Mumbai is a city laden with class divide. An American photographer, through drone photography, has brought into clear focus the stark divide between the rich and poor in India’s financial capital.
An Urban Jungle
Image Clicked by Me
On his official website, Miller describes Mumbai as “an urban jungle, a vertical aerie for the superrich, and a fragile marine ecosystem” where “informal recyclers (Rag Pickers often works as India’s Informal Waste Disposal System) in Dharavi exist within sight of the National Stock Exchange, traditional fishermen moor their boats in the shadows of skyscrapers in Worli, and leopards prowl the Sanjay Ghandi National Park on the city’s northern flank”.
The images are part of Miller’s ‘Unequal Scenes’ project which he describes as a means to
Worli Sea Link Clicked by Me
“provoke a dialogue to address the issues of inequality and disenfranchisement in a constructive and peaceful way”. As part of the project, Miller, has also captured the class divide in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, the US and Mexico, over a span of past two years.
A strange mix
Miller’s website describes the area surrounding the Bandra Kurla complex as a mixture of extreme wealth and extreme poverty that houses the consulate generals of several countries, corporate headquarters, and the National Stock Exchange.
The first urban settlements are thought to have started around 3500BC in lower Mesopotamia (Sumer) around the Tigris and Euphrates. First was Ur, which from 2300 BC to 2180BC was the capital city of the Sumerian Kingdom, extending north along the Fertile Crescent, possibly as far as the Mediterranean. In the year 1885BC Ur and the other southern cities were captured by Babylonians.
An Important milestone in development of urban settlements were Zigurrat. Ziggurats were built by many civilizations namely Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians
There is still an open debate over whether it was diffusion or independent inventions but it is probable that agricultural and other advanced technologies, possibly including city-building, diffused across the Fertile Crescent, then south-west into the Nile valley. By 3500BC a number of the Neolithic farm hamlets along the lower Nile had expanded to ‘overgrown village’ status and formed clusters of several politically independent units, each containing sizeable irrigation projects like Qanat. The transition from settled agricultural communities to cities taken place around 3300 BC when the lower Nile region was unified by the first pharaoh, Menes. The early Egyptian cities were not as large and as densely populated as those of Mesopotamian cities because of the practice of changing the site of the capital, usually the largest settlement, with the succession of a new pharaoh limited the growth opportunity of any single city and the security provided by extensive desert on both sides of the Nile which meant that once the valley was unified politically, Egyptian cities, unlike those of Mesopotamia, did not require elaborate fortifications and garrisoned troops for protection.
The Harappa civilisation dates around 2500 BC in the Indus valley in present-day Pakistan. Twin famous capital cities distinguished it, a northern one of Harappa in the Punjab and Mohenjo-Daro, 500 km down the river. The Indus valley towns were planned and the layout of each town was in marked contrast to the organic growth of Mesopotamian cities such as Ur. Both cities were designed on a grid pattern with wide, straight streets forming rectangular blocks. Socio-spatial segregation was prevalent, with blocks or precincts occupied by a specific group such as potters, weavers, metalworkers and the elite. Each city covered approximately one square mile in area and accommodated around 20,000 people.
The Harappa kingdom was ruled from the twin capitals by a single ‘priest-king’ with absolute power in his hand . Some evidence of trade with the Sumerian city-states by 2000 BC are found but the unchanging material culture and still undeciphered written language suggest that, in contrast to the cities of the Nile valley, the Harappa culture and cities emerged on their own. Following a thousand years of stability, the Harappa civilization was phased out.
The Yellow River
The valley of the Huangho ,the Yellow River(Yellow in colour due to Loess) was the birthplace of the Shang civilisation that came into existence around 1800BC. The most significant feature is that individual cities, such as An-Yang, were linked into a network of agricultural villages; a town wall did not separate an urban subculture from a rural one. This form of ‘urban region’ is notably without precedent in the early civilisations of Mesopotamia, the Nile and the Indus.
The layout of the cities shared that of other ancient urban areas of Asia, similar to ones in Egypt and Mexico: a central core with the surrounding area divided into four regions, one for each of the cardinal directions.
Mesoamerica
The earliest cities in the New World appeared around 200 BC—in southern Mexico (Yucatan), Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Thus Mesoamerican peoples were entering a stage of development equivalent to the Neolithic of the Old World at a time when Mesopotamian cities were 2,000 years old. Of the several civilisations that evolved in Mesoamerica, the Mayan, which flourished between AD 300 and AD 1000, was the most culturally advanced. Cities such as Tikal, Vaxactum and Mayapán were centres of small states ruled by a leader drawn from a priest-hood and organised into a loose confederation. Mesoamerican society was highly stratified, with the elite occupying central city land around the palaces and temples, and the lower classes occupying the periphery of urban settlement. City design was highly advanced.
Rural- urban continuum is the merging of town and village.The concept is a term used in recognition of the fact that there is rarely, either physically or socially, a sharp division, a clearly marked boundary between the two, with one part of the population wholly urban, the other wholly rural.
The term was given by Robert Redfield (1930). He 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 characteristics of these two modes of living are represented by two concepts namely ‘ruralism’ and ‘urbanism.’ Ruralism signifies the rural mode of living in which there is a predominance of traditions, customs, folk culture and joint family. On the other hand, urbanism signifies the urban mode of living in which there is a predominance of impersonal relations, individualism and secondary associations. Urban way of life is becoming more predominant day by day.There is also a danger of increasing slums with increasing urbanization as big cities are expanding fast. There is a danger of the urban realm turning in the slum, according to trends.
The rural social world is different from the urban social world. There is a valid distinction between village and city regarding two different ways of life, cultural patterns, socio-cultural groupings and modes of earning and livelihood. The village is considered a basic unit of settlement. It doesn’t mean that urban systems are not basic.
However, there are also structural similarities between the two about the patterns of caste, kinship, rules of marriages, observance of religious practices, migrations, educational institutions, employment opportunities and administration are the other institutional sources of linkages between villages and cities. Education, for example is becoming transnational in nature as we are moving towards a knowledge society. We have come a long way from Guru Shishya Parampara days. Thus, villages and towns cannot be seen simply as dichotomous entities. They are interlinked and yet distinct from each other.
The continuum theory lays emphasis on the rural-urban differences rather than on the rural-urban dichotomy. Irrespective of the course of evolution, distinction can be drawn between rural and urban way of life.
The difference between urban centres and rural areas may seem so obvious that the definitions should not be an issue. However, there can be major variations in the ways in which different nations define what is an urban centre. The criteria used include population size and density, and the availability of services such as the secondary schools, hospitals and banks.
However, the combination of criteria applied can vary greatly. Even the population thresholds used can be different: for many African nations, it is 5,000 inhabitants, while for most Latin American and European nations, it can be as low as 2,000 or 2,500, or even just a few hundred inhabitants.
This wide fluctuation in definitions has three important implications:
i. Official classifications should be treated with caution—for example, a large proportion of settlements classed as ‘rural’ in China and India would fall within the ‘urban’ category, if they used the criteria and population thresholds adopted by many other countries. Given the size of the population of these two countries, this would significantly increase the overall proportion of urban residents in Asia and in the world. The definitions vary.
ii. International comparisons are difficult, as they may look at settlements which, despite being classed in the same category, may be very different in both population size and infrastructure. In addition, the reliability of data is an issue. Data on urbanisation can be misleading.
iii. Public investment in services and infrastructure tends to concentrate on the centres that are defined as urban. As a consequence, investment can bypass settlements not defined as urban even if these can, and often do, have an important ‘urban role in the development of the surrounding rural areas. Within national and regional urban systems, larger cities also tend to be favoured with public investment over small- and intermediate-sized urban centres, including those with important roles in supporting agricultural production, processing and marketing.
In terms of ethos of life, cultural groupings and modes of living, village and city are somewhat distinct from each other. They appear as dichotomous entities. But structural similarities still exist between the two in regard to patterns of caste, rules of marriage and observance of religious practices.
Villages and cities are not absolute units. Administration, education, employment and migration are institutional sources of linkage between the village and the city. In regard to rural-urban continuum social thinkers have differing views.
A number of Social Scientists think that it is difficult to distinguish between rural and urban areas particularly in countries where education is universal .
On the other hand, many Social Scientists have mentioned heterogeneity, impersonal relations, anonymity, division of labour, mobility, class difference, employment patterns, secularism, urban and rural poverty etc. as the items to be the basis for distinguishing ruralism from urbanism. They maintain that rural and urban are two dichotomous terms which are differentiated on the basis of above criteria.
Variation in size and density of population at least have certain effects in respect of (i) anonymity, (ii) division of labour, (iii) heterogeneity, induced and maintained by anonymity and division of labour, (iv) impersonal and formally prescribed relationships, and (v) symbols of status which are independent of personal acquaintance.
Culture can enlarge or reduce the impact of these items but it cannot eliminate them from the city. Richard Dewey thus rightly pointed out that these five elements are inevitable accompaniments of urbanization and must be taken into consideration in understanding it.
But there are some Social Scientists who still believe that urban ways of life are penetrating into the rural areas and it might be difficult to draw a line between the two. In a village where the inhabitants walk, talk, dress and otherwise deport themselves like urbanites, it is difficult to say whether it is a rural or urban community.
There are different types of settlements on different points of this continuum.
The rural–urban fringe, also known as the outskirts, rurban, peri-urban or the urban hinterland, can be described as the “landscape interface between town and country”,or also as the transition zone where urban and rural uses mix and often clash. Alternatively, it can be viewed as a landscape type in its own right, one forged from an interaction of urban and rural land uses.
Suburb
A suburb is a mixed-use or residential area, existing either as part of a city or urban area or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city. In some areas, such as Australia, India, China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and a few U.S. states, new suburbs are routinely annexed by adjacent cities. In others, such as Saudi Arabia, Canada, France, and much of the United States, many suburbs remain separate municipalities or are governed as part of a larger local government area such as a county.
Umland is an area linked socially and economically to an urban settlement. Literally it means ‘around area’. It is also called ‘ sphere of influence’ . This term is generally this term is applied for inland towns that deals in all directions.
This term was used in geographical perspective for the first time by Ander Allix ,French geographer in 1914 to express his concept of economic domain meaning thereby the areas immediately an interior city.
According to Collins (Dictionary)the region outside the suburbs of a city, consisting of residentialareas (exurbs) that are occupied predominantly by rich commuters(exurbanites).
Rurban
The word rurban (rural+urban) refers to a geographic territory /landscape which possess the economic characteristics and lifestyles of an urban area while retaining its essential rural area features.
Sorokin in his Rural-Urban Sociology (1929), uses the word “rurbanization” which according to him is a terminological invention of C. J. Galpin in 1918. Parson in 1949 exposed the idea of “rurbanisation” in his book – Essays in Sociological Theory. According to him, Rurban communities are the rural socio- geographic spaces where styles of life and the standard of living have changed so much that they resemble those in urban localities (Parsons, 1949, p. 435).
Rurbanisation may be due to either urban expansion or rural migration. This change is made possible through urban – rural interactions, including accumulation of capital /remittances and exposure to western /modern ideas and lifestyles that eventually build new mindsets.
From http://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/health/can-yoga-help-us-achieve-sustainable-development-goals
Shonil Bhagwat explains the yogic way of understanding how individual actions relate to global challenges.
The International Day of Yoga – 21 June 2018
As a spiritual practice, cosmic energy is important in yoga. This marks the day of summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, when the earth’s North Pole is most inclined towards the sun, of special significance. In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly declared 21 June as the International Day of Yoga. The idea was first proposed by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the Assembly in 2014, and unanimously accepted by all 193 member states.
In addition to the positive effects of yoga on mind and body and its benefits to health and well-being, Modi also argued: “By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change”. In 2016, the United Nations went even further…
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