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Introduction:
Continuum means continuity. By rural-urban continuum is meant “continuity from the village to the city.
One end of this continuous scale is the village: the other is the city. Both these social formations are in ceaseless interaction.
That is the reason why villagers show the profound impact of city life on them and certain cultural traits from villages are developed in cities. The continuum also shows that the development is from the village to the city. Over time, villages are transformed into towns and cities.
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In sociological studies, it was thought that there was a clear contrast between urban and rural societies. Many sociologists at a later stage started suggesting that a simple rural-urban dichotomy of population is not sufficient. Gradually, it has become clear that this dichotomy is Insufficient and too simplistic. There are gradations of urban and rural regions.
Robert Redfield (1930) has made an important contribution to develop the concept of folk, rural and urban continuum. He has constructed a continuum from small rural villages to large cities. More urban means that population is more secular, more individualistic and with a greater division of labour.
The concept of a rural-urban continuum is Interpreted in more easy way as continuity in the folk, the rural and the urban social organisation. The rapid process of urbanization, establishment of new technologically developed industries in rural areas (near to the urban centres) have exercised a great impact on rural life.
The spread of modem industrial traits has decreased considerably the differences between the two is not visible. Thus, invisible rural and urban cultural boundaries have made It difficult to draw a line of distinction. Hence, the marginal areas show amalgamation and continuation of cultural traits of both the societies.
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In India, during the last three decades the development of transport and road communication has connected the remote tribal areas, villages and urban centres rapidly within a very short period of time. New occupations and modern educational institutions have attracted the people of rural areas.
Thus rural to urban migration has taken place. This reduces the separation between tribal areas, villages and cities. The distant tribal areas show traits of urbanism, tribal and rural culture. Due to migration from tribal-rural areas to urban areas, cities may exhibit combination and amalgamation of such cultural traits.
The Rural and Urban societies are not to be seen in terms of the differences between the two. They are not diametrically opposed to each other. They are the parts of the same continuum. A lot of literatures were published in late 60’s and early 70’s in India with regard to continuum of rural and urban society. Debate about rural urban continuum started with Lewis Worth’s publication of “Urbanism as a way of life” in 1938.
This article was taken further by another American Sociologist named R.E. Pahl, who wrote a book entitled “Readings in urban sociology”.
Similarly, D.F. Pocock, a British anthropologist and Oscar Lewis also subscribe to the values of the Rural-Urban Continuum. M.N. Srinivas, the famous Indian sociologist has gone on to argue that rural-urban continuum is nothing but something which represents the very paradox of change.
Milton Singer calls it a bi-product of grave problem of compartmentalization in the context of eastern developing nation. Y. Singh calls it “pattern recurrence”. Prof. Y. Singh, in his book “Modernization of Indian Tradition” has argued that rural-urban are interrelated and structural characteristics of rural society are not totally absent in urban society for that matter it cannot be presumed that there is total absence of urban characteristics in rural society.
Hence rural-urban continuum means two essential things:
(a) There is a disagreement over the traditional dichotomy between rural society and urban society.
(b) The difference between rural and urban community is a matter of degree.
Continuum Debate:
1. Both the concepts rural and urban are not adequately defined. They are popular, too familiar concepts but indistinctively defined. Western ideas fail to fit Into the Indian reality in particular. If people still have on the traditional distinction between rural and urban society then there Is either a western bias or the superimposition of the western theory on the Indian society. There is lack of universal definition of village or town.
Definition Problems:
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(a) Sometimes population is taken as a basis of identifying a city from a village. But such yardstick varies from country to country.
USA considers 2500 population characterizing a particular place as urban, it is 2000 population in France, 30,000 population in Japan, but in India Municipal area with not less than 5000 of population is urban. But we find villages with more than 25,000 population and similarly some railway towns in North East India having a population of less than 5000. It becomes difficult to understand the distinction between too large villages and so small towns.
Mode of Life:
(b) Sometimes mode of life is taken as a basis of determining an urban area such as transportation, communication, electricity, high rise palatial buildings and so on. But this is not adequate criteria in the sense of a palatial building at the remotest rural place cannot be taken as an urban living. Nor for that matter thatched houses having no amenities in urban place can be equated with rural living.
(c) There is no clear-cut demarcation between the two. It becomes very difficult to know as to where does an urban area begin and rural area ends. Therefore, the relationship between these two appears to be more that of merger rather than dichotomy.
There are some common elements between the two. Elements of rural life are also visible in urban areas like joint-family, neighbourhood, caste, temple worship and similarly elements of urban life visible in rural areas.
2. Rate of urbanisation in India tends to be very slow. Where there are cases of urbanisation without industrialization, the rural characteristics continues to predominate in the population. Ram Krishna Mukherjee from his study of Kolkata city confirms the Rural-Urban dichotomy or continuum in terms of three aspects.
(i) Migration (out-migration) to urban areas.
(ii) Nature of family organisation and
(iii) Caste organisation
Mukherjee found that the nature of out-migration facilitates more of dichotomy than continuum. But the potentiality of the dichotomy created by migration is upset in regard to the attributes of family and caste organisation. Urban family is not necessarily nuclear and further found that caste organisation and functions remain quantitatively the same in cities, towns and villages. O.M. Lynch has made a study in his book “Politics of Untouchability”. He found that caste panchayat like in villages existed in Agra city presenting features of continuity.
3. Both rural community and urban community have been subjected to change for which strict distinction between village community and urban community is steadily diminishing. The modernising impact of villages has brought in a series of changes III the context and character of village.
There has been a cross-penetration of the internal characteristics of one in the other. So the, distinctions between the rural and urban society gets minimised.
The rural-urban continuum can be represented in a diagram us follows:
The extreme points represent remote village and metropolis. Rural- urban habitats constitute two halves of the continuum. Gradual change and merger from remote rural towards metropolis brings it closer to the next higher stage facilitating greater merger between the two.
4. Urban fringe is a place which brings greater linkage between the rural and urban community. In due course, urban fringe gets developed into a town.
5. Pursuits of traditional calling in the urban centres like barbers. Dhobi, goldsmith, cobblers, sweepers provides this form of adaptation and continuity. This further act as a source of Job security in the absence of urban secular Job.
Temples are constructed at the urban place and rural rituals are observed and maintained at the urban places brining the rural and urban society closer to each other. Similarly, continuity of the rural structure and institutions is found in temple cities and pilgrimage centres.
6. People living in urban areas maintain regular contact with the native household (the relations at the rural places). People return to their ancestral village after retirement or retrenchment from urban jobs. Moreover, long tradition of living in rural areas and the very process of socialization make them to continue to retain speaking and eating habits, styles and manners.
7. Inter Personal network in cities are established on the basis of commensality of place of origin reinforcing the concept of village in city.
8. Moreover rural and urban areas are mutually dependent. Analysis must focus on the linkage between the two rather than the dichotomy.
(a) Rural depending on Urban
(b) Urban depending on Rural
(a) Rural Depending on Urban:
(i) Urban areas as business centres for purchase of consumables such as kerosene, matchbox, pump set and fertilizers etc.
(ii) Urban areas are centres of recreation and education.
(iii) Compensation, rehabilitation and employment opportunities in case of acquisition of village land for industrialization. Demand for house increases giving financial boost to the villages.
(b) Urban Depending on Rural:
(i) For vegetables and agricultural products.
(ii) Industries depend on raw materials like sugarcane, jute, wheat and cotton etc.
(iii) For labour, skilled mansions etc.
(iv) Caste based occupation specific services like dhobi, sweeper, barber and goldsmith etc.
Thus towns and villages formed parts of civilization process with structural continuities and organisational differences between the two. Again this is not at the utter derecognization of the positive effects of Urbanization.