Urban contrasts with the rural. It refers to a process which envisages land settlement, agglomeration of diversities, complete transformation of economy from agricultural to industrial, commercial sectors and a wider politico-civic life dependent on institutions of modern living.
Every urban area has an administrative function with a local self government. The population size is large and it is heterogeneous. Urban areas have certain peculiarities which are part of modern life, namely sewerage system/water supply, availability of electricity, provision of police station, post and telegraph facilities, hospital and educational institutions, hostels, hotels and local means of transport, government functional offices and law courts.
In urban area no primary sector economic activity is practised. Non-agricultural economic activities, such as trade, commerce, industries, workshops, provision of various services and non-agricultural occupations. Urban life in India goes back to the Mohen-jo-daro and Harappan civilization which covered an area of 1600 kms. radius and dates back to 2500-1500 B.C. Urbanisation steadily grew in Indian subcontinent since 5th century B.C. onwards. During the early historic period great temple cities emerged as important urban centres such as Ayodhya, Dwaraka, Mathura, Haradwar, Prayag, Varanasi, Puri, Kanchi, Madurai etc. Vatsayan mentions about luxurious life in urban areas in his famous book, Kamasutra Kautilya too describes about urban life in his Arthasashtra.
During the Medieval period the Hindu and Muslim rulers built a number of cities and towns which-were primarily administrative headquarters, namely Delhi, Agra, Aurangabad, Bijapur, Golkunda Hyderabad, Srirangapatnam etc. The British built three port cities to facilitate their colonial rules. The cities were, Calcutta (Kolkata), Bombay (Mumbai) and Madras (Chennai). The emergence of towns and cities since accelerated since independence. During 1901 the urban population was 11 per cent, in 1911-10.40%, 1921-11.3 1931-12.18%, 1941- 14.1%, 1951-17.62%, 1961-18.26%, 1971 – 20.22%, 1981-23.7% 1991-25.07% and 2001-27.3%, which shows an increasing trend.
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As a major consequence of urbanisation the primary sector of economy changed to secondary and tertiary sectors, i.e. from agriculture to non-agricultural sector. The urban areas become fully monetized and salaried employments were available to educated persons. Free market grew where the demand for and supply of commodities determined the price. The social attitude of people became commercial and urbanities became more calculative. There emerged leisure time activities and service facilities were created. Expansion of communication facilities increased the efficiency of urban life/Urbanities became more time conscious. Varieties of educational institutions, hospitals business establishments, entertainment institutions steadily increased.
In the field of social mobilisation kin-based social system rapidly changed to civil society. Socially cohesive values gave way to individualistic ones. People moved from status positions to contractual ones. Folk ideology changed to secular ideology. Social structure moved from mechanical stage to organic stage. There emerged new subcultures and economic classes and invariably in all cities and towns an opportunistic elitist class emerged. As a result, there is an erosion of traditional social, economic, psychological and political commitments. Autonomy of individuals gained prominence over social bondage. Social relationships rapidly underwent atomisation. Urban centres provided better material comforts, such as better living accommodation, toilet facilities, a variety of consumable commodities, dependence of electricity and modernization of living conditions.
Urban society witnessed anomie and socio-cultural alienation. Cooperation gave way to competition and fellow-feeling gave way to exploitation. Service facilities, such as clinics, pathological laboratories, workshops, tutorial educational institutions, clubs, associations, trade unions all blossomed to cater to the needs of urbanities. These are individual goal-centric institutions. Always people decipher new goals and mobilise resources to realise them. Interestcentric networks are revived and activitised as and when necessary. Politicians did it during election times. Cult network is also a sort of interest-centric one. Its manifest function is for realization of spiritual happiness. It also served as means for realisation of material ends. In urban areas networks cut across kinship, caste, brotherhood, community and faith boundaries. Urban areas provide wider areas for the development of human resources.
In urban areas, religious practices get modernised. Dogmatism is eschewed and rationalism is accepted. There emerged new secular values and people justify their acceptance. Growth of scientific temper frees human mind from dogmatism. Very complex institutional mechanisms grow which make culture more and more complex. There is constant struggle, both manifest and latent, to catch up with such changes.
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New functional institutions emerged, so also new type of division of labour, micro and super specialisation take place as the society moves from ascriptive to achieved statuses. This means that those who are capable of taking up new challenges succeed in achieving their goal. The overall impact of urbanisation is social differentiation, social stratification and upward techno-economic mobility. As urban areas provide new opportunities for employment as different sources of livelihood there is constant plight of ruralities to urban centres.