Headcount: Memoirs of a Demographer
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Ashish Bose
Penguin Viking
224 pages, Rs 450
The acronym ‘BIMARU states’ was widely used in the mid-1980s to refer to the population issues of India’s four largest states—Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Ashish Bose, the man who coined this much-discussed term, is the pioneer of demographic studies in the country. In Headcount, the demographer sets the record straight on BIMARU, and in the process, presents his unique view of modern India. A deeply compassionate and readable memoir by one of the most important social scientists of modern India.
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