Urban society

Urban society is shaped by density, diversity and distance: many strangers live close together, follow different ways of life, and meet mainly through specialised roles rather than kinship. A Mumbai local train at rush hour captures this perfectly — thousands of strangers share a compartment, observe unwritten rules of space and silence, and then disperse to factories, offices, colleges and slums. Urbanism, urbanity and urbanization name three different parts of this story.