Indian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Studies

Urbanisation and Social Isolation in Contemporary Metropolitan Cities of Uttar Pradesh: A Sociological Study of Changing Community Relations

Urbanisation has become one of the leading socio-economic changes in modern India, which has redefined the physical infrastructure along with the social aspect of the cities. The metropolitan centres of Uttar Pradesh, especially Lucknow, Kanpur, Noida, and Ghaziabad, have experienced a rapid spatial growth that has been mainly due to the migratory flows, industrialization as well as the consequent growth of economic opportunities. Urbanisation enables the improvement of infrastructure, the establishment of working opportunities, and the general increase in the economy but, at the same time, brings major social problems. First of all, these changes include the changes in the patterns of community interactions and the reorganisation of social relations. The paper examines the interconnection between urbanisation and social isolation in chosen metropolitan cities of Uttar Pradesh. With descriptive and analytical research design, the study combined primary data, collected via the use of structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with urban residents, and secondary data (census data and peer-reviewed scholarly literature). The results have shown that high rates of urbanisation, nuclear family formation, living in apartments, immigration, and the pressures of modern urban living have all had the effect of disintegrating the traditional neighbourhood affiliations, thus reducing the possibility of mundane social interaction. The paper outlines that urbanisation usually triggers a shift in how closely knit relationships are in a community to rather impersonal and less intimate socialisation relationships, thus repeating classical sociological views of urban life.