Appraisal of Long-Term Process and Pattern of Urbanisation in West Bengal: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis

There has been a cyclonic change in urban population in India, which has grown from 10.84 per cent in 1901 to 31.89 per cent in 2011. The phenomenon of urbanisation in West Bengal, an Indian state, has been kind of different from the rest of India. The city of Kolkata (former Calcutta) has been the dominating centre of urbanisation in West Bengal since its foundation. This study aims to examine the rate, degree and trend of urbanisation in West Bengal with a comparison to Indian urbanisation since 1901 using Census of India data. This study is also an attempt to analyse the district level spatiotemporal variability and inequality in urbanisation in West Bengal since 1991 using Locational Quotient, Lorenz curve, and Gini's coefficient as tools. The study reveals that though the level of urbanisation in West Bengal is relatively higher than India's average, the rate of urbanisation is still low. In 2011, for the first time in Census history, Kolkata experienced negative population growth, which seems to be a significant turn in West Bengal's urbanisation. Furthermore, it is seen that the inter-district inequality in terms of the level of urbanisation and number of towns in West Bengal is gradually declining.