Q1.
What is meant by ‘Second Urbanisation of India’?
Answer
The ‘Second Urbanisation’ is the name given to the vibrant new phase of city life that began in the 1st millennium BCE in the Ganga plains, parts of the Indus (or Sindhu) basin and neighbouring regions, and then spread gradually to other parts of the Subcontinent.
It is called the second one because India had already had a first one:
| First Urbanisation | Second Urbanisation | |
|---|---|---|
| Which civilisation | Indus / Harappan / Sindhu-Sarasvatī | Janapadas and mahājanapadas |
| When | 3rd millennium BCE; disintegrated in the early 2nd millennium BCE | Began in the 1st millennium BCE |
| Where | Indus (Sindhu) and Sarasvatī basins | Ganga plains, parts of the Indus basin, then all over India |
| Chief metal | Copper and bronze | Iron |
In between the two came a gap of a whole millennium in which urban life was absent from India, though there may have been a few towns here and there in north India.
Why it happens: after the Harappan cities broke down, every component of the urban order disappeared — elaborate private and public structures, crowded streets and busy markets, specialised occupations (metalsmiths, potters, builders, weavers, craftspeople), a writing system, a sanitation system, an administration, and behind it all a state structure with a ruling class. People went back to a rural or village lifestyle. Cities returned only when the conditions for them returned: farming on a bigger scale with iron tools, expanding trade networks, and states organised enough to build and defend a capital.
Did you know? The Second Urbanisation never stopped. The book points out that it “has continued right up to today” — the town or city you live near is part of the same long story.