Previous Year Question

The concept of Rurbanization explains the relationship between rural and urban life and the gradual development of urban characteristics in rural areas. In explaining this process in India, G. S. Ghurye showed that towns could also develop from within rural settings.

In this process, a village gradually becomes a centre of markets, commerce, or administration and may eventually acquire an urban character. During this transformation, rural and urban characteristics may coexist within it.

An illustrative example: If shops, transport services, and non-agricultural employment expand in a village while agriculture and traditional social relationships continue, this demonstrates the coexistence of rural and urban characteristics.

There is not always a rigid division between rural and urban society. Family and community relationships may persist in cities, while urban lifestyles and occupations may spread into villages. Therefore, the rural–urban continuum is useful for understanding these relationships.

Ghurye’s analysis also gives importance to the effects of urbanisation on people migrating from villages to cities and on their families. Therefore, this subject should not be confined to changes in settlement size; it also includes changes in social and economic relationships.