(a) Explain the sequential development of areal differentiation as a fundamental concept in Human Geography. (10 marks) (b)…

(a) Sequential Development of Areal Differentiation

Areal differentiation means that the Earth's surface is a mosaic of unlike areas, and that geography's task is to study and explain the differences.

(i) Classical roots. Humboldt, Ritter and Richthofen studied regions as wholes, and Vidal de la Blache's pays and possibilism linked each region to local human use.

(ii) Chorology. Hettner argued that geography is the study of areas, and Hartshorne in The Nature of Geography (1939) made areal differentiation its central aim.

(iii) Landscape school. Sauer saw regions as cultural landscapes shaped over time.

(iv) Critique. Schaefer (1953) rejected this exceptionalism as unscientific and called for spatial laws, which led to the quantitative revolution.

(v) Later phases. Radical, humanist and postmodern geographers, such as Harvey and Massey, showed how global capital produces uneven places, and GIS now maps regional variation.

(b) Food and Nutrition Problems of the Developing World

(i) Hunger and hidden hunger. Undernourishment persists in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with stunting and wasting in children, and micronutrient deficiencies of iron, vitamin A and iodine. In India NFHS-5 shows high child stunting and widespread anaemia.

(ii) Causes. Sen showed that hunger often arises from failed entitlements, meaning poverty, unemployment and poor distribution, and not a lack of food. Others are low farm productivity, post-harvest losses, conflict, climate shocks, and dependence on cash crops and food imports.

(iii) Double burden. Undernutrition coexists with rising obesity and diabetes in cities.

(iv) Critical view. Food is sufficient globally, so the problem is one of access, women's status and governance. The remedy is found in public distribution, school meals, fortification and cash transfers, as with India's National Food Security Act, along with agricultural reform.

(c) Push and Pull in Recent Diasporas

Lee's model explains migration as a balance of push factors at the origin and pull factors at the destination, with intervening obstacles.

(i) Forced flows. The push dominates in the Syrian exodus after 2011, the Rohingya flight to Bangladesh in 2017, Afghans after 2021, Ukrainians after 2022 and Sudanese after 2023. War and persecution drive people out, and the pull is only safety.

(ii) Economic flows. The Indian diaspora shows a balance: unemployment and low wages at home against jobs in the Gulf, the United States and the United Kingdom, where skills are valued and remittances can be sent.

(iii) Mediating factors. Networks, visa rules and cost decide who leaves, so flows are selective.

(d) Has Malthusian Theory been discredited?

Malthus held that population rises geometrically and food arithmetically, so that checks follow. The world has proved him partly wrong, for three reasons.

(i) Technology. The Green Revolution and later advances raised food output far faster than population.

(ii) Demographic transition. Education, health and urbanisation brought fertility down, and many countries now face ageing.

(iii) Boserup. She argued that population pressure drives agricultural innovation.

But the core idea of limits has a modern form. Soil loss, groundwater depletion, climate change and the growing demand for resources show that carrying capacity is finite, and famines still occur where entitlements fail. So the theory is discredited in its mechanics, but the neo-Malthusian concern about ecological limits remains valid.

(e) Polarisation and Growth Poles

Perroux proposed that growth starts at propulsive industries in a pole and spreads out, but Myrdal and Hirschman showed that backwash often exceeds spread. The types of polarisation are:

(i) Spatial. Capital, skilled labour and raw materials drain from the periphery to the core, producing core-periphery gaps, as between Mumbai-Pune and the Marathwada or Vidarbha regions.

(ii) Sectoral. High-value industry and services concentrate at the pole while the hinterland stays agrarian.

(iii) Social and economic. Income gaps widen, and slums sit beside enclaves of the rich.

(iv) Environmental and urban. Congestion, pollution and land-price rises build up at the pole, as in Delhi-NCR.

Remedies include multiple growth centres, rural-urban linkage, backward-area incentives and infrastructure in lagging regions.