How Urban Influence on Rural Society in India?

Urbanization has greatly influenced rural people from all walks of their life and this influence can be seen in the sphere of social organization, family organization, food habits, the standard of living, dress habits, religion, beliefs, etc.

1. Change in Social Life: The greatest influence has been the sphere of social life. The relation between caste and profession is no longer necessary. According to Desiai, “In the social field, the role of custom enforced by the joint family, the caste, and the village panchayat was gradually replaced by the reign of laws made by the centralized British state in India and administered by its own revenue, executive and judicial officials posted in the village. This considerably undermined the powers of the family, the caste, and the village panchayat. 
2. Changes in the Family Organization: The process of urbanization has affected, the family organization in a very extensive way. During the last hundred ad fifty years, the traditional joint family and the family pattern in the rural framework have been undergoing a qualitative transformation. The basis of rural family relationships is shifting from that of status to that of contract. The basis of rural family relationships is shifting from that of status to that of contract. The rule of custom is being replaced by the rule of law. The family is being transformed from a unit of production to a unit of consumption. The cementing bond of the family is being changed from consanguinity to conjugality. Further is ceasing to become an omnibus social agency, it being shown most of its economic, political, educational, medical, religious, and other social and cultural functions. Instead, it is becoming a specialized and affection small association. A massive joint family composed of members belonging to a number of generations has become intolerant of their elders and wants to break away from the village mores. The family system is in a state of disintegration. Life has become more artificial. The standard of morality has fallen. Expensive habits have been acquired.
3. Urbanization has also changed the modes of recreation. In the villages radios are popular. 
4. Change in the mode of living, dress, and food habits. Wristwatches, sunglasses, plants, buy shirts, nylon sarees, and tea can be seen in the villages.
5. The existing rural aesthetic culture is in a state of increasing disorganization. Thus, in the final analysis, is the result of the increasing disorganization of the rural society itself which is the aesthetic reflex. The crisis of culture is the product of the crisis of society.
6. The transformation is taking place in each and every sphere of rural life including the sphere of rural religion. The ideology institutions, rituals, ethics, and aesthetics of the rural religion are undergoing a change, though gradual, under the pressure of new material and cultural forces.
7. The process of urbanization has also influenced the political life of the villagers. In recent times, however, due to the growth of class consciousness among various groups into which the rural population is divided into economic lines, the influence on political life is slowly diminishing. For instance, non-Brahmin landlords will politically ally with Brahmin landlords rather than with their non-Brahmin tenants since both the Brahmin and the non-Brahmin landlords stand for the defense of landlordism, then common economic interest. Similarly, the Brahmin and the non-Brahmin tenants will more and more come together and form a kisan sabha or a peasant party with the program of the abolition of landlordism and transfer of land to the tillers of the land, both Brahmin and non-Brahmin.

Thus urbanization has affected rural life completely. There is a change in the family organization, old practices are melting down, political awareness is strengthening, and fashions and way of life is being adopted.