INDIA'S REAL PROBLEM
SIR,—The Indian Census Commissioner's Report, 1941 (Vol. I, p. 33) has something to say upon the notion propounded by Mr. D. M. Sen in your issue of June 16th that " the peak-rise-period " of India's popula- tion " is already over." Here it is: " . . ..a little-changing but high birth rate, a falling death rate and a markedly dropping infantile death rate accompany a downward trend in the death rate from cholera and the continued diminution of plague as a cause of mortality. All these tendencies taken together point in one direction, namely, a substantial growth rate in the population."
India's problem is very far from being a short-term one, a fact of which Mr. Sen's letter is itself evidence since it shows little appreciation of the urgent need for the " new approach " urged by Professor Hill, who, by a slight misquotation, is represented by. Mr. Sen as advocating " a purely Indian Government." Such a Government could bring about " drastic social change" better than any other. But would it?—Yours faithfully,
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