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Urbanization: The changing face of Indian Society

A COUPLE of centuries ago, India was just a conglomeration of villages and small towns. The kind of lifestyle and practices followed were those inherited from our forefathers. A dramatic shift came about after the arrival of the Portuguese, Spanish navies followed by the French and the English.  During this period the whole of Europe was being transformed by the Industrial Revolution which lasted till the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century India was slowly being consumed from within by the British crown for various obvious reasons.

The metrics in India changed with Bombay, Calcutta and Madras becoming centres of governance for the British rulers. A rash of activities started mushrooming in these cities like roadways, railways, trams, colleges, hospitals, and the manpower required was to be filled by the natives. Though most of these were done for their convenience, the infrastructure boom and the opportunities that arose resulted in the migration of people to these places.

The tradition bound people started observing a new way of westernised behaviour from their rulers and the change started ticking. The end of World War II resulted in a major shift, with countries across the world realigning and of course an independent India came into being.  Though the English moved out of India, they left an indelible footprint of their culture and practices. And the craze to impersonate the white skin was deeply embedded on the Indian society.

India with a strong culture & heritage had practices like festivals, melas, community gatherings and even marriages happening to be reasons for socializing. The sands of Time worked and these events moved out from the social calendar. Though the Western culture imbibance was a factor, the socio-economic demands became a decisive factor. In this process the traditional joint family splintered into smaller nuclear families. This resulted in a paradigm shift in an individuals’ behaviour which by and large impacted the society as a whole.

The traditional joint families did teach an individual about interpersonal behaviour, civilised behaviour, self-management of finance, respect for elders and more importantly, it had mentors inside a home, whereas in a nuclear family all these were missing.  But with the advent of gated communities a major shift is happening.

In cities like Mumbai where such gated communities came into existence almost 20 year back, the traditional values are being imparted in the form of celebrations, get-togethers and many activities. Eventually this will spread and communities which come together because of socio-economic demands will evolve into traditionally modern society teaching our younger ones a new way of life.

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Urbanization: Need for larger townships

MANKIND HAS evolved from being a nomad, to dwelling in a fixed place, the predominant reason being food. Civilization, thus, grew in fertile places and gradually spread to places connected by sea, which eventually became commercial hubs. Commerce developed, giving raise to many a non-traditional jobs. With the steady in-flow of people in a place, the demand for decent living conditions compelled the need for town planning. The study of the Indus Valley civilization suggests that Harappa had sewerage facilities designed by its town planners.

Today, the need for proper housing and urbanization is not just about sheltering people but much more. As the cities grew with new urbanized facilities, migration from rural areas became inevitable. Today, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas. It is predicted that by 2030, 6 out of 10 people will live in urban areas which will grow to a mammoth 7 out of 10 by 2050, in contrast to just 2 out of 10 people, who lived in urban areas, a hundred years back.

This kind of rapid growth leads to massive revamp in the housing and infrastructural requirements. In modern day towns, mobility is an important criterion in town planning, besides housing. While these demands evolved over a period of time the societal behavior (we will discuss this in our next article) of people has also changed. All these changes are fuelled by technology.

Housing facilities combined with necessary infrastructure is the need of the day. This leads to the development of satellite cities which have all the facilities & opportunities. The only best example in India is Navi Mumbai, which is the largest planned city in the India. The only major problem is, there are only two roads connecting Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

These kind of satellite cities are much needed in India, since all the major metros have become over-populated. In Chennai, though specific areas have grown, the Greater Chennai plan that was promised, never came to reality. The Government of Tamilnadu is contemplating on amalgamating Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu, while the other options are to expand Chennai till Gummidipoondi and Uthukottai taluks in the north, Sriperumbudur in the west and Chengalpattu in the South.

This expansion cannot be compared to that of Greater Mumbai or Greater Noida since the socio-economic scenario, culture and climate in the region play a vital role in the success of any satellite township. Though dubbed as the Detroit of Asia, Chennai needs a much larger visionary plan like the Navi Mumbai city since, Chennai is bound to attract much more foreign investments which are bound to increase the demand of housing & infrastructure of this city.