A population out of control? Myths about Muslim fertility in contemporary India

This paper describes and criticizes myths about the scale and causes of fertility differentials between Hindus and Muslims in India. These ideas, associated with Hindu nationalist organizations, also have a more general common-sense quality. The paper challenges these views by examining how demographers have addressed Hindu-Muslim fertility differences, considering the impact of regional differences, variations in socioeconomic position, and occupation. We further suggest that these elaborate statistical analyses on large-scale data sets are not readily sensitive to local-level variations. Our micro-level research findings are used to illuminate both Hindu Right political rhetoric and the limitations of macro-level demographic analyses. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.