Abstract: The regional population growth in India is quite different from other countries as it has been in the interior rather than along the coasts. However, India has experienced similar trends of urban centric growth like Canada and China. In the United States, the growth also is amenity-driven leading to migration away from historically created urban areas in the Frostbelt to Sunbelt areas. This paper investigates the role of distance in explaining population growth across Indian towns from 2001 to 2011.  The findings indicate that proximity to higher tiered urban centers, that is, the large Indian cities, matters for towns. For every kilometer farther away from the city is associated with approximately 0.11% less population growth in towns for 2001-2011. The weather has an insignificant role to play in explaining the growth patterns of towns. Even for man-made amenities, some of the distances to such amenities are negative but not statistically significant. One can infer that massive population growth in India is not driven by amenities. Thus, the results lend support to the hypothesis of urban hierarchical effects as evident in other countries like the United States, Canada and China.