Local Economy as the Key Driver of Urbanization in the Indian Sundarbans

Abstract

The relationship between local economic development and urbanization is a vital policy concern across the world, especially in the developing countries. The local economy exhibits enormous potential in the process of transformation of a rural area into an urban one. Based on the theoretical discourse of planetary and subaltern urbanization, this article explores the role of the local economy, even in the form of banal activities, in the process of urbanization of the Indian Sundarbans, a highly vulnerable part of the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta. For this study, we have relied on two facets of local economy—that of the local market centres, and the household economy of small towns. In the local market analysis, we have analysed market details such as the growth story of entrepreneurs, the function of shops in providing services and in developing their own profit level for sustenance and further growth. Household economy has been analysed from the perspective of changes in the occupational structure, nature of employment and household income in order to understand the surplus generation and reinvestment of the same as the local capital. This article is based on an intensive field survey that used the stratified random sampling method. A total number of 240 households and 100 shops have been surveyed from four towns. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection have been followed. The article argues that the local economy plays a key role in the urbanization process of the Indian Sundarbans, as the regional economy is gradually shifting from the farm to non-farm activities.