As the juggernaut of the national census rolls slowly onwards, a new book, “Headcount: Memoirs of a Demographer”, brought out recently by Penguin, gives us a chance to go down memory lane with someone who could be said to have been there, done that, innumerable times. As one of India's pioneering demographic scholars, Ashish Bose has been closely associated with India's census commissioners from 1961 onwards. “If I am alive when the 2011 census comes out,” he declares cheerfully, “I'll be the first one to come out with a book on census methodology, etc., because I have a virtual monopoly on the subject.”
But this book is not about the census. The Honorary (Emeritus) Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, says it is also not an autobiography but a nearly random series of true stories he jotted down, one a day, over 30 days. “I was not writing a book. I was taking a break from my demographic writing,” says the columnist and author of scores of works on demography, census analysis and other technical subjects.
Bose, while still a PhD scholar, was appointed by VKRV Rao, the great economist and institution builder, as research officer in the Demographic Research Centre. Describing his early fieldwork, he records some amusing experiences, such as the Gujar villagers answering inaccurately just for the fun of fooling city folk. Or the difficulty posed by different worldviews: Jat villagers, asked how many children they had, might give a figure that included the children of all the brothers living under one roof. Another might omit all the girls from his calculation, on the assumption that girls belonged to the family they eventually married into!
A tough field work
The Gujars accused of being “wily in character,” and the Jats “tribal,” notes Bose, contributed to these problems faced by the research teams. “So I started fieldwork in the toughest of places,” he remarks, adding the choice of location was dictated by meagre funds in the early days. Early days they were, considering the Demographic Research Centre was often mistakenly referred to as the Democratic Research Centre!
Speaking of democracy, the first part of his book, “From Nehru to Bimaru” — reminding us these are the memoirs of the man who coined the acronym for the four most populous and largest states whose demographic indicators were most dismal — looks back on his encounters with nearly all of India's prime ministers till date.
Having lived through an era of idealism, how does he find the current political scenario? Mediocrity is the norm, he states, not exempting the current prime minister, his former colleague from the Delhi School of Economics — though in the book he concedes he has great respect for him.
“The credibility of all politicians is zero,” continues the man who criticised the government even during the Emergency. “I told my wife, what will happen if they arrest me? I'll read the jailor's palm,” he laughs, referring to people's temptation to know their future. And yes, the social science researcher does dabble in astrology, though he protests, “I don't bluff.”
Bose's writing style is almost a transcript of the octogenarian author's manner of speaking: succinct and light-hearted, the words mildly put but carrying significance for those who care to read between the lines. The man who coined the phrase ‘development is the best contraceptive' still has stories left, and says he is tempted to return to his inspiration point — the “hut” on the terrace of his house — to churn out some more.