Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c5.s4: Conclusion
Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c5.s4
- Language
- English
Conclusion
c5.s4.1
All these source-materials, though impressive in bulk, are deficient in actual demographic data for the period A.D. 1000 to 1800. And yet, as Kingsley Davis has pointed out, research on medieval Indian demography is not just a ‘quixotic’ effort, or ‘an exercise of the imagination.’ "It is true that Indian statistics do not cover the whole history of India......But what country exists whose history is so covered ?......Compared with the world as a whole, India's past population statistics are above the average. Certainly she has had more usable data than any country of equal backwardness, and this fact constitutes one of the strongest reasons for making a special study of her population."¹
c5.s4.2
Indeed, working on the available facts and figures, it is possible to determine the size of the population in the succeeding centuries of the medieval period. And since we also possess some data for the ancient period and definite statistics about modern times we may, by resorting to the old method of proceeding from the known to the unknown, obtain a tolerably satisfactory picture about the middle ages. By working forward from ancient times (on the basis of the demographic data, howsoever fragile), and back from modern times (when definite population figures are available), and taking into account all the factual and plausible figures the medieval records themselves provide, a fairly correct idea of the population of the medieval period can be obtained.