Tanya Martinez
Redefining National Development in The Third World: Reproductive Regulation in Post-Colonial India
This module examines the complex history through which reproductive regulation and national development came to be linked in India post-1950s. Through this module, learners will evaluate how caste/class, religion, and broader normative citizenship determined the role each civilian would play in the project of nation-building for the post-colonial state.
Learners will consider how the body served as a site for colonial violence and domination irrespective of the state’s nominal sovereignty and how this autonomy was only extended to those existing within the defined standards of normative citizenship. Importantly, learners will see how this process included various stakeholders who are not typically included as part of dominant narratives, including but not limited to demographers, academics, colonial elites, Western interests, upper-caste Indian women, etc.
This module is designed for undergraduate students interested in international development and its ties to colonial histories. No prior experience is required, but students interested in public policy, history, political science, international relations, and critical race and ethnic studies will likely find many connections between this module and their respective disciplines. This module is particularly important for learners hoping to work in policymaking, international development, and/or bureaucratic affairs since it will allow them to better understand the complex history and process of exporting unsuccessful policies that fail to take sociocultural differences into consideration. This module is centered on ethical narratives, policymaking lessons, and the West’s entanglement in postcolonial reproductive politics. Through this module, learners will gain tools to dismantle stereotypes surrounding peoples from the Global South and their relationship with birth control, Western medicine, and the West as a whole.
Structure
This module is divided into two parts. Ideally, learners will spend one week on each of the parts. To begin the module, students are asked to familiarize themselves with the context behind mounting population growth concerns by 1) watching a short YouTube clip; 2) reading a brief New York Times column from the late 1980s; and 3) listening to a Future Perfect podcast from Vox. These can be done in any order and should only take about 45 minutes to complete. The second half of the module will focus on two book chapters, one by the historian and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies scholar Mytheli Sreenivas, titled 4) “Regulating Reproduction in the Era of the Planetary ‘Population Bomb’,” another by historian Matthew James Connelly, titled 5) “The Population Establishment.” These can also be read in any order.
Individual works can be engaged with in any order, but the first half of the module should be completed before beginning the latter half. The longer chapter readings will take approximately two hours each to read, so budget about 4 hours for the substantive portion of the reading.
After completing this module, learners will have a foundational understanding of the relationship between population control and national development for “Third World” countries such as India, and how India’s colonial history has shaped this coercive project into present day. Learners should be able to compose a short analytical essay (approx. 750–1,000 words) describing their takeaways from the learning materials, as well as any new questions that have been raised. While reading/watching, learners should carefully consider the following guiding questions:
Does international development, especially at the family planning level, require identifying an “Other” or outside group? (For example, in India, there were many concerns over Muslim population growth.)
How is population control linked to Western notions of development and modernity?
How did Cold War rivalries between the US and USSR, and mounting fear of the expansion of communism shape American policy on USAID being inextricably linked to reproductive regulation?
Tanya Martinez is a soon-to-be graduate of the University of Chicago, completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy Studies with Honors and a Specialization in International Development and a Minor in Human Rights. She recently completed her BA Thesis titled “‘Que no Haya Duda’: Language, Documentation Status, and Policing in Elgin, Illinois.” Throughout her time at the College, Tanya has primarily been active in various immigration efforts, including serving as President of New Americans UChicago and interning with the Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. Following her graduation, Tanya will be moving to Boston, MA as she begins working full-time at a law firm as a Project Analyst.
Learning Resources
Section 1
“Family Planning” by Walt Disney Productions (1968)
This short film on population control has a run time of approximately 10 minutes and was widely circulated by Walt Disney Productions in the late 1960s. The purpose of this material is primarily to introduce students to the type of broadcast materials shared with target audiences of birth control campaigns.
Barbara Crossette, “Why India Is Still Failing To Stop Its Population Surge,” in the New York Times (July 9, 1989)
This short piece is included in the first half of the module that seeks to contextualize the process by which reproductive regulation was first linked to national development for India. Crossette notably discusses demographers’ retrospective regret for understudying the role of cultural mores and ideas when designing India’s family planning campaign, citing this error as the reason for its overall failure.
Dylan Matthews and Byrd Pinkerton, “‘The Time of Vasectomy’: How American Foundations Fueled a Terrible Atrocity in India,” in Vox’s Future Perfect Podcast (June 5, 2019)
This article, though can be read as a standalone, should be read alongside the embedded Future Perfect podcast that goes into more detail on various American philanthropists and organizations that were key stakeholders throughout the modernization of India via population control. This podcast has a runtime of approximately 28 minutes.
Section 2
Mytheli Sreenivas, Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India (2021)
Read “Chapter 4: Regulating Reproduction in the Era of the Planetary ‘Population Bomb’”
This chapter is the foundational underpinning of this module, providing various ethnographic accounts of Indian women relating to their lived experiences with state-sponsored reproductive regulation. Various intersections, including caste and religion, are raised in the text in order to interrogate each stakeholder’s role in the project.
Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (2008)
Read “Chapter 5: The Population Establishment”
This chapter expands upon the rampant double standards and hypocrisy of the West, particularly the United States and other international organizations, in seeking to address the issue of population growth. That is, the U.S. held a disproportionately high level of authority in foreign family planning policy due to their leveraging of vital resources e.g., USAID, without reckoning with their own increasing domestic population rate.