Shyam Sunder

View Original

Pakistan's population up by 46.9 per cent since 1998

On March 30, 2012, the Dawn reported that Pakistan's population increased by 46.9 percent between 1998 and 2011.

India's officially counted populations in 2011 is more than 4 times its population at the time of independence in 1947. And some Indians think that Indian population may be 1.5 instead of 1.2 billion due to under counting. On top of that, even well-informed and well-meaning people in India often talk about "population dividend" from a large proportion of population being young, albeit uneducated and unskilled. This would seem like living in la-la land, cleaning the beaches while the tsunami is on the horizon. But nobody likes people who go around warning "the sky is falling." People use their considerable intelligence to find rationalizations until it is too late. That, I think, is the tragedy of social sciences. In spite of all the professed rationality and spirituality in India, ultimately, it is Charvaka's Lokayata philosophy: "yaawat jeevait, sukham jeevait; rinam kritwa, ghritam pibet" (as long as you live, live in luxury; borrow money, and enjoy life) "at least for the current generations. How else do we explain the European and U.S. financial crisis?

The crisis has its roots in the moral foundations of our civilization (reproduction, preservation of life, and consumption as treasured values). It worked until Louis Pasteur disturbed the balance between life and death. China (the only country that has done something deliberately in the policy field to address the issue through its one-child policy) is condemned on moral grounds, while we merrily rush towards starvation, pestilence, war, and annihilation. Here faith in God (He has made us all, he will provide for us) is a problem.