ABSTRACT
With the urban population in India constituting 23.7 per cent of the total population in 1981, and with the projected growth rising to 27.5 per cent in 1991 (Registrar General of India 1986), India can no longer be described as a ‘land of villages.’ (Not that there was much justifi cation for such a description in the past, but I shall say more about that later.) The urban centres are playing an increasingly important role in Indian society as a whole, including rural society. The importance of understanding rural-urban relations, therefore, can hardly be overemphasized. This essay is a modest attempt to contribute to an understanding of these relations.
