Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine birth control movements led by social reformers in early 20th century India. It focuses on analysing the works of Raghunath Dhondo Karve (hereafter R. D. Karve), in an effort to trace historical debates over birth control and women's sexuality in British India. R. D. Karve (1882-1953) was a professor of mathematics and one of the leading birth control advocates in Bombay presidency. He was strongly influenced by Neo-Malthusian ideologies whilst based in Paris and this experience encouraged him to start a birth control clinic in Bombay in 1921 (which, notably, was the first clinic of its kind in Asia). Karve was also responsible for publishing a magazine titled ‘Samaj Svasthya’, which appeared on a monthly basis for twenty six years; its purpose was to widely disseminate information on family planning. Despite these accomplishments, there have been relatively few attempts at examining Karve's views and work. This gap becomes all the more surprising when we compare the scholarship available on N. S. Phadke and A. P. Pillay, who were Karve's peers and also active in birth control movements within the Bombay presidency. Phadke's and Pillai's relative fame can be partially explained by the fact that most of their major works were published in English, and that they retained lasting connections with well known international activists and sexologists such as Margaret Sanger, Marie Stopes, Havelok Ellis, etc. Karve, in comparison, published his views on the theme of birth control in Marathi, which has contributed to them being ignored in many recent analyses. This paper seeks to redress this imbalance, by carefully analysing Karve's writings, especially those available in ‘Samaj Svasthya’; in this manner, this contribution seeks to provide new insights into the deployment of birth control movements in early 20th century India.
