Former CEC and author, Dr SY Quraishi
In his latest book ‘The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India’, former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi uses census and National Family Health Survey data to dismantle the spin to population data that has given rise to myths about the Muslim rate of population growth.
Published by Harper Collins, the 299-page book cites verses from the Quran to argue how Islam, contrary to the popular belief within and outside the community, has been the frontrunner of the concept of family planning.
In a conversation with MoneyControl, Quraishi, 73, who served as the 17th chief election commissioner of India from July 30 2010 to June 10, 2012, talks about the book and why a planned population is in the interest of all communities. Excerpts:
When did you think of writing this book?
I have been writing this for 25 years. Actually, it happened accidentally. In 1995, the UNFPA country director asked me to write an approach paper for family planning among Muslims in India. Then, I, like many others, believed that Islam was against family planning. But I am happy, I did the research and realised that that was not the case.
The fact is that the Muslims are, however, taking to family planning fast, in fact, faster than the Hindus. This is why the family planning gap between the two communities is narrowing, despite many Muslims believing that Islam is against the concept of family planning. I thought of sharing this with others, in the form of this book.
The title of the book is ‘The Population Myth’. What are the myths that you have tried to dismantle?
If you read the book, there are many misconceptions about the Muslim population. First, that Muslims are only responsible for population explosion, second that Muslim men marry to more than one wife (polygamy) to produce more children, third that this will lead to demographic change and Muslims will be in majority, and the fourth that it is an organized conspiracy capture power in the country. The fifth myth which is prevalent even within the community is that Islam is against family planning.
The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India
Islam has not prohibited family planning anywhere. There is a verse in the Quran that says everything that is prohibited has been explained in detail. So clearly, nothing other than what has been explained is prohibited. People interpret Quranic verses for and against family planning. There is a clinching verse from the Quran which asks young people to get married when they have wherewithal which proves the religion encourages planning.
A large number of religious authorities, jurists, and scholars have said that Islam is, in fact, the frontrunner of the concept of family planning. Muslims who think that Islam is opposed to family planning should, on their part, understand that Islam, on the contrary, is indeed the originator of the concept.
Polygamy is often linked with Islam. How do you deal with this?
Polygamy is a myth at many levels. First, statistically, polygamy is not possible in India, as the number of women has been significantly lower than the number of men throughout the seven decades under study since 1951. There were 924 women per 1000 men in 2020. So, where does one get a second wife, even if one wants.
And then, even if there is polygamy, it persists across communities.
A survey in 1974 by the Committee on the Status of Women in India, Ministry of Social Welfare showed that polygamy as a practice was not just exclusive to Muslims but was prevalent among all communities of India. In fact, it was found that Muslims were the least polygamous among all the groups.
Does Islam permit polygamy?
Polygamy, in Islam, is conditional permission but not an injunction. The book argues that at the centre of the debate around polygamy lies the belief that Islam encourages polygamy, which eventually leads to population growth. The reality, however, is different. Islam permits polygamy subject to two conditions: marrying orphans and giving them equal treatment. Quran has only two verses touching on Polygamy, one permitting it conditionally and the other warning against it.
The permission for polygamy has to be understood in the historical context that the Arab custom of marrying an unlimited number of women in the presence of a large number of orphaned girls and widows due to tribal wars in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic years on the other hand. The permission for a man to have more than one wife was given with a view to rehabilitating these orphans and widows- as wives for equality and not as sex slaves.
You have compared Islam with other religions. What is the attitude of major religions towards family planning?
Most of the major religions do not condemn birth control, although they do promote fertility as they date back to eras when high fertility rates would mean the differences between survival and death for a community as a consequence of high infant and child mortality. Despite that, there is plenty of room that allows, and to some extent, even promotes family planning.
The opposition to family planning methods and contraception stems from the idea that contraception and birth control encourage promiscuity, especially among women. However, the bigger picture that is often missed is that in the global context, family planning, meant to limit the size of the family, actually seeks to reduce the increasing strain in the planet’s limited resources.
The book has a chapter on the politics of population. How has the population been politicised?
The Hindu-Muslim polarisation in India originally started with the concocted narrative that Muslims are deliberately producing more children to capture political power. Since this right-wing fixation has gone practically unchallenged for decades, it has penetrated deep into the psyche of Hindu masses, old and young. The gap between Hindus and Muslims has actually increased manifold in favour of the Hindus. While there were 30 crore more Hindus than Muslims in 1951, the gap has increased to over 80 crore by 2011