Geography Long Answer questions (5 Marks)

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

• Ancient towns
• Medieval towns and
• 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 and they 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. Later they developed principle nodes of Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), and Kolkata (Calcutta). They established administrative centres, hilltowns as summer resorts, and added military areas to them. After independence, a large number of towns were developed as administrative headquarters, example; 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, Gurgaon around Delhi.

Some towns and cities specialize in certain functions and they are known for some specific activities, products or services. Indian cities and towns can be broadly classified as follows:
Administrative towns and cities: Towns supporting administrative headquarters of higher order are administrative towns, such as Chandigarh ,New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong, Guwahati, Imphal, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Chennai, etc.
Industrial towns: Industries constitute prime motive force of these cities such as Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar, Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.
Transport Cities: They may be ports primarily engaged in export and import activities such as Kandla, Kochchi, Kozhikode, Vishakhapatnam, etc. or hubs of inland transport such as Agra, Dhulia, Mughal Sarai, Itarsi, Katni, etc.
Commercial towns: Towns and cities specialising in trade and commerce are kept in this class. Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna, etc. are some examples.
Mining towns: These towns have developed in mineral rich areas such as Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi, Ankaleshwar, Singrauli, etc.

Cluster of dwellings of any type or size where human beings live is called human settlement. It involves grouping of people and apportioning of territory as a resource base. Settlements vary in size and type. Types of settlements are determined by the extent of built up area, inter house distance. There are four types of rural settlements in India:
The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built up area of houses. Here, the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures. The closely built-up area and streets form recognizable pattern or geometric shape, such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc. These are found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states. People live in compact village for security or 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. Sometimes one or more sections of the village society choose or is forced to live a little away from the main cluster or village. Generally, the land-owning and dominant community occupies the central part of the main village.
Hamleted Settlements: Sometimes settlement is divided into several units physically separated from each other bearing a common name motivated by social and ethnic factors. These units are locally called panna, para, palli, nagla, dhani, etc. in various parts of the country.
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 caused by fragmented nature of the terrain and land resource base of habitable areas.

Towns and cities are generally classified on the basis of the functions they perform. No town performs a single function, rather they are classified on the basis of the dominant function they perform. Even specialised cities, as they grow into metropolises become multifunctional wherein industry, business, administration, transport, etc. become important. The functions get so intertwined that the city can not be categorised in a particular functional class. Due to varying needs of human beings all the people of a town cannot be engaged in a single activity. Even if a town is a garrison town, basic trade activities must be carried out to provide the residents with the articles of day to day need, food items etc. To support the dominant activity of the town, the ancillary activities start emerging.
Mumbai is a transport town due to presence of port in Mumbai but it is also hub of international trade in India, hence is a trade town, Also it is the commercial capital of the country due to varying commercial activities, which are a result of the presence of large capital in the city because of it being a trading town and a port city. Therefore the presence of a dominant of a single function also attracts people to the town, which in turn create conditions conducive for development of other functions hence, towns become multifunctional. The functions performed in a town are extremely dynamic, new functions keep’ on adding and old functions getting linked with each other. Therefore, in modern economies no town can be a single functioned town.

In India compact or clustered village of a few hundred houses is common, particularly in the northern plains. But, there are areas, with other forms of rural settlements. There are various factors and conditions responsible for having different types of rural settlements in India. These include:

• physical features – nature of terrain, altitude, climate and availability of water
• cultural and ethnic factors – social structure, caste and religion
• security factors – defense against thefts and robberies. Guided by these factors rural settlements in India can broadly

be put into four types:

• Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated,
• Semi-clustered or fragmented,
• Hamleted, and
• Dispersed or isolated.

Clustered Settlements: The clustered rural settlement is a compact or closely built . up area of houses. Here the general living area is distinct and separated from the surrounding farms, barns and pastures. The closely built-up area and its intervening streets give rise to pattern or geometric shape, such as rectangular, radial, linear, etc. These are generally found in fertile alluvial plains and in the northeastern states. 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. 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. 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.
Hamleted Settlements: This 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 due to social and ethnic factors.
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.