When this book was originally published in 1989 here had been virtually no studies of the country’s historical demography. This volume was significant for 3 reasons: it contributed greatly to the knowledge of India’s population history; it had major implications for the work of social and economic historians of India; and lastly the Indian context provides an excellent laboratory in which to investigate certain large-scale demographic phenomena – among others the experience of bubonic plague, influenza, cholera and famine.

Presents legislature of the Central Provinces and Berar and its interaction with the national movement from 1921 to 1937. During the period three groups were active: Moderates, the Swarajists and a Motley group which believed in responsive cooperation with the government. Apart from political ideology, many of them were imbued with local loyalties; quite often personal ambitions and interests affected the views and legislative behaviour of many a member.

A Population History of India provides an account of the size and characteristics of India's population stretching from when hunter-gatherer homo sapiens first arrived in the country - very roughly seventy thousand years ago - until the modern day. It is a period during which the population grew from just a handful of people to reach almost 1.4 billion, and a time when the fact of death had a huge influence on the nature of life. This book considers the millennia that were characterized by hunting and gathering, the Indus valley civilization, the opening-up of the Ganges river basin, and the eras of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, British colonial rule, and India since independence. By observing India through a demographic lens, A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day addresses mortality, fertility, the size of cities, patterns of migration, and the multitude of famines, epidemics, invasions, wars, and other events that affected the population. It draws together research from archaeology, cultural studies, economics, epidemiology, linguistics, history, and politics to understand the likely trajectory of India's population in comparison to the trends that applied to Europe and China, and to reveal a surprising and dramatic story.

Highlights the state of affairs in nine districts of the erstwhile Central Provinces and Berar, alongwith the interpretation of unknown facts, enlarging it from objective empiricism to historicism on the basis of sociological and historical perspectives. Salient Features (i) It identifies the changeability of the educational pattern from indigenous nature to modern perspectives at all levels. (ii) It highlights the emergence of leadership, new values, nationalism and freedom struggle and also shows how education works as condition, instrument and as an effect of social change in the region. (iii) It explains the extent of adoption and non-adoption of educational facilities at all levels in the context of socio-cultural conditions. (iv) It reveals how English models were initiated too slavishly, students were being crammed with undigested knowledge and teachers obsessed with results. (v) It highlights the Hitavada’s relentless crusade for a separate university, forecast of Jabalpur and Amravati Universities and demand for more autonomy in the province. (vi) It shows how the period of four decades in question transformed a society. (vii) It refers over-all educational backwardness of females, low-castes and aboriginal tribes with a growing assertion of claims to social and political recognition. (viii) It reveals how minorities’ interest in education became manifest through conferences and C.P. Legislative Council. (ix) It highlights positional and structural changes occurred due to education. In short, this book shows how poor ‘peripheral’ society of Vidarbha could make headway on the guidelines of ‘core’ societies and achieve the objective of ‘sustainable development’ through educational expansion.