3 - Inflow of labour into south Gujarat

Summary

Urban order and economy

During the last few decades south Gujarat witnessed an urban growth rate far above the average for the state and also for the whole country. This is particularly the case for the age-old trading centre and harbour of Surat. After colonial stagnation and even deterioration lasting some centuries, this city has in recent times undergone phenomenal development. The acceleration started shortly before Independence and increased in intensity between 1971 and 1981, when its population climbed to over three-quarters of a million, nearly twice as much as at the beginning of that decade. This made Surat the second largest city in Gujarat after Ahmedabad. Since then, the rate of growth has continued unabated. In 1991, according to the provisional results of the latest census, the urban agglomeration included more than 1,500,000 inhabitants and expansion is still going on, reaching nearly two million residents in the beginning of 1995. The pace of population growth during the second half of the twentieth century reflects the emergence of Surat as one of the most important industrial growth poles in western India. Its dynamics are due mostly to two industries: diamond cutting and polishing and artificial silk production, together estimated to provide work for roughly 40 per cent of the total workforce. Immigration has been the main cause for the exceptionally rapid growth rate which seems to be sustained into the current decade. Most people nowadays living in Surat were not born and bred here.