This paper is an analysis of the historical change in city size distribution in India from the perspectives provided by Zipf and Jefferson. Rank-size distribution at national level and primate city-size distribution at regional levels are examined. India's national urban system is gradually evolving towards Zipf's rank-size distribution. But primate cities have persisted in three of the four macro-regions in India. The paper also examines, in the Indian context, the relation between rank-size distribution and an integrated urban system, and the normative nature of the latter as a spatial organization of human society. Finally, we have made a modest attempt to locate the research on city-size distribution, especially Berry's system-theoretic interpretation of rank-size distribution, on the realm of the political economy of urbanization.