INDEX

A
Agarwal, Krishna, 130
Age of Consent Act of 1891, 51, 73
Age of Consent Committee, 73, 75
agriculture: food scarcity and changes in, 36–37, 113–14; and Green Revolution, 144; rural development and vasectomies, 157; women laborers in Tamil Nadu, 208
Ahluwalia, Sanjam, 12
AIWC. See All India Women’s Conference (AIWC)
Ali, Aruna Asaf, 96
All India Women’s Conference (AIWC): birth control advocacy of, 79, 80, 151; Chattopadhyay’s role in, 82; and child marriage, 75; collaboration with NPC, 129; debate on birth control, 78–79; and family planning, 93, 122, 123; founders of, 3, 227n61; “Indian Woman’s Charter of Rights and Duties,” 99; invitation to Sanger, 80–81; mediating role in planning process, 116; Rama Rau’s role in, 91; relationship with FPAI, 102; resolutions on birth control, 76–77; and service to impoverished women, 116–17; and state responsibility for reproductive control, 99–100; on study of rhythm method, 121–22; women’s right to control family size, 98–99. See also Chattopadhyay, Kamaladevi; Family Planning Association of India; Lam, Mithan; Rajwade, Lakshmibai; Rama Rau, Dhanvanthi; Sanger, Margaret; Wadia, Avabai
Ambedkar, B. R., 89
Amma, K. Meenakshi, 130, 133
Amrith, Sunil, 119
Amrit Kaur, Rajkumari, 4, 116, 120, 121, 122
Anandhi, S., 228n91
Appadurai, Arjun, 33
Arnold, David, 37, 40, 218n18
Asiatic Exclusion League, 67
Australia, Indians in, 68, 70, 111
Ayyar, Murari S. Krishnamurthi, Population and Birth Control in India, 85
B

Balasubramaniam, Indrani, 88
Baring, Sir Evelyn, 47
Bashford, Alison, 45, 78
Berelson, Bernard, 149
Bergeron, Suzanne, 217n56
Besant, Annie: birth control campaign of, 30, 54–57, 60, 119; influence on Chattopadhyay, 82; large families, 180; The Law of Population, 30, 55, 56, 59; move to India, 59; and rise of reproductive politics, 31; Theosophy and the Law of Population, 59
Besant-Bradlaugh trial, 54–55, 56, 57
Bhagini Samaj, 101
biopolitics: in economic planning, 22; and geopolitics, 65; history of, 14–15; of population management, 16–19
Birla, Ritu, 20
birth control: in colonial India, 54–59; competing visions for, 113; for economic security, 181; to improve population “quality,” 64, 98; as link between sexuality and the economy, 168; linked with marriage, 80; modernization of the “Third World” through, 122; and national development, 76, 80, 81, 97–98; and population anxiety, 77, 79; by self-regulation, 79; as solution to population growth, 72; and women’s emancipation, 82, 87–89; and women’s health, 78–79, 143–44. See also contraceptive technologies; family planning; Gandhi, Mohandas; rhythm method; sexuality; small families
birth control clinics, 76, 85, 101, 103, 129, 226n41, 228n76
birth control manuals, 54, 171, 174–75, 180–81
birth control pills, 145–46, 149
Boas, Conrad Van Emde, 109
Bombay conference of the ICPP: dissenting positions at, 110–11, 232n53.; establishment of IPPF, 3–4, 92, 112; host of, 105; organization, attendance, and opening of, 3–4, 109; proceedings of, 109–10; transnational importance of, 7–8, 107–8; use of terminology at, 12; vision for, 112. See also International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
Bombay Municipal Corporation, 101
Botre, Shrikant, 173
Bradlaugh, Charles, 30, 55
brahmacharya: Gandhian notions and call for, 59, 173; as life stage, 173–74, 176
Briggs, Laura, 78
Butler, Judith, 10
C

Caird, James, 46
Cairo Conference on Population and Development, 206
Calderone, Mary, 146–47
Canada, Indian migration to, 68, 111
capitalism: biopower in, 14; and concept of the economy, 20–21
caste and class: AIWC and class privilege, 100; and Brahmins, 85, 86; family planning and inequalities of, 95; and family planning messaging, 196–99; and Mukherjee’s anti-imperialist critique, 72; reproductive politics and, 10, 89; and small happy family ideal, 196–99, 200–201; and WRPE report, 96. See also differential fertility; elite populations; eugenics; middle class populations; poverty; race and racism; upper classes and castes
celibacy: as approach to population control, 54; as Hindu tradition, 49–50, 54; as virtue and duty, 49, 73, 81, 167, 173, 176
census counts in India: beginning of decennial national counts, 31, 32, 33–34; and impact of famine, 43; population growth shown in, 77, 114, 139, 226n45; precolonial practices, 32–33
Central Board for Workers’ Education, 190
Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB), 128
Chandrasekhar, Sripati, Hungry People and Empty Lands, 111–12
Char, Vaidehi, 102
Chatterjee, Nilanjana, 181
Chatterjee, Partha, 115
Chattopadhyay, Kamaladevi: before Age of Consent Committee, 75; biographical information about, 82; birth control advocacy by, 81; challenge to family planning models, 110–11; effect of ideas on national planning, 116; family planning work of, 7; at ICPP conference, 3; “Women’s Movement in India” (1939), 82
Chaudhuri, Maitrayee, 96, 100, 115
child marriage: abolition of, 64; debate over, 51, 52; as Hindu tradition, 49–50, 53, 58; legislative efforts to end, 90; Malthusian views of, 58; minimum marriage age, 226n40; reform of, 13, 60, 73–76
Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA), 73, 226n40
children: and economics of the family, 135–37; as the future, 200; as markers of prosperity, 184–85; and preference for sons, 185–86, 207–8; representation in small family images, 185–86
Chokkalingam, T. S., 72
citizenship: family planning as mark of, 128, 187, 193; heterosexual monogamy and, 187–88; of poor women as reproductive subjects, 134
climate change: family planning and, 202–3, 204–5; Malthusian fears in debates over, 18
Colen, Shellee, 11
colonialism: biopolitics under, 15; civilizing mission of, 21, 57; food security and famine under, 36–38, 47; justification of reproductive interventions, 7; Malthusian views in, 37; migration and indenture under, 68; political economy and population under, 48–50; and poverty, 53, 115; reproductive politics in, 12–13. See also Temple, Sir Richard
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs, 208
Congress Party, 59, 69, 96, 104, 115, 139, 161
Congress Socialists, 3, 82
conjugality, 31, 49–50, 73, 221n77
Connelly, Matthew, 141, 161, 194
consumer economy: and desire for material goods, 166, 167–68, 183; the future and, 187; print culture in, 170; reproduction limits and, 193, 194, 195–96
contraception: and climate change, 203; education to promote use of, 129; individuals and mass population control, 146–49; and national planning, 93, 95–96; as necessity for population control, 105; opposition to “unnatural methods” of, 79; rhythm method, 120–21, 233n87, 234n88; as separate from maternal health, 125; as solution to famine, 54; state goals and incentives for use of, 138, 143; state provision of, 76; support for, 3; and women’s emancipation, 82. See also birth control; celibacy; eugenics
contraceptive advocacy: history of, 10; men involved in, 227n61; in modern science of sex, 174; and planetary crises, 204. See also All India Women’s Conference (AIWC); Besant, Annie; Chattopadhyay, Kamaladevi; Sanger, Margaret; Self Respect movement; women’s movement in India
contraceptive technologies: advertisements for, 182–84, 184fig., 185; family planners’ distribution of, 133–34; and scrutiny of bodies, 26–27; types available, 55, 126, 145, 174, 175fig., 233n87; women’s daily control over, 145–46. See also intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs or IUCDs); sterilization
Contrafant tablets, 174, 175fig.
Cornish, W. R., 33–34, 41
Couper, Sir George, 47
Cousins, Margaret, 82, 227n61
D

Dandekar, Kumudini, 154, 239n96
Darshini (pseud., Tamil Nadu laborer), 210
Darwin, Charles, 78
Davis, Kingsley, 117
Davis, Mike, 37
decolonization, 92, 108–9
demographic transition theory, 117–18, 122
demography, science of, 17, 94, 101
Deshmukh, Durgabai, 96, 113, 116, 128–29, 230n9
Deshmukh, Gopalrao Hari, 52, 123
Deshpande, Vimala, 77
Deutscher, Penelope, 10
Devi (pseud., Tamil Nadu laborer), 202, 203, 208
Devidasan, Karppatatai (1929), 175–76
Devika, J., 176
Dhanraj, Deepa, 240n123; Something Like a War (film), 163–64
differential fertility: concerns about, 84–86, 89; debate on fit and unfit reproducers, 90; evolution and description of, 83–84; between Hindu castes, 71; and Muslim reproduction, 85–86, 133; in population control programs, 200; the West compared to the “Third World,” 106; the West’s concerns over, 106, 143
Disney studios, 194–95
Dixit, Visakha, 132
Dnyan Prakash on famine in 1876, 38–39
DuBois, W. E. B., 67, 224n19
Dutt, Aroti, 132
Dutt, Romesh Chunder, 21, 48
E

East India Company, 32–33, 37, 38, 44
econometrics, 21–22
economic depression and contraception, 174, 175fig.
economizing reproduction, process of, 6, 9–10, 20, 60–61
the economy, concept of, 6, 19–24, 216n56
Edelman, Lee, 10, 200
Ehrlich, Paul R., The Population Bomb (1968), 141
elite populations: anxieties about population, 114; and class purity, 119; and government policy, 24, 115–16, 130; and ideologies of service, 102, 116; and modernization, 161
Emergency period: declaration and restrictions of, 158; end of, 161; expansion of population control during, 6–7; gender politics during, 155; historical analysis of, 12, 27, 126, 161–62, 234n3; infamy of, 126; male sterilization as symbol of excess of, 162–63; and sterilization program, 158–59
Emmet, L. C. R., 153–54
English Poor Laws, 44
Enough’s Enough (film, 1973), 183
eugenics: and birth control, 83; ideology of, 77–78; and Malthusian theory, 16; and overpopulation, 25; and reproductive interventions, 5; Sanger and, 81; and Self Respect movement, 89; in understanding Hindu and Muslim fertility, 85–86; and upper classes, 88; in WRPE report, 97. See also differential fertility
Eugenic Society of Bombay, 83
F

family planning: as antidemocratic drive, 113–22; as economic decision, 202, 203; imagery and communications about, 171–72, 197–98, 197fig.; as means to bridge tensions, 95; men as drivers of, 94, 229n5; and national development, 93, 95–100, 187, 190fig., 205, 210; and national planning, 113, 189; and rumors about the ability to conceive, 124, 136; seen as patriotic duty, 187; as social service, 101–5; stories about, 188–93, 193fig.; and transnational development, 105–12; use and connotations of term, 12, 215n27. See also contraceptive technologies; poverty; sexuality; small families; sterilization
Family Planning (film, Disney, 1968), 194–96
Family Planning Association of India (FPAI): as advocate of IUDs, 151; birth control and national development, 93; and climate change concerns, 205; in clinical and propaganda efforts, 129; contraception campaign of, 101; family planning and population control, 24, 123; founding and growth of, 91–92, 102, 122; “The Growth of Population in Relation to the Growth of Economic Development,” 104; hiring of trained social workers, 131; host of ICPP conference, 4; linkage with women’s movement, 107; mediating role in planning process, 116; on rhythm method, 121–22; scientific agenda and leadership of, 102–3; and sterilization, 240n115; and transnational networks for population control, 94–95. See also All India Women’s Conference (AIWC); International Committee for Planned Parenthood (ICPP)
Family Planning Manual (1956), 187
family planning programs: and concerns with family welfare, 137–38; educating the population, 124, 129–31; family planning clinics, 129; foreign donors to, 143; implementation in India, 126; and importance of children to targets of, 135–37; lack of success from, 139; militaristic turn in, 140; paid workers in, 131; shift to more state control, 151; skepticism and antagonism to, 124–25, 132, 134–36
family size: children and economic security, 134–37, 184–85; compared to prosperity, 180–82, 182fig.; contraception and prosperity, 182–84, 183fig., 184fig.; and parental rights, 111; and poverty, 180–81
Family Welfare Center (Kutumb Sudhar Kendra), 103
famine: of 1876–1878, 30, 32, 36, 38–40, 44; in Bengal (1943), 114; colonial Malthusianism and, 40–44; and concerns about overpopulation, 35–36, 55–56; definition of, 218n18; famines in the late 1800s, 25, 219n31; Indian history of, 6, 36–40; in Malthusian theory, 16; mortality from, 30, 38, 41, 42, 43, 47, 217n3; population counting during, 31, 59; statistical documentation of, 40–42
Famine Code, 40
Famine Commission, 40, 45–46, 47, 56, 217n3
famine relief administration: and calibration of life, 32; cessation of help, 40; labor requirements and wages, 39, 219n39; limits on relief, 7, 29–30, 37, 39, 41, 47, 220n46; local resistance to, 38; relief costs versus benefits, 42–44
feminism and feminists: and birth control, 81, 105; call for universal reproductive rights, 206; campaigns against sex-selective abortion, 208; challenges to, 11–12; criticism of population bomb rhetoric, 141–42; and family planning, 93, 94, 122–23; and ideals of service, 132; and narratives justifying reproductive interventions, 7; and population control’s effect on women, 19; and reproductive health, 18; women’s labor as countable, 22–23
films about family planning, 172, 183, 194–96
First Five Year Plan: and contraception for population control, 122; family planning in, 4, 95, 110, 113; orientation toward future progress, 186; poor women as targets of family planning, 127–28; population as variable in, 22; Rama Rau’s success in shaping, 105; vision of national development in, 26; women’s health as basic right in, 120
Five Year Plans: econometric measurement in, 22; family planning in, 126, 190fig.; promise of, 181–82; Second plan, 128; Third and later plans, 139, 143; vision of future in, 200. See also First Five Year Plan
food production: crisis in, 140; and imbalance with reproduction, 16, 17, 99–100. See also Malthusianism
Ford Foundation, 143, 149, 157, 172, 196
Foucault, Michel: biopolitics of the population, 14–15, 18–19; The History of Sexuality, 168; on states’ concept of population, 35
four faces symbol, 197–98, 197fig.
FPAI. See Family Planning Association of India (FPAI)
free market ideology, 38, 40, 51
Freymann, M. W., “Intra-uterine Contraception in India,” 149
G

Gallagher, Catherine, 45
Galton, Sir Francis, 77–78
Gamble, Clarence, 148
Gandhi, Indira, 6–7, 158, 161. See also Emergency period
Gandhi, Mohandas, 65, 68, 73–74, 81, 120, 173
Gandhi, Sanjay, 158, 161
gender: author’s use of terminology, 28; inequalities, 95, 97; national history and histories of, 9; norms depicted in animated film, 195; preference for sons, 185–86, 207–8; and small family composition, 185–86
George, Aleyamma, 131–32
Gini, Corrado, 224n25
girls’ schools, 137–38
Gopal, T. D., 88
Gopalaswami, R. A., 114, 155
Gordon, Linda, 8–9
Gore, Sushila, 102
Goswami, Manu, 20, 60
Great Depression, 76, 77
Green Revolution, 144
Guha, Sumit, 35, 46
Gupta, Charu, 86, 171
Gupta, Prem Lata, 130, 131, 135–37
Guttmacher, Alan, 147–49
H

Hamid Ali, Begum Shareefah, 96, 100
Hartmann, Betsy, 18, 204
Haynes, Douglas, 173
health care: as human right, 118–19; India’s underinvestment in, 207; public health events, 62–63, 89, 224n4; and sovereignty, 66. See also maternal and child health
heterosexuality: linkage with small families, happiness and prosperity, 166, 167–68, 177–78, 199; and the “Malthusian couple,” 168; promoted in birth control manuals, 171; and reproduction of the future, 200; and sexual practices in modernity, 5
Hindu joint families, 96
Hindu populations, emergence as distinct entity, 16–17
Hodges, Sarah, 8–9, 12, 78
Hollen, Cecilia Van, 164, 240n123
Home Rule League, 59
homosexuality, 177, 200
How-Martyn, Edith, 81, 227n66
humanitarian movements, 57
hunger, freedom from, 112, 144–45
Hutton, J. H., 77
I

ICPP. See International Committee for Planned Parenthood (ICPP)
Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), 67
imperialism: and Bombay conference of the ICPP, 108; and Chattopadhyay’s views on family planning, 110–11; and reproductive rights movements, 12
India: 1977 election in, 161; birth control and national policy, 94, 112; centrality in population control, 4, 7, 93, 95, 104–6; concerns about overpopulation in, 31, 35, 127, 138–39, 141; demographic trap of, 117–18; expansion of population control efforts, 94; family planning and women’s rights in, 7, 99; fears about population control in, 196–97; fertility rate in, 206; Hindu nationalist politics in, 18; historical change in, 8; inequality issues in, 92; Malthusian campaigns to manage population in, 17; nationalism and economic progress, 21, 114–15; Parliamentary representation and sterilization in, 159; reproduction, empire, and modernity in, 6, 9; sex ratio of population of, 208; and social welfare, 127–28; as source of sexual discourse, 178. See also colonialism; Emergency period; Ministry of Health; national development; National Planning Commission (NPC); sovereignty; women’s movement in India
Indian Civil Service Examinations, 44
Indian Eugenics Society, 83
Indian National Congress. See Congress Party
indigeneity: and land rights, 71, 112; and settler colonialism, 70
inequality and social stratification: and birth control, 205; family planning and, 95, 115–16; and population growth, 18; reproduction and, 10–11, 12. See also caste and class
infant mortality, 63, 77
International Committee for Planned Parenthood (ICPP), 107, 108, 213n5. See also Bombay conference of the ICPP
International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF): establishment of, 3–4, 92, 105; on family planning, 202; family planning and planetary crisis, 93, 203, 204; fears of failure of efforts of, 196; promotion of small families by, 169; racialized images regarding population control, 142–43; and sterilization, 240n115; as transnational network, 112. See also Guttmacher, Alan
intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs or IUCDs): benefits for mass population control, 146, 149–50; coercive measures in program encouraging use of, 153–54; complications and decline of use of, 152; consent of women for, 164; and disindividuation of women, 146–49; impact of, 126; incentives and targets for, 150–52, 153; tail design in, 148; women’s responsibility to accept, 141
IPPF. See International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
Ittmann, Karl, 118
IUDs. See intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs or IUCDs)
Iyer, Sivasami, 84
J

Jackson, Margaret, 148
Janakakumari, T. S., 178–79
Janata Alliance, 161, 162
Jani, Pranav, 115
Jessen, Don, 148
Jhabvala, M. S. H., 102
John, Mary, 229n4
Joshi, Durgabai. See Deshmukh, Durgabai
K

Kale, Anasuyabai, 99–100
Karppatci, allatu cuvatina karppam (anon., 1929), 180–81
Karve, R. D., 102, 121, 173
Kasturi (pseud., Tamil Nadu laborer), 210–11
Keynes, John Maynard, 217n56; Indian Currency and Finance (1913), 21
Khan, S. K., 124–25, 136
Khanna study (Harvard), 139
Knowlton, Charles, 30, 54; Fruits of Philosophy, 55
Krishnakumar, S. S., 156
Kutumpa kattupatu titta kaiputtakam, 187
L

laboring classes. See working class
“lady doctors,” 62, 131
Lam, Mithan, 102, 109, 231n24
land, politics regarding: empty lands, 112; land rights, 70–71, 111; and poverty, 49; race and, 13; reproduction and, 45–46; unequal distribution, 141. See also migration
League of Nations, 66, 71
Levin, Harry, 152–53
Levine, Philippa, 78
life, calibrating the cost of, 6, 25, 40–44, 60
Lippes, Jack, 146
Lippes loops, 149, 150, 152
loop camps, 150, 151
Luibhéid, Eithne, 200
Lytton, Lord, 40–41, 45
M

macroeconomy, 21
Madhavdas, Keshavlal, 52
Madras Birth Control Bulletin, 84
Madras Health and Baby Week, 62–63, 66
Madras Malthusian League, 58, 60, 180
Madras Neo-Malthusian League, 24, 83, 84, 85, 209, 227n66
Madras State. See Tamil Nadu
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 208
Mahomedpur village, 124–25, 136
Maiti, Hari Mohan, 53
Malabari, Behramji, 23, 60, 180; “Notes on Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood,” 50–52
Mallet, Louis, 46–47
Malthus, Thomas: and birth control, 55; critiques of, 17–19; Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), 16–17, 44; and large families, 180; and relief to the poor, 29; on sexual continence, 45
Malthusianism: colonial policies during famine, 44–47; critiques of, 49, 53; famine and, 45, 59; and increases in food production, 145; and marriage, 47–54; in Modi’s speech, 207; national rereading of, 50; neo-Malthusian thought, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 64, 77. See also child marriage; climate change; demographic transition theory; heterosexuality; marriage; overpopulation; population control
Malthusian League, 55, 57–58, 223n115. See also Madras Malthusian League
Margulies, Lazar, 146
marriage: female desire and heterosexuality in, 179; Indian history of, 6; and Malthusian policies, 47–54; marriage age, 5, 159, 239n96; normative sexual expression in, 175–76; public aspects of, 23; reform of, 32, 48, 49–50, 52, 176–77; universality of, 31. See also child marriage; family planning; small families
Marriage Hygiene, 84
Marx, Karl, critiques of Malthus, 17
maternal and child health: and baby weeks, 62–63; and birth control, 93; birth control as sole focus for, 144; clinics for, 137; disindividuation in, 146–47; as distinct from contraception, 125; and mortality, 99–100, 114; as part of social welfare, 128; pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), 148; underinvestment in, 207
Mayo, Katherine, Mother India (1927), 25–26; controversy over, 64; as critique of Indian reproduction, 64; effect on debates about child marriage laws, 73; imperialist and anti-immigrant arguments in, 67–68; Indian public health and disease, 66–67; on Indian sexual and reproductive practices, 65–66; Sanger and, 81; Uma Nehru’s challenge to, 68–69
Mehta, Hansa, 96, 98–99
Menon, Lakshmi, 80
Menon, Nivedita, 177–78
Methods of Family Planning (1964), 166, 167fig., 178
middle-class family planners: as agents of change, 49, 50, 51, 53–54; as agents of the state’s agenda, 124–25, 128, 130; assumptions about poor women, 124–25, 133–34; conference targeted to, 104; and reproductive control, 7; subaltern targets of, 95, 116, 134
middle-class populations: self-management of reproduction in, 155; temporary birth control measures as choice for, 158
migration: and anti-immigrant sentiment, 67–69, 72, 111, 112; and colonization, 70–71; and control of reproduction, 10; and indentured labor, 68; and national planning process, 116; and population growth, 35
Mill, John Stuart, 44, 55
Miller, Ruth, 15
Ministry of Health, 109, 113, 120, 150
minorities: mass application of IUDs in, 148; perceived role in population explosion, 142–43
Mitchell, Timothy, 217n56
modernity: birth control as marker of, 177; demographic transition to, 117–18; family size and, 166–68, 169, 180, 181–83, 194; heterosexuality as central in, 177; marked by difference, 195–96; traditional culture, family planning, and, 196
Modi, Narendra, 207, 210
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, 66
Mudaliar, Murugesa, 57–58, 223n115
Mughal Empire, 32–33
Mukherjee, Radhakamal: Food Planning for Four Hundred Millions (1938), 69–70, 71; on Indian birth practices, 98; Migrant Asia (1936), 69–71, 85, 225n25; and Muslims, 225n31; population as transnational issue, 111
Murphy, Michelle, 6
Muslim populations, emergence as distinct entity, 16–17
N

Nadkarni, Asha, 12, 15, 134
Naidu, Muthiah, 58
Naidu, Sarojini, 65, 82, 96
Naiker, Mooneswamy, 58
Nair, Rahul, 16, 66, 77
Naoroji, Dadabhai, 21, 48, 60, 115; Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901), 53–54, 222n97
Narain, Govind, 150, 152
Narasu, Lakshmi, 58
Narayan, Jayaprakash, 158
Narayanswamy, Visalakshi, 136
national development: challenges to rhetoric of, 136; family planning in, 202–3; Indian reproduction as economic question, 5–6, 25, 59–60; maternal and child care in, 63; and promises of anticolonialism, 115; reproductive reform and, 26; reproductive regulation as tool of, 92; small family in planning for, 169. See also birth control; family planning; Five Year Plans; heterosexuality; India; population control; small families; women’s movement in India
nationalism: the economy in discourses of, 21, 60; growth of Hindu cultural nationalism, 52–53; Mother India in history of, 65; reproduction issues in, 13; in reproductive politics, 6
National Planning Commission (NPC): competing goals of, 113–14; and demographic transition theory, 118; dismantling of, 205; influence of upper classes and castes on, 115; responsibility of, 22, 104; support for family planning, 113–14, 120, 128; tensions in the planning process, 114–15
National Planning Committee, 69, 95, 96, 98
National Population Policy (NPP), 159, 160
Navkal, Shanta, 129
Nayar, Sushila, 140, 141, 144, 149
Nehru, Jawaharlal, 21–22, 96, 104, 115
Nehru, Rameshwari, 75, 79, 96
Nehru, Uma, Mother India aur uska jawab, 68–69
neo-Malthusians. See demographic transition theory; Malthusianism
Nicholson, Mervyn, 45
Nigam, Surekha, 154
Nilavati, S., 87–88
NITI Aayog, 202–3, 205–6
Northbrook, Lord, 219n31
Notestein, Frank, 117
NPC. See National Planning Commission (NPC)
NPP. See National Population Policy (NPP)
O

oppression: alleviating social causes of, 26; contraception as resistance to inequalities, 88; and reproductive justice, 13–14; and stratified reproduction, 11. See also caste and class; inequality and social stratification; women and women’s bodies
“otherness”: European sexuality and, 46; revealed in family planners’ reports, 133. See also minorities; Muslim populations
overpopulation: centrality of India in crisis of, 58; colonial explanations for, 46, 47; neo-Malthusian views in WRPE report on, 97; perceived as an economic problem, 51; population anxiety over, 77, 79. See also population bomb; population control
“Over-Population and Marriage Customs” (Ranade?), 48, 50, 60, 222n81
Owenite socialism, 56
P

Paik, Shailaja, 89
Pande, Ishita, 173–74
Pandit, Vijayalakshmi, 96
Paschima Taraka and Kerala Pataka on famine in 1878, 39–40
Pasyam, Ca., Pale Tankam, 181, 182fig., 188–89
Phadke, N. S., 173
Philosophic Inquirer on neo-Malthusian views of Besant, 57, 58
Pillay, A. P.: about, 84; as clinic organizer, 85; and FPAI, 102; and modern science of sex, 173; role in Bombay conference, 109; and Sanger, 107, 227n61, 227n66; views on rhythm method, 121
Planitab Contraceptive Ovules advertisement, 182–83, 183fig.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), 146
Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, 41–42, 43, 47–48
poor and subaltern populations: disregard for health and rights of, 207; experience with the state, 134–35; infertility in, 137; introduction to contraception, 103; laboring classes, 47, 219n39; perceived as source of global crisis, 138; seen as irrational, 152, 153; sterilization and sterilization certificates, 155, 156, 159–60
population: counting and quantifying, 32–35, 59; historical understanding of, 6, 14–19; as series of national problems, 112
population bomb: fears of, 26, 138; sacrificing women’s bodies to address, 205; and targeting of lower-class populations, 126; and Third World reproduction, 141; women as fuse for, 127
population control: abortion in, 238n90; as central concern of public health, 67–68; coercive tactics in, 152–54, 156–57, 158–60, 208; connotation and use of term, 12, 215n27; and global migration, 70–71; government policy before and after the Emergency, 162; and health of the economy, 99; justification for state intervention, 23; mass control, 146–49; and national development, 92, 109–10, 112; neo-Malthusian efforts in, 109, 110, 232n51; programs, 10, 17, 57, 138–45; and sustainability, 205–6; through national family planning efforts, 123; transformation through reproductive practices, 5; in the twentieth century, 15, 18; worldwide efforts, 93. See also family planning programs; intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs or IUCDs); sterilization
Population Council, 149–50; Family Planning (film, 1968), 194–96, 195; fears of failure of family planning efforts, 196; founding of, 106, 146; and IUDs, 149–50; promotion of small families by, 169
population growth: in agrarian societies, 135; in the colonial period, 31, 37, 46, 53–54; fears of global explosion in, 106; government checks on, 226n41; as limit to national development, 97–98; measurement of, 35; and slow economic growth, 139; of specific populations, 63; stabilization through state-led planning, 117–19. See also census counts; family size; population control
Population Sustainability Network (PSN), 202, 203
poverty: birth control seen as remedy for, 30, 57, 60, 79, 85, 88, 103; and child marriage, 51–52; and class prejudice, 129–30; economic policy as cause of, 48–49, 53–54; of landless and smallholding individuals, 36–37; and land rights, 210; large families and, 180; in population control agenda, 26–27, 45; reproduction and economic development, 11; reproduction as explanation for, 17–18, 25, 32, 61, 97–98; and sexuality, 176; spread of, 44. See also family planning; family planning programs; First Five Year Plan; middle class family planners; social welfare; sterilization; working class
Prakash, Gyan, 161
Primary Health Centers, 143–44, 208
print culture of the twentieth century: birth control topics in, 170–71; family planning and birth control manuals, 54, 171, 174–75, 177, 180–81; stories about small families, 188–93; surge in popular publishing, 170
public health: health as a basic right, 118–19; public health events, 62–63, 89, 224n4; and sovereignty, 66
public sphere: the economy in, 20–21; state literature and propaganda, 24
Puerto Rico, study of IUDs in, 147–48
Punjab, 139–40
Purandare, B. N., 152
Q

Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha on overpopulation, 47–48
queer studies, 10, 169–70, 199–200
R

race and racism: asymmetric valuation of life, 15; and Bombay conference of the ICPP, 108; and Chattopadhyay’s views on family planning, 110–11; contraception and, 71; critique of racial exclusion policies, 70; in eugenic sterilization laws, 78; Indian migrants as victims of, 68; as key to population problem, 46–47, 111; in Mother India, 67; and national planning process, 116; in population control images and rhetoric, 142–43; purity and lower caste reproduction, 119; reproductive politics and, 10; and reproductive rights, 12, 65; sovereignty and, 13. See also caste and class; eugenics
Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, 3, 5, 109
Raghuramiah, K. Lakshmi, 151
Raina, B. L., 140; “Intra-uterine Contraception in India,” 149
Rajwade, Lakshmibai, 26, 78–79, 95, 101, 119, 123
Rakhmabai, 53
Rama Rau, Dhanvanthi: birth control as women’s right, 119; and Bombay conference, 93, 105, 109–10, 232n53; on challenges to family planner’s efforts, 135; collaboration with Sanger, 107, 108; and creation of FPAI, 119; effect of witnessing Bengal famine, 114; family planning and planetary crisis, 204; family planning vision and work of, 4, 7, 26, 91–92, 112, 122, 123; goal of family planning conference, 103; and households’ need for children, 135–36; on IUDs, 151; male voices in FPAI, 102; on NPC Advisory Health Panel, 104–5, 116; origins of FPAI, 102; reevaluation of work, 91; and transnational networks for population control, 93; views on rhythm method, 121
Ramasami, E. V., 87, 88–89
Ramesam, Sir Vepa, 84
Ranade, Mahadev Govind, 21, 48–50, 52, 60, 68, 180
Rao, Mohan, 17
Ray, S. N., 80
Reddi, Muthulakshmi, 74–75, 79, 96, 226n53
reproduction: as an economic concern, 202; as burdensome form of labor, 97; co-constitution with the economy, 20, 23, 60; concept in history, 8–14; in context of a woman’s humanity, 164; controlling to serve other ends, 212; data and statistics about, 35; and health of the body politic, 45; and national development, 207; nexus with population, and economy, 5, 24, 27, 206, 212; and planetary catastrophe, 18 (see also climate change); reproductive freedom and justice, 11–14; seen as part of the private sphere, 22; state responsibility for control of, 99–100
reproductive futurism, 200
reproductive politics: alternative perspectives on, 24–25; archival evidence for, 24; and favored populations, 63–64; genesis of discourse of, 4–5; new focus in colonial period, 25; and political power, 9, 10–11; and political sovereignty, 63–64. See also climate change; contraceptive advocacy; famine; heterosexuality; national development; population control; poverty; race and racism; small families
reproductive reform: calls for change, 25, 26; and control of population quality, 64; effect on national progress, 89–90; and nationalist goals, 75–76; religion and, 52; and sovereign control of the nation, 73. See also birth control; child marriage; Ranade, Mahadev Govind
reproductive regulation. See reproductive politics
rhythm method, 233n87, 234n88
Riley, Nancy E., 181
Roberts, Dorothy, 230n8
Rockefeller, John D., III, 146
Rockefeller Foundation, 66
Rook-Koepsel, Emily, 132
Ross, Loretta, 13, 28
S

Sanger, Margaret: analysis of views of, 230n8; birth control as women’s right, 119; and Bombay conference, 4, 80–81, 93, 105, 110, 232n53; collaboration with transnational organizations, 107; family planning and planetary crisis, 204; Gandhi’s debate with, 173; and global population concerns, 106; knowledge of Indian birth control efforts, 227n61; role in India’s national family planning agenda, 123, 227n66, 228n76; vision for family planning, 108, 112
Sanwal, Hem, 134, 137
Sarda, Harbilas, 73, 74
Sarkar, Tanika, 53
Sasser, Jade, 203–4
Satterthwaite, Adaline, 148
Satyavati, K., Family Planning, 179–80
Self Respect movement, 24, 87–89, 209, 228n91
Sen, Amartya, 36
Sengupta, Padmini, 129–30
sex education, 108, 109, 173, 204, 232n51
sexuality: argument for sexual continence, 45, 173; Besant’s thought on, 56; and caste, 85, 86; and colonial discourse, 46–47; contraception and, 54; control over sexual instincts, 59; and differential fertility, 84–86; histories of, 9; and masculinity, 86; modern science of, 171, 173–75; population counts connected to, 35; public discussion of, 56–57; reproductive politics and, 10; sexual desire, 178–80; small families and, 167, 173–80
Shah Commission, 162
Shirodkar, V. N., 102, 109, 148
Sholapur Eugenics Education Society, 83, 84
Shukla, Phulawati, 77
Sierra Club, 203
Singh, Karan, 159
Sinha, Mrinalini, 65, 67
Sino-Indian War of 1962, 139
small families: capitalism and, 199; change in communications about, 196–99; compared to extended families, 185; the economy and prosperity due to, 180–86; ideal of, 27, 177, 199; linked to happiness and prosperity, 166, 168–69; manuals and literature promoting, 170–72; and reproduction of the future, 186–93, 200–201; sexuality and, 173–80; stories about, 188–93; and survival, 210–11; universalizing, 194–99
Smedley, Agnes, 82, 227n61
Smith, Adam, 29, 40, 44, 217n56; Wealth of Nations, 38
social meaning in biological acts, 9
social reproduction, 22, 97
social welfare: and family planning, 137, 151; health as, 128; policies for, 10, 116–17, 119; poor women as recipients of, 127–28; urban workers interacting with rural villagers, 134
Society for the Study and Promotion of Family Hygiene, 83, 84
Solinger, Rickie, 13, 28
South Africa: Indians in, 68, 70, 72; land rights in, 111
sovereignty: and fitness for self-rule, 63; and minimum marriage age, 75; public health and, 66; race and, 13, 65, 66; and reproductive self-regulation, 83, 90
Srivastava, Sanjay, 172
sterilization: as an economic decision, 164, 202, 209–10, 211; catastrophes in, 207; as a child-rearing decision, 211–12; clinics for, 137; coercive measures promoting, 156–57, 158–60; in the Emergency period, 158–61; filmic depiction of, 163–64; incentives for, 138, 155, 156–57; men as targets of population control, 154–55, 160; and population bomb, 142fig.; post-Emergency focus on women, 163, 240n123; reluctance to be sterilized, 149; statistics regarding, 155–56, 157–58, 240nn123–24; vasectomy camps, 156–57; widespread use of, 126; women and sexual desire, 179–80; women’s responsibility to accept, 141
sterilization certificates, 159–60, 164
Stone, Abraham, 120–21, 232n53, 234n88
Stopes, Marie, 121, 233n87
Storm, A., 109
Strachey, Sir John, 29
subaltern, use of term, 234n4
Subbaroyan, P., 63
T

Takeshita, Chikako, 146
Takeuchi-Demirci, Aiko, 10
Tambe, Ashwini, 159
Tamil language and contraceptive advocacy, 89, 169, 174–76
Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras State): interviewees and their reproductive decisions, 25, 27, 136, 202, 203, 208–10; statewide defeat of Congress Party, 139; sterilization in, 155; as success story of family planning, 209
Tarlo, Emma, 159, 162, 164
Temple, Sir Richard, 29, 30, 31, 39, 41, 42, 60, 219n31
Thakore, Pramila, 131
“Third World”: demographic transition theory applied to, 117–18, 122; promotion of small families across, 169; reproduction and population bomb in, 141; as targeted users of IUDs, 146–48; as target of animated Disney film, 195–96; visions of family planning for, 108–9
Three Families (film, 1963), 183
Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (1974), 144
transnational networks for population control: linkage with economic development, 122; Rama Rau and, 92, 93; technical training and funding from the West, 107–8
Tyagi, Deep K., 197–98
U

United Nations Fund for Population Activities, 190
United Nations Population Award, 161
United States: fears of population bomb in, 138; and global efforts to control population, 106, 140–41; imperialism and public health, 66; spread of infection to, 66–67
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 143
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 67
universal marriage, 49–50, 52
Unnithan, Maya, 214n18
upper classes and castes, 7, 115, 116. See also elite populations
upward mobility, 166, 168, 181, 198

vasectomies: efficiency and cost of, 156, 160; and male pleasure, 178; men as targets of population control, 154–55, 157; statistics regarding, 158, 160, 163; symbolic of excesses of Emergency period, 162–63; vasectomy camps, 156–57
V
Veena (pseud., Tamil Nadu laborer), 211–12
Vembu, Elfriede, 101, 102, 107
Victorian feminist movement, 56
W

Wadia, Avabai: family planning vision of, 26, 101–2, 103, 123; on global organizations, 108; interest in transnational organizations, 107; memo to NPC, 104; on NPC Advisory Social Welfare Panel, 104, 116; report on opening of clinics, 129; role in Bombay conference, 109; and sterilization, 240n115
Watamull, Ellen, 107
Wattal, P. K., 84, 85, 86; Population Problem in India, 72
wealth: children and, 184–85; global transfer under colonialism, 37; inequitable distribution of, 17, 141–42
Western nations: funding global population control, 127; population bomb discourses in, 141, 142fig.; stigmatization of Indian reproduction, 200
We Two Our Two, 190–93, 193fig., 194, 200
widow remarriage, 13, 23, 51, 86
Wilder, Frank, 197–98
Williams, Rebecca, 162
Wilson, Robert, 147
Woman’s Role in the Planned Economy (WRPE), 95–96
women and women’s bodies: agency in contraceptive decisions, 145–46, 154; birth control, health and beauty, 175fig., 181; challenges to instrumentalization of, 212; desexualization of, 178; disindividuation in population control, 146–49; emancipation of, 82, 87–89, 94, 96; fighting oppression, 95, 96–98; in narrative of Emergency’s excesses, 163; and reproductive autonomy, 205, 210–12; sacrificed to war on population growth, 138–45; and sexual desire, 178–79; as sites to enact development plans, 124–25, 127; undercounting of, 34; war on, 163–64; women’s labor and the economy, 22, 96
Women’s Indian Association (WIA), 75
women’s movement in India: birth control to improve women’s health, 119–20; and child marriage, 74–76; class and access to NPC planners, 116; co-optation by the state, 94, 229n4; leader in contraceptive advocacy, 76, 78, 81; and national development, 26, 93, 94; reproduction issues in, 13; and reproductive regulation, 96; service in, 132; shaping of national policy, 122–23; success through alliances, 123
women’s rights: alignment with national development, 98–99; to contraception, 100; and control of family size, 98–99; and health, 119; and population control, 93, 95; and universal empowerment, 206; for working-class women, 134
working class: birth control clinics for, 85; famine mortality among, 47; food scarcity among, 36, 37; and sterilization, 157, 160, 210; as target of family planning efforts, 95, 127–28, 130, 134; and unequal access to resources, 88; We Two Our Two and, 190–92
World Health Organization (WHO), 106–7, 118, 120–21, 233n83
WRPE. See Woman’s Role in the Planned Economy (WRPE)

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