Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
South Asia: India,Giant
of the Subcontinent
“We wear the dust of history on our
foreheads and the mud of the future on
our feet. ”
S HASHI T HAROOR (1997)
Indian scholar and writer Shashi Tharoor (1997) be-
Demographic Challenges
lieves that “The central challenge of India as we enter
the twenty-first century is the challenge of accommodat-
ing the aspirations of different groups in the Indian
dream.” The reality of 1.12 billion individuals, belonging
to countless ethnic, linguistic, religious, caste, and other
defined groups, makes India' s continued existence as a
federation amazing. Federalism is a governmental system
whereby central and regional authorities are voluntarily
tied in a mutually interdependent relationship. In this
light, India is a classic paradox; it is a unity of disunity . It
is multi-textured, a cauldron of competing interests, a col-
lection of centers and peripheries (Figure 8-1).
Independent India was conceived with diversity in
mind. Its ability to change, redrawing boundaries along
linguistic lines for instance, is a large part of its raison
d'etre . Federalism thrives on the tension between cores
and peripheries, as long as the links are not severed.
With this in mind, India' s Constitution grants extraordi-
nary powers to federal authorities when unity and the in-
tegrity of the nation are threatened. Thus far, separatist
movements have been quashed. However, after years of
independence, the voices of dissension are more fre-
quent, much louder, and more powerful. These arise
from social inequity , regional disparity , and political in-
stability . These are some of India' s challenges.
Figure 8-2 shows that India is already densely populated,
especially in the Ganges River valley . At its partition,
India' s population was 344 million. According to the
1991 census, it was 844 million. By 2003, it had reached
more than a billion. Although India' s NIR has fallen from
2.1 in 1978 to 1.6 in 2009, overall population growth is
phenomenal. India' s highest growth rate was in the 1970s
and 1980s at 28 percent. In the 2000s, it has dropped
only to 22 percent. India adds at least 18 million people
a year—2,000 babies are born every hour! Its area is just
half that of China, but it will probably exceed it in popu-
lation by 2020. Moreover, as we will see below , food pro-
duction is not keeping pace with population growth.
FAMILY PLANNING AND FERTILITY
India has a less-than-successful history of family plan-
ning in terms of programs and their impacts. In 1952, it
became the first country in Asia to establish an official
family planning program with the aim of curtailing pop-
ulation growth. V arious national and state programs
were instituted, including promotion of IUDs and steril-
ization. Three million men underwent vasectomies in
1970-1971.
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