Urbanisation in India During colonial rule and Historiography: Prospective sand Problems

Abstract

Studies on urbanisation and urban centres during the ancient and medieval period have largely remained a neglected and relatively less explored field. Urbanisation is not a new phenomenon. Urbanisation is not a product. In this paper an attempt is made to assess the problems and perspectives in applying the process of urbanisation in India in interpreting the economic history, or otherwise known as “New Economic History” or “Urbanisation History”, which means the application of the process of urbanisation to historical studies for attaining precision and perfection. Modern historians, basing their study in conjunction with records and data available and anthropological evidence, elements of change and continuity have been noticed in the post Mughal period i.e. colonial period in Indian society and economy. In this paper an attempt is made to assess the problems and perspectives in applying the process of urbanisation in India during the colonial period in interpreting the economic history, or otherwise known as “New Economic History” or “Urbanisation History”, which means the application of the process of urbanisation to historical studies for attaining precision and perfection. Right from the ancient times till independence, India had been ruled by different communities under different reigns. As a consequence, several factors such as political, social, economic, religious and cultural had come to influence the growth and pattern of the urbanization of the country in varying degrees in different time periods. Of them, religious and cultural factors were the basis of the urban growth in the early and medieval era. Although, among the economic factors, trade was the major one to affect the early urbanization. However, clear definitions of trade and urbanization came to India dur ing colonial period. It was found that trade and urbanization went hand in hand in colonial period. Hence the main objective of this paper is to study the growth and pattern of the trade under colonial rule and asses its impact on the urban growth and development in the pre- independent India. Studies on urbanisation and urban centres during the colonial period have largely remained a neglected and relatively less explored field. Urbanisation is not a new phenomenon to Indian context. Urbanisation is not a product. It is a process in the course of history of mankind. There is tendency to follow the notion that “ a town is a town, wherever it is” and that being a visual phenomenon the town to city should be made an object of study in its own right. As a result some of the works on urbanisation nothing more than compilations of lists of towns under various categories such as market, trade and commercial centres, political and administrative centres and religious centres. Sociologists look at it a as a process as well as instrument of modernisation and social change- a break from traditional past. Geographers look at urbanisation as a process by which human beings and their activities congregate spatially to give rise to towns and cities of various sizes-They also examine the internal structures functions and external relations of urban places.