Main Reasons for Differ­ences of Population Groups within a Town in India

One of the most obvious zoning effects in towns is that caused by differ­ences of population groups within the town.

For instance, people of different racial or linguistic groups will tend to congregate together, partly for the company of their fellow countrymen, partly because their religion, traditional foodstuffs, customs, traditions, language or newspapers and magazines in their own languages may be available in such quarters and partly because of prejudice against them in other parts of the towns.

Thus, in most of the cosmopolitan and big cities of the Hindi belt of India, there are distinct Muslim minority quarters such as Zakirnagar, Batla House, Noorunagar, Okhla Vihar, Jauhri Farm, Ghaffar Manzil, Selampur (Delhi), Bhindi Bazar (Mumbai), Daryapur (Ahmedabad), Khairnagar (Meerut), Sultanganj (Patna) and Aminabad (Lucknow).

Image Source: medind.nic.in

In many cities of the US, there are distinct Negro quarters such as Harlem in New York. Similarly, there are sections in British towns where West Indians, Bangladeshis or Pakistanis form a large proportion of the population.

On the other hand, in many tropical towns, there are separate European quarters where the former colonial administrators, or present-day advisers, businessmen or university staff lives. Such quarters avoid the overcrowding of the city centre and at the same time allow the Europeans to be near to their compatriots.

But major racial differences are not the only differences that lead to population zoning. In Europe and the Middle East, many cities have a Jewish quarter.

In London too, there are areas dominated by Indians, Greeks or Italians or Irishmen. In Bonn (Germany), there are Turkish dominated localities.

In West Africa, tribal groupings are very important. In most South-East Asian cities, there are Chinese quarters and in Malaysia the towns have distinctive Malay, Chinese and Indian business areas and residential districts.

Religious differences are important in Northern Ireland; for example, in Belfast where some streets are inhabited solely by Catholics and others are monopolized by Protestants.

Cultural differences are sometimes significant; for example, in Paris, where students, intellectuals and artists congregate in the Latin Quarter.

Some population zoning in towns is caused simply by income differ­ences. Thus, the suburbs, with their larger houses, gardens and pleasant tree-lined streets are inhabited by the wealthier citizens, while the older, run-down houses nearer the centre of the cities are the homes of the poorer people in most towns here are occasionally high-class districts near the centre of town, e.g., Knightsbridge in London and Chanakyapuri, Defence Colony, Golf Link, Sundernagar, New Friends

Colony, Greater Kailash and Vasant Vihar in Delhi in many underde­veloped countries, there are areas of squatter settlement around the edge of towns where people who cannot afford to live in rented homes build small shacks, often out of cardboard and corrugated iron.

Govindpuri, Seelampur, Batla House and Khichripur are some of the very big slums of Delhi. This kind of settlement is found around many Asian, African and South American cities, e.g., Rio de Janeiro, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Johannesburg, Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila, and is aggra­vated by migration of poor people from the countryside or of refugees as in the case of Hong Kong or Ho-Chi-Minh City.

Immigrants or local coloured people in the USA or Britain are usually less well-off than other people in the towns and this helps to keep them in distinct areas, often of slum-like housing. In some cases, population zones become functional zones.