Myth of Population Control

by Mahmood Mamdani

Clean, tight book. A study of why the big birth reduction campaign put on by the Indian government and the Rockefeller Foundation in an Indian village in the Punjab failed so dismally. Bibliography.173pp.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Sociology, India, Africa, Anthropology

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University and Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala. He is the author of Citizen and Subject, When Victims Become Killers, and Good Muslim, Bad Muslim.

Mamdani is married to Mira Nair, the acclaimed Indian film director and producer. Mamdani and Nair's only son, Zohran Mamdani, is the mayor-elect of New York City.

Reviews

[Conrad Barwa]

Very similar to post-modernist critiques of development programmes circulating today, though this is written in the 1970s and utilises a more Marxist paradigm. Some of the analysis of the class structure of agrarian society is dated by now, which has implications for the arguement that rural people favour larger families. Long term demographic decline can and has taken place in rural areas as well, with factors such as female literacy being key. However, as a critique of how top-down, modernist, high planning and social engineering can go wrong if it doesn't properly understand its subjects, it still remains highly relevant.

[Pratiti]

In this fascinating book about population, Mamdani points out why the population issue is not about illiteracy or ignorance and is inherently tied to the economic factors in rural India.

[Brock]

this book can change your entire view on any issue dealing with the modern human world

[Sachin Bhatia]

What are good intentions?