By Akshit Das

Abstract

Urbanization in India embodies a progression shaped by colonial economic imperatives, post-Independence state-led development policies, and contemporary economic liberalization, resulting in a top-heavy urban system dominated by large cities with pronounced socio-economic inequalities and spatial disparities. Addressing these challenges requires nuanced urban planning and governance strategies that recognize historical legacies and contemporary dynamics of growth and migration.

Introduction

Urbanization has evolved as a dynamic process across different civilizations, reflecting the socio-economic, political, and cultural contexts of each period. Every era and society developed its distinct urban planning approaches to address the pressing challenges of its time. Recognizing these historical patterns is crucial for today’s urban planners, as it provides critical insights into how cities respond to changing human needs and environmental conditions. In the Indian context, urbanization exhibits a rich and diverse trajectory shaped by successive rulers, regional influences, and technological advancements. This essay, therefore, seeks to explore the evolution of urbanization in India through medieval to the modern period., highlighting key planning characteristics, spatial arrangements, and the enduring influence of past ideas and major events on the timeline of history such as the rise and fall of the Mughal Regime and the British Raj on contemporary urban development.

Discussion

First Urbanization

The Indus Valley Civilization (2350-1800 BCE) represents India’s first major urban phase, featuring remarkably advanced city planning. Cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro demonstrated sophisticated urban design with grid-pattern streets, advanced drainage systems, and clear zoning between upper and lower towns. These settlements included well-organized residential areas, granaries, public baths, and comprehensive sewerage networks that were far ahead of their time.

Second Urbanization

Following the Indus Valley period, India experienced what historians term the “second urbanization” during the early historic period (600 BCE – 300 CE), centered around the middle Gangetic plains. This phase witnessed the emergence of cities connected to regional kingdoms and expanding trade networks. However, the early medieval period (600-1300 CE) saw varied patterns of urban development, with some scholars arguing for urban decline while others identify new forms of temple-centered urbanization, particularly in South India.

The British Raj

Transformation and Urban Decline

The British colonial period initially brought significant urban decline to traditional Indian cities. This decline occurred for several interconnected reasons:​

Economic Disruption: The British showed little interest in India’s traditional industries, leading to the deterioration of established urban centers that had thrived under Mughal rule. The Industrial Revolution in England fundamentally altered India’s economic landscape, making many traditional crafts and industries uncompetitive.​

Trade Route Disruption: The introduction of railways dramatically redirected existing trade routes, disrupting the monopoly of traditional trading centers. Every railway station became an export point for its hinterland, depriving earlier trade centers of their economic foundations. This transformation was so significant that traditional centers in regions like Rajasthan experienced delayed decline only because railways reached them later, during World War I.

The Presidencies

The emergence of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras as dominant metropolitan centers represents one of colonialism’s most significant urban transformations.​

Calcutta’s Colonial Development

Calcutta exemplified colonial urban planning principles. After Sirajudaula’s 1756 raid, the East India Company rebuilt Fort William and created the Maidan – a large open space around the fort for defensive purposes. The city developed a stark “White Town” and “Black Town” division, with British mansions around the Maidan contrasting sharply with crowded Indian neighborhoods in North Calcutta.​

Bombay’s Transformation

Originally comprising seven islands, Bombay was gradually connected and expanded to accommodate growing populations. As colonial India’s commercial capital, it developed significant industrial infrastructure while maintaining rigid spatial segregation between European areas like Malabar Hill and overcrowded Indian districts like Girgaum and Byculla.​

The Hill Stations

The establishment of over 80 hill stations between 1815 and 1870 created entirely new categories of urban settlements. These included major centers like Shimla, Darjeeling, Mussoorie, Nainital, Ooty, and Kodaikanal.​

British colonial-era buildings in Shimla hill station with distinctive architecture and greenery 

Multiple Functions: Hill stations served various colonial purposes – initially as sanatoriums for health recovery, later as horticultural centers for tea and coffee plantations (1840s), and finally as military cantonments and administrative centers after 1857. Shimla’s designation as summer capital in 1864 exemplified their growing political importance.​

Spatial Segregation: Hill stations functioned as “exclusive British preserves” where “the Indian [could be rendered] into an outsider”. They featured strict racial segregation, with original inhabitants like the Paharis, Lepchas, and Todas relegated to servant roles. These settlements recreated English village aesthetics through clock towers, bandstands, and Anglican churches, creating “home away from home” environments.​

A densely built colonial hill station town in India showing British-era architecture and forested hillsides typical of Shimla or Darjeeling 

Salient features of British Urban Settlements

Civil Lines and Cantonments: Institutionalized Segregation

The modification of existing cities through civil lines and cantonments created systematic spatial apartheid.​

Civil Lines: These residential areas housed British administrative officials, courts, and offices. Characterized by low-density development, broad tree-lined roads, and large bungalow compounds, they stood in stark contrast to overcrowded native quarters. The size of garden space around bungalows directly reflected hierarchical rank – senior officers enjoyed 15:1 garden-to-building ratios while junior ranks had 1:1 ratios.​

Cantonments: Military settlements followed grid patterns based on European urban planning principles. Originally mobile tent structures, they evolved into permanent suburban settlements designed to “promote aloof incorruptible government” while reinforcing “arrogant ideas of racial superiority”. These were connected to railway stations for troop mobility and supply logistics.​

The “Mall” served as the protected main thoroughfare in cantonments, contrasting with the “chowk” (central marketplace) of traditional Indian cities. While native city streets encouraged interaction, cantonment social life was restricted to exclusive clubs and gymkhanas.​

Railway-Driven Industrial Townships

Railways catalyzed the emergence of new industrial townships like Jamshedpur, Asansol, and Dhanbad. However, colonial railway development primarily served British economic interests rather than Indian industrialization.​

Limited Industrial Development: Despite massive railway construction, only 700 locomotives were manufactured in India between 1865 and 1941, while 12,000 were imported. This pattern reflected the colonial economy’s role as raw material supplier rather than manufacturing center.​

Employment and Urban Growth: Railways employed approximately 800,000 people by 1931, with major workshop complexes like Jamalpur employing over 11,000 workers. Railway colonies housed European employees in superior conditions, perpetuating racial hierarchies even in new industrial centers.​

Architectural details and colonial features of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus) in Bombay, showcasing British-Indian railway station design and urban colonial influence 

Infrastructure Inequality and Urban Apartheid

Colonial infrastructure improvements were deliberately unequal, reinforcing social segregation.​

Selective Modernization: Piped water supply, sewerage systems, street lighting, and domestic electrification were “restricted to civil lines and cantonment areas”. Most cities, particularly Indian residential areas, remained deprived of these facilities. Even municipal bodies established in 1881 served primarily areas with British populations.​

Health and Sanitation Divide: Colonial authorities justified demolishing Indian neighborhoods (bustis) on health grounds, forcing workers, craftsmen, and the unemployed to relocate repeatedly. Building regulations mandated tiled roofs over traditional thatch, creating additional economic burdens for Indian residents. This reinforced the racial division between “healthy” European areas and “unhealthy” Indian districts.​

Water Management Disruption: British water policies, influenced by Britain’s abundant rainfall patterns, neglected India’s traditional rainwater harvesting systems. The shift toward large-scale canal irrigation and centralized control disrupted community-based water management practices that had sustained settlements for centuries.

Post Independence

The post-Independence period (post-1947) marks a new phase of urbanization, characterized by rapid expansion and a marked increase in the number of towns and large cities, including the emergence of numerous one-lakh and million-plus urban agglomerations. This period saw significant refugee influxes, planned administrative centers such as Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar, and the development of new industrial cities. Urban growth increasingly concentrated in metropolitan and Class I cities, leading to pronounced urban primacy and regional disparities. While economic growth, particularly from the 1990s onward, has accelerated urbanization, it has also led to the informalization of the urban economy and proliferation of slums, highlighting socio-economic vulnerabilities.

India’s urbanization trajectory exhibits notable unevenness, with developed states experiencing concentrated urban growth and backward regions witnessing stagnation or decline in smaller towns. This dichotomy reflects broader patterns of economic development, infrastructural investment, and migration dynamics, where urban areas in developed states benefit from more robust economic bases and governance structures. Simultaneously, smaller towns in less developed regions struggle with maintaining their urban status and population. The colonial legacy continues to influence this urban dualism, with metropolitan centers dominating economic and demographic growth while peripheral areas lag behind.

Conclusion

The process of urbanization in India represents a complex and multifaceted transformation deeply rooted in historical, economic, and socio-political contexts, marked by distinct phases from the colonial era to the post-Independence period. Urbanization, understood as the progressive concentration of population in urban units, manifests through diverse interpretations—behavioral, structural, demographic, and geographical—reflecting changes in societal conditions and relationships.

References

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