Storming the Citadels of Poverty: Family Planning under the Emergency in India, 1975–1977

Abstract

This article examines family planning during the Emergency in India, drawing upon the archive of the Shah Commission of Inquiry. It aims, primarily, to understand why family planning became such an important point of state intervention during the Emergency, when millions were sterilized. I argue that family planning was intended as a technocratic fix for the problem of poverty and that, although the family planning program existed before the Emergency, it received a fillip through Indira Gandhi's Emergency-era push for poverty eradication thanks to the established position of population control as a prerequisite for economic development. Secondly, it aims to understand how the Emergency and sterilization have become conflated in popular memory, such that the driving forces of poverty eradication and economic development have dropped out of the story altogether. The link between poverty eradication and population control has been forgotten, and a narrative of arbitrary family planning "excess" endured.

Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy: Empirical Evidence from India*

“…The aggressive family planning program varied widely across states in India. The primary reason is the role of Sanjay Gandhi and his rapid rise to power during this period (Gwatkin 1979; Vicziany 1982; Nayar 2013; Chandra 2017; Williams 2014). Family planning was a key element of his self-declared five-point program and became the central theme of public addresses during this period.…”

“…The history of forced sterilization policy during India's emergency rule leaves little doubt that our instrument is relevant. Various sources, including Gwatkin (1979), Vicziany (1982), Chandra (2017), Indian National Congress (2011), Nayar (2013), and Williams (2014), describe the forced sterilization policy was aggressively undertaken owing to the active role played by Sanjay Gandhi.…”

“…We construct an instrument based on the well-known insight from the emergency period that the forced sterilization policy was aggressively undertaken because of the active role played by Sanjay Gandhi, the son of the prime minister Indira Gandhi (Gwatkin 1979; Vicziany 1982; Chandra 2017; Indian National Congress 2011; Nayar 2013; Williams 2014). Family planning was a key element of his self-declared five-point program, and became the central theme of public address during this period.…”

One-child Ideation in India

“…In order to attempt to explain this, a much deeper understanding of the changing nature of the family and childbearing in India must be undertaken. A wide body of literature has identified the key role which India's comprehensive family planning policy has played in shaping recent trajectories (Banerji, 1992;Jiang & Hardee, 2014;Rajan & Padmavathi, 1990;Rao, 2003;Santhya, 2003;Srinivasan, 1983;Williams, 2014).…”

Between the West and Asia: “Humanistic” Japanese Family Planning in the Cold War

“…Thus, this paper, in analyzing Japan’s engagement in family planning as development aid, aims to offer a fresh insight into the history of population control. By unpacking the claim that the “humanistic” family planning initiative was nurtured in Japan’s experience both as a population controller and a subject of population control, and contextualizing it with the history of the Cold War in which Japan oscillated between the West and Asia, this paper overcomes the dichotomy prevalent in the history of postwar population control initiatives, which has thus far focused chiefly on the neocolonial imperial power system built on the legacies of Western colonialism, or on non-Western “acceptors” of Western family planning initiatives (e.g., López 2014, Williams 2014, Kuo 2002, Chatterjee and Riley 2001). At the same time, by highlighting Japanese actors’ subjectivities and intra-Asian regional networks centered on Japanese actors in the arena of development aid, this paper also borders the burgeoning scholarship that critically assesses postwar developmentalism within Japan (Moore 2014, Dinmore 2013, Sato 2012, 2011).…”