Development Planning and 'Urban' Context: Reflections on the Indian Scene

Through a broad portrayal of character of its development, changing urban patterns, nature of urban economic structure and contents of urban development policies, this paper takes a political economy approach to examine the process of urbanization in India. It narrates as to how since the colonial period labour mobility across space and sectors was caused as well as triggered by marginalization of the peasantry and artisans through agencies of a growing capitalist economy. Instead of taking a systemic view, manifest expression of rural to urban migration in form of overcrowding as well as dense and unhygienic living conditions of the urban poor continued to be viewed as the 'primary' set of urban problems. [CSS Working Paper No. 12].