The ‘Population Bomb’ of the Aged
merely economic and military power. It
Mohan Rao
T
here are some overwhelming
tropes that unite most demogra-
phic discourses. Racism, one of
them, is of course linked with neo-
Malthusianism, and not just because
they came together in the West in the late
19th century. We might begin, then, with
a brief genealogy of neo-Malthusianism.
Genealogies are fundamentally about
accepted, legal marriages and births.
The late 19th-century marriage of colo-
nial anthropology with craniometry and
the “science” of “race” produced the “sci-
ence” of eugenics. Framing these disci-
plines was the reality of colonialism that
midwifed and nurtured these disciplines.
Eugenics, of course, is a parent of neo-
Malthusianism and of sociobiology. The
American anthropologist D G Brinton
argued, in praise of anthropometry:
The adult who retains the more numerous
fetal, infantile or simian traits is unques-
tionably inferior to him whose development
has progressed beyond them. Measured by
these criteria, the European or white race
stands at the head of the list, the African
or Negro at its foot. (Brinton 1890 cited in
Gould 1981: 116)
Thus anthropology taught us, and
anthropometry and craniometry quanti-
fied, the following: natives and savages
were childlike, effeminate, instinctive,
sensual, un-reflexive, irrational, less in-
telligent, and in thrall of customs and
traditions. Strangely, they were also
hyper-sexual and thus tended to breed
too much. In Kipling’s words, half-devil
and half-child, these sullen new-caught
people. They were to be “the white man’s
burden,” incapable of self-rule.1 This was
of course evident from the position of
women in these societies.
At the same time, psychology also
showed us that “the metaphysical char-
acteristics of women were very similar
in essential nature to those which men
exhibit at an early stage of development.
The gentler sex, is characterised by a
Economic & Political Weekly EPW DECEMBER 22, 2018
book reviewS
As the World Ages: Rethinking a Demographic
Crisis by Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, Harvard University
Press, 2018; pp 320 (hardcover), price: unstated.
greater impressibility, warmth of emo-
tion, submission to its influence rather
than that of logic” (Gould 1981: 117).
Blandly stated, racism, anti-feminisms
and colonialism come promiscuously to-
gether in the social sciences, with the
coloniser to send forth the best he
breeds to quell the sullen natives.
Armed with these insights, eugenics set
out to improve the human race through
two policy prescriptions: decreasing un-
wanted populations through negative
eugenics, that is, not permitting popula-
tions that exhibited undesirable charac-
teristics to breed; and providing incen-
tives to the best and brightest to breed
through positive eugenics. The victims of
negative eugenics have been the “feeble
minded,” the tubercular, the alcoholic,
the “indigent,” the “congenital criminal,”
the mentally retarded, the insane, lepers,
epileptics, the “degenerate,” immigrants
and of course the poor, who apparently
bred all these characteristics, especially
if they were Black or coloured. All this,
with the supreme imprimatur of science,
like theology, unquestionable, since this
was truth. According to Francis Galton,
eugenics would breed out the vestigial
barbarism of the human race, manipu-
lating evolution to bring the biological
reality of man into consonance with his
lofty moral ideas of what mankind could,
and indeed should be. He thus argued,
“what nature does blindly, slowly, and
ruthlessly, man may do providently,
quickly and kindly” (Galton, cited in
Kevles 1995: 12). Eugenics was thus a sci-
entific substitute for the orthodoxies of
the church, a secular religious faith.
Eugenics was also tied to the destiny of
the imperial nation. Such a nation, it
vol lIiI no 50
was felt, required much more than
also demanded an efficient way of en-
suring that its population was kept fresh,
energetic, efficient and productive by
ensuring that its fresh flow of population
is mainly recruited from the “better
stock” (Rao 2004: 178).
Eugenics was discredited by science,
but more importantly, by the Holocaust,
although it continues to hold enormous
appeal among ultranationalists across
the globe. In India, the Hindutvavadis
are firm believers in this.2
Central to all this is, of course, the
census. Indeed, the census is much more
than the counting of populations; it is a
harbinger of modernity, of the modern
nation state, and in colonial times, “the
white man’s burden.” It also had security
implications. But in not-yet-nations, or
colonised countries, how is a census to
be conducted, where “savages” are noto-
riously difficult to count, run away from
the census enumerator, are prone to
lying, and anyway, have no idea of
their ages?
In this fascinating book, Kavita Siva-
ramakrishnan takes us through these
questions even before she addresses the
issue of how aging became designated as
a problem, first in the West, and then since
1982, globally. Earlier, we had a global
diagnosis of “overpopulation” of the poor
largely in third world countries, where a
“population bomb” was about to explode.
Demographers, sociologists, anthropo-
logists, economists, and funding agencies
in the West convinced policymakers in
much of the so-called developing world
about tackling this urgent problem. This
was a political project, not one based on
welfare and rights of citizens. By em-
phasising population growth, these
arguments ignored questions about who
was actually consuming these resources.
Arguments about population explosion,
diverted our thinking away from ideas
of “effective population.”
Today, as much of the world undergoes
a demographic and health transition, as
birth rates begin a secular decline, we have
the diagnosis of an overpopulation of
the aged. This is what Sivaramakrishnan
21
BOOK REVIEW
traces—the ideas, actors and institu-
tions that shape the landscape of social
gerontology. As with all stories on issues
of population, a range of political con-
cerns shapes this story.
All social sciences are naturally con-
gealed with politics, but perhaps with
demography more than any other social
science. Indeed, it has been argued that
demography ceased to be a social science
discipline in the Cold War years, when it
got closely aligned with security studies
(Hodgson 1983: 1–34). So according to
that guru of demography, Kingsley Davis,
population control was essential to fight
communism, and the United States (US)
was willing to put its dollars here. Davis
of course figures regularly in this book.
After 9/11, fanciful “youth bulge” theo-
ries have been explanations for the un-
rest in the Arab world, not the politics of
imperialism. These argue that the age
structure of population, predominantly
young, have, what has been referred to as
testosterone militancy. Ironically refe-
rred to, in critiques, as “blue balls” theo-
ries, this can be equally fancifully, an
explanation for the Gujarat genocide of
2002, as for the ongoing conflict in
Kashmir (Caluya 2013: 54–66). Explaining
everything, these demographic explana-
tions explain nothing.
Sivaramakrishnan would have been
the ideal person to explore and flesh out
this issue further. She makes references
to these concerns through several chap-
ters, but does not raise the question:
why? Is this because gerontology realised
they could only obtain sustained funding
from the state, as opposed to international
non-governmental organisations, if they
appealed to security concerns of the US?
This is important because the arguments
are so weak, both conceptually and em-
pirically, and yet manage to shift policy.
While discussing the politics of the cen-
suses, Sivaramakrishnan fails to note
the census’s role in communalisation in
colonial India. Censuses in the United
Kingdom never counted religious com-
munities despite the religious wars in
Britain; census in colonial India enumer-
ated people by religion, thus construct-
ing religious communities, forcing some
communities to decide whether they were
Hindus or Muslims (Cohn 1984: 244).
22
Initially, especially in the case of Africa, How could this have happened? It was
the data on the problems of ageing came again the US initiatives, trying to make
from ethnographers and missionaries. up for Reagan’s neo-liberal policies of
In the West, during this period in the trimming welfare.
1950s, it was the problems of “premature The third world countries declared
ageing,” that is, atherosclerosis, coronary they had other problems and priorities,
artery disease and cancers that came even as they reinforced neo-orientalist
under scrutiny. The field was dominated discourses, emphasising the role of the
by doctors. By the 1960s and 1970s, the family in the third world. Yet, the US, go-
Cold War concerns, along with increas- ing through neo-liberal withdrawal of
ing funding shaped the field, bringing in the state, set the agenda here, in a world
more social concerns. Security studies deeply divided on ageing, as on income.
also came to shape the field in the US. As the idea of a welfare state diminishes
Ageing in the US was now seen as dis- globally, so does the idea of universal
tinct from that in Western Europe. pensions. Instead, the aged are expected
When American experts observed ageing-re- now to be “active” and productive.
lated policies in Europe, one of the key con- Sivaramakrishnan’s vision is global.
cerns stemmed from their discomfort with She takes us through Asia, Africa and
the ideology of welfare itself. (p 97)
the Americas, in addition to Europe,
Yet, scrutinising the work of demographers,
American social experts’ ascendency in mo- anthropologists, geriatrists, public health
bilising international networks and research scholars and public policy documents.
collaborations in aging was readily evident. In early October 2018, Russia erupted
(p 100)
over the issue of raising the retirement
By 1982, largely at the instance of the age to 65 for men and 60 for women. We
US, ageing had been declared a global also saw a massive demonstration of the
problem. The report of the World Asse- Pension Parishad organisation in front
mbly on Ageing in Vienna observed that of Parliament in New Delhi, demanding
“the population of the developing coun- universal pensions. This book has never
tries is basically a young population, been more relevant.
which needs a more just, equal and more It is time we moved away from talking
human world” (p 132), yet it goes on to merely about population, to talking about
assert that the problem of ageing is global. “effective population,” which brings in
Review of Urban Affairs
December 15, 2018
From Intermittent to Continuous Water Supply: —Isha Ray, Narayan Billava,
A Household-level Evaluation of Water System Zachary Burt, John M ColforD jr,
Reforms in Hubli–Dharwad Ayşe Ercümen, K P Jayaramu, Emily Kumpel,
Nayanatara Nayak, Kara Nelson, Cleo Woelfle-Erskine
Sensitivity of Traffic Demand to Fare Rationalisation: —Sunil Ashra, Sharat Sharma,
The Case of Delhi’s Airport Metro Express Link Narain Gupta
Roads to New Urban Futures: Flexible Territorialisation in
Peri-urban Kolkata and Hyderabad —Sudeshna Mitra
Negotiating Street Space Differently: Muslim Youth and Alternative Learning —Rafia Kazim
Predicting the Future of Census Towns —Shamindra Nath Roy, Kanhu Charan Pradhan
Mission Impossible: Defining Indian Smart Cities —Sama Khan, Persis Taraporevala,
Marie-Hélène Zérah
Recent Perspectives on Urbanisation: Ahmedabad Stories —Howard Spodek
For copies write to: Circulation Manager,
Economic & Political Weekly,
320–322, A to Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013.
email: circulation@epw.in
DECEMBER 22, 2018 vol lIiI no 50 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

the question of consumption of resour-
ces. The world will be a different place
for all of us, aged or otherwise. It will
be a more just world. Sivaramakrish-
nan’s book evokes all these ideas. It is
an intensely political work, extremely
understated, with a powerful photo-
graph as a cover. The book must be read
by gerontologists, of course, but also
public health workers, scholars of gender
studies, sociologists, anthropologists and
policy planners.
Mohan Rao (mohanrao2008@gmail.com) is a
former professor at the Centre of Social
Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi.
Economic & Political Weekly EPW DECEMBER 22, 2018
Notes
1 Rudyard Kipling (1899), “The White Man’s
Burden”:
Take up the White Man’s burden
Send forth the best ye breed
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
2 This is what Golwalkar (1989) famously said:
“To keep up the purity of the nation and its
culture, Germany shocked the world by her
purging the country of Semitic races—the
Jews. National pride at its highest has been
manifested here. Germany has also shown
how well-nigh impossible it is for races and
cultures, having differences going to the Root,
to be Assimilated into One United Whole, A
Good Lesson for Us in Hindustan to Learn and
Profit by.”
vol lIiI no 50
BOOK REVIEW
References
Cohn, Bernard S (1984): “The Census, Social
Structure and Objectification in South Asia,”
An Anthropologist among Historians and
Other Essays, New York: Oxford University
Press.
Caluya, Gilbert (2013): “Sexual Geopolitics: The
‘Blue Balls’ Theory of Terrorism,” Journal of
Media and Cultural Studies, Vol 27, No 1.
Golwalkar, M S (1989): We or Our Nationhood
Defined, Nagpur: Bharat Publications.
Gould, Stephen Jay (1981): The Mismeasure of Man,
New York: W W Norton and Co.
Hodgson, Dennis (1983): “Demography as Social
Science and Policy Science,” Populations and
Demographic Review, Vol 9, No 1.
Kevles, Daniel J (1995): In the Name of Eugenics:
Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, Cam-
bridge: Mass Harvard University Press.
Rao, Mohan (2004): From Population Control to
Reproductive Health: Malthusian Arithmetic,
New Delhi: Sage.
23