Dimensions of urbanisation
Ranjay Vardhan

Urbanisation in India: Sociological Contributions
edited by Ranvinder Singh Sandhu. Pages 258. Rs 330.

THE Indian society is changing and becoming more fluid. It is plausible that in a not-too-distant future, the country shall see a higher scale of urbanisation. A direct source for a sociological study of urbanisation and urban life has been the studies of some aspects of urban and social life and segments of urban population relating to immigrants, caste system, occupational categories, family organisation, politics and religion. It is essential to stress the importance of such studies which are available mostly in the form of articles in journals. The present volume has mainly drawn from these sources.

This book is the second volume in the series Themes in Indian Sociology and is a collection of 13 articles published in various volumes of Sociological Bulletin. This book has been divided into four sections. The four papers in Section I deal with some perspectives on urbanisation. Section II has three articles which focus on social stratification and voluntary associations. Section III includes three papers which depict the changes in neighbourhood relations and joint family. The four papers in the last section have tried to draw attention on the problems of slum dwellers and migrants.

Though it is not the first book to deal with urbanisation, but it provides an analysis of the major components of the social organisation and various forms of mobility and interaction. The various articles seek to give an insight into the social structure emerging due to urbanisation. They strive to eliminate commonly held fallacies about urbanisation.

Taking the example of Punjab, where he found more Sikhs in villages and an over-representation of Hindus in towns, Victor D’Souza has opined that the phenomenon of urbanisation should be analysed from a social and historical perspective. From a Marxian perspective, A.R. Desai has emphasised that for a comprehensive understanding of the problem of urbanisation, there is need to understand the society’s property relations. M.S.A. Rao argues that the process of urbanisation over the years shows that it is a useful tool for an in-depth analysis of social and cultural change.

Satish Saberwal points out that the structural changes enable the Harijans to be militant and coercive and to generate pressures from below. The authors, in other articles, focus on voluntary associations, neighbourhood relations, changes from joint to nuclear family and problems of slums and migrants. The articles have also touched upon gender dimensions of urbanisation in India.

In the overview, it may be mentioned that the thrust of articles is to focus attention on the different dimensions of social life and the plethora of ills plaguing the urban areas. With the population pressure showing no signs of letting up, India is heading towards an urban crisis of behemoth proportions. Overall, the book has a useful collection of articles. It offers guidelines for the formulation and improvement of development plans and opens new areas of research for further study.

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