Rural and Urban Life in India
India lives in its villages, which is why Gandhiji attached supreme importance to rural development. He firmly believed that the prosperity of the country depended on the prosperity of the village. He, therefore, wanted the Congress to pay proper attention to the amelioration of the “dumb, semi-starved millions scattered over the length and breadth of the land…” But those who chalked out economic planning did not think seriously of the necessity of rural development. They laid emphasis on economic growth, without specifically considering the mariner in which the benefits of the growth rate were to be distributed. They forgot that-the real objective of development is to benefit the larger chunks of the population living in our rural areas.
It was only in the early seventies that the necessity of creating economic prosperity in the rural areas was considered seriously. Though a number of schemes have been implemented to reduce poverty and generate employment, there is no appreciable improvement in the financial position of the rural masses. According to Mr. Nilkantfia Rath of the Gokhale Institute, Pune, schemes like the IRDP (Integrated Rural Development Programme) have ‘failed to achieve their objectives. He says the TRDP has helped to lift no more than a net three per cent of rural ‘households above the poverty line. Rather than creating employment and income, it has created corruption and cynicism. “The villages remain the root and there are 576,000 of them, less than half with electric light and many without road access… better health care, population control and decent drinking water are needs that remain pressing and in some places desperate” (Trevor Fishlock). Illiteracy, unemployment and poverty are also acute in the rural areas.
The people in our rural areas live a simple life. There is nothing ostentatious or artificial about it. They live in communion with nature and may try to interpret any unusual phenomenon as the work of God. They do not suffer from ‘sick hurry’ or tension. More often than not, their life runs gaily as the sparkling Ganga. The fluctuations in the stock market or the changes in the government do not worry them much.
The villagers are religious and God-fearing. They celebrate religious festivals with great fervour and enthusiasm.
Casteism has become deep-rooted in the villages. Interested marriages are, therefore, resented and looked down upon At times’ those entering into such marriages are’ ostracized. Trevor Fishlock says caste is in India’s fiber, inextricably bound up with Hindu ideas of life. Heterodoxy does not appeal to the villagers greatly.
It is among the villages that we notice sincere love and affection. When any calamity occurs in a family, those living in the neighbourhood render all help to it.
The villagers live far from the madding crowd and ignoble strife that we notice in cities. Disgraceful quarrel or cut-throat competition is alien to them. Usually they do not take part in any rat-race.
The inhabitants in the rural areas do not get as many opportunities as the city-dwellers to reach good positions in life. Thus they have difficulty in developing their talents. Hampdens and Miltons die there unknown.
Over-crowding and environmental pollution have created problems in our cities. These are due to the vast development that has taken place in them. The city of Mumbai has to dispose of over 2,000 tons of garbage and sewage every day. The people often complain of bronchial ailments, bad odours and other discomforts.
There is bustle and hurly-burly in the cities. The people have no time to ‘stand and stare’. Nor do they get any time to observe nature and appreciate its beauty. They live in an artificial world. Life there, to borrow Hotsput’s words ‘rides upon a dial’s point’. Time has become a hard taskmaster for them. They mark out the minutes and the fractions of minutes like misers. This new attitude of time is a by-product of industrialisation. Everyone is in a hurry to go to the office or factory, wherever they may be working. Accidents occur on the roads, but no one has any time to take the injured to hospital. Sincerity and love wither in the heavy rush of city life.
Our cities have become centres of crimes and vices. There is no security for life. In broad daylight homicides are committed. Sexual promiscuity, theft, pick-pocketing and looting have become common. The residents in some cities are averse to going out of their houses late at night since they are afraid of being looted and murdered by criminals.
In the slums of our cities, a large number of people live in very squalid surroundings. In the city of Mumbai, more than seventy lakh people live in slums. When the monsoon season sets in, they are drenched and double-drenched… the slum dwellers are as wet and uncomfortable as soldiers in trenches. Little faces peer out, mirrored in stinking puddles.” (Trevor Fishlock)
Our cities provide for their inhabitants all the material comforts that modern science has bestowed upon man. Such amenities as cheap transport, good roads, well-stocked shops big hospitals, cinema houses are not easily available in. our villages. In the cities there are better facilities for social and cultural life. Yet, it is lacking in something fundamental.
There is too much of the machine, which stands between man and man. Machine occupies all our time and engages all our attention and we have little left for our fellow men. Ernest Barker once confessed that since he was a town man, he constantly failed in his duty to his neighbours.
