THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY

T he M althusian T heory of P opulation G rowth Among the most famous theories of demography is the one associated with the English political economist Thomas Robert Malthus ( – ). Malthus’s theory of population growth – outlined in his Essay on Population ( ) – was a rather pessimistic one. He argued that human populations tend to grow at a much faster rate than the rate at which the means of human subsistence (specially food, but also clothing and other agriculture-based products) can grow. Therefore humanity is condemned to live in poverty forever because the growth of agricultural production will always be overtaken by population growth.

While population rises in geometric progression (i.e., like , , , , , etc.), agricultural production can only grow in arithmetic progression (i.e., like , , , , , etc.). Because population growth always outstrips growth in production of subsistence resources, the only way to increase prosperity is by controlling the growth of population. Unfortunately, humanity has only a limited ability to voluntarily reduce the growth of its population (through ‘ preventive checks ’ such as postponing marriage or practicing sexual abstinence or celibacy). Malthus believed therefore that ‘ positive checks ’ to population growth – in the form of famines and diseases – were inevitable because they were nature’s way of dealing with the imbalance between food supply and increasing population.

Malthus’s theory was influential for a long time. But it was also challenged by theorists who claimed that economic growth could outstrip population