ORIGIN OF CITIES
Cities have
challenged human imagination ever since they came into existence. From the
smallest to the largest, the earliest to the latest, cities have been the
greatest points of concentration of humans and their social relationships. A
study of the origin of urban centres by brief descriptions of cities in ancient, medieval and modern city in
India. Urban centres emerged in ancient India around 2500 BC. The
impressive ruins of cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro are a mute testimony
to this remarkable development. However, due to not able to decipher their
script, our understanding of the structure of urbanism is limited and we do not
know whether the rulers of Harappa were traders, priests or warriors. That is
why the study of a city is taken from the sixth century BC usually referred to
as the period of second urbanization.
I. ANCIENT CITY
Ancient
cities have their own characteristics. The nature of the city was largely
dependent on the causes of its development. According to Anderson, ancient cities have the following characteristic
features. First of all, most of the cities were ruling centres. Thus, these
cities were army oriented. If there was any trade practised, it was to serve
the large standing armies of the ruler or the state. The authorities were mainly
concerned about the needs of the army and the state. The main responsibility of
the social authority was the construction of the walls and buildings and the
organisation of the army. Favourable climatic conditions were the important
reason for the growth of these cities. That is why in India most of the cities
are situated on the banks of the major rivers and on the seashore. In ancient
times, favourable agricultural conditions were mainly responsible for the
development, growth and establishment of cities. The ancient cities were mainly
political capitals and rulers and their ruled mainly lived in them. They were
the main education centres and the places of learning. In India there are
approximately 45 towns and cities which have been classified as ancient cities
and they have a historical past. One thing remarkable about these historical
cities is that they have a religious and cultural background.
II. MEDIEVAL CITY
Medieval
cities were basically trade centres and mainly served the interest of the
trading communities like merchants and rich businessmen. Its population was
well defined and, consisted of trading people and their dependents and
ancillaries. A large number of these towns developed on the sea shores. The
medieval towns and cities were largely dependent on the rural areas for their
different needs and purposes. The political structures of these cities and
towns were autocratic in nature. Social life in these cities was largely
conventional. During this period the local ruler, who himself was a major
landowner, tended to invite merchants, artisans, administrators, and
professionals to settle in his fortress headquarter towns. These tradesmen and
professionals were landless and dependent on the ruler for protection. Not
being tied to the land, they had great mobility which they could use as
leverage against the ruler in case of oppression or excessive taxation. The
towns and cities during this period constituted hinges linking vertically the
lower levels of the settlement hierarchy with the higher ones. Their main role
was to act as military headquarters in the basic antagonistic relations with
neighbouring towns, most of which were at the same hierarchical level.
III. MODERN CITY
Modern cities in India emerged during the
colonial period. They have a large population and there is social
heterogeneity. The modern cities are commercial centres. They have elected
governments which have specialised functions and very complicated
organisations. The modern cities are cosmopolitan in character. These have a
large population who are engaged in the service sectors and other related
activities which were not seen in the old cities. They are the fashion hubs. In
modern cities there are large numbers of voluntary organisations which serve
the needs of the large number of people. Social mobility is one of the most
important features of the modern cities. In these cities we find many diverse
groups and each group represents a different culture of its own. The modern
city represents a modern lifestyle and modern ethos. The lifestyle of the
people is quite different from the rural counterparts. Modern cities have the
best means of communication and transportation. Apart from this there are
modern health facilities existing in these cities as well.
GROWTH OF CITY
The growth
of cities unleashed revolutionary changes. There emerged several towns and
cities which the main place for the rulers and the tradesmen in those times
were. Towns and cities are of many kinds – temple towns, garrison towns,
seaports, political capitals or administrative towns, resort centres,
industrial cities, trading centres, and other types of cities. The company
towns are a unique kind of community which has nearly disappeared. Most large
cities are diversified, carrying out a number of activities simultaneously.
Modern
Indian cities have generally undergone a well-defined socio-historical growth
process. Though the origin of cities permits a great deal of speculation, by
associating it with colonial period or modernization, it transcends the realm
of speculation. It is to be viewed through a definite framework both as a
dynamic social process as well as a result of specific social trends. These
specific social trends were unleashed in the 18th century when the rise of
scientific technology and the accumulation of capital took place. In the
colonial period the urban centres were used as the suppliers of number of raw
materials as well as the consumers of foreign products. The old urban centres
went through transformations; some became solely military centres, while others
were filled with the labour force and industries. However, all the features of
the western cities are not seen in Indian urban areas, even though their growth
coincided with the growth of large scale industrial and modern capitalism.
According
to Adna Weber, concentration of
people into cities was a product of the economic forces which were becoming
significant with the industrial revolution, which introduced changes such as
steam power, mechanization, and trade and commerce etc. The political causes of
the emergence of cities were as follows:
a. Legislation on promoting freedom of
trade.
b. Legislation promoting freedom of
migration.
c. Centralised administration with its
location of persons in civic centres.
d. Free forms of land tenure
politically defended in the city.
The social
causes were as follows:
a. Education.
b. Amusements.
c. Higher standards of living.
d. Attraction of intellectual
association.
e. Habituation of an urban environment.
f.
Diffusion
of knowledge of the values of city life.
In ancient India there were no great
differences between a village and a town. Some essential conditions and
requirements gave rise to towns and cities in India. The first and foremost factor among them is the availability of
water. Second, the place must offer
good possibilities of defence. The third
essential condition was the easy supply of foodstuffs. Finally, communication lines were also a factor determining the
fortune of the city. In the third millennium BC, the first probable urban
civilisation emerged in India in the Indus valley with Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa
as the most elaborate urban forms. According to Gordon the foundation of the city of Mohanjodaro was laid around
2600 BC. Then the Aryan version of urbanisation took its roots around 600 B.C. During
the times of the Mahabharat, there were a number of cities like Hastinapura,
Indraprastha, Mathura, Kanayakubja and cities like Kashi and Kausambi.
Urbanisation during the Mughal period spread out all the way from north to
south, east to west. In the colonial period the urban upsurge in India began
after the First World War. The three major port towns, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras owe their existence to these
developments.
CHARACTERISTIC OF CITIES
The study
of the morphological features of Indian city cannot be ignored or
underestimated. A sociological analysis of urban life and society indicates and
vindicates certain features/characteristics. They are:
i.
Social Heterogeneity. If villages are the symbol of
cultural homogeneity the cities symbolize cultural heterogeneity. In cities we
find a variety of groups, each representing a typical culture. The villages are
natural carriers of culture and they preserve its integrity intact and
unbroken. On the other hand, in cities we find a confluence of many cultures
which participate in this interplay and inter-reaction are changed or modified
to some extent at least. Thus, whereas unity and uniformity are characteristic
of villages, in cities we find multiplicity of cultures and viewpoints.
ii. Individuality.
On account of voluntary associations and secondary control the city dwellers
develop a personality at their own. The ideals, the viewpoints and the conduct
and behaviour which a city dweller encounters are so varied and contrary that
the traditional moral codes cease to have much meaning for him. a city-dweller
feels compelled to fashion out his own conduct of life according to his own
reason and choice. On account of this whereas his behaviour tends to be
arbitrary, it also bear the indelible stamp of his own personality.
iii. Unbalanced Personality. A combination and mixture of such facts, as looseness of character and
morals,, artificial environs and atmosphere, the deleterious influence of
cinema and other means of entertainment, high ambition and lustful desires and
general mentality of materialism, have resulted in producing unbalanced
personality of city dwellers. In producing imbalance in the personality of city
dweller specialization has also contributed in a big way. People are mad after
false façade and artificial glitter of the city. In cities the element of
humanity seems to have gone out of dwellers. We find highly literate and
skilled professionals like professors, doctors, lawyers etc., in the cities but
we rarely come across human beings. People in city work at fast pace but the
growth of their personalities is usually one sided.
iv. Moral laxity.
On account of the lack of community feeling lack of homogenous family, western influence
and an atmosphere of luxury and comfort prevailing in the cities moral laxity
results. In the hustle and bustle of city, there is no control over
individual’s behaviour and the incidence of pre-marital and extra marital sex
is fairly high in the cities. In Western cities polygamous tendencies are
clearly accepted and people freely enjoy themselves.
v. Social mobility. The most important feature of urban industrial society is its social
mobility. In urban society the social status of an individual is determined not
be heredity or circumstances of his birth but by his works and economic status.
In cities, men are not born good but made good. Thus, in urban life a man can
achieve as much progress as he wishes according to his intelligence and
efforts. By the dint of hard works and good intelligence an individual can go a
long way in achieving great things. In cities, the caste barriers are breaking
down. The incidence of inter-caste marriages is growing. The women’s education
is encouraged and the educated men and women are not orthodox in their ways and
habits. In colleges and universities men and women belonging to Brahmin,
Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra mix up without consideration of caste of class.
New social changes and reforms are accepted much better by city dwellers than
rural people.
vi. Secondary Control. In villages there is strict control over individual’s behaviour exercised
by family, caste or class. But, however, in cities none of these groups
exercises effective control over behaviour. In cities individual’s behaviour is
controlled by such agencies as police, law courts etc. this is known as
secondary control.
vii. Voluntary Associations. Owing to a variety of professions, castes, groups and cultures in
cities, there are numerous voluntary groups and associations. The primary groups
like family lose their orthodox character and have a tendency towards libertarianism.
viii. Lack of community feeling. Not only is there lack of
community feeling in villages, there is also lack of unity and harmony in the
family. In cities people are not bothered by social oblique or ridicule. They
can pursue their individual ends unmindedful of what others think about them.
People in cities are so busy in their individual pursuits that they have no
spare time in which to think about others.
ix. Lack of unity in family. In cities we find not only the lack of community feeling but there is
also lack of unity, homogeneity and harmony in the family. Each member of the
family, father, mother sisters and brothers are so busy with their own
programmes that they do not interfere with each other’s independence. Each member
has his own society and pursues his individual ends. Generally, the unity and
cohesiveness among family members is not better than among the people staying
in a hotel.
x.
Heterogeneity. In cities all over the world we
find great disparity in the living conditions of rich and poor. Whereas some person
live in grand air-conditioned mansions, their needs, attended to by an army of servants,
there are many who have to shelter overhead and do not have enough victuals to
appease their hunger. In cities we also find great disparity in regard to food
habits, living conditions, language, religious beliefs, cultural outlook,
customs and traditions and social norms of city dwellers, there is great variety
and contraries in this regard. In cities people of different religious
persuasions, holding different ideals, inspired by different cultural customs
and traditions live. Their thinking and outlook differs widely from each other.
The city dwellers, as a rule are ambitious, individualistic, rationalist, materialist,
secular and alert to their personal interests.
xi. Social Disorganization. Again, owing to above mentioned features, we find social disorganization
in the cities, people are dissatisfied and discontented. Many conflicts, both
direct and indirect constantly ravage the mental and physical health of city dwellers.
The class and status feelings, are very acute. The strikes and class conflicts
are frequent. The evils of communalism and factionalism are quite rampant. The interpersonal
relations and intra-familial relations are also uneasy. Thus, urban society is
a divided society and urban life a divided life shot with conflicts and
tensions.
xii. Artificial life. The life in urban industrial society is artificial. In big housing
complexes and broad lanes of cities we rarely come across nature, the greenery
and animals. In the dense and congested localities of the cities the houses are
dark and dingy and unwashed by the sunlight. The industrial chimneys are ever
emitting carbon and foul gases. The atmosphere of cities is, therefore, full of
pollution and harmful to breathe. In cities the air is foul, the offices and
factories are artificially lit. in these conditions people in city work. In
large factories the value of an individual worker is next to nothing. He is no
more than an easily replaceable part of a machine. He does not even know, still
less understand, the whole process of manufacture of a thing he is helping to
make. For example, there will be few
in motor company too much specialization of function in big metropolis that
people have reached a stage where they function mechanically. In such
circumstances the life becomes highly artificial and no natural healthy growth
of the personality is possible. In cities we come across professors, doctors,
lawyers and leader but we do not meet a man. These persons are so engrossed in
their respective specialization that they know little or nothing about the work
of other professionals. Thus, though their knowledge about their own field of
specialization is immense they know so little about other aspects and their
knowledge of man as a whole is so ludicrous that, on the whole, an unlettered
urban society are completely artificial and, on the other, there is
professional specialization. Those between them have altogether artificialized
the life in the cities.
Even day-today
life is becoming artificial. Naturalness is missing from everywhere. Every city
dweller’s face has lost its natural colour and brightness, it has become a
mask. Women of cities are ever busy trying to regain the lost radiance by
artificial beauty-aids. People are more interested in artificial appearances
than in natural health. The city dweller doctorate their drawing rooms not with
dwellers get out of cities to see beautiful landscape of hills and is not that
of an observer who sees in order to appreciate, but they take photos of such
things with their still or movie camera. They do so in order to impress upon
their friends about the places they visit. Even the means of entertainment in
cities are artificial. While watching cinemas, theatre and reading of the novel
man remains wholly passive.
The mannerisms
and etiquettes in cities are also artificial. Even emotional expressions like
laughter, smile, silence etc. are deceptive. They laugh in order to pass as
civilized and urbane rather than because of any genuine relief or gladness. In
cities we find a meaningless and ignorant rat race. Everybody runs not because
he had some goal to reach but simply because other people are running.
People are
too competition-minded to feel for each other and mutually work and co-operate.
The life has become extremely boring and routine. An office clerk gets up well
after the sun rise with the aid of bed tea and newspaper in front of him. He
soon attends to necessities and is ready to pack off for office. After return
from office he listens to cheap radio music, eats his food and retires to
sleep. The story of city life can be summed up in Shakespearean vein that it is
a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Besides
these characteristics, peculiarities of marital life, dynamic life i.e.,
dynamism in urban life, high incidence of crime and formation of voluntary
associations in urban centres are worth mentioning.
TYPES OF CITIES
The
cities are broadly differentiated by the geographical condition makeup of
population an each city are unique from the other. We can classify the cities
on the basis of some fundamental features shared by all cities. Thus, the city
of one class also has numerous diverse features as well. On the basis of broad
common feature on the basis we can classify them into following types.
i. Production centres. Generally, more important city of the world is industrial town.
Consequent upon industrial revolution the urban population all over the world
has increased considerably. In India the majority of cities having population
of one lakh or more are industrial term. According to the kind of population
the population can be classified into two categories.
a.
Primary production centre. In this
places material or industrial user are produce for example, mimic centres where oil, coal, iron etc. are
production centre. Though population of such places is usually not very large
but by elaborate transport system this centre is connected with other places
among such towns in India are Nellore, Masulipatnam, Ranchi, Guwahati, Mysore,
Kolar etc.
b.
Secondary Production centre. In this
centre the raw material obtain form primary production centre are used for
manufacturing a variety of goods. As such places population is large and keeps
growing. For example, Firozabad is
famous for glass bangles, Kanpur for leather goods, Moradabad for brush wash
etc. in some cities one types of primary and in some others numerous things are
produced.
ii.
Centre of trade and commercial.
Generally, the cities are production centres of trade and commerce but in some
cities trade and commerce is the dominant feature and production in secondary. For example- though Mumbai is a major
production centre it is a far bigger centre of trade and commerce generally the
cities situated on the sea coast and those which are ports are centres of trade
and commerce.
For example –Cochin, Tuticorin etc.
indeed there are many innate town which are consider as centres of trade and
commerce.
iii.
Capitals and administrative centres. All
city which have happen to be capitals of state have shot into prominent there
important is not due to their industry or business but due to there being to
the capital indeed. Once the places are made the capital business and industry
automatically grows there. Before the process of industrialisation and
globalisation, the capital cities were the most important cities of the world.For example, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar,
Jaipur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai etc.
iv.
Health and recreation centres. Many
towns have very health climate owing to their particular geographic location
and climatic condition. Therefore, people from plains gather in great numbers
to such town. In order to attract more tourists to such places, municipal and
state authorities do everything possible to beautify such places and make
available amenities. The livelihood of the people of these places greatly
depends upon tourism.
v.
Religious and Cultural centres. In India
where, religious sentiments dominants many towns have become famous and develop
into big cities on account of their religious values and important. For example, Amritsar, Ajmer, Rameswaram
etc. Apart from the religious significance there are many cities which are
important for the historical sites and monuments like Agra, Chittorgarh,
Nalanda and Taxila etc.
vi.
Diversified cities. Besides the cities
which fit into one or the other of the above mention categories, there are some
town which fit into none of the category. They may be holy but it is not the
fundamental reason for their eminence is not holiness. They may also be the
capital cities but their fundamental reason for growth may be other factors.
Thus, it will not be correct to put them into some
specific category. Such towns and cities are accordingly referred to as the
diversified towns. For examples,
Varanasi.
CLASSIFICATION
OF URBAN CENTRES IN INDIA
Cities are classified into various ways. Gist and Halbert have given a six-fold
classification of a city based on its functional concept as follows:
i.
Production centres, e.g.,
Ahmedabad for textiles and Jamshedpur for steel.
ii.
Centres of trade and commerce,
e.g., Mumbai and New York.
iii.
Political capitals, e.g., New
Delhi and London.
iv.
Cultural centres, e.g.,
Kanchipuram and Varanasi.
v.
Resort cities, e.g., Shimla and
Ooty.
vi.
Diversified cities: they have
varied interests and are not outstanding in any particular activity.
E.E.
Muntz has classified the
cities based on the principal activity or activities earned by them. He has
given the following classification:
i.
Defense cities. These are the cities
that were built for defense purpose with walls around them. For example, Bidar.
ii.
Commercial cities. For example, Mumbai and New York
iii.
Manufacturing or industrial cities. For example, Jamshedpur
and Ahmedabad.
iv.
Religious cities.For example, new Delhi and London.
v.
Resort cities. For example, Shimla and Ooty.
vi.
Educational cities. For example, Oxford and Cambridge.
The above two
classifications have made an attempt to distinguish the cities but most of the
cities of today perform multiple activities. So, it is very difficult to
demarcate all the cities as one or the other kind of city. Take for instance,
Delhi, which is a political centre, a commercial centre, an educational centre
and also a resort centre. This city performs numerous functions. Thus, it is
difficult to classify all the cities.
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Work Cited
Rural and Urban Sociology (pp. 209-244) ~ Link
Urban Sociology-P.K. Kar (pp. 4-54) ~ Link
Urban Sociology-Samir Dasgupta (pp. 9-17)
Lewis Mumford-What is a city ~ Link
IGNOU-Unit-3 City and Metropolis ~ Link
IGNOU-Unit-9 Typologies of Cities ~ Link
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