Exploring Society II · Chapter 7 — India’s Urban Landscape

Close your eyes and imagine a village and then a city. You probably picture fields, open space and people who all know each other for the village; and tall buildings, traffic, shops and crowds for the city. These pictures capture real differences.

An old urban legacy. India has built cities for thousands of years: Harappan cities such as Dholavira, Kalibangan and Rakhigarhi, and historical cities such as Vijayanagara, Varanasi and Ujjain, many of which are still alive today.

Urban and rural areas.

Cities also hold government institutions and offer services such as hospitals, colleges and banks, while their elected local bodies look after roads, water, waste and other amenities.

No single definition. Countries draw the line between urban and rural differently. A place counts as urban in Denmark if it has more than 220 people, in Japan only above 50,000, and in India above 5,000 (Indian rules also look at features such as population density and the share of people not working in farming). So the same settlement could be a town in one country and a village in another.

A spectrum, not two boxes. Between a small hamlet and a megacity lie large villages, small towns, district towns and big cities. Many of today's cities began as villages or small towns and grew over time, as you will see in this chapter.

Why study cities? Cities are where much of a nation's work, trade, learning and culture happens. They also face serious problems: crowding, pollution, slums and water shortages. Understanding how cities grow helps us plan them better, so that they work for everyone who lives in them.

Invite a few friends home and there is plenty of room. Squeeze thirty people into the same room and it feels crowded. The number of people in a given space tells us how crowded a place is. Demographers measure this as population density.

Formula. Population density = total population ÷ area (in square km). It is written as people per square kilometre. A satellite view of a village shows wide green and brown fields; a view of a city such as Gurugram shows a grey mass of buildings, because many more people live on each square kilometre.

The world's biggest cities. Some cities hold more people than whole countries. In 2025 the most populous cities included Jakarta, Dhaka, Tokyo, New Delhi and Shanghai, each with roughly 3 to 4 crore people. Two Indian cities, New Delhi and Kolkata, are among the ten most populous in the world.

A more urban world. According to United Nations estimates, about 55 per cent of the world's people now live in cities, and this will rise to 68 per cent by 2050. India is following the same path: its urban share rose from 17 per cent in 1951 to around 40 per cent in 2025.

Why density matters. High density can be efficient: one metro line or water pipeline serves many people, shops have many customers, and ideas spread quickly. But very high density without planning brings crowding, traffic, pollution and pressure on water, housing and waste systems.

Why cities grew in the past. Places grew into cities when they had location advantages:

• near rivers, which made transport easy;
• at the crossroads of trade routes, which helped markets grow;
• close to farm produce and raw materials, which supported craftspeople and manufacturing.

Such places became centres not only of trade and industry but also of political and administrative power.

Urbanisation is the shift of population from rural to urban areas, so that a growing share of people live in towns and cities. It usually happens in steps:

The story of Jamshedpur. Sakchi was a small village on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Because it was close to rich iron ore deposits, it was chosen as the site for Asia's first steel plant. The Tata family planned a township with modern facilities for the workers; Sir Dorabji Tata even built a hospital before steel production began. The village grew into a busy city and was renamed Jamshedpur in 1919. It was planned with wide, tree-lined streets, gardens, open spaces and civic amenities. More factories followed, drawing workers from within and outside the state, and it is now the largest industrial city in Jharkhand.

Location matters. Like Jamshedpur near iron ore, many cities grew because of geography:

• Coasts: Mumbai on the Arabian Sea and Kolkata near the eastern coast became great ports for domestic and international trade.
• Rivers and trade routes: places along them became markets and transport hubs.
• Resources: minerals, forests or fertile farmland attracted industries.

A chain reaction. Once a town has jobs, people arrive; more people create demand for shops, schools and services, which create still more jobs. That is why cities can grow very fast once they start.

The other side. Cities can become crowded and expensive. Yet people keep coming, because the concentration of jobs, education, health care and ideas offers opportunities that are hard to find elsewhere.

Each city tends to become known for certain kinds of work. Looking at a few shows how cities earn their living.

Mumbai: the financial capital. With the Bombay Stock Exchange founded in 1875, the port city became India's financial capital. Trade grew, talented people from all backgrounds gathered, and contact with the world brought new ideas. A film industry began in the 1910s and was flourishing by the 1930s. Today modern infrastructure, such as the Bandra–Worli Sea Link, the Coastal Road and the Bandra Kurla business district, supports a huge range of work.

Bengaluru and Hyderabad: technology hubs. Bengaluru, called India's Silicon Valley, became an IT hub because software firms, start-ups and higher-education institutions clustered there. When similar industries group together in a cluster, they share skilled workers and ideas, and close links between industry and colleges spark new products using technologies like artificial intelligence. Hyderabad has grown in a similar way.

Specialised smaller cities.

Fast-growing cities such as Kochi, Indore, Lucknow and Nagpur attract companies because running a business there costs less than in the biggest cities, so firms set up offices and warehouses there.

Heritage and pilgrimage. Agra, with the Taj Mahal, receives 70 to 80 lakh visitors a year; Amritsar and Varanasi draw millions of pilgrims. Visitors create work in transport, hotels, food stalls and handicrafts.

Delhi: capital through the ages. Delhi has been a centre of culture, trade and administration since the Iron Age. Rajputs, Turks and Mughals built forts, roads and markets; the British built a new capital with railways and electricity; after independence New Delhi became the capital of the Republic, with ministries, universities and research centres. As it grew, housing, water and sewerage came under pressure, so the National Capital Region (NCR) was created to include places such as NOIDA and Ghaziabad. Roads and the metro helped the region expand, and since the 1990s Gurugram has become a big IT and BPO (business process outsourcing) hub.

When people from many regions live together in a city, they bring their languages, foods, festivals and customs. Over time these mix and are shared in common spaces, creating a rich blend of culture.

A snack that tells a story. Mumbai's famous vaḍā pāv places a Maharashtrian-style spiced potato dumpling inside a soft bread roll (pāv). Both bread and potatoes reached India through the Portuguese. Cheap, quick to make and easy to carry and eat, it became a favourite of workers in Mumbai's textile mills, a perfect example of how a city mixes cultures to meet everyday needs.

Kolkata: old institutions and a living festival. Kolkata was once the capital of British India and still has institutions from that time, such as the Indian Museum and the Victoria Memorial. It is also famous for its five-day Durga Puja every autumn, which was inscribed on UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.

Spaces that bring people together. Cities invest in places for culture and learning:

• Museums, such as the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya in New Delhi, which tells the story of India's prime ministers and attracts visitors from all walks of life.
• Libraries and cultural centres for reading, talks, music and dance.
• Stadiums and sports facilities.
• Convention centres, such as Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, for national and international meetings.
• Public art and open-air festivals, from street murals to music events.

Why this matters. Such spaces let people meet, share ideas, build friendships and networks, and enjoy new experiences. Even a daily metro ride brings together people who might never otherwise meet. In this way cities become places where ideas are born and traditions meet modernity.

Your city or town. Every town has its own special food, festival or craft. Discovering these, and the stories of the people who brought them, is a good way to understand how your own place grew.

A balance. As cities grow, they must take care that new buildings do not wipe out old markets, monuments and neighbourhoods that hold their character. Good cities protect their heritage while welcoming the new.

When large numbers of people arrive in a city, demand for food, water, energy and housing shoots up and infrastructure struggles to keep pace. Common problems include:

• Traffic jams on narrow, poorly maintained roads with ever more vehicles.
• Unplanned housing with poor water, sanitation, energy and waste services.
• Urban heat islands: concrete and asphalt soak up heat, so cities become hotter than the countryside around them.
• Air pollution: the National Capital Region often records an Air Quality Index (AQI) above 400, far above the safe limit of 50. The AQI combines several pollutants, such as fine particles (PM2.5, PM10), carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide, into one number; the higher it is, the greater the danger to health.
• Waste, water scarcity, flooding during monsoons and loss of green spaces.
• Crime, which tends to be higher in dense, unequal cities and calls for better policing.

Slums. Slums are overcrowded settlements with poor housing and little water, sanitation or other services. They grow on vacant land near the city's edge, along railway tracks or near industrial areas, because there is not enough affordable housing for all who move to the city. Slum residents keep cities running through informal work such as vegetable vending, domestic help, laundry, construction and plumbing. Improving their housing, health and schooling is a major challenge; schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana provide affordable homes for economically weaker households.

Case study: Bengaluru's lakes. Bengaluru suffers water shortages in summer and floods in the monsoon. Overuse of groundwater, too little rainwater harvesting and building on lake beds have made things worse.

Some lakes, like Bellandur and Varthur, became covered in toxic foam and even caught fire. Now non-profit groups, Resident Welfare Associations and communities are reviving lakes by removing silt, repairing banks with natural materials, clearing drainage channels, planting native species and restocking fish, as at Yelahanka Lake. Healthy lakes store water, reduce flooding and restore ecological balance.

The lesson. Most city problems come from growth without planning. Collective action by citizens can make a real difference.

An urban planner decides how land in a town or city is used so that infrastructure works well and people enjoy a good quality of life. Planners must ask: How many people live here and what work do they do? What transport do they need, and how can it link together? Where should homes, businesses, parks, schools, hospitals, libraries and sports grounds go? How can streets be safe for walkers and cyclists, with fire and police stations easy to reach? And how will the city cope with climate change?

Jaipur, the 'Pink City' (1727). Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II appointed Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, an expert in vāstu śhāstra and śhilpa śhāstra, to design a new city in 1727.

• A grid of rectangular blocks called chowkris, aligned to the cardinal directions.
• Wide streets, open spaces, gardens and nine public squares for trade, meeting, temples and important buildings.
• A 20-foot wall with seven gates for security.
• Buildings on main streets in pink sandstone, giving a uniform look and the city its name.
• Design for a dry climate: sunlight, fresh air, water from reservoirs and canals, stepwells, and shaded porches in markets.

Jaipur still works much as it was designed, a lesson in traditional planning and sustainability.

Singapore: planning that keeps changing. This small island nation has over 8,000 people per square km, yet offers a high quality of life. Its Concept Plan looks up to 40 years ahead, and its Master Plan is updated every 5 years, so planning stays flexible. From an overcrowded port in the 1960s it became a modern city with strong transport, power, water and waste systems.

• Mixed-use areas: homes, offices, parks and museums close together.
• Mass transit: rail, buses, cycle paths and green walking corridors reduce car use.
• Garden city: high-rises with rooftop and vertical gardens cool the city and support biodiversity.
• For all ages: senior housing near health care, childcare and green spaces. Singapore is counted among the blue zones, places where people live unusually long, healthy lives.

Old and new together. Jaipur shows that good planning is not new to India; Singapore shows how planning can adapt continuously to changing needs.

Indian cities are trying many ways to become better places to live. Successful projects combine technology, citizen participation and efficient services: waste management, water supply, public transport, energy efficiency, housing and online government services.

Sabarmati Riverfront, Ahmedabad. This project blends ecology with public use. It has two-level promenades for walking by the river, parks, markets and boating, and the Atal Bridge, which lets pedestrians and cyclists cross the river.

M.G. Road, Gangtok. The main shopping street of Sikkim's capital is a pedestrian-only zone full of shops, restaurants and hotels, and is known for its cleanliness and lively atmosphere. Removing cars made the street safer, cleaner and more pleasant.

Smart technology. Information and communication technology (ICT) can make city life easier and more sustainable: intelligent traffic signals, digital surveillance for safety, online platforms for complaints, and solar-powered public spaces.

Solutions for common problems.

Cities for everyone. A good city must work for children, elderly people and people with disabilities too, with easy access to parks, toilets and public transport.

Cities and villages need each other. Cities depend on villages for food, water, raw materials and workers, and villages depend on cities for markets, jobs, hospitals and colleges. Pollution, traffic and loss of green land in cities also affect the countryside around them.

Living organisms. Cities grow, adapt and change like living beings. They are centres of production and consumption, of ideas and traditions. The American urbanist Jane Jacobs argued that cities can offer something for everybody only when they are made by everybody. A sustainable city balances growth with care for people and nature, includes the vulnerable, and gives comfort without exhausting resources.