Population Dynamics in Asia: A Research Focus on the Future -- The Indian Subcontinent

Abstract

When political independence was gained by the huge population of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, two large nations were formed, India and Pakistan. Then their combined populations numbered just over 410 million (339 million in India, and about 73.6 million in Paistan). Today their combined populations number 610 million (about 495 million in India, and 115 million in Pakistan). The division of the population of the subcontinent into two nations was primarily along religious lines, with Islam being the principal religion in Pakistan and Hinduism that of India. Pakistan was formed from two areas having large concentrations of Moslem populations. But these areas are separated by more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory; thus, Pakistan has a very curious geography. Communication between the wings is by expensive air and rail routes across Northern India or by a 2,600-mile sea route through the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Nor is it only distance that divides Pakistan. West Pakistan is a land of rugged mountains and river valleys, much of it very arid, sparsely-settled desert where the summer temperature reaches 120'F. Water and irrigation are the keys to settlement in the West. East Pakistan, on the other hand, is a vast delta area, extremely wet, with up to 100 inches of rainfall during the monsoon season. Even during the dry season much of East Pakistan is under water. During the rainy season extensive transportation is possible only by boat or by air. West Pakistan has almost six times as much territory (310,403 square miles) but only a little more than four-fifths as much population (43 million in 1961) as East Pakistan (55,126 square miles and 50.9 million people). The peoples of East and West Pakistan are united by a common religious bond, but they differ in racial characteristics, diet, dress, language, and manners. Although there are great diversities between the people in the East and West wings of Pakistan in the matters of climate, custom and language, perhaps more important is the uniformity in their tie to the land, low economic development, illiteracy, poor and ill-balanced diet, and lack of adequate communication, transportation and health facilities. In India there is also the sad face of poverty, a picture of people poorly housed, poorly clothed, often living and sleeping on the streets in misery, squalor, and wretchedness. These vague, inadequate, and perhaps misleading images are changing rapidly under the impact of India's efforts to raise her pitifully low levels of living, to cast aside the bonds of poverty,