The social life of man has undergone different stages of development. The earliest human communities were perhaps the loosely organized aggregation of a few families who carried on mutually interdependent activities in gathering food and defending themselves against their enemies. These primitive bands were migratory. Gradually, man acquired skills and knowledge in agriculture. Then began the settles life of man. With the development of agriculture and the consequent stabilization of the source of food, human communities became more permanent. These communities came to be known as Village Communities. The village is the oldest permanent community of man. All early communities of India were basically rural in character. India is a land of villages and villagers constitute the backbone of the country. Since time immemorial India has been cherishing the village life. Villages continue to dominate the Indian way of life as they have done before. Villages constitute one of the basic elements of our social structure. It is the village which has sheltered the two other elements of social structure, namely : caste ans joint family system. In the time span of around 100 years India's urban population increased by 10%. Thus the dominance of villages continues.
