indian rural settlement

Rural settlement

Much of India’s rural population lives in nucleated villages, which most commonly have a settlement form described as a shapeless agglomerate. Such settlements, though unplanned, are divided by caste into distinct wards and grow outward from a recognizable core area. The dominant and higher castes tend to live in the core area, while the lower artisan and service castes, as well as Muslim groups, generally occupy more peripheral localities. When the centrally located castes increase in population, they either subdivide their existing, often initially large, residential compounds, add second and even third stories on their existing houses (a common expedient in Punjab), leapfrog over lower-caste wards to a new area on the village periphery, or, in rare cases where land is available, found a completely new village.

Within the shapeless agglomerated villages, streets are typically narrow, twisting, and unpaved, often ending in culs-de-sac. There are usually a few open spaces where people gather: adjacent to a temple or mosque, at the main village well, in areas where grain is threshed or where grain and oilseeds are milled, and in front of the homes of the leading families of the village. In such spaces, depending on the size of the village, might be found the pancayat (village council) hall, a few shops, a tea stall, a public radio hooked up to a loudspeaker, a small post office, or perhaps a dharmshala (a free guest house for travelers). The village school is usually on the edge of the village in order to provide pupils with adequate playing space. Another common feature along the margin of a village is a grove of mango or other trees, which provides shade for people and animals and often contains a large well.

There are many regional variants from the simple agglomerated-villages pattern. Hamlets, each containing only one or a few castes, commonly surround villages in the eastern Gangetic Plain; Scheduled Castes and herding castes are likely to occupy such hamlets. In southern India, especially Tamil Nadu, and in Gujarat, villages have a more planned layout, with streets running north-south and east-west in straight lines. In many tribal areas (or areas that were tribal until relatively recently) the typical village consists of rows of houses along a single street or perhaps two or three parallel streets. In areas of rugged terrain, where relatively level spaces for building are limited, settlements often conform in shape to ridge lines, and few grow to be larger than hamlets. Finally, in particularly aquatic environments, such as the Gangetic delta and the tidal backwater region of Kerala, agglomerations of even hamlet size are rare; most rural families instead live singly or in clusters of only a few households on their individual plots of owned or rented land.

Most village houses are small, simple one-story mud (kacha) structures, housing both people and livestock in one or just a few rooms. Roofs typically are flat and made of mud in dry regions, but in areas with considerable precipitation they generally are sloped for drainage and made of rice straw, other thatching material, or clay tiles. The wetter the region, the greater the pitch of the roof. In some wet regions, especially in tribal areas, bamboo walls are more common than those of mud, and houses often stand on piles above ground level. The houses usually are windowless and contain a minimum of furniture, a storage space for food, water, and implements, a few shelves and pegs for other possessions, a niche in the wall to serve as the household altar, and often a few decorations, such as pictures of gods or film heroes, family photographs, a calendar, or perhaps some memento of a pilgrimage. In one corner of the house or in an exterior court is the earthen hearth on which all meals are cooked. Electricity, running water, and toilet facilities generally are absent. Relatively secluded spots on the edge of the village serve the latter need.

Almost everywhere in India, the dwellings of the more affluent households are larger and usually built of more durable (pakka) materials, such as brick or stone. Their roofs are also of sturdier construction, sometimes of corrugated iron, and often rest on sturdy timbers or even steel I beams. Windows, usually barred for security, are common. The number of rooms, the furnishings, and the interior and exterior decor, especially the entrance gate, generally reflect the wealth of the family. There is typically an interior compound where much of the harvest will be stored. Within the compound there may be a private well or even a hand pump, an area for bathing, and a walled latrine enclosure, which is periodically cleaned by the village sweeper. Animal stalls, granaries, and farm equipment are in spaces distinct from those occupied by people.

Nomadic groups may be found in most parts of India. Some are small bands of wandering entertainers, ironworkers, and animal traders who may congregate in communities called tandas. A group variously known as the Labhani (Banjari or Vanjari), originally from Rajasthan and related to the Roma (Gypsies) of Europe, roams over large areas of central India and the Deccan, largely as agricultural labourers and construction workers. Many tribal peoples practice similar occupations seasonally. Shepherds, largely of the Gujar caste, practice transhumance in the western Himalayas. In the semiarid and arid regions where agriculture is either impossible or precarious, herders of cattle, sheep, goats, and camels live in a symbiotic relationship with local or nearby cultivators

Rural Settlement Pattern In India

The spatial organisation of houses in a village defines its pattern. Here site attributes along with the layout of the land, configuration of roads and streets play decisive role. Rectangular or square pattern is very popular in the areas of level topography. It confirms well with the systems of house design, plugging pattern, field sizes and land measurement (bigha system).

Circular or semi-circular patterns develop around a fort, temple, pond, lake, meander bank and bend of a stream. Linear pattern grows along the road-side or water front dry point due to the effects of linio-fugal or linio-petal forces (Doxiadis, 1968, p. 311). Settlements along the river levees, roads and along the coasts sometimes assume such forms. Triangular pattern is developed under special conditions of topographical barriers characterised by negative land features on three sides. 'L' and 'T' patterns emerge when roads intersect at right angle. While chessboard pattern is formed by the conver­gence of many transport routes at a focal point. Similarly a village acquires a radial-star pattern when streets radiate from a common centre.

(1) Rural Settlements in the Himalayas

Three types of settlements are found in the Himalayan region: (i) helmeted or semi-sprinkled, (ii) dispersed or sprinkled, and (iii) isolated home­steads. The first type mainly occupies low lying valleys with regular stretch of fairly level land. Similarly the second type is found in patches while the last type occurs on high elevations. Such settle­ments are generally found in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

In Jammu and Kashmir the smaller villages are generally nucleated, while the larger ones are dispersed. A special feature of Kash­mir valley is the spring settlements. In the Kumain Himalayas of Uttaranchal undulating relief, cold climate, paucity of agricultural land, subsistence farming, horticulture and cattle grazing have fa­voured the growth of small dispersed settlements. These are divided into permanent, seasonal and mobile settlements. With terraced fields above and below spurs provide the most common sites for village settlements. Others are located in valley bottoms near the perennial springs and water bodies. Some localities like the valleys of Mana, Niti and Janhavi rivers have developed twin village settle­ments: (i) summer settlements (Malla gram) at a height of 2700-5000 meters, and (ii) winter settle­ments (Talla gram) at low altitudes (below 1800 meters).

In the eastern Himalayas the settlements are small and widely dispersed due to steep slope, undu­lating topography, heavy rain fall, dense forest cover and multiplicity of tribes with different dialects and rituals. Here compact and well organised villages are found in the northern zone of Indo-Tibetan culture; the lower stone exhibiting Assamese impact; and the middle zone characterised by dispersed settlements.

In Meghalaya, Khasi villages are lo­cated along the hill slopes near the water bodies which range from isolated homestead to dispersed and composite settlements. In Nagaland villages generally occupy flat tops of the hills, spurs and gentle hill slopes between 1200-2100 m of height and consist of 20-100 houses. In Manipur Kukis practicing shifting farming build their temporary houses on flat topped ridges. Lushai tribes of Mizoram build their linear settlements in valleys and on the flat-topped hills.

(2) Rural Settlements in the Northern Great Plains

Northern Great Plains of India presents a mix­ture of settlement types and pattern. Rural settle­ments in the Rajasthan plain are small, compact and sparsely distributed owing to the limited water sup­ply and cultivable land and problem of security. In excessive arid areas of Barmer, Jaisalmer and Bikaner, where there is predominance of sand dunes, helmeted settlements are noticed near the water-points. But in the eastern and north-western parts of Rajasthan large compact villages are common sight.

Indira canal is encouraging compact and permanent villages similar to the Punjab plains. In the canal irrigated areas of Punjab plains the villages are uniformly spaced, compact and generally circular in form. But in the areas of chose and the flood prone areas of the Ravi River we find widely spaced small sized rural settlements.

Over the Upper Ganga Plain almost 55 per cent of the population lives in medium-sized vil­lages. In the Rohilkhand Tarai areas settlements are unevenly distributed due to high percentage of for­ests, marshy lands and seasonal floods. Here vil­lages are mostly helmeted located at river bluffs and river embankments. In the 'Ghar' region settlement sites follow the drainage lines and the nature of slope. In the areas of older alluvium (Bhangar) the settlements are compact and closely packed.

On the Middle Ganga Plain the distribution and pattern of rural settlements are largely influ­enced by alluvial morphology. Areas of east Uttar Pradesh and west Bihar are marked by small sized but closely spaced villages. Hamleted settlements are typical of the Ganga-Ghaghara doab. The Mithila plain exhibits wide variation in settlement pattern and types: linear in the lower Gandak valley, dis­persed in the sub-monstrance tract of Champaran, relatively dispersed in the Ganga-Burhi Gandak doab, and irregularly scattered or linearly oriented along the levees of dead channels or ox-bow lakes in Purnea. The south Bihar plain has more compact settlements than its northern counterpart.

In the Lower Ganga plains hydrological char­acteristics have dominant role in determining their types and patterns. Here scattered villages are very common in the Rahr plain, Duars and Sundarbans; compact settlements abound in the Ajay-Damodar- Brahmani interfluves and helmeted ones dominate in the Bhagirathi-Dwarka interfluves. Linear pattern is apparent along the coast.

In the Brahmaputra valley villages are gener­ally agglomerated, aligned along the river levees and transport arteries. Here villages are smaller in size in which houses are separated by bamboo fences. Machan types of houses on wooden pillars are con­structed in low-lying and flood-prone areas where boat is the only means of transport during rainy season.

(3) Rural Settlements in the Peninsular India

Rural settlements in the Peninsular part of the country exhibit mixed types depending upon the nature of relief, soil fertility, water-supply and socio­economic development. Throughout the hilly tract of the Aravalli region huts are widely dispersed within the revenue village lands. In the dissected hills of Mewar, Marwar and Alwar isolated farm­steads are dotted in the long narrow valleys. Tonk, Sawai Madhopur, Bundi, Jaipur districts and the Banas valley region are characterised by compact to semi-compact settlements. Sirohi district and pla­teau area around Udaipur are abound with isolated, dispersed and widely apart settlements.

In the highly dissected and ravine tracts of Bundelkhand large compact villages occupy the favourable and protected sites, while badlands are marked with semi-compact and dispersed settle­ments. Malwa region, owing to its fertile soils, has helped in the growth of large clustered settlements. But rough terrain around Sagar has favoured the growth of semi-dispersed and dispersed settlements.

The Chotanagpur plateau region shows great variation in the types and patterns of rural settle­ments. Here Rajmahal highland, Panch Pargana and Dal bhumi are characterised with clustered type; Ranchi plateau, Hazaribagh plateau, south-eastern Damodar basin and Panch Pargana with semi-clustered type; the Kolhan highland, outer eastern part of the Ranchi plateau, Pat area, northern Koel basin, southern part of Hazaribagh plateau and south-east­ern part of Rajmahal highlands with hamleted type; the Porhat-Dalma highland and Sigdega with semi- dispersed; and the Kolhan highland area by dis­persed type of settlements (Sinha, V.N.P., 1976, p. 72.)

Compact and clustered settlements have been developed in the fertile and level areas of the Baghelkhand plateau and Chhattisgarh plain which have yielded place to semi-compact type in the undulating plateau areas. The Lava plateau region of Maharashtra owing to its rich soils, good water supply and developed agriculture has favoured the growth of clustered settlements. But semi-dispersed and dispersed settlements are also seen in the plateau region south-west of Solapur and near Pune because of its rough and undulating terrain.

In south India, large compact and widely spaced villages are the characteristic feature of the northern Maidan of Karnataka and Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh. The tract between the Kaveri and the Tungabhadra, studded with numerous tanks, exhibits close relationship with compact settlements. In Malnad area semi-dispersed to scattered hamlets are common features. The same features are repli­cated in the Tamil Nadu Uplands also. The forested areas along the Sahyadris have the predominance of isolated dwellings.

(4) Rural Settlements in the Coastal Plains

The eastern and western coasts are dotted with several fishing villages of different shape and size. In the Mahanadi delta area high escarpments provide ideal location for settlement to safeguard against floods. In the Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri deltas organised farming activity has promoted the tendency of nucleation among settlements which are generally located along the canals and on high ground or levees.

The Malabar Coast is dominated by large compact villages but coconut and cashew planta­tions have encouraged the growth of isolated dwell­ings. Coastal plains of Gujarat are marked by nucle­ated settlements of medium to large size. Saurashtra is a region of small villages with long inter-village spacing. The isolated farm steads in the plantation gardens of coconut and banana along the coast from Dwarka to Bhavnagar add to the scenic beauty of the land. The semi-arid lands of the Kachchh and the Ranns have a few hamlets at long intervals hardly containing a room or two.