Will climate change lead to the eruption of violence in fast urbanising societies such as India? Proponents of the climate-conflict linkage have suggested that climate change has the potential to exacerbate resource scarcity and thus lead to the incidence of violent social unrest. However, the complexity of the climate-conflict thesis has rendered it unsupported by compelling empirical evidence. This paper investigates the various contours of the urban-climate-conflict link in an attempt to reformulate the problem for a rapidly urbanising India. As the interaction between urbanisation, climate change, and conflict is neither linear nor homogenous, oversimplifying their links often ignores the role played by socio-political dynamics, contextual histories, culture and economic realities. This paper argues that responses to climate-induced disasters have been shaped by the motivations, perceptions, and interests of different political constituencies to gain power and social ascendancy. Future urban policies need to recognise the complex interplay of political governance, environmental justice, economic development and ecological integrity.