Human Settlements

Class 12 Geography

Human Settlement means cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live. For this purpose, people may erect houses and other structures and command some area or territory as their economic support-base.

Thus, the process of settlement inherently involves grouping of people and apportioning of territory as their resource base. Settlements vary in size and type.

They range from a hamlet to metropolitan cities. With size, the economic character and social structure of settlements changes and so do its ecology and technology. Settlements could be small and sparsely spaced; they may also be large and closely spaced.

The sparsely located small settlements are called villages, specialising in agriculture or other primary activities. On the other hand, there are fewer but larger settlements which are termed as urban settlements specialising in secondary and tertiary activities.

Differences Between Rural and Urban Settlements

The rural settlements derive their life support or basic economic needs from land based primary economic activities, whereas, urban settlements, depend on processing of raw materials and manufacturing of finished goods on the one hand and a variety of services on the other.

Cities act as nodes of economic growth, provide goods and services not only to urban dwellers but also to the people of the rural settlements in their hinterlands in return for food and raw materials. This functional relationship between the urban and rural settlements takes place through transport and communication network.

Rural and urban settlements differ in terms of social relationship, attitude and outlook. Rural people are less mobile and therefore, social relations among them are intimate. In urban areas, way of life is complex and fast, and social relations are formal.

Types of Rural Settlement

Types of the settlement are determined by the extent of the built-up area and inter-house distance. In India compact or clustered village of a few hundred houses is a rather universal feature, particularly in the northern plains. However, there are several areas, which have other forms of rural settlements.

There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India. These include:

1. physical features - nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water
2. cultural and ethnic factors - social structure, caste and religion
3. security factors - defence against thefts and robberies

Rural settlements in India can be put into four types:

1. Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated
2. Semi-clustered or fragmented
3. Hamleted
4. Dispersed or isolated

Clustered Settlements

The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses. In this type of village the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures.

Such settlements are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states. Sometimes, people live in compact village for security or defence reasons, such as in the Bundelkhand region of central India and in Nagaland. In Rajasthan, scarcity of water has necessitated compact settlement for maximum utilisation of available water resources.

Semi-Clustered Settlements

Semi-clustered or fragmented settlements may result from tendency of clustering in a restricted area of dispersed settlement. More often such a pattern may also result from segregation or fragmentation of a large compact village. In this case, one or more sections of the village society choose or is forced to live a little away from the main cluster or village. In such cases, generally, the land-owning and dominant community occupies the central part of the main village, whereas people of lower strata of society and menial workers settle on the outer flanks of the village.

Such settlements are widespread in the Gujarat plain and some parts of Rajasthan.

Hamleted Settlements

Sometimes settlement is fragmented into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name. These units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, etc. in various parts of the country. This segmentation of a large village is often motivated by social and ethnic factors.

Such villages are more frequently found in the middle and lower Ganga plain, Chhattisgarh and lower valleys of the Himalayas.

Dispersed Settlements

Dispersed or isolated settlement pattern in India appears in the form of isolated huts or hamlets of few huts in remote jungles, or on small hills with farms or pasture on the slopes. Extreme dispersion of settlement is often caused by extremely fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas.

Many areas of Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have this type of settlement.

Urban Settlements

Unlike rural settlements, urban settlements are generally compact and larger in size. They are engaged in a variety of non-agricultural, economic and administrative functions. Cities are functionally linked to rural areas around them. Thus, exchange of goods and services is performed sometimes directly and sometimes through a series of market towns and cities. Thus, cities are connected directly as well as indirectly with the villages and also with each other.

Evolution of Towns in India

Towns flourished since prehistoric times in India. Even at the time of Indus valley civilisation, towns like Harappa and Mohanjodaro were in existence. The following period has witnessed evolution of towns. It continued with periodic ups and downs until the arrival of Europeans in India in the eighteenth century.

On the basis of their evolution in different periods, Indian towns may be classified as:

1. Ancient towns
2. Medieval towns
3. Modern towns

Ancient Towns

There are number of towns in India having historical background spanning over 2000 years. Most of them developed as religious and cultural centres. Varanasi is one of the important towns among these. Prayag (Allahabad), Pataliputra (Patna), Madurai are some other examples of ancient towns in the country.

Medieval Towns

About 100 of the existing towns have their roots in the medieval period. Most of them developed as headquarters of principalities and kingdoms. These are fort towns which came up on the ruins of ancient towns. Important among them are Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra and Nagpur.

Modern Towns

The British and other Europeans have developed a number of towns in India. Starting their foothold on coastal locations, they first developed some trading ports such as Surat, Daman, Goa, Pondicherry, etc. The British later consolidated their hold around three principal nodes - Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), and Kolkata (Calcutta) - and built them in the British style. Rapidly administrative and military areas to them. Towns based on modern industries also evolved after 1850. Jamshedpur can be cited as an example.

After independence, a large number of towns have been developed as administrative headquarters, e.g., Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Dispur, etc., and industrial centres, such as Durgapur, Bhilai, Sindri, Barauni. Some old towns also developed as satellite towns around metropolitan cities, such as Ghaziabad, Rohtak, Gurugram around Delhi. With increasing investment in rural areas, a large number of medium and small towns have developed all over the country.