, and

2
meanings of groups where culture differs in certain respects from their own. Urbanization as
seen in this light is a complex process (Gist and Favia: 1933).

It is, thus clear that urbanization process is an important force of social change. In India this
process besides reflecting economic growth, political change, change in values and attitudes,
has also revealed elements of continuity between rural and urban social structures. Pocock
(1960) categorically maintains that villages and cities in India are part of the same civilization
and as such cannot be separately understood. Therefore any discussion of urban social
structure in India is in terms of its basic social institutions, such as the family, marriage,
kinship and caste. All these four aspects are closely related with each other in both rural, as
well as, urban social structure.

It is often assumed by sociologists studying the urban society in India that the process of
urbanization leads to the break down of the joint family, increase of nuclear family, slackens
the caste and kinship ties and role of religion. These assumptions have been critiqued by
several sociologists who tried to understand the urban social structure in India.

Gandhi, Raj (1983: 5) believes that ‘any discussion on problems of change in connection with
urban sociology in India, ought not to make one feel that the sociologist of urban India
should necessarily be the sociologist of social change. It merely reminds us of two facts:

1. Urbanism is often thought of as a force of social change, particularly when we are dealing
with the developing society such as India, hence acquaintance with the problems of social
change could be rewarding.
2. Often comparisons and contrasts are drawn between several aspects of rural and urban
structure of India. The latter is, at times, interpreted as different from the former without
any commentary on the problems of change. In this sense also, theoretical understanding of
the problems of change could be fruitful.

Thus it is important that any discussion on the social institutions of marriage, family and
kinship in urban India is understood within the theoretical framework of wider social change
both from within, as well, as without, taking place in society in India.

3
16.3 Continuity and Change: The Institution of Marriage
Social institutions have been defined as the network of social relationships in society which
are relatively permanent, Weber (cf. Martindale, 1962: 55- 8) has defined social institution as
the social relations in a whole network of social actions. The institutions exists only so far as
people act in certain ways. It is manifest only as a pattern of behavior. Thus social institutions
in the Indian cities as marriage, kinship, family, caste and religion could be conceptualized as
the occurrences of complex sets of social interactions. Gandhi (1983: 20) believes that in the
traditional city of India ,the institutional complex of the marriage, kinship, family, caste is
most strategic for analysis and understanding of the socio cultural life of the city. He says that
due to the relative preoccupation of Indian sociologists with the study of India’s villages
marriage within urban contact has received scant attention. Marriage as an institution has
traditionally been embedded and linked with the institution of caste in India in both rural and
urban areas. Marriages have been contracted keeping the caste or jati endogamy in mind Rules
of marriage in each caste community in different religions of India follow different rules and
regulations. Giri Raj Gupta (1974) examines a number of social dimensions of marriage, such
as marriage rituals in the context of intra- family roles and norms implications of caste per for
marriage and the family, social exchange among the castes, the ‘nata’ alliance (remarriage)
etc. He examines them in a Rajasthan village.

In the urban cities, the phenomenon of inter caste marriages, inter-communal, inter regional,
and inter- religious marriages even though infrequent, must be studied in details with the help
of such methods as extensive depth interviews, caste histories and the social geographies of
individuals involved. (Gandhi R. 1983: 21) “just twenty five years ago the instances of inter-
caste marriage were very few, and those individuals who dared to marry out side the caste had
to undergo truly great hardships. Today the situation is altogether different not only has the
privileges of inter-caste marriage become considerable, but even the difficulties the inter-
caste marriage couple have to face, have become comparatively quite mild “ (Kannan, C.T :
1974)

C. T. Kannan’s study of inter-caste and intercommunity marriages in Bombay is based on two

hundred inter-caste marriages and fifty inter-community marriages in Bombay during 1958-
59. The analysis of the couples by the year in which they got married shows a steady increase
in the incidence, a majority of 64% being married after 1950. Kannan says that the spread of
higher education both among the males and females is one of the reasons for the increase in

4
the incidence of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages amongst the younger generations in
the cities. Indeed, one could safely assert that the graph of inter-caste marriages is steadily
rising, never becoming a plateau, much less declining. Even in the newspaper columns, the
pros and cons of inter-caste marriage are found freely debated particularly by ladies, a subject
which was formerly almost a taboo. (Kannan, C. T. 1974).

Due to modern education full of western thoughts and ideas, emancipation of women and the
association of young men and women with various political and social organizations, new
ideas which are incompatible with the traditional norms and values are nurtured amongst the
youth in cities. As a result their attitudes towards traditional norms changes and new values
develop which affects marriage, kinship and family.

Kannan in his study mentioned earlier found that besides schools and colleges, social
organizations such as Jati Seva Dal, Lok Sena, Swastik League, Kshariakya Parisad, etc., have
played a great role in influencing the younger generations in selection of their partners.
Political organizations have also been responsible in providing suitable claim for some males
and females to come together and develop intimacies.

Most significant aspect of change that the noticed was that the young generation becomes
individualistic by such influences and they take their own decision even in the matter of
marriage. They become less caste-conscious than their elders and, therefore, in their inter
group relations they ignore caste and creed differences. In many cases the objections to such
inter-caste marriage by the parents was there but not always due to caste considerations. It is
observed that far more important considerations existed behind parental opposition than caste
of their child’s bride/ groom. These were mainly the lack of wealth and status in the partner.
Where these factors were favourable, the parents had given their consent and cooperation to
marriage, ignoring caste differences. Thus, education and socio economic background matters
more in cities than caste (Kannan, C. T 1974: 341).

In a study by B. V. Shah (1964: 84-86) of male students of Baroda University, it was found
that a higher proportion of unbetrothed students from urban background (cities, 63 per cent;
towns 14 per cent) than from rural background (18 per cent) existed. In case of selection of
bride too a higher proportion from the urban background (cities 61 per cent; towns; 47 per
cent) favoured at lest a matriculate (i.e. high school graduate) than from the rural background

5
(only 13 per cent). Thus, the non-traditionality as regards bride selection is found largely in
urban areas, whereas traditionality is found proportionately greater in rural areas than in urban
areas.
It is also found that a ‘new concept of wifehood’ (i.e. emphasis on conjugal relationship) has
emerged which is associated with urban living in the contemporary society in India. (Gandhi,
Raj 1983: 21) M. S. Gore (1968: 196) in a study of a community near Delhi found that the
urban educated respondents who had changed their occupation felt ‘closer to their wife’ than
their mother. Thus, it is found that in urban society the joint family living in India which
traditionally deemphasizes the direct conjugal relationship between man and his wife seems to
have changed as nearly three-quarters of the highly urbanized male respondents tend to favour
closeness to wife.’

Gandhi, R. says that these developments as discovered by Gore and others conform to William
J. Goode (1963) who hypothesized that there is a logical fit between the urban-industrial
society and the ‘conjugal family’ which is supposed to be the characteristic of the west.
Conkhin’s study (1973) of the emerging conjugal role patterns in the city of Dharwar in South
India notes that urbanization and education does result in a significant increase in conjugal
role patterns, even within a joint household.

However, while some sociologists may jump to the conclusion that urbanization and education
will lead to ‘conjugal family patterns’ in India even before industrialization; it is a matter of
doubt whether the ‘conjugal family pattern’ and joint family pattern did not co-exist in urban
India since early times (c.f. A M Shah, 1974). The distinction between the two is a false
dichotomy of western sociology unnecessarily imposed upon the understanding of Indian
urban society.

Another change observed by sociologists of urban areas is that age at marriage has increased.
But the question of self choice or ‘arranged marriage’ still remains a debatable point.
Cormack’s claim (1961: 101) that the Indian youth are increasingly allowed the ‘right’ of
decision for their marriage without the ‘means’ to make it. Therefore, it is quite clear from the
available evidence that situation in urban India is not automatically conducive to increase in
the freedom of choice for one’s marriage since marriage is still closely tied to family (and
hence to parental authority and kin-constraint) and caste (Gandhi, R. 1983).

6
Aileen Ross (1961: 253) in her study of the Hindu families in the city of Bangalore found that
young people tend to select their spouse themselves and then take the approval from their
parents. But Vatuk (1972:73-111) is opposed to this view. She studied two middle class
neighborhoods in the North Indian city of Meerut. She found only four cases of so-called
“love marriages” (i.e. marriages of personal choice) during her field-work among the mohalla
residents. These occurred within the circle of relatives and friends, involving either fellow
students in a co-educational college, fellow workers in an office, affinal kins or residents of
the same dwelling. During her study she did not find even a single case of arranged inter-caste
marriage.

Men in these middle class mohallas accepted their inability to arrange inter-caste marriages for
their children, however, egalitarian they may be. Karve (1965) like Srinivas (1969) and Khare
(1970) observed that the role of dowry in marriage arrangements was of significance. She
found a tendency to give larger amounts of cash rather than goods amongst the wealthy
Banias. Gandhi (1983) believes that what urbanism does is to increase the ‘price’ of the
college educated urban youth of India in the matrimonial market.

The significance of caste endogamy too remains largely unchanged as ‘arranged marriages’
are contracted traditionally within one’s own caste. Kapadia’s study (1968; 119) of family in
urban India found that 51 per cent out of 513 university graduates interviewed expressed their
willingness to give their children in marriage outside their own caste but only one their were
against the departure from tradition. This change of attitude is reflected in opinion rather than
actual practice. Caste considerations are still playing a major role in marriage in reality.

In a study conducted by Raj Gandhi (1976) of the Bania Sub-caste in the city of Jamnagar
found that 67.5 per cent of the kin of the respondents were found to be married into their own
Dasa Bania sub-caste. Of the remaining 32.5 per cent, 13.3 per cent had married into a higher
Visa sub-caste; the practice of hypergamy, which does not necessarily reflect the breach of
caste endogamy. He found only 14 cases (11.6 per cent) of real inter-caste marriages going
beyond the sub-caste and caste boundaries. Mandelbaum (1970: 653) gives a general
statement which according to Gandhi sums up the developments that have occurred and the
continuities that exist in the arena of marriage as a social institution. He says that ‘although
endogamy remains a major consideration in arranging a marriage, the boundaries of the
endogamous group... are typically being enlarged, and marriage patterns may now come from

7
formerly separate jatis (sub-castes) of the same jati cluster... but such unions are still very
exceptional even among the urban educated people.’

Since, the studies on marriage in urban areas are few and far between, it is difficult to
generalise. But what stands out clearly is the continuing link it has with caste. There has been
increase in factors like, age at marriage, wider circle of spouse selection within the caste, level
of education of bride and so on. Let us now understand the social institution of family in the
urban context.

16.4 Continuity and Change: The Institution of Family

Family in India has been generally of two kinds, joint or extended family comprising more
than two generations of members such as a married couple, their children, married or
unmarried and one or both parents. The other type of family is the nuclear family consisting of
husband, wife and unmarried children.

It was initially assumed that the process of urbanization leads to a decline in family size,
weakening of family ties and break up of joint family system into nuclear families. This
assumption was a result of application of Western notions of evolution. F. Tonnies, E.
Durkheim, Louis Wirth etc., advanced theories which explained these developments in society
as it moved from simple to complex. Industrialization and urbanization brought about these
types of social changes in society and nuclear families came to be associated with the modern
industrial urban societies. In India, too, this assumption presupposes that joint family is an
institution of the rural social structure and as society gets urbanized the joint families,
associated with rural agrarian economy will give way to nuclear family with the increase of
non-agrarian occupations.

But as evidence gathered by sociologists studying family in urban India reveals, this
hypothesis does not hold much credence since as a matter of fact joint families are found in
urban areas as well. The correlation of “joint” family with rural areas and “nuclear family with
urban is not tenable. In fact, sociologists like A.M, Shah (1970) Kapadia (1956) Gore (1968)
and others observe a cyclical change from nuclear to joint to nuclear family within a period of
time. This is the household dimension of family in India which indicates that there is no
correlation between urbanization and ‘separate’ nuclear households.

8
A. M. Shah (1970: 100-101) dispels the myth of the breakdown of the joint family in urban
India. He studied the social history of Gujarat and on the basis of his findings, he claims that
in the past the sanskritized castes (i.e. those castes which have adopted the values, customs
and behaviour of the upper castes) formed a much higher proportion of the population in
towns (or cities) than in villages. This implies that the principle of the residential unity of
partikin and their wives was practiced to a much greater extent is towns than in villages. This
shows that towns included a considerable number of households composed of two or more
married brothers living together after their parent’s death. It may also have included a few
large households where married cousins lived together in the same household even after the
death of their father and grandfather; the households composed of parents and two or more
married sons formed a greater proportion of household in the town.

Shah believes that these findings are very important because they debunk the two notions that
are widely prevalent amongst urban sociologists in India. These notions are: (1) that the
people who migrate from villages are governed by strong emphasis on the principle of the
residential unity of patrikins and their wives; and (2) that the urban area into which they come
to live is necessarily an area having a weak emphasis on the principle of the residential unity
of patrikin and their wives.’

I. P. Desia (1964: 117-8) in his study of Mahuva considers ‘jointness’ of Indian family when
seen in the light of the actions of members guided by the traditional norms, and then
examines the effects of urbanization on ‘jointness’. He operationalizes urbanization in terms
of the ‘duration of stay in Mahuva’. During his study he found that the older families tend to
be more joint than the younger ones and where the nuclear families preponderate over the
older families, nuclearity may also preponderate over the joint families. He found that the
families under investigation were more joint than nuclear in terms of ownership of property
and mutual obligations. In case of residentiality too, he found enough evidence that nuclear
families continue to grow joint and joint becomes nuclear.

In this sense, his findings conform with A. M. Shah’s suggestion that one of the most fruitful
approaches in this case would be to examine the developmental process of (family)
households, both progressive and regressive which is assumed to be operative in the villages,
towns, and we believe, the cities of India (Gandhi; R 1983:33).

9
Ram Krishna Mukherjee (1964:87) studied the rural-urban differences in the familial
organization of West Bengal society. He too, while examining the co-resident and commensal
relationships amongst kin groups as the locally functioning family units found the presence of
extended or non-nuclear family types amongst the cities, towns and villages equally. But as he
mentions, paradoxically, the nuclear type of family is found most frequently in villages, then
in the towns, and the least frequently in cities.

In a different study, Mukherjee (1965) reports that unlike the common assumption, his data
does not support the belief that joint family organization is not linked with the urban way of
life. His study indicates clearly that joint family organization increases progressively as one
shifts from villages to small towns to large cities or from non-industrial through partly
industrial to highly industrial towns. He discovered that the upper castes, who also generally
belong to the upper economic classes gave more importance to the joint family organization
than the lower castes and lower economic classes. Mukherjee’s findings support Shah’s (1974:
246) correlation between household, caste and rural-urban community.

Similarly, M. S. Gore (1968) came to a similar conclusion while testing a similar kind of
hypothesis in three communities which is supposed to be represented by three stages of
urbanization, viz. the city of Delhi, villages on the fringe of Delhi, and the villages away from
Delhi. In spite of the fact that he confined his empirical study (using questionnaire interview
method) to only the merchant caste of Aggarwals, he took almost equal number of families
from rural and urban communities, almost equally divided between ‘nuclear’ and ‘joint’
families in each type of community. According to Gore, there is a distinction between the
processes of industrialization and urbanization. He uses the latter i.e. urbanization to refer to
the increasing ratio of urban dwelling to the non-urban dwelling persons in a county. He
further states that the family change may be induced by such factors as higher education,
modern professions and bureaucratic populations (considering that these are the attributes of
urban life). However, he found that neither of these factors, not even industrial occupations
were found to have any significant change in the joint family.

Kapadia (1956) in his analysis of the National Register data on households in the towns of
Navasari and the fifteen villages around Navasari in South Gujarat similarly found that the
assumption that people in cities and towns live in nuclear families while joint families are
stronger in the villages is incorrect contrary to this opinion, he found during his studies (1954

10
& 1955) of 531 high school teachers (279 Gujarati, 187 Maharashtrian and 47 Kannadiga in
Bombay city, that so far as the residential family is concerned, 219 (42 per cent) out of 513
teachers lived in elementary families i.e. nuclear families, while 67 per cent (294 teachers)
lived in joint families. Not only a high degree of jointness was found in the residential group,
but outside the residential group (Gandhi, R 1983).

Conklin (1976) too during his study of the household composition of Karnataka State based
on the Government survey result found that urbanization was not associated with a decline of
complex households (joint households) nor was there any relationship between the two. Saroj
Kapoor’s (1965) study of family and kinship among the Khatris, a wealthy caste of
businessmen in Delhi also found that at least 42.9 per cent of complex households existed in a
neighbourhood in the metropolitan city of Delhi.

We find in the analysis of several studies of family and household in the urban context that not
only kinship is found to be an important principle of social organization in cities but also that
there is a structural congruity between the joint family on the one hand and the requirements
of industrial and urban life on the other. Milton Singer’s (1968) study of 19 families of
outstanding business leaders in Chennai city discovered that these leaders could effectively
‘compartmentalize’ traditional values and life style in the area of home and modern
professional outlook for the business or company at their offices. There need not be any
conflict between the two. He argued that a modified version of traditional joint family is
consistent with the urban industrial setting.

Sudha Kaldate ({1962}2003) however, holds a different opinion. She says that all these
studies which assert that ‘although structurally the traditional (joint) family appears to be
breaking down, functionally it is not so. These try to maintain that the joint family is not
disintegrating in order to function as independent units (nuclear) but adapting to new patterns
which have the same degrees of jointness. The strong protagonists of the views are Kapadia
(1954) and Desai (1956), these are not looking at the varying outside factors.’

She says that ‘any social institution which is exposed to a number of varying outside factors
should result in change. Urbanization, in addition to reflecting technological change, creates a
new form of economic organization and gives rise to a new way of life, Cultural uniformity

11
and traditional patterns of belief and behaviour tend to change under the impact of the above
changes and social change gets accelerated.’

Kaldate (2003:173) believes that these types of changes in social institutions do not affect the
areas where a large proportion of the indigenous population is resident in a village within the
urban framework. To the extent that these populations remains outside from urban contacts
they tend to retain their ‘folk society’ characteristics (Hauser 1957). This fact is very
important since it is this reason that the extent of change in the institution of family is found to
exist more in the areas within the orbit of the city and less in the interior communities. We
may give the example of the pockets of rural areas within and on the fringes of metropolitan
city of Delhi.

Kaldate supports her hypothesis with empirical data available. Her basic thesis is that “ in the
process of social disorganization, the changes in family organization tend to take the form of
changes from the large or joint family system to the small family system. Larger proportions
of joint as well as quasi-joint families are found in the more traditional communities (existing
outside the urban framework); and smaller proportions of such types of families are found in
such communities as have been more exposed to outside influence.’

So far we learnt about the impact of urbanization of the social institution of family. Let us now
explain briefly the institution of kinship in India.

16.5 Continuity and Change: The Institution of Kinship

As you already know the social institution of marriage, family, kinship and caste are closely
interrelated in Indian society.

The kinship pattern in Indian society is generally viewed in the context of Hindu joint family
and therefore has not received much attention. However, like the studies of family in the urban
contact, this area of kinship again suffers from the same dichotomous assertions of opposition
between the rural and the urban. But ever since the ‘break up’ theories of joint family in urban
communities has been proved incorrect a few interesting studies on urban kinship in India
have reported elaborate network of kinship in Indian cities. Gandhi, R. (1983 : 25) in his study
of family, kin group and sub-caste as the realms of primary interactions of the Indian urbanite
found that as many as 36.7 percent of the women of the Das Bania sub-caste had their

12
parental or natal kin (parents, brothers, their wives, sisters, their husbands) living in the same
city, similarly, the largest proportion, about 55 percent of the respondents were found to
interact most frequently with their natal kin, these findings have further implications,
according to Gandhi, when we compare them with Vatuk’s study of the north Indian city of
Meerut.

Vatuk (1972: 140-41) believed that because of the patrilateral emphasis in the north Indian
kinship system, a wife is expected to interact most frequently and intensively with her affines,
agnates of her husband and their wives. However, in Meerut, she found that the significant
number of married women who live near their natal kin (i.e. their own parents) interact more
frequently with them than with the affinal kin. It is true that under such circumstances, the
bonds between the women and her natal kin could be stronger as such interactions are face to
face, primary and reciprocal and they tend to maintain the continuity and solidarity with her
natal kin unit.

However, Vatuk assumes that there was a strong patrilateral emphasis in Meerut prior to
urbanization. Gandhi believes that traditionally the cities of India have always manifested
strong ties with both the natal and the affinal kin of women as it has been possible for them to
marry within the city where their parents (i.e. natal unit) lived unlike the situation in the north
Indian villages where village exogamy separated the woman from her natal village after
marriage.

Vatuk, however, arrives at the conclusion that so far as changes in the kinship system are
concerned there is an increasing tendency toward neolocal residence in the city. However the
weakness of this interpretation is that she presumes that the neolocal residence for a married
couple in an Indian city is a new phenomenon. This belief coupled with the belief that earlier
most residences in Meerut city were patrilocal have no supportive evidence

Unlike Vatuk, I.P Desai’s study of Mahuva town effectively proves that the cyclical pattern of
patrilocal–neolocal– patrilocal residence i.e. joint residence to nuclear and back again to joint
residence may continue to exist in any city, village or town and there is no conclusive
evidence to prove change in any one direction. This conclusion is again supported by Gandhi’s
study of the city in Jamnagar in western India, (Gandhi R., 1983: 27)

13
It is the evolutionary bias in sociology in general and urban sociology in particular that can be
observed in the finding or research in kinship patterns. Chekki (1974: 156) studied two caste
clusters, Brahmin(Gokul) and Lingayat (Kalyan) from the suburbs of Dharwar city,
Karnataka. He discovered that in order to meet the demands of complex modern urban life a
modified extended family is emerging and it consist of a series of nuclear families joined
together on an equalitarian basis for mutual aid and functioning to felicitate the mobility
strivings of its component member families and individuals.

Mary Chatterjee (1947: 337-49) in her study of kinship in sweeper(low caste) locality in
Banaras city found that the kinship terms were also used not only for persons in the mohalla,
whether or not related, but also for most of the persons encountered outside the locality. She
found that kinship was the basic principle in structuring of that urban locality, both as a means
of conceptualization of relations and as a principle of recruitment to residence. The
consanguineal (i.e. blood relatives) and affinals (relatives by marriage) were linked in terms of
their relation to the acquisition of cleaning jobs in the municipality.

Gandhi (1983) observes that largely the kinship studies in urban areas go to prove the
contention of Pocock (1960) who believed that the presumed dichotomy between ‘rural’ and
‘urban’ does not obtain in the Indian situation, at least when we examine such social
institutions as family and kinship in urban India.

He says that when we think in terms of change in the patterns of kinship in urban India’ we
observe a strange anomaly between continuity and change. However, increase in neolocal
residences, change in the outward forms or observable patterns of kinship, may be change in
degree and not in kind. Although urban-rural differences were not found to be statistically
significant, the study (Conklin’s and other) maintains that urbanization levels and employment
of wife of the household outside are major factors in the relative freedom of women.

16.6 Conclusion
when we study the impact of urbanization on the social institutions of marriage, family and
kinship, we find that the evolutionary approach of western scholars, from Durkheim, F.
Tonnies (1940) Louis Wirth (1938) have markedly influenced the studies of urban
sociologists. Such theoretical assumptions led to the biased approach of dichotomizing the

14
rural and urban as two different types of societies. Initially several sociologists jumped to the
conclusion that the joint family is associated with the rural agrarian economy, as found in the
west and the nuclear family belonged to the urban industrialized non-agrarian economies.

However, several studies on family, marriage, kinship and caste in urban India, e.g. I.P
Desai’s(1964), K.M. Kapadia (1956). Ramkrishana Mukherjkee and so on found contrary to
this view there was no such link between the types of society and jointness or nuclearity of the
family and the household. In fact A.M. Shah’s study gives a turning point to these studies by
pointing out that there is a cyclical change of joint to nuclear to joint in urban areas as well.
However, it is quite clear from the analysis of all these studies that slight modifications in
terms of personal and private lives and professional competitive life in the cities and towns; as
pointed out by Milton Singer (1968) does exist.

Another important fact is that ample confusion in terms of defining and understanding of what
constitutes “joint” and “nuclear” exists. This area of study therefore needs greater attention
since as mentioned in the sections of the unit, all the social institutions marriage, family and
kinship are constantly adjusting and accommodating to new needs and requirements and
therefore subtle changes keep taking place without affecting the larger form.

16.7 Further Reading

Gandhi, Raj 1983 in Main Currents in Indian Sociology, ed. By Giri Raj Gupta, vol. VI Urban
India, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd: New Delhi.

Sandhu, R.S (ed.) 2003, Urbanization in India Sociological Contributions, Sage Publications:
New Delhi.

15
16
Unit 17
Traditional Neighbourhoods and Modern Cities
Contents

17.1 Introduction

17.2 Concept of Neighbourhood

17.3 Neighbourhood Studies

17.4 Neighbourhoods: traditional and modern

17.5 Neighbourhoods in modern cities: Suburbs, Ethnoburbs

17.6 Criticism

17.7 Conclusion

17.8 Further Reading

Learning Objectives

After going through this unit, you will be able to

• explain the concept of neighbourhood

• assess the importance of neighbourhoods in modern cities

• explain more recent concepts like ethnoburb

17.1 Introduction

From its inception Sociology gave importance to the analysis of social relationships.

With this tie between individual and family and between various families got prominence

in Sociological literature. Scholars focusing on importance of groups in an individual’s

life also recognized the importance of neighbours. Neighbourhood is a community of

families living in close proximity over a period of time and therefore influencing each

other’s life. In villages and small towns neighbourhoods provided a canvass of social

1
networks defining society at large. In large industrial cities neighbourhoods were seen as

the microcosm of the larger world.

Today the social life of the 21st century is highly diversified. Do the metropolitan cities,

global cities and world cities have any space for community ties and neighbourhoods? If

yes, what kind of neighbourhoods would there be?

The title of this unit is ‘traditional neighbourhoods, modern cities’. From modernist

viewpoint, it was thought that with modernization, traditional neighbourhoods would be

an anomaly. This unit tries to address some of the above mentioned issues in short. In a

world defined by capital flows, information flows and cultural flows, how do individuals

sustain socially? What are the defining principles of their community life? The time-

space compression and immense mobility characterizes today’s world cities and global

cities. Then what is the nature of social networks?

17.2 Concept of Neighbourhood

The Advanced Learner’s Oxford Dictionary (1974, 1982) defines neighbourhood as

‘people living in a district; area near the place’. According to Compact Oxford Dictionary

and thesaurus, ‘neighbourhood is a district within a town or city.’ In Sociological

literature, neighbourhood is ‘a term used to describe localities in urban areas which are

characterized by a common sense of identity and usually a common life style. (Lawson

and Garrod: 2003, 178)

One of the very influential and popular schools of thought in urban sociology was the

Ecological or Chicago school in the first half of the 20th century. Scholars like Park and

Burgess, with the ecological orientation differentiated between localities within a city.

Different kinds of land use, and the varied urban populations that occupied the city were

2
classified into separate areas. These “neighborhoods “ (Park 1915,580) or “natural areas”

(Park [1929] 1952,196) had particular affinities or aversions to one another, resulting

overall in an urban ecology- a spatial division of the city, that corresponds to the

functional division of labor occurring within it. The examples of these areas were the

central business district, exclusive residential areas, areas of heavy or light industry,

slums, ghettos, immigrant communities, bohemians and “hobohemias” (Flanagan, 1999:

54).

Community studies, a sub-discipline of Sociology covered for a long time, empirical

study of territorially defined communities like villages and urban neighbourhoods.

According to Tuan Yi-Fu (1974), “‘Neighborhood’ and ‘Community’ denote concepts

popular with planners and social workers. They provide a framework for organizing the

complex human ecology of a city into manageable sub-areas; they are also social ideals

feeding on the belief that the health of society depends on the frequency of neighbourly

acts and the sense of communal membership.”

Charles Cooley, in his writings on ‘Primary group’ and ‘Secondary group’ where he

discusses the development of the ‘Looking- glass self’ highlights the significance of the

role played by neighbours in shaping the personality of individuals. Parents, neighbours

and schoolmates are the three examples of primary groups that he offers. These according

to him cast lasting influence on an individual due to their long term, close, direct,

involuntary relationships characteristic of these groups.

The term ‘traditional neighbourhood’ denotes localities with ethnic enclaves or

settlements of families with identical values, ideals and lifestyles. These are the places

where relationships between neighbours are close, direct and intimate as opposed to the

3
idea of cosmopolitan heterogeneous urban settlements. The spatial features of these

localities are imprinted with traditional architectural forms and practices.

In the first half of the 20th Century, the term neighbourhood suggested settlements of

either the working classes or the bourgeoisie with similar occupational, economic and

cultural background in major Western industrial towns.

Reflection and Action 17.1

Observe the neighbourhood within which you are living. Do you think your

neighbourhood is traditional or modern? Write down why it is traditional or modern

keeping in mind the above description in about two pages.

Discuss you essay with other students at your study centre.

17.3 Neighbourhood Studies

As Wellman and Leighton (1979:363) have pertinently argued, ‘Urban Sociology has

tended to be neighbourhood sociology.’ What they meant by this was the collapse of

urban sociology into study of small networks, direct social interaction and small scale

studies of how sense of community evolves.

In social geography ‘neighbourhood studies’ signified an important branch, wherein

study of specific localities with shared architectural forms and shared socio-economic

and cultural features was undertaken. It was observed by these studies that certain

neighbourhoods showed certain housing patterns and certain lifestyles. These studies

were significant in the context of two factors: in the emerging Western industrial

metropolitan cities, social commentators and Sociologists with functionalist orientation

had predicted a loss of shared values. Secondly, neighbourhood studies falsified the

4
assumption that in modern cities ethnicity would lose its importance, as most of the

neighbourhoods were based on race and ethnicity.

In the field of Urban Sociology, scholars belonging to the Chicago School took up

neighbourhood studies. Looking at processes of adaptation and competition, they

focused on creation of separate neighbourhoods on class lines. Some focused on ethnic

ghettos and enclaves. These places were preferred destination of first generation

immigrants. Ethnic links made occupational and social adjustments easier. For this

purpose they undertook detailed observations for months together to create classic

neighbourhood profiles. Participant observation, life history and survey were the

preferred techniques. (Spates and Macionis, 1982:46,47)

Park, Burgess, and their followers contributed to the theoretical and methodological

aspects of the new field called urban sociology. America witnessed emergence and

expansion of many large cities in the beginning of the 20th century, and therefore,

manifold study of the urban subject matter was a need of the hour. Also, it was believed

that the American way of life was based on industrialization; human spirit of

achievement and this modern urban world was expected to create new identity of

‘modern human being’. In reality, however, ethnic enclaves emerged in all big cities of

the world and social networks played a very important role alongside wealth and power.

Burgess, in the analysis of his famous ‘concentric zone theory’, pointed this out.

(Burgess, 1967: 50) The famous diagram illustrating the land use and distribution of

population in Chicago city argued that manufacturing activities determined the nature of

city life in America in the early 20th century. As the city grows it gets divided into sub-

communities, which are spatially segregated into zones or sectors.

5
Wellman and Leighton (1979:363-90) discuss the reasons why neighbourhood studies

substituted community studies. First, the neighbourhood provided itself as an easily

accessible research site to urbanists. Secondly, neighbourhood was the building block of

the city, which was the aggregate of many such neighbourhoods as per the ecological

school. Third, administrative officials imposed their own definitions of neighbourhood

boundaries while attempting to create bureaucratic units. Fourth, urban sociology’s

particular concern with spatial distributions had tended to be translated into local area

concern. Fifth, many analysts have been concerned with the conditions under which

solidary sentiments can be maintained. These scholars acknowledge the fact the genre of

‘neighbourhood studies has produced hundreds of finely wrought depictions of urban life

and they have given us powerful ideas about how small scale social systems operate in a

variety of social contexts’.

Rex and Moore as Saunders (1981) observes it, took works of the ecological schools as

the starting point of their theory. They argued that in the initial settlement of the city,

three different groups, differentially placed with regard to the possession of property,

become segregated from one another and work out their own community style of life’

(1967, p.8). The upper middle class owning relatively large houses are located near the

business and cultural centers, but away from the industries. The working class rents small

terraced cottages are bonded by economic adversity with others in the same situation

experience a strong sense of collective identity and mutual support. The lower middle

class rent their houses but aspires the bourgeois way of life. These three groups signify

not only three kinds of neighbourhoods, but also three different lifestyles and value

6
structures. Their occupational positions, access to property ownership and resultant

consumption and cultural preferences are significantly different.

Rex and Moore, while forwarding their theory of space, focus on conflicts over housing.

They point out that the direction of migration is from inner city area to outer limits of the

city. Basing their analysis on the study of Sparkbrook in Birmingham they illustrate that

working class neighbourhoods decline into ‘twilight areas’ with a concentration of the

immigrant population. This happens alongside a parallel development: increasing

desirability of suburban middle class housing for the lower middle class. As a result of

this suburban spacious housing becomes a scarce commodity.

Community Studies is an academic area, which has concentrated on study of

neighbourhoods. In most of the Western metropolitan cities neighbourhoods are

organized around ethnicity. Hence community studies are conducted in neighbourhoods.

Another sub-discipline, which focuses on neighbourhoods and their particularities, is

Ethnic and minority studies.

Distinctive neighborhoods have well-defined boundaries that in a way isolate them from

rest of the city. Especially suburbs with peculiar characteristics like luxurious housing

and deteriorating slums; settlements of immigrants and ethnic ghettos get distinguished

from other localities for a variety of economic and cultural reasons.

However, many scholars have questioned whether neighbourhood refers to a mental

perception or a planning category? Suzanne Keller has shown that the concept of

neighborhood is not at all simple. The administrator or planner may define it in terms of

physical characteristics. But the resident’s perception of the locality might be completely

different.

7
As Tuan Yi-Fu (1974), puts it, the words “neighborhood” and “district” tend to evoke in

the outsider’s mind images of simple geometrical shape, when in fact the channels of

neighborly acts that define neighbourhood may be extremely intricate and vary from

small group to small group living in close proximity. Moreover, the perceived extent of

neighbourhood does not necessarily correspond with the web of intense neighbourly

contacts.

The degree to which acknowledgement and assessment of a neighbourhood’s specificities

depends on class of residents according to Tuan. It is observed that the extremely rich are

more conscious of the boundaries of their physical territory as well as their cultural

world. They devise ways to keep others away from their realm. Tuan states that ‘Middle

class suburbanites can be even more sensitive of their territorial integrity, for their world,

in comparison with that of the established rich, is more vulnerable to the invasion by

“uppity” outsiders’ (Tuan: 1974, 75). He also observes that white immigrants from ethnic

specific residential quarters are not as conscious of their territoriality and cultural identity

as their coloured counterparts from slums for coloured population. This may be due to the

fact the coloured population face hostility everywhere except in their locality.

Following the illustrious contributions of the theorists of Chicago schools with their

detailed accounts of occupational and residential differentiation, neighbouhoods in

Chicago were studied repeatedly by various scholars. Gerald Suttles (1968) in his study

of a poor neighbourhood in Chicago, with various ethnic communities showed that there

was a well-worked out social order based upon strong territorial identification. In a

locality that Suttles called the “Addams Area,” growing numbers of blacks, Mexicans,

and Puerto Ricans slowly replaced Italians. Although each community had its

8
independent existence and ties, all ethnic groups shared territorial identification. In spite

of tensions between ethnic communities, conflict and confrontation was avoided.

Sometimes tensions between adolescents led to confrontations between Italians within

and outside the neighbourhood. At such moments going beyond ethnic divisions, the

entire neighbourhood got united against outsiders. Suttles (1972, 21-35) termed this as

“defended neighborhood”.

Both Tuan (1974) and refer to Beacon Hill, Boston as a neighbourhood of those with

exclusive access to peculiar kinds of residence, lifestyle and therefore a territorial

boundary. While commenting on symbolism, imagery and perception of American cities,

Tuan observes that Beacon Hill, Boston marked itself off from others by tradition,

culture, social standing and economic power. He argues that though Beacon Hill matches

ethnic quarters of some kinds, it is different in so far as it maintains its isolation through

its presumed sense of superiority. Ethnic quarters, on the other hand take isolation to be

the best means to cope up with threat. Beacon Hill began after the revolution as upper

class suburbia. It was planned as a fashionable quarter for those with position and means.

He compares Beacon hill with West End- another working class locality which sprang

near Beacon Hill. The residents of the later neighbourhood were not aware of the

territorial identity as those in Beacon Hill were. (Tuan:76)

17.4 Neighbourhoods: Traditional and Modern

Traditional neighbourhoods denote old parts of the city. In many American studies, these

parts are referred to as ‘inner city areas.’ Immigrant population with low quality of

amenities and dilapidated or deteriorating housing conditions, no governmental

9
investment, marks these localities. As the city grows the lower middle classes move out

of the inner city areas and the new immigrants move in theses dwellings with low rent.

Architecturally, inner city areas show traditional styles and forms of using space. They

facilitate older styles of interactions and social networks.

Middle classes and the rich population on the other hand inhabit outer city areas. These

localities have more amenities, large plots of land, more services and are scarcely

populated. These are more modern neighbourhoods with up-market styles and forms of

spatial use. In some cities the traditional neighbourhoods have been preserved as

architectural heritage sites. (In Sydney, for example, the old quarters have been turned

into a tourist spectacle.)

As Sharon Zukin and others have pointed out cities in the post-modern era symbolize

cultural spectacles. Discussing the case of Disneyland, she points out that parts of cities

are now created, maintained and marketed as items of consumption. Cities showcase

dazzling, grand architectural and material worlds, where viewers can interpret and

reinterpret spatial reality in multiple ways. Cultural homogenization results from the

standardizing impact of globalization imposing universal food, beverage and clothing

styles.

In the global South, it is difficult to differentiate between traditional and modern

neighbourhoods in the same way as in the U.S. of the first half of the 21st century. In

Mumbai, for example, the older neighbourhoods with textile mills and lower class

residences are recently converted into up-market malls and shopping areas. Here, the old

defunct mill chimney exists along with plush multi-storied multiplex or mall. In many

10
south Asian cities, the inequalities between access to resources and livelihoods result in

the simultaneous existence of polar worlds.

Reflection and Action 17.2

On a weekend or holiday, take a trip to the surrounding colonies in your city town. (If

you stay in a village then you may choose the nearby town). Find out the socio-economic

status, occupation of the residents and infrastructural facilities available in at least three

neighbourhoods. Are there people of different ethnic backgrounds living in the same

colony, are rich luxury houses and small middle class residences found in same colony,

etc.

Write a two page note on “My city /Town” based on the above findings. Share your

report with other students at your Study Centre.

17.5 Neighbourhoods in Recent Times: Suburbs, Ethnoburbs, and so on

In recent years works dealing with space, economy and culture have pointed out how

‘place internlised the market’ (Zukin: 1993) On the other hand, scholars like Sassen

(2001) have theorized the ways in which the global economy is now controlled from a

few cities, wherein financial services and speculative decisions are made. Though

manufacturing is decentred through various continents, certain cities have emerged as

‘global cities’- global nodes of economic and technological flows. These writings have

shown that local neighbourhoods are today influenced by transnational capital,

technological and cultural flows (Zukin: 1993, Sassen: 1991, 2001). This means that

study of urban phenomenon in terms of local community structures, territorially defined

value systems would be irrelevant in the context of outsourcing and offshore production.

11
Anthony King (2005) has reiterated this in his recent book. He reminds us that suburbs

meant an outgrowth of the city. “Today, however, in many cities round the world, there

are not just sub-urbs but also supraurbs (suprurbs) or, alternatively, globurbs. By this we

mean forms and settlements on the outskirts of the city, the origins of which – economic,

social, cultural, architectural – are generated less by developments inside the city, or even

inside the country, and more by external forces beyond its boundaries. The influences as

well as the capital come from afar, either electronically, or physically, and not least

through printed media.” (2005,97) he argues that today’s new kinds of suburbs sustain

from outside state boundaries. Not just global forces generate these suburbs. Extending

the concept of postcolonial globalization used by Hopkins (2002), he states, they are

generated ‘more particularly, by those of imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, as well

as the diasporic migratory cultures and capital flows of global capitalism- these are the

postcolonial globurbs.’ (King: 2005, 97-103)

King sites the concept of ‘ethnoburb’ coined by geographer Wei Li. It means ‘suburban

ethnic clusters of residential areas and business districts in large American metropolitan

areas. They are multi-ethnic communities in which one ethnic minority group has a

significant concentration but does not necessarily comprise a majority (Li Wei 1998:

479). This term was referred to describe San Gabriel Valley, in the eastern suburban area

of Los Angeles County with more than 158,000 ethnic Chinese (from mainland China,

Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere), in 1990. This was the largest suburban Chinese

concentration in the US. The ethnoburb, is ‘a new outpost in the global economy’, which

emerges as an outcome of the ‘influence of international geopolitical and global

12
economic restructuring’. Changing national immigration and trade policies, local

demographics, economic and political contexts also result in the making of an ethnoburb.

He also discusses another category called Technoburbs (King: 2005, 106). Reflecting on

the role of technologies in creating and maintaining suburbs, King refers to Silverstone

and Robert Fishman (1987). Fishman comments on the ‘new high technological post-

suburbs growing along the edge of the old’ and underscores “the home-centered nature of

both physical and symbolic environments, as ‘technoburb’ and television promote their

mutual interests, in their dependence on, and encouragement of decentralization

(Silverstone 1997: 9)”. It is through television that the ethnoburb is instantaneously

linked with the ‘countries of home’, “the ‘imagined communities’ of ethnic recognition

round the world”(King, 2005, 107). It acts as engines of suburban hybridization,

reproducing in the process the ‘ambiguities of modernity’ (Silverstone 1997).

Box 17.1 The Non Resident Indians

It is observed that Indians in USA or UK tend to have close interaction with other Indians

and Asians living there. They tend to celebrate their festivals; life cycle rituals, etc.,

within this close community. Most parents with grown up children prefer to arrange

marriages of their children within their caste/ region and there fore often come to India

for this purpose.

King’s discussion of these contemporary processes shaping hybridities, bring to the fore

transnational migrations, diasporic communities and decentralised production coupled

with distantiated subjectivities.

13
17.6 Criticisms

As the discussion in the previous section illustrates, the phrase based on binary opposites

of ‘traditional neighbourhoods in modern cities’ is not exactly relevant to describe or

analyze contemporary urban phenomenon.

Earlier on in late 1970s itself, the tendency to associate urban neighbourhoods with

communities was criticized. Wellman and Leighton (1979) have commented on the

problems created by the entangling of study of community ties with neighbourhood in the

following way:

1. The identification of a neighbourhood as a container of community ties assumes

the a priori organizing power of space. This is spatial determinism.

2. The presence of many local relationships does not necessarily create discrete

neighbourhoods.

3. The identification of neighbourhood studies with community studies may omit

major spheres of interaction.

4. The focus on neighbourhoods may give undue importance to spatial

characteristics as casual variables.

5. Many analyses have been over occupied with the condition under which solidary

sentiments can be maintained. When not found in the neighbourhood, community

is assumed not to exist.

These criticisms also hold true for the most part for the tendency to view traditional

neighbourhoods in modern cities as repositories of ‘close, direct relations, the souls of the

soul less cities’. Today residents of a neighbourhood might not attach territorial markers

of identity as closely as they would attach other kinds of markers, for example, certain

14
kinds of music, participation in particular kinds of activities, etc. Moreover, there would

be simultaneous emergence of multiple identities or switching from one marker to

another. The geographical unit of space is not the solitary determinant of identity,

lifestyle and ties.

17.7 Conclusions

As mentioned above, today it is hard to find ‘traditional’ neighbourhoods in terms of

architectural form and style except a few heritage sites or preserved neighbourhoods. The

crucial question that students of urban sociology need to ask is whether a dichotomous

pairing of ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ can prove to be a viable analytical tool in the first

place. Tradition is always a relative category – in terms of time and space. Modernity is

also relative to time and space and is defined dynamically. The title ‘traditional

neighbourhoods in modern cities’ poses a number of epistemological and methodological

questions.

Without going into the details of the discussion of these aspects, we can certainly

conclude that in contemporary metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities throughout the

world intimate ties between neighbours are observed. But this does not mean that all

neighbours share direct, intimate relations; neither does this suggest that intimate

relationships can be sustained by territorial boundaries alone.

At the same time, there is enough evidence to suggest that neighbourhoods are not only

geographical or administrative units imposed on maps; but many of them represent

certain value structures, class-specific lifestyles and consumption preferences. In the

developing world, these peculiarities are even more complicated by internal hierarchies

of class, caste, race and gender.

15
In the first half of this century ecological school theorists believed in homogeneous

structuring of neighbourhoods. Today, it will be adventurous to state so.

17.8 Further Reading

Flanagan W G., Urban Sociology Images and Structure, 1999, 1995, 1990, Allan and
Bacon, Boston

Sassen S., 2001, Global cities,

Wellman B. and Leighton B., Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches

to the Study of the Community Question, in Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3,
March 1979, pp. 363-90.

16
Reference

Balshaw M. and Kennedy L., 2000, Urban Space and Representation, Pluto Press,

London.

Bilton T., (et al), 1987, Introductory Sociology, Macmillan.

Bourne, L., (ed), 1982, Internal structure of the city, readings on urban form, growth and

policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Castells, M., 1983, The City and the Grassroots, University of California Press, Berkeley.

Flanagan W G., Urban Sociology Images and Structure, 1999, 1995, 1990, Allan and

Bacon, Boston

Hamnett C., (ed.) 1996, Social Geography A Reader, Arnold, London, New York,

Sydney, Auckland.

King A., 2005, Spaces of Global Cultures, Architecture Urbanism Identity, Routledge,

London.

ƒ Kosambi M., 1994, Urbanization and Urban Development in India, ICSSR, New

Delhi.

ƒ Savage M, and Warde A., 1993, Urban Sociology, Capitalism and Modernity,

Macmillan Press Ltd, London.

ƒ Robson B. 1973, Urban Growth: An Approach, Methuen & Co. Ltd, London.

ƒ Sassen S., 2001, Global cities,

ƒ Saunders, P., 1981, Social Theory and the Urban Question, Hutchinson, London.

ƒ Tewari V., Weinstein J., Rao VLS Prakasa, (ed.) 1986, Indian Cities- Ecological

Perspectives, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi.

17
ƒ Tuan Yi-Fi, 1982, American Cities: Symbolism, Imagery, and Perception, in

Bourne Larry S., 1982, Internal Structure of the City Readings on Urban Form,

Growth, and Policy, OUP, New York Oxford.

ƒ Wellman B. and Leighton B., Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities:

Approaches to the Study of the Community Question, in Urban Affairs Quarterly,

Vol. 14, No. 3, March 1979, pp. 363-90.

ƒ Zukin S., 1993, Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World, University

of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.

ƒ Zukin S., 2005, ‘Whose Culture? Whose City?’ In Lin J., Mele C., (ed.), 2005,

The Urban Sociology Reader, Routledge, New York.

18
I Unit I 8
Urban lnf luences on RuralAreas

18.1 Introduction
18.2 SomeMajorStudies
18.3 Urban Impact through Migration
18.4 lnfluences of Urban Areas
18.5 Occupational Changes Particularly i n Periods of Globalisation
18.6 Politicallnfluences
18.7 Social lnfluences
18.8 Cultural lnfluences
1 8,9 Conclusion
18.10 Further Reading
Learning Objectives
After studying this unit you will be able to:
- briefly describe some major studies on the urban influences on rural

the three situations of urban impact;

discuss some of the influences of urban areas;
explain the economic influences of urban areas on rural areas;
describe the occupational changes that take place in rural areas; and
outline the political, social and cultural influencesof the urban areas on
rural areas.

18.1 lntroduction
In the conimon parlance, any bigcity or town or for that matter any metropolis
is believedto be a melting pot, where people from several cultures come and
converge to become one urban mass with distinct culture. If we analyse this
within the framework of science and particularly physics, we might describe
i t as a centripetal force of urbanization. On the other hand, there is
centrifugal forces of urbanization also, which influences rural areas. Often
such forces become factors of social, cultural and economic chage in the rural
society. In urban sociology, the process of such changes has emerged as
important with number of studies being focused on social and cultural changes
in rural areas.

18.2 Some Major Studies

For past many decades, several authors, both from India and the West, have
- contributed to this branch of knowledge. A prominent scholar among them
is M.N. Srinivas, who has analysed the impact of both industrialization and
urbanizationon rural system i n great depth. He has highlighted how different
areas of rural social life are being affected by urban cenres. Mark Holmstrom
has analysed the political network of Leaders in the rural pocket within the
Banglore Corporationin the context of election. The influence of urban market
on village economy has been the focus of study of D.N. Mazumdar. He has
carried out this study i n a village called 'MohanaJ near Lucknow.
It i s not necessary that the villages which are i n the vicinity of the city are
influenced. Often, villages which are far off from cities but has a significant
proportion of i t s population as emigrant, exhibit high urban influences. This
has been highlighted i n the study of a village in U.P. by E. Eames. He notes 37
Urbanization and It'= impact that since many emigrants in this village live i n different cities and towns,
they regularly send money back as remittances. The reason for this i s that
most have left their families back home. Such 'money-order' based economy
has a spin-off effect in the sense that their dependents have cleared their
debt and some are sending their children to schools. 'This implies that though '
this village i s not in thevicinity of acity but i s under the impact of urbanization.
R.D. Lambart's study, too, highlights the fact of varying degree of influence
of urban centres on the rural life and culture. Social changes are maximal-in
the area where displacement i s sudden and maximum.
The most important contribution i n this field has been made by M.S.A. Rao.
He has argued that many villages all over India are becoming increasingly
subject to the impact of urban influences. But the nature of urban impact
varies according to the type of relation a village has with an urban area, This
urban area could be a city or a town.

18.3 Urban Impact through Migration

It has been postulated that rural urban inequality i n terms of economic and
social wellbeing would accelerate rural urban migration. The pull factors +

operating through the highly productive sectors i n urban centres would attract
labour force from rural areas. Many among rural poor would move to urban
areas i n any case as a part of their survival strategy and supplement their
family income i n their villages. Rural economy often plays an important role
in ensuring balance between demand and supply of labour through
circulation of population in different seasons of the year.
Broadly, three different kinds of rural urban migration could be identified.
i) First, there are villages i n which a significant proportion of populations
have sought employment i n far off urban areas. In this situation they
Leave their families in villages of their birth. This situation i s prevalent
not only within the country but also i n oversea cities. In either of the
situation, such emigrants visit their village either during festivals or on
family occasions. Most significantly majority of them send money
regularly. In villages, becauseof constant flow of money to such families,
the economic status i s raised. In some cases, even the urban employment
itself becomes the symbol of higher social status. In tangible terms,
families of such emigrants have been found to build fashionable houses
i n their villages. They have also invested money on land and industry.
Then it can be safely be inferred that whether the emigrants reside i n
Indian or overseas cities, the feedback effect of urbanization remains
significant for such villages. In this situation, the urban impact i s felt by
villages despite the fact that physically they are neither situated within
the cities nor are near them.
ii) Second kind of impact i s felt by villages which are situated near an
industrial town. Thesevillages are exposed to several kinds of influences.
The reasons for this could be a) with the coming up of an industrial town
some villages might be totally up-rooted, b) lands are partially acquired,
c) influx of immigrant workers, d) demand of all kinds of amenities for -
new residents and e) finally ordering of relationship between immigrants
and native residents.
In real terms this could mean that because industrial township is coming
up, so there would be employment opportunities for villagers at their
door step. In other words, this means that there would be a shift i n the
occupational structure among the villagers. Hence villagers instead of
depending only upon agriculture, would send their adult members of the
family to work in the factories as well. Aconsiderable number of workers
would commute from the city to the factories and eventually may shift
their residence. However, it is important to remember that urbanization
38
due to industrialization has general as well as specific influences on the
 villages. Thespecific influence has more to do with the nature of industry.
Hence, agro based industries will encourage farmers of surrounding
villages to devote more agricultural lands for that particular crop. The
best example i n this case could be that of sugar mills. It has been observed
that farmers i n villages around sugar mills tend to cultivate sugarcane
on larger portion of their land.
iii) Finally, the third type of urban impact i s felt by phenomenon of ever
increasing size of metropolitan cities which many times convert into
megalopolis. In the above situations, normally either village i s sucked i n
to the city as it expands or land excluding the inhabited area i s used for
urban development. Such situations give rise to 'rural pockets' i n the
city area. In such villages the landless peasants get cash compensation,
which they either invest i n far-off places or i n commerce or squander
money. Thevillagers i n general seekurban employment. Invillages where
land is partially acquired, there cultivation i s s t i l l possible, but then
farmers take up the emerging demand i n consideration while deciding
for the type of crop which they cultivate. Another effect of a metropolitan
city on the surrounding villages i s the outflow of urban residents who
wish to move out of the congested areas i n the city into the open
countryside.
Ruralareas i n the immediate periphery of large cities often act as dormitories
for poor migrants who commute on daily basis, as they are unable to find a
foothold i n the cities. The rural periphery, which absorbs these migrants has
t o deal with various socio economic problems, due to deficiency of basic
amenities and social fragmentation. These often lead t o outbreak of
epidemics, social tensions as also ~ r o u conflicts,
p as the local residents struggle
and fight with the migrant groups to access or share the limited employment
opportunities and basic amenities. Furthermore, the environmental lobby
gaining strength i n these cities often launches measures to push out the
pollutant and obnoxious industries to these areas, thereby creating a process
of degenerated Peripheralisation. Understandably, this process helps the cities
i n reducing their infrastructural costs and pass on the responsibility and costs
of social transition to peripheral villages.
Besideeconomic impact such villages also changein terms of political features.
Oneof the unique features i s thatthe villagers participatedirectly in the city's
or corporation's politics. The slum dwellers i n the periphery often constitute
the vote bank for political parties. They are, thus, affected by the political
process at the city, state and the national Levels. This i s very unlike traditional
villages where political Landscape i s governed by intermediary structure of
'Taluk' and district. These villages have direct administrative links with cities.
It should, however, be noted that not all the villages may be said to have been
exposed i n the same way to urban influences, for the nature of the relations
of the village with the cities, and the response of the village to this situation
vary from village to village.

18.4 Influences of Urban Areas

Rural economy i n general and agriculture i n particular are noted to exhibit
tremendous resilience and a high capacity of internal adjustment i n response
to challenges posed by the process of urban development, particularly i n the
era of globalisation. Ruralareas shoulders the major responsibility of releasing
material resources, necessary for meeting the capital and current
expenditures of the modern sectors that generally provide the lead i n the
growth process. It i s also supposed to sustain the process of urban industrial
development by meeting the costs of shifting of workers (along with their
family members) from rural t o urban areas, finding a shelter and sustenance
at least during the period of transition. Further, able-bodied male labour
required i n the upcomingactivities i n towns and cities are also made available 39
Urbanization and It's Impact importantly, workforce displaced i n industrial sector when it comes under
slurnp due to fluctuations i n global market, technological shifts or other socio-
political disturbances, often seek absorption within agriculture i n the short
run.
Rural areas have also been a major provider of surpluses and investible funds.
During the colonial regime, the rulers often succeed i n operationalising a
"suction mechanism" for expropriating resources from the colonies. The
process often continued even after end of the colonial rule i n many less
developed countries. This has led t o a high disparity between agriculture and
non-agricultural sectors and between rural and urban areas in terms of per
capita earnings as also in other dimensions of economic and social well-being.
In this context it i s important, for the purpose of generalization, to classify
the influences oY urban centres on villages under some broad categories, such
as economic, social, cultural and political. However it must be kept i n mind
that all these headings encompass several sub-categories. For example under
category 'economic' sub-categories such as occupational roles, employment
pattern and shift i n profession i s subsumed.
-

Reflection and Action 18.1

In your cityltownlvillage find out at least five people who have recently
4i.e. within the last one year) have come t o stay. Ask them about the
reasons of their arrival i n this cityltownlvillage. Why have they chosen
t o move t o this place? How this movement has affected their life?
Write report on "Nature of Migration i n My CityITownlVillage" i n about
two pages. Share your report with other students at your study centre.
i) Economic influence
The urban areas are synonymous with market economy. If this seems harsh,
then it can be said that economy of urban areas are very different than rural
areas, though t o a large extent it i s based on supplies from rural areas. In
the order of influence it can be inferred that i n return rural areas gradually
gets into market economy. Bohannanand Dalton while discussing the markets
i n African society characterized entry into the market economy by three
crieteria: a) marketing of produce with direct repercussion on production,
b) selling labour and, c) buying for resale as contrasted t o marketing one's
own product.
ii) Commercialization of agriculture
Marketing of agricultural produce has significant social implications. This is
i n the sense of several roles which a villager takes up. In villages which are
yet relatively untouched by the urban influences, though i n today's scenario
this i s very unlikely, a villager as an economic being i s mostly a cultivator.
However, when slhe comes under the urban influence, they are likely to take
up the role of farmer as well as that of a businessman. This means slhe not
only has t o grow those crops which has relatively higher and faster cash returns .
but also market them. Marketing entails arranging for quick transportation
so that right price i s procured. Further, there is a change i n the cropping
pattern i.e., a shift from growing food crop t o growing vegetable, fruits, -
horticulture, poultry and dairy farming. In other words, market economy of
urban places offers large scope of choice i n terms of farming. The best
example of this i s when one i s traveling from village t o any urban area. It i s
apparent that as one nears ,any town there is more of vegetables, fruits,
flowers grown than any staple food items like rice, wheat or pulses. This is
not only the case for those villages which are i n the vicinity of a metropolis
or a city, but also with those villages which are away from urban areas but
has relatively good transport and communication linkages.
Most of the time this offers good economic returns t o villagers but sometime
this also results i n huge economic loss for a farmer i n far off villages. The
40
best example of this was apparent a few years back when there was glut of
 potato in the market. Many of the farmers were neither able to sell their Urban Influences on
Rural Areas
produce to any market nor were able to keep the produce in any storage
facility. The reason for this i s that a farmer makes choice of crop in a field
on the basis of last year's market price. However, they do not take into
consideration the fact that others are also farming the same crop and hence
there i s crash of market prices. In this regard it i s important that farmers

Sociolo2ically, this shift in roles and alsoin cropping pattern has a significant
bearing on the rural society. That is, going by certain theoretical premise,
traditionally in caste system, specific castes have beenassociated with certain
occupations with minor deviations. So an 'Ahir' was associated with diary
farming and a 'Malli' was associated with 'horticulture' though at a very
nascent level. The flip side of this association of occupation with caste was
that other castes considered taking up any other occupation, with which they
have not: been associated, less prestigious. This role of caste was in addition
to i t s role as identity marker. Now when villagers take part in the market
- economy of urban areas, they after some resistancetend to cross those caste
boundaries and accept new occupations. Hence the traditional cultivators
i.e. growers of main food crop take growing of vegetables, fruits, flowers
'and tend to go into poultry and dairy farming. In this context it i s important
to remember that i t ' s not that those farmers were not at all growing
vegetables, fruits and flowers.-They have been doing so but only for own
consumption and not as a main farming or for purpose of selling. Analytically
this meant that occupational stratification on the basis of caste got gradually
blurred. This in other words meant that the so-called Lower castes who were
also positioned lower in traditional economy, came to be at par with other
castes. Hence they, as equals in new economy, had more bargaining powers
which in a way was due to the new set of constraints.
The shift i n occupational roles also meant that farmers have to learn new
tasks, skills and purpose oriented activities such as raising v e g ~ b i e s ,
transporting and selling them. Further they were brought into relat'ionships
with the brokers at the auction market (subzimandi), and carters and the
contract-gardeners in the village. At this juncture it i s also important to
remember that pursuit of new role was not i n contradistinction but i n
conjunction with activities as cultivators. However, this certainly meant
reorganization of resources both material and human, involving choices.
Therefore, the large and medium-size farmers, who do not have adequate
labour resources within household tend to go for partial mechanization of
agriculturaloperation, hire labour and sell their crop before harvesting. Those
farmers who have adequate supply of household labour but little land try to
go for lease in land, concentrate on raising more short-term vegetables and
cultivate their land intensively.

18.5 Occupational changes Particularly in Periods

of Globalisation
In the context of economic influence, one must recognise that urban areas
not only provideopportunity to villagers to sell their agricultural produce, but
also supply labour, as noted above. Thesupply or availability of labour for farm
activities i s often affected by the employment opportunitiesoffered by urban
areas. If possession of land and adequate resources determines the entry of
a villager into urban market place, education and contacts with people in
influential positions in cities and towns helps them in getting the quality jobs.
This however does not mean that when a villager gets ajobin the urban areas,
. slhe gives up agricultural activities. Migrants to urban centres often get their
land cultivated either by their kinsman or by employing farm laborers. But
more commonly, while one member of the family takes charge of cultivation,
41
s are encouraged taking up jobs in cities and towns.
Urbanization and It's Impact Other than urban employment, growth of trade and commerce between cities
and rural areas are also of Qreatsignificance i n changing the occupational
structure. This category includescontract-farmers, brokers and shopkeepers.
The development of such commercial activity in a rural area means entering
in market economy of cities and towns through the third category mentioned
by Bohannan and Dalton, i.e. buying for resale.
Urban influences also result in a household i n village adopting different
combinations of occupations and occupational mobility. Under the impact
of modernization and globalization, many of the villagers tend to combine
both traditional and modern occupations. In a household a husband may be
working i n urban area as clerk, peon or as call centre worker on casual or
regular basis while his wife may be working as farm labour. The other trend
has been that many a times a villager begins with traditional occupation and
midway changes to modern occupation but i s forced back to traditional
occupation due to uncertain global or national market. One of the reasons
offered by scholars are that traditional occupations becomes a life support
system in case of job loss in urban areas. Final type of urban influence on
occupational structure can be seen is situations i n which traditional
occupations are pursued with low earnings in modern settings of an urban
area. Caste based occupations such as barber, sweepers and others, are often
pursued even i n towns and cities. But the only difference is that it i s not
governed by traditional social and economic constraints.
One important consequence of the exposure of rural economy to regional
and national market through the neighbouring urban centres and resultant
changes in occupational structure is sharpening of agrarian inequalities.
Launching of the programmes of globalisation and structural reform in a
country often leads to rapid growth of a few large cities and their peripheries.
Entrepreneurs from the national and global market invest in industries, most
of these coming up in and around large cities. Globalisation, unfortunately,
brings little relief to agrarianeconomy, as the latter has nocapacityto provide
incentive t o attract the global players. Instead, the import of agriculture and
related products from international market impacts negatively the rural
economy by lowering down the prices of the products. Sluggish growth in
production, near stagnation i n productivity often results .in rise in rural
unemployment. Thus, the negative impact of liberalisation becomes much
more significant and visible in the rural than in urban economy.
The growing disparity between rural and urban areas during the period of
globalization i s expectedto accelerate mobility of labour. Scholars and policy
makers have often envisaged major shifts of workforce from agriculture to
non-agricultural activities and from rural t o urban areas. It i s argued that
the processwould result in substantialdecline in agricultural employment and
corresponding increase in the high profit industrial and tertiary activities.
Unfortunately, structural constraints and imperfections of labour market have
inhibited or slowed down the process of this shift. Often, collapse of certain .
industrieslactivities due to slump in global market has pushed the migrants
back to their rural occupations. Low productive farm and non-farm activities
i n rural areas have thus come under serious stress as these have become a
sink for the surplus labour, sharing the limited income among larger number
of households members. These househoIds have, thus, been forced to bear
the cost of unstable growth process in globa(ising world of today. A part of
the surplus labour have, however, sought absorption i n informal
manufacturing and tertiary activities that have emerged in cities and towns
as the "residual sector", at a low productivity level.

18.6 political Influences

Political chanses i n the villa2es have close relationship with the processes of
42
change taking place due to economic activities under urban influences.
However, these changes are also affected by wider social and political forces, Urban 1,nfluenceson
Rural Areas
administrative changes and democratic political institutions impinged upon
the traditional political organization. If we analyse historically, duringMugha1
and British rules, the traditional authority relation i.e., leading men from
dominant caste as custodians, were given due recognition. This was done
keeping in mind maintaining of law and order. Till the decades of thirties this
system prevailed, where dominant caste exercised political control over other
castes which many times was also based upon the jajmani or patron and client

During the National freedom movements and during the post-independence

period (1947 onwards) a lot of changes took place i n the political structure
of the villages. Part of this was due to awareness generated among various
caste groups. Due t o social movements such as 'Arya Samaj' and 'Brahmo
Samaj' and partly because of administrative and political changes introduced
after independence. The major changes came in the relationship between
dominant and subordinate caste when latter had opportunity t o become
politically independent. As has been described above, this opportunity came
with their participation not i n traditional economy but outside of it. Further,
this led them to become partners i n the new economy instead of remaining
economically subservient t o the dominant castes. The change i n economic
status gave them more bargaining power, this includes political domain as
well. The change was further influenced by privileges and benefits given t o
the so-called backward castes as entitlements. Also this led to the emergence
of a rural middle class who had more bargaining power politically.
Similarly, the introduction of Panchayati Raj and associated regulations gave
villagers belonging t o lower caste and class a voice along with voting rights.
This also provided opportunity t o these castes t o compete for positions of
power i n the village set up. This was also because control of panchayat meant
access to the most important local resources such as land and other economic
benefits that flow from development and welfare schemes; the ruling caste
tries t o derive the maximum benefits for its members.
In the new political era, especially after the sixties, the new developments
at village political level was that new politicalorganization parties were formed
on the basis of alliances between groups or to be more precise on 'interest'
groups. This was a new development when one compares this with pre-
independence era, where it was based upon patron-client relationship
between castes. Formation of interest groups across various caste groups
meant that factionalisation of caste took place. At least i n case of dominant
caste this implied that chances of settlement of disputes within traditional
panchayat system becomes minimal i.e. urban courts are approached for
dispute settlement. This i n the long run affects the so-called 'moral order'
of traditional social structure.

18.7 Social Influences

In any society, whether be it rural or urban, various aspects are interlinked
with each other. Hence, changes in one aspect has i t s repercussions on the
others as well. Similarly, even i n case of rural areas, as has been described
above, economic area i s the first one where change is noticed, but has its
repercussions on traditional social structure as well. Moreover, a change in
one area of economic organization tends t o affect another economic activity.
For example, an analysis of 'Jajrnani system' of urban influenced village
reveals that certain service relations are no longer bound by traditional
constraints. In this regard it is important to note that service relationships
in rural areas could be classified i n three broad categories: (a) regular service
relations arisingout of occupational roles, (b) independent occupational roles
and (c) the customary occupational roles. Same individual might be
performing these roles but the set of rules governing each of the above
Urbanization and It's Impact categories i s different. Thus a barber might have ceased t o shave his
'Jajmans' when village got integrated with urban economy and he became
a daily commuter, but he s t i l l might be rendering customary service of
messenger on ceremonial occasions.
'The much fabled 'joint family system' of rural areas, i s argued to have gone
through tremendous changes under urban influences. It has been a general
belief that w i t h the changes i n cropping pattern and occupational
diversification there will be a breakup of joint family system into nuclearones.
However, evidence suggests contrary, as you learnt i n unit 16: Marriage, Family
and Kinship. The economic compulsion has rather forced people to continue
with the joint family system, albeit a reorganization of wider kinship
obligations. Sometimes it is i n the economic interest of the villagers to
continue living i n joint family. Thisis also because of complementary economic
int-erests of common landholding and job i n urban market. As Aird has
concluded i n his study of two Muslim villages on the outskirts of Dacca, 'family
structure has shown considerable resistance t o the forces of social change
brought about by urban contact. Only those facets which are closely tied to
the economic aspects of urbanization seem to have undergone any change,
and even this i s slight'.
The urban influence on rural areas has also been a factor in bringing about
changesin traditional status baseddifferentiation. In rural areas, traditionally
status has been based on ownership of land, however under new set this has
lost much of i t s edge. Now status markers are income, occupation and
education. Modern occupation based in urban areas brings with it prestige
and even there some are more prestigious than others. That is, white collar
workers are on higher pedestal than blue collar workers. Hence the caste
identity which earlier defined the level of interaction betweenvillagers seems
to have realigned itself. Rather now the new status markers are bringing
out new rules of interaction. In a sense this has created a sort of egalitarian
grounds for the people to interact, but at the same time created new types
of social differentiation.
In this context, it must also be noted that though there has been changes in
the occupation, association and at broader level changes i n the life style of
people but certain basic principles of caste differentiation s t i l l remains intact.
Those premises are endogamy, rules of inter-dining i.e. commensality and
ritual hierarchy at local level. The recent developments i n rural-urban
relationships however has highlighted the fact that same villagers who have
settled in urban areas are not very sensitive t o rules of inter-dining and ritual
hierarchy. Moreover, the endogamy is still very much prevalent and in some
communities where it was relaxed slightly earlier are trying to reinforce with
higher zeal. All these changes i n some institutions and continuing with
traditional values in other institutions bring out the point that people i n rural
areas differentiate among several spheres of social system. That is, i n some
respects they accept changes easily whereas in some others there is quite a
big resistance. But the fact of the matter is that as soon as changes are
accepted in one domain it has its rippling effect in other domains as well,
only the pace varies.

18.8 Cultural Influences

The urban common man's understandingof rural people and their lives is often
an imagined one rather than based on the reality. They believe that in rural
areas people are rooted i n soil, not very rational, are superstitious and always
Live in joint family system. Moreover, it is believed that most of the things
are 'clean' and are nearer t o 'nature' as compared t o the life i n the cities or
urban areas. In other words, rural areas are always portrayed as opposed to
cities or towns. In the same vain, urban areis are viewed as den of corruption,
44 where people lead immoral, artificial and amorphous life. I f we closely
analyse, such portrayals, it tells us a lot about perceived cultural differences
between an urban and a rural area. Further, this also hints towards almost Urban Influences on
Rural Areas
complete isolation of rural from urban areas and vice-e-versa. In the above
section we have discussed economic influence of urban areas and also social
influences. This in our understanding is a tangible influence upon rural areas.
In this :,ection, we will discuss cultural influences which are to some extent
tangible but mostly intangible.
In the category of tangible cultural influences comes that aspect of social
life which is visible to the world outside. This category obviously i s based on
apparent cultural symbols, which people use to distinguish themselves from
others. Thisincludes linguistic usage, dress, eating habits, forms of salutation
and others. Similarly, within the category of intangible cultural forms are
those which can be felt and described but not seen. Both forms of cultural
expressions are not mutually exclusive. Rather many a times each becomes
the means of expressing the other.
One of the things quite visible i n villages are that when migrant workers come
to their native place, they still continue to use the linguistic terms of places
where they work. For example, i n villages of eastern UP, from where people
mostly migrate to Mumbai, they continue using terms and proverbs used i n
that rt3gion. Many a times it is picked by other villagers as well. Similarly,
people i n villages of Bihar, continue using Punjabi mixed Hindi, they pick it
while working in Delhi and neighboring region, where they mostly migrate.
Sometimes, these terms gets accepted i n the dialect of the workers native

All the regions of India and specifically rural areas have specific ways of
dressing and salutation. However, with migrant workers criss-crossing the
length and breath of country, there seems to have emerged a uniformity of
dressing pattern. Even i f we don't take into account the influence of western
dresses among women, 'Salwar suit' has become a pan Indian dress. Similarly,
different symbols are used t o connote the marital status of a woman, but
'Mangal sutras' are again assuming the pan-Indian nature, which previously
was confined to a few regions of south India. On a similar note, shirts and
trousers are becoming a common dress for adolescents and adult men. What
is being argued here i s that at some level urban influences are having a
homogenizingeffect on villages. The result of this i s that nuances of diverse
cultures of villages are getting lost. To some extent this is due to the mass
media, such as, television which portrays an array of images and life style
which influence both urban, as well as, rural I.ife.
Here arises a question, under urban influences, are villagers turning to
consumerism?In other words, are they are they becoming consumers? Here
we must distinguish between consumer of information and consumer of FMCG
(Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and other consumables. As we all are aware,
post 1990's there has been kind of media deluge i n all the forms-print, IT
developments and mass media. The reach and penetration of these media
are increasing every day leaps and bounds. I t is also a fact that content of
most of these media forms are determined by people living i n urban areas.
This has a spatial constraint as well in the sense that most of the media houses
are based i n urban areas. In such a scenario, the messages sent across have
larger urban context. For example, if we just take note of soap operas, except
for 'Neem Ka Paed' and some others almost all of them are situated in urban
context. Same is true for advertisements. Similarly, i n the context of movies
also, except handful movies such as 'Do Bigha Zameen', 'Mirch Masala',
'Nishant' or 'Upkar', most of the moviesire urban based. The urban content
of all these media forms informs people living i n the vill.ages about the life
style and facilities available i n the cities. These informationsvillagers consume
and aspire t o achieve. In this context, village study of Dipankar Gupta,
becomes very important. Though i n different context, he interestingly
informs that one of the villages he was able to locate 'beauty parlor' run by 45
Urbanization and It's Impact so-called lower caste people. In the same context it must be noted that i n
today's village that some form of consumerism is also taking place, which is
indicated by proliferation of 'fake' branded articles which ranges from items
like toothpaste to cosmetics. One of the important reasons tor proliferation
is that people are not able to afford 'original' items, but this does indicate
towards the fact that people in rural areas do consume. Similar i s the case
with FMCG goods. Sensingthese only FMCG giants like Hindustan Lever Limited
(HLL) and Procter and Gamble (P&G) are drawing fresh marking strategy t o
sell more goods. A bright example of this is villages of Punjab and Gujarat,
where villagers almost possess all gadgets which any urban household has.
Reflection and Action 18.2
Watch a film or read a novel regarding the problem of rural migrants
in urban cities; such as, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai etc.
Write an analytical report of one page on the plight of rural migrants
i n cities based on this film or book. Share your report with other students
and your Academic Counsellors at your study centre.
Within intangible cultural influences of urban areas upon rural populace also
comes i n the domain of education. The apparent sign of this is the proliferation
or mushrooming of 'English medium schools' i n the villages. Some people
believe that this is exploitation of the aspirations of poor villagers. In this
context, it should be recognized that villagers, in course of their contact with
urban areas as emigrant workers, or for business or as resident of fringe
villages, have witnessed the role of English education i n getting jobs. Hence
they aspire to send their children t o English medium schools. However, given
the availability of resources in villages both in terms of infrastructure and
human resources, only some of the elite of the villages are able to send their
children t o schools. In this regard important thing t o remember is that there
seems t o be developing a synergy of needs of urban areas and aspirations of
the villagers.

18.9 Conclusion
In this unit you learnt abou the influence of the urban cities on rural life and
vice versa. As is clear, it i s the urban which has far greater impact on the
rural than the rural on the urban. However, some of the major studies
described i n this unit; such as, of Srinivas, Mark Holmstrom, D. N. Majumdar
and others clearly point out that the exchange of ideas, values, style of life
between the urban and rural is a continuous process where some changes
are apparent and can be viewed while many others are subtle and connot be
observed. Here we have explained t o you that how migration of people from
villages t o cities and contact of people from the cities with the villages leads
t o a series of changes i n the economy, occupational structure; polity; society
and culture of the rural areas under the impact of urbanization.

18.10 Further Reading

Majumdar, D.N., Caste and Communication i n an Indian Village, Asia -
Publishing House, Bombay, 1958.
Eames, E. 'Some Aspects of Urban Migration from a Village in North Central
India', Eastern Anthropologist, Sep-Nov: 1954
Lambart, R.D.,'The Impact of Urban Society Upon Village Life', i n R. Turner
(ed.), India's Urban Future, University of California press, Berkeley, 1962
Srinivas, M. N., 'Caste inModern India and 0the; ~ s s a ~ s ' ~Publishing
sia House,
Bombay, 1962. /

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