BOOK REVIEW

Name of the book- Myth of Population Control: Family, Caste and Class in an Indian
Village
Author- Mahmood Mamdani
ISBN-10: 0853452849

Since the time of Thomas Malthus, problems of resource scarcity and social pathology have
frequently been attributed to “overpopulation”, largely caused by the alleged overbreeding by the
world’s poor. If only those impoverished masses who bear so very many children realized the error
of their ways, the reasoning goes, the “population explosion” and its attendant problems could be
diffused. Moreover, their own poverty would be alleviated, since they would have fewer mouths to
feed.
Champions of this Malthusian perspective generally have eschewed any efforts to actually
investigate what life is like for the high-fertility poor who fuel the world's rapid population growth.
In this slim but incisive book, however, sociologist Mamoud Mamdani demonstrates that by
actually investigating and analyzing social reality from the perspective of those who choose to have
large families, one can gain an understanding of the rationality behind this lifestyle choice. Indeed,
in his study of a village society in northern India, he shows that these rural peasants are not poor
because they have many children, they have many children because they are poor. High fertility is,
in fact, a reasonable, even necessary choice for people with few resources other than their own labor
power and that of their children. Mamdani shows that only when people’s basic human needs for
material security, health care, and support in old age are met can they begin to consider different life
strategies that do not involve having large numbers of offspring.
The "Green Revolution" that allowed India to feed itself better as population doubled and doubled
again during the 20th century was based on genetics (high yielding wheat, rice, etc.) nitrogen
fertiliser and irrigation. The higher yielding varieties of grains, however, require more inputs of
nitrogen and water, both of which are being mined out. Nitrogen is currently made from natural gas,
India relies heavily on fossil groundwater that is being mined out and water from Himalayan
glaciers that are disappearing due to global warming. Undoubtedly many soils are being damaged as
well, reducing future productivity. So, in the long run, it is likely that India will need to impose
family planning, as China did, because its peasants are getting poorer not richer. The European
demographic transition pattern is not an option. It is clear that low fertility is strongly associated
with improved outcomes.
When it first appeared during the 1970's, Mamdani's book was revolutionary in its influence on the
population/resources debate among environmentalists. Some hardline neo-Malthusians have refused
to budge from their "population control by any means" position, but many others have come to
realize that for people to be amenable to family planning measures, social and economic reforms on
a large scale must be implemented.
The one area where Mamdani’s perspective is too narrow involves the role of women in fertility
decisions. His study emphasizes the husband and wife as a decision-making unit making successive
choices regarding additional births. In reality, however, women often don’t have any choice at all as
to how large their finished family size might be, and their husbands frequently insist on a larger
family than the wife might desire. Indeed, over the past twenty years, it has become clear that
empowering women and providing them more choices in their lives is another avenue to lower
fertility.
Mamdani fails to emphasize this feminist aspect of the population question, but in presenting a
concise and thoughtful analysis of how population growth occurs at the local level, he has made a
lasting contribution to social and environmental science. This book was certainly important and
useful in pointing out that individual motives determine fertility choices so policy should pay
attention to structuring individual incentives.

Written by- Saurabh Misal

Enrolment Number- 2017046