Skip to main content

Demography of Bengal from a Historical Perspective

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Population Dynamics in Eastern India and Bangladesh

Abstract

The study highlights the importance of historical factors in explaining population change. The culmination of ongoing socio-economic processes over the course of the twentieth century has provided the backdrop for the demographic transition in present-day Bangladesh and West Bengal.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adnan, S. (1990). Annotation of village studies in Bangladesh and West Bengal: A review of socio-economic trends over 1942–88. Kotabari, Comilla: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adnan, Shapan. (1993). Birds in a Cage: Institutional change and women’s position in Bangladesh. In N. Frederici, K. Mason, & S. Sogner (Eds.), Women’s position and demographic change. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahluwalia, I., & Hussain, Z. (2004). Development achievements and challenges. Economic and Political Weekly (September 4), 4013–4022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arends-Kuenning, M. (2002). Reconsidering the doorstep-delivery system in the Bangladesh family planning programme. Studies in Family Planning, 33(1), 87–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, D. (1999). ‘An ancient race outworn’—Malaria and race in colonial India, 1860–1930. In W. Ernst & M. Harrison (Eds.), Race, science and medicine 1700–1960. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basu, A. M., & Amin, S. (2000). Conditioning factors for fertility decline in Bengal: History, language, identity and openness to innovations. Population and Development Review 26(4), 761–794.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, C. (1984). Bangladesh: A new nation in an old setting. London: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhat, P. N. M., Preston, S. H., & Dyson, T. (1984). Panel on India, committee on population and demography, commission on behavioural and social sciences and education, national research council. Vital Rates in India, 1961–1981. Washington DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, H. W. (1990). Local government and rural development in the Bengal Sundarbans: An inquiry in managing common property resources. Agriculture and Human Values 7(2), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01530435.

  • Bose, S. (1982). Agrarian society and politics in Bengal 1919–1947. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, St. Catherine’s College, University of Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C. (1976). Toward a restatement of demographic transition theory. Population and Development Review, 2(3), 321–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C. (1986). Routes to low mortality in poor countries. Population and Development Review, 12(2), 171–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C, Khuda, B., Caldwell, B., Pieres, I., & Caldwell, P. (1999). The Bangladesh fertility decline: An interpretation. Population and Development Review 25(1), 67–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandra, S. K. (1987). Family planning programme in India—Its impact in rural and urban areas, 1970–1980. New Delhi: Mittal Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekharan, C., & George, M. V. (1962). Mechanisms underlying the differences in fertility patterns of Bengalee women from three socio-economic groups. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 11(1), 59–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cleland, J., Phillips, J., Amin, S., & Kamal, G. M. (1994). The Determinants of reproductive change in Bangladesh: Success in a challenging environment. Washington DC: World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleland, J., & Streatfield, P. K. (1992). Demographic transition in Bangladesh. Dhaka: UNICEF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connelly, M. (2006). Population control in India: Prologue to the emergency period. Population and Development Review, 32(4), 629–667.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, K. (1951). The population of India and Pakistan. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Haan, A. (1995). Migration in eastern India: A segmented labour market. Indian Economic and Social History Review, 32(1), 51–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dreze, J., & Sen, A. (2002). India: Development and participation. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dyson, T., & Maharatna, A. (1991). Excess mortality during the Bengal famine: A re-evaluation. Indian Economic and Social History Review, 28(3), 281–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etienne, G. (1977). Bangladesh: Development in perspective. Geneva: Asian Documentation and Research Centre, Graduate Institute of International Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, H. (1972). From crisis to crisis: Pakistan 1962–1969. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh, S. (2016). Second demographic transition or aspirations in transition: an exploratory analysis of lowest-low fertility in Kolkata. India, Asian Population Studies, 13(1), 25–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730.2016.1203211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guruswamy, M., Sharma, K., & Mohanty, J. P. (2005). Economic growth and development in West Bengal: Reality versus perception. Economic and Political Weekly 21(May 21), 2151–2157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haider, M. M., Rahman, M., & Kamal, N. (2019). Hindu population growth in Bangladesh: A demographic puzzle. Journal of Religion and Demography, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1163/2589742x-00601003.

  • Hashemi, S. M., & Hasan, Mirza. (1999). Building NGO legitimacy in Bangladesh: The contested domain. In D. Lewis (Ed.), International perspectives on voluntary action: Reshaping the third sector (pp. 124–131). London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huq, N., & Cleland, J. (1990). Bangladesh fertility survey 1989: Main report. Dhaka: National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT).

    Google Scholar 

  • International Monetary Fund. (2005). Bangladesh poverty reduction strategy paper. Washington DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joyce, J. (1961). Health in new India: The story of free India’s war against diseases 1947–1961: Ford foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamal, N. (2009). Population trajectories of Bangladesh and West Bengal during the twentieth century: A comparative study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation submitted to the London School of Economics and Political Science. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, I. (1972). Malaria and mortality in Bengal, 1840–1921 Indian Economic and Social History Review, 9, 132–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, I. (2001). Development and death: Reinterpreting malaria, economics, and ecology in British India. Indian Economic and Social History Review, 38 (2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Langford, C. (1996). Reasons for the decline in mortality in Sri Lanka immediately after the Second World War: A re-examination of the evidence. Health Transition Review, 6(1), 3–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Learmonth, A. T. A. (1957). Some contrasts in the regional geography of malaria in India and Pakistan. Institute of British Geographers, 23, 37–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Littlefield, E., Murdoch, J., & Hashemi, S. (2003). Is microfinance an effective strategy to reach the millennium development goals? Available from http://ifmr.ac.in/cmf/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/mf-mdgs-morduch.pdf.

  • Lovell, C. H. (1992). Breaking the cycle of poverty: The BRAC strategy, Kumarian Press library of management for development. West Hartford, Conn.: Kumarian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maharatna, A. (1996). The demography of famines: An Indian historical perspective. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maharatna, A. (2007). Population, economy, and society in West Bengal since the 1970s. Journal of Development Studies, 43(8), 1381–1422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mandelbaum, D. (1949). Population problem in India and Pakistan. Far Eastern Survey, 18(24), 283–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mark, H. (1994). Public health in British India—the Anglo-Indian preventive medicine 1859–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meegama, S. A. (1967). Malaria eradication and its effect on mortality levels. Population Studies, 21(3), 207–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, I. (1989). Influenza in India in 1918–19. In T. Dyson (Ed.), India’s historical demography: Studies in famine, disease and society. London: Curzon Press, The Riverdale Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nag, M. (1983). Impact of social and economic development on mortality: Comparative study of Kerala and West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly, 18(19, 20 and 21), 877–900.

    Google Scholar 

  • Notestein, F. W. (1944). Demographic studies of selected areas of rapid growth: proceedings of the round table on population problems, twenty-second annual conference of the Milbank Memorial Fund, April 12–13, 1944. New York: Milbank Memorial Fund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panday, P. K. (2005). Local government in Bangladesh. South Asian Journal, 9(July-September).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratcliffe, J. (1978). Social justice and the demographic transition: Lessons from India’s Kerala State. International Journal of Health Sciences, 8(1), 123–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray, K. (1998). History of public health: Colonial Bengal 1921–47. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, W. (1966). Family planning in Pakistan’s third five year plan. Pakistan Development Review, 4(2), 225–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta, S., & Gazdar, H. (1997). Agrarian politics and rural development in West Bengal. In J. Dreze & A. Sen (Eds.), Indian development: Selected regional perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinha, S. (1998). Public health policy and the Indian public: Bengal 1850–1920. Calcutta: Vision Publications Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Schendel, W. & Faraizi, A. H. (1984). Rural labourers in Bengal:1880 to 1980. Rotterdam: Comparative Asian Studies Programme (CASP 12).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vithayarthi, T. (2013). Pathways to low fertility in India: Comparison across states and a detailed look at Kerala. Asian Population Studies, 9(3), 301–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, M. (1959). Changing patterns of political leadership in West Bengal. Pacific Affairs, 32(3), 277–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westergaard, K., & Alam, M. M. (1995). Local government in Bangladesh: Past experiences and yet another try. World Development, 23(4), 679–690.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nahid Kamal .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Kamal, N. (2020). Demography of Bengal from a Historical Perspective. In: Chattopadhyay, A., Ghosh, S. (eds) Population Dynamics in Eastern India and Bangladesh. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3045-6_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3045-6_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-3044-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-3045-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics