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Books

of Marxian dialectics to a persona non grata in the
20th century materialism. reckoning of fundamental- REPRODUCTIVE POLITICS
The fourth part of the ist right-wing politics in & THE MAKING OF MODERN
book is about Sen’s years contemporary India INDIA
in Trinity College, Cam- JAYATI GUPTA Mytheli Sreenivas
bridge where he was men- WOMEN UNLIMITED
tored by eminent econo- Rs.875 Pages 274
mists and philosophers Birth control
Piero Scraffa, Maurice
Dobb, Dennis Robertson politics
and Joan Robinson. With population growth, rather In India population
subtle humour, acute ob- OLITICALLY COR- than imperial policies, control translated
servations of a wide-eyed RECT, influential were seen as the cause of into upper caste
young novice, the friend- Ppeople in policy devastating famines in the anxieties relating
ships forged with scholars making circles in the West 19th century. As the author to the “reproductive
(many of whom went on to don’t talk any more of Mytheli Sreenivas notes, profligacy” of poor
acquire eminence) across the ‘yellow peril’, or use “Population anxiety was lower castes
disciplines and cultural phrases such as ‘popula- not due to any demonstra-
borders, shaped his liberal tion explosion’ and meta- ble increase in numbers.
cosmopolitanism. phors like the population In fact, and in contrast reproduction of lower
He clearly recognised bomb. At the same time, to Western Europe at the classes/castes.
the tensions rising between partly due to the very reach time, population in most Sreenivas’ very impor-
conservatives, socialist and influence of such parts of India stagnated tant book follows argu-
radicals and left-oriented doomsday demographic between 1870 and 1920”. ments about population
Keynesian economists discourses emanating from Meanwhile, by govern- from the late 19th century
but persisted in pursuing the West in the past, and ment’s own estimate, fam- — the era of colonial fam-
his research interests in modified versions today, ine took a toll of 5 million ines to the post-Emergency
welfare economics and elites and the middle lives between 1876-78. In years in India — years
social choice theory. The classes in all third world both the above arguments, of discourse on popula-
prestigious Cambridge nations remain convinced you will notice no mention tion control ‘excesses’.
Prize Fellowship that he that the cause of social of structures of imperial- Meticulous archival work
bagged was a lucky break and economic problems in ism and colonialism that and citation of secondary
that gave him freedom to their own countries stem perpetuated poverty. literature including classics
study philosophy, episte- primarily, if not exclu- Eugenicists wanted by Mathew Connelly, Eric
mology and ethics. sively, from population population control as they Ross, Kamran Asdar Ali,
Sen’s memoir covering growth. believed the dirty, stupid Sarah Hodges, Betsy Hart-
three decades (1933-63) Population control and poor, out-breed the mann, Sanjam Ahluwalia,
is an honest self-analysis became a policy matter for best and the brightest. and the Black feminists of
and socio-cultural history a diverse range of interests In India, this translated the reproductive justice
of his Indian heritage. That in the 1950s. For Cold into upper caste anxieties movement, invest this
it digresses into intel- War concerns, US policy relating to “reproductive work with profound theo-
lectual reflections, ideas wonks believed the best profligacy” of poor, lower retical coherence.
and philosophies which way to check the spread of castes. Economists wanted Two things stand out.
are crucial to understand- communism was through population control because Her assessment of pre-
ing and confronting the population control. The population growth appar- independence feminist
challenging economic argument was simple, too ently consumed resources luminary Kamladevi
and gender inequities in simple. Population growth that could otherwise be Chattopadhyay and reac-
varied spheres of life, is its leads to poverty and pov- invested productively. tions to Katherine Mayo’s
great virtue. Sen diagnoses erty leads to communism. They spoke of a “demo- book Mother India which
problems and issues with So the US poured money graphic trap” into which Gandhi is reported to
refreshing honesty and into population control third world countries had have described as a gutter
erudition. programmes around the fallen because of runaway inspector’s report. “At its
But these very virtues world. population growth. All core, Mother India argued
have made this dissenting In colonial India — of them wanted state- that Indians’ sexual and
and visionary Indian into without any evidence — imposed policies to control reproductive practices ren-

64 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2022