title: A suitable country: the relationship between Sweden's interwar population policy and family planning in postindependence India.
abstract: This article delineates a strong continuity, particularly in terms of personnel, between interwar domestic population policies and Sweden's postwar participation in international and transnational population-control programs. It argues that Swedish engagement in population control and family planning in the emerging Third World, and particularly in South Asia, was motivated by the conviction that poverty and underdevelopment must be attacked on several fronts simultaneously, with population control being one of the most important. In its first bilateral aid programs Sweden would prioritize the promotion of birth control primarily because it was still too controversial to be promoted multilaterally, not least for religious reasons; and because Swedish experts were regarded as especially liberal, rational, and secularized. Sterilization expertise played no decisive part in this continuity. When first establishing themselves in South Asia, Swedish experts would recommend the rhythm method and other contraceptive methods that depended on self-control.
authors.affiliation: Uppsala University, Department of History of Science and Ideas, Sweden. annika.berg@idehist.uu.se
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berg
mesh_terms: D019352:Censuses / Q000266:history*; D003267:Contraception / Q000266:history*; D003906:Developing Countries; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011155:Population Control / Q000266:history*; D011203:Poverty / Q000266:history*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011640:Public Policy; D013548:Sweden; D047828:World War I; D047789:World War II