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The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India
The Population Myth reveals how the right-wing spin to population data has given rise to myths about the 'Muslim rate of growth', often used to stoke majoritarian fears of a demographic skew. The author, S.Y. Quraishi, uses facts to demolish these, and demonstrates how a planned population is in the interest of all communities.
The book delves into the Quran and the Hadith to show how Islam might have been one of the first religions in the world to actually advocate smaller families, which is why several Islamic nations today have population policies in place. This busts the other myth - that Muslims shun family planning on religious grounds.
Based on impeccable research, this is an important book from a credible voice about the politicization of demographics in India today.
The book delves into the Quran and the Hadith to show how Islam might have been one of the first religions in the world to actually advocate smaller families, which is why several Islamic nations today have population policies in place. This busts the other myth - that Muslims shun family planning on religious grounds.
Based on impeccable research, this is an important book from a credible voice about the politicization of demographics in India today.
- GenresPoliticsIndiaNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
Published January 15, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 24, 2021
Population control and family planning is an important part of every country’s policy. But it is also an area that is highly controversial and sensitive and policymakers need to understand nuances of culture, religion and gender while making decisions.
A right-wing narrative that has been around for years is that Muslims are averse to family planning and their population is increasing at an alarming rate and the Muslim population will soon overtake the Hindu population. The author has done a brilliant job of fighting each of these myths and propaganda with the help of solid facts derived from data obtained from credible sources. The book is an example of how data can help us in dispelling myths and separating facts from fiction. It takes the deft hand of a policymaker to explore this theme in an organized manner and cover every angle in such depth. Quraishi was the 17th CEC of India. He had introduced several electoral reforms such as the creation of a voter education division, the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management and the National Voters Day. The data, calculations and their interpretations can be easily understood to all while also maintaining the level of detail and accuracy.
The book begins with India’s family planning story since Independence till date which sets the context. It further explores the data relevant to this study and the factors that have an impact on family planning. Then the family planning among India’s Muslims and other communities is compared. It can be seen that the fertility rate of Indian Muslims is decreasing steadily with improvement in living standards among them. The next chapter, ‘Tenets of Islam and Family Planning,’ studies the views of religious authorities and scholars on the stance of Islam on family planning. It can be concluded that Islam is in fact, the forerunner of the concept of family planning. One of the most enlightening chapters is the one that explores population policies in Islamic nations. This is highly informative as it completely dispels the myth that Islam is against family planning. It would do India a lot of good to study some of the Islamic countries that have been successful in the implementation of family planning policies to see how we can adapt some of them which will face lesser resistance from Muslim populations. The next biggest factor to explore is how different religion perceives the idea of family planning and how they evolve with time and the environment.
Religion is extremely subjective and at times have been misused to fulfil certain agendas by people in positions of power. But we can see that most of the major religions are not vehemently opposed to birth control, although they encourage fertility as they were formed during times when this would ensure the survival of their community due to the presence of high infant and child immortality rates. Finally, the politics of population is looked into as politics has emerged as an influential factor and has led to religious polarization for selfish political agendas. From its analysis, the book concludes that family planning is not a Hindu-versus-Muslim issue as both communities have similar statistics. It is the socio-economic indicators that influence family planning behaviour and Hindus and Muslims have very similar and region-specific socioeconomic conditions. The author has also given some brilliant suggestions for the way forward which I hope will be considered seriously by policymakers.
Another important snippet in the book is the use of a mathematical model and census data to answer the question of ‘Will Muslim Population Overtake Hindus?’ This once and for all puts to rest the highly debated question as we can see that it is mathematically impossible. This is an excellent book to understand family planning and its politics in India and is an important book under the current political and social environment.
A right-wing narrative that has been around for years is that Muslims are averse to family planning and their population is increasing at an alarming rate and the Muslim population will soon overtake the Hindu population. The author has done a brilliant job of fighting each of these myths and propaganda with the help of solid facts derived from data obtained from credible sources. The book is an example of how data can help us in dispelling myths and separating facts from fiction. It takes the deft hand of a policymaker to explore this theme in an organized manner and cover every angle in such depth. Quraishi was the 17th CEC of India. He had introduced several electoral reforms such as the creation of a voter education division, the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management and the National Voters Day. The data, calculations and their interpretations can be easily understood to all while also maintaining the level of detail and accuracy.
The book begins with India’s family planning story since Independence till date which sets the context. It further explores the data relevant to this study and the factors that have an impact on family planning. Then the family planning among India’s Muslims and other communities is compared. It can be seen that the fertility rate of Indian Muslims is decreasing steadily with improvement in living standards among them. The next chapter, ‘Tenets of Islam and Family Planning,’ studies the views of religious authorities and scholars on the stance of Islam on family planning. It can be concluded that Islam is in fact, the forerunner of the concept of family planning. One of the most enlightening chapters is the one that explores population policies in Islamic nations. This is highly informative as it completely dispels the myth that Islam is against family planning. It would do India a lot of good to study some of the Islamic countries that have been successful in the implementation of family planning policies to see how we can adapt some of them which will face lesser resistance from Muslim populations. The next biggest factor to explore is how different religion perceives the idea of family planning and how they evolve with time and the environment.
Religion is extremely subjective and at times have been misused to fulfil certain agendas by people in positions of power. But we can see that most of the major religions are not vehemently opposed to birth control, although they encourage fertility as they were formed during times when this would ensure the survival of their community due to the presence of high infant and child immortality rates. Finally, the politics of population is looked into as politics has emerged as an influential factor and has led to religious polarization for selfish political agendas. From its analysis, the book concludes that family planning is not a Hindu-versus-Muslim issue as both communities have similar statistics. It is the socio-economic indicators that influence family planning behaviour and Hindus and Muslims have very similar and region-specific socioeconomic conditions. The author has also given some brilliant suggestions for the way forward which I hope will be considered seriously by policymakers.
Another important snippet in the book is the use of a mathematical model and census data to answer the question of ‘Will Muslim Population Overtake Hindus?’ This once and for all puts to rest the highly debated question as we can see that it is mathematically impossible. This is an excellent book to understand family planning and its politics in India and is an important book under the current political and social environment.
June 10, 2021
The book starts with concept of total fertility rate (TFR) and then discusses the data from India Census 2011 and how the TFR varies across various states between different religious communities. It is clear that the TFR for Muslim women has been higher than Hindu women in all states. The author then explores the determinants of TFR such as education levels, economic status, awareness about family planning options, availability of contraceptive options, etc. The author argues that TFR is a more a function of these socio-economic factors rather than religion. The author also argues that the prevalent belief of Islam being against family planning and female education is incorrect and the Quran and Hadith actually support child spacing methods.
April 2, 2021
This book presents excellent fact-based analysis, breaking several myths regarding how population is growing in various religious groups in India. If idea of book has to be summarised it can be said that purported population explosion cannot happen even among muslims because skewed sex ratio which restricts number of pregnancies despite polygamy. Furthermore, TFR gap between Hindus and Muslims too is closing, thereby mitigating fears of their population overshooting those of Hindus. This has also been proved through mathematical modeling explained in Appendix 1 of the book. While there are several opinions author has expressed in the book which one can disagree with, the facts mentioned speak for themselves. It has been an eye opener, even though I don't think that the author has fully analysed tenets of Islam as they are practised rather than what is prescribed in religious texts.
March 24, 2021
With the emancipation of the Census 2011 data on religion and deceiving reports in the media, the growth of the Muslim population has become the focus of the debate. In 2004, a similar but sharper controversy had erupted when the government released the Census 2001 data on religion.
There were strong but misguided media debates on the differentials in population growth by religion about Census 2001. The debate was so intense, and often so malicious, that the Union government established a committee to find out the “social, economic and educational status of the Muslims”; it published a report, popularly known as the Sachar report, which has dispelled misconceptions about Muslim population growth, as well as the status of social, economic and educational conditions according to major socio-religious categories. Now, over a decade later, it is appropriate to ask what has changed that pertains to the Muslims of India.
The Population Myth is written by former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi which evaluates India's demographics from a religious viewpoint and bust out the myths and fallacies that had been made against the 'Muslim rate of growth.'
This book delves into the Quran and the Hadith to demonstrate how Islam might have been one of the first religions in the world to endorse smaller families, which is why several Islamic nations today have population policies in place.
This book encapsulates two major arguments. The first is the common preconceptions about the Muslim community that are frequently communicated and used for political polarisation agendas e.g. that Islam encourages polygamy, which leads to a spurt in population growth. The reality is that Islam permits polygamy and giving them subject to two conditions: marrying orphans and giving them orphans two equal treatment. Even this permission has to be understood in the historical context. It is mentioned only in the context of the treatment of the orphans.
This is also accompanied by the implicit recognition in the Quran that no man will be able to do perfect justice between wives even if it is his ardent desire to do so. Similarly, the belief that Islam encourages large families is also misplaced. According to Quraishi, there is “no text prohibiting birth control in the Quran”.
It is generally believed that under Muslim law a husband has the unfettered right to marry again, even with his earlier marriage subsisting. On close examination of the relevant provisions of the Quran and the other sources of Islamic law, this does not seem to be the truth. The rule of Muslim law conditionally permitting bigamy in fact visualized two or more women happily living with a common husband. Taking a second wife after forsaking or deserting the first was not Islam's concept of bigamy. Bigamy with no restrictions or discipline whatsoever was rampant in the society Where islam made its first appearance, and also in many other societies across the globe. The Holy Quran put restrictions on it. To this Quranic reform, tne Prophet added a highly deterrent warning: A bigamist unable to treat his wives equally will be torn In India, bigamy is not very common among Muslims. In tact, great disfavour. A bigamist is looked down , looks upon as an outsider im apart on the Day of Judgement.' the Muslim society of India, in general, looks at polygamy with my with an outsider in his family.
The other major argument is the social and economic deprivations of Muslims, rather than religious or ideological factors, which account for the community having adopted contraceptive practices at a delayed and slower pace to that of Hindus. So while it is true that the population of Hindus has come down in seven decades in direct proportion to the increase in the minority population (4.3 percentage points and 4, respectively), it is also true that this trend is changing. If the growth rate of the Hindu population slowed down from 19.2 per cent to 16.76 in the decade 2001-2011, the slowing down of the Muslim population has been more pronounced — from 29.42 per cent to 14.6. In other words, the Muslim population is on the same trajectory of gradual decline as the Hindu population. This should be read along with the National Family Health Survey data from 1992-93 to 2015-16, which indicates that the pace of adapting to contraceptive behaviour has been faster among Muslims than Hindus.
This is truly an eye-opener book to understand the complicated courtship between population dynamics and fertility in religious and political viewpoints. Also important for a better understanding of public health administration, health policies not only of India but of other relevant counties also.
This book ends up answering the question. Will Muslim population overtake Hindus? With the help of two mathematical models - the polynomial growth model and exponential growth model ( prepared by professor Dinesh Singh, former vice chancellor Delhi University and professor Ajay Kumar, K R mangalam University, Gurgram)- that are fitted into the population data. It indicates conclusively that the Muslim population in India will never surpass the Hindu population.
There were strong but misguided media debates on the differentials in population growth by religion about Census 2001. The debate was so intense, and often so malicious, that the Union government established a committee to find out the “social, economic and educational status of the Muslims”; it published a report, popularly known as the Sachar report, which has dispelled misconceptions about Muslim population growth, as well as the status of social, economic and educational conditions according to major socio-religious categories. Now, over a decade later, it is appropriate to ask what has changed that pertains to the Muslims of India.
The Population Myth is written by former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi which evaluates India's demographics from a religious viewpoint and bust out the myths and fallacies that had been made against the 'Muslim rate of growth.'
This book delves into the Quran and the Hadith to demonstrate how Islam might have been one of the first religions in the world to endorse smaller families, which is why several Islamic nations today have population policies in place.
This book encapsulates two major arguments. The first is the common preconceptions about the Muslim community that are frequently communicated and used for political polarisation agendas e.g. that Islam encourages polygamy, which leads to a spurt in population growth. The reality is that Islam permits polygamy and giving them subject to two conditions: marrying orphans and giving them orphans two equal treatment. Even this permission has to be understood in the historical context. It is mentioned only in the context of the treatment of the orphans.
This is also accompanied by the implicit recognition in the Quran that no man will be able to do perfect justice between wives even if it is his ardent desire to do so. Similarly, the belief that Islam encourages large families is also misplaced. According to Quraishi, there is “no text prohibiting birth control in the Quran”.
It is generally believed that under Muslim law a husband has the unfettered right to marry again, even with his earlier marriage subsisting. On close examination of the relevant provisions of the Quran and the other sources of Islamic law, this does not seem to be the truth. The rule of Muslim law conditionally permitting bigamy in fact visualized two or more women happily living with a common husband. Taking a second wife after forsaking or deserting the first was not Islam's concept of bigamy. Bigamy with no restrictions or discipline whatsoever was rampant in the society Where islam made its first appearance, and also in many other societies across the globe. The Holy Quran put restrictions on it. To this Quranic reform, tne Prophet added a highly deterrent warning: A bigamist unable to treat his wives equally will be torn In India, bigamy is not very common among Muslims. In tact, great disfavour. A bigamist is looked down , looks upon as an outsider im apart on the Day of Judgement.' the Muslim society of India, in general, looks at polygamy with my with an outsider in his family.
The other major argument is the social and economic deprivations of Muslims, rather than religious or ideological factors, which account for the community having adopted contraceptive practices at a delayed and slower pace to that of Hindus. So while it is true that the population of Hindus has come down in seven decades in direct proportion to the increase in the minority population (4.3 percentage points and 4, respectively), it is also true that this trend is changing. If the growth rate of the Hindu population slowed down from 19.2 per cent to 16.76 in the decade 2001-2011, the slowing down of the Muslim population has been more pronounced — from 29.42 per cent to 14.6. In other words, the Muslim population is on the same trajectory of gradual decline as the Hindu population. This should be read along with the National Family Health Survey data from 1992-93 to 2015-16, which indicates that the pace of adapting to contraceptive behaviour has been faster among Muslims than Hindus.
This is truly an eye-opener book to understand the complicated courtship between population dynamics and fertility in religious and political viewpoints. Also important for a better understanding of public health administration, health policies not only of India but of other relevant counties also.
This book ends up answering the question. Will Muslim population overtake Hindus? With the help of two mathematical models - the polynomial growth model and exponential growth model ( prepared by professor Dinesh Singh, former vice chancellor Delhi University and professor Ajay Kumar, K R mangalam University, Gurgram)- that are fitted into the population data. It indicates conclusively that the Muslim population in India will never surpass the Hindu population.
June 1, 2021
With logic, and data from unimpeachable sources, S.Y. Quraishi sir's book debunks the myth around exaggerated fears of Indian Muslim numbers. Personally, I felt not that engaging when reading and understanding the hard data but that helped me in breaking the age old stereotypes about population and family planning myths.
March 20, 2022
Complete work of justification that paranoia about muslim population raising is just a myth and not a fact, while the writer has stated everything very elaboratively i believe that he forgot to mention that percentage largely depends on ghe base number and every percentage flared up in this books lacks that context whi h means if he claims there are certain % people who follow a particular rule percentage cannot be a common denominator as the base number different is that context. None the less this book gives a very comprehensive documentation of good steps taken by the community to tackle many problems, it makes of a good read...
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September 9, 2021The narrative that by 2035 Muslims in India would outnumber Hindus is so infectious that it has made Hindu majority in India insecure. How far this is true or simply a false propaganda to serve an agenda can be understood from this book. The writer is former Chief Election Commissioner and has done a thorough research in coming to the truth.
The narrative proves to be a myth. The findings of the book are based on data and well compiled statistics that debunks this propaganda. Everyone should read this book to save the pluralism of India.
The narrative proves to be a myth. The findings of the book are based on data and well compiled statistics that debunks this propaganda. Everyone should read this book to save the pluralism of India.
July 24, 2021
Facts rightly placed. Consider the book ended on chap 7. If someone has a set ideology/mindset (and is not impressed by first 7 chapters) chapter 8 can't change it. By quoting every tom dick and harry in political sphere, It just somehow works to reduce the status of a scholarly work.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews