URBANISATION: GETTING OVER THE DENIAL PHASE 

Barring a few brave soldiers, there is a deep-rooted mindset of denial about urbanisation in policy circles in India. Stock phrases like “unchecked urbanisation”, or “rampant urban development” are often greeted with vigorous nods of agreement. Hence, any serious discussion about dealing with urbanisation must begin by first addressing some preliminary questions:

o        First, is urbanisation “bad”? Should we be holding our noses as we accept urbanisation for its economic benefits? There are several legitimate allegations made against urbanisation, but let us focus on the two more important ones:

The first is the environmental one. At the immediate level, urbanisation creates a demand for resources like water and oil, destroys existing land-use patterns, pollutes the air and generates waste. These claims are all true. But should we pass off the blame to an anonymous entity called a city, or acknowledge that it is ultimately an individual and collective responsibility. Indeed, leaders around the world are making their cities more environmentally friendly and pedestrian conscious. It is possible to have urbanisation that goes hand-in-hand with sustainable development; however, this has to be a sustained collective imperative, not a passing fad.

There is a deeper issue here: at a more philosophical level, the allegation is that urbanisation is fundamentally consumptive, that it encourages a material mindset. And now, with globalisation, there is good company in the jail cell. So we have the anti-globalists and the anti-multinationals joining the anti-urbanists. Critics blithely overlook the fact that most urban residents are trying to make a living, in the same manner as their rural cousins are: why should the rural artisan be morally more deserving than the urban painter? As long as we as human beings exhibit material tendencies, cities will provide us the opportunities to service and fulfil them. Ultimately, cities reflect citizens.

The second argument against cities is about the citizens themselves: that, unlike the more intimate rural settings where everyone knows their neighbours, cities breed a sense of anonymity, isolation, disconnectedness. This vacuum of belonging is the breeding ground for several social ills, including communal tensions. Here again, the fault is not in the city itself, but in absence of “spaces”, not in a physical sense, but in terms of the opportunity for citizens to engage, to own the city and participate in decisions about its direction. When there are no spaces to engage, alienation is not surprising. The question is, “What comes first, the apathy or the emasculation?”

o        A second question is whether there is any “good” that comes out of urban centres, beyond economics. Here the evidence is quite compelling. Cities offers many social and cultural opportunities that are new, that are missing in the villages. We have a tendency to romanticise the rural areas: the innocent villagers living by the river, eating organic vegetables, knowing how to live in harmony with nature. While many aspects of this portrait are true, they hide some ugly truths as well: the dalits who are oppressed; the women who get treated like slaves; the continuing unhealthy practices that debilitate health – village chula is one example. Ambedkar captured this well when he said, ‘The village is a cesspool, a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and communalism.’

o        Beyond the good or bad of urbanisation, a third question is, can anything be done about it? The past two centuries of world history have had one singular, unmistakeable trend: increasing urbanisation. In 1950, less than 30 per cent of the world’s population were urban dwellers. 2007 will be a watershed year: beyond that, there will always be more of us living in cities than villages.

What is the driving force of urbanisation? There are several reasons for cities to start. While it is sometimes the result of specific, deliberate actions like the establishment of transportation hubs like ports and rail networks, there are other examples of places of religious or tourist interest. India also has refugee centres that emerged out of the partition, like Faridabad. There are also a small handful of examples of cities that have been “designed” from scratch, like Chandigarh.

However, for the most part, cities are created out of an inherent driving force of economic specialisation, leading to the need for more services like marketing and finance, needing support services like education and healthcare, resulting in reduced transaction costs.

In India, there is considerable debate about the factors that contribute to increasing urbanisation: that “push” factors, like rural poverty are more dominant than “pull” factors, like the inherent economic activity in cities.

All cities have an elan vital, a survival instinct that comes from a combination of public-spirited individuals, economic interests, political power; it is this energy that prevents a city from dying. Few cities have died, unless under extraordinary circumstances. Cities have constantly reinvented themselves, especially if they have reached a critical mass. However, this requires that they be allowed to ”find” their destinies, and reshape themselves. 

As India continues its tryst with urbanisation, it is imperative that we first come to terms with it. Only when we shed our suspicion of cities will we will stop apologising for them. And only when we do this we will begin the serious work of ensuring that we have cities that protect the environment; that ensure a good quality of life for all residents, including the poor; that have the inherent DNA of flexibility as they prepare themselves for the ebbs and flows of economic cycles. And finally, cities that are spaces owned by their citizens.

At a minimum, we will move away playing chess with our cities, and stop wanting to “checkmate” urbanisation. 

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The author is founder of Janaagraha. He can be reached at ramesh@janaagraha.org