Number Theory: Why southern states need to re-examine their fears over demography

Anxiety over the political and economic fallout of demographic divergence between the North and the South in India’s southern states is not a new thing. However, the chief ministers of two southern states, N Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin, went a step further when they asked people in their states to have more children to reverse the decline in population. While Naidu’s call for having more children was ostensibly aimed at making the population younger, Stalin linked it directly to the need to prevent a reduction in Tamil Nadu’s parliamentary representation ahead of a delimitation exercise.