Contributions to Urban Settlement Geography in India. A Critical Review of Selected Literature

India, the home to one of the earliest urban civilizations on this planet, has a very long tradition of research and writings on urban issues. The fundamental objective and chief motivation of writing a review of urban settlement studies in India is to fabricate a legible synthesis of the relevant sources, obtainable from the literature to answer a salient research question that may interest all geographers as well as other social scientists. Since urban settlement geography has emerged as a systematic sub-theme of urban geography after World War II, the post-independence period (1950–2019) of India has been taken into consideration for the present review. This research, therefore, is a humble effort to analyze and interpret over 60 publications, published between 1950 and 2019, on various aspects of urban settlements in India and to provide a brief critical review of them. The review indicates that diversified aspects of physical, functional, economic, and historical dimensions of urban settlements belonging to different parts of the country were discussed and interpreted by scholars from India and abroad. On the grounds of the present study, papers are organized under the following broad themes, such as location, distribution, configuration, and morphological studies of urban settlements; studies on urban settlement systems, economic linkages, and spatial-functional characteristics of urban settlements; studies on the typology of urban settlements; and historical studies of urban settlements. Eventually, this endeavor seeks to get a place in the vast body of literature, on the subject of urban geography, by offering a brief review of the select literature in the sub-theme of urban settlement geography to enable readers to acquire an overview of the scholarly literature in the area, so that they can enhance their understanding of what is found, how it is found, and in which way to communicate this information.