1921 is called the "year of the great divide" in India's demographic history because:

The decade 1911–21 was the only one to record a fall in population, after which growth never reversed

A national family planning programme began

India's population first crossed 500 million

The decade 1911–21 was the only one to record a fall in population, after which growth never reversed

The first synchronous census was taken that year

The National Food Security Act, 2013 provides for coverage of up to:

50 per cent of the rural and 75 per cent of the urban population

All households below the poverty line only

Which of the following is a well-documented adverse consequence of the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana?

A steep fall in groundwater tables due to tube-well irrigation of paddy

A shift from wheat and rice to pulses and millets

A steep fall in groundwater tables due to tube-well irrigation of paddy

A reduction in the area under irrigation

A decline in the use of chemical fertilisers

Assertion (A): In India, wheat gained from the Green Revolution earlier and more than rice. Reason (R): Dwarf high-yielding wheat varieties from Mexico, suited to the irrigated north-west, were available from the mid-1960s. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

The Supreme Court case in which the right to food was read into Article 21 and mid-day meals were made an entitlement is:

PUCL v. Union of India (from 2001)

Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala

Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum v. Union of India

Geography of India II: Population Characteristics and Policies, Agricultural Production and Crop Regions, Regional Variations, Agro-Climatic Zones, the Green Revolution, Food Security and the Right to Food

The second chapter on Unit X covers people and agriculture in India. The document names population characteristics (spatial patterns of distribution), growth and composition (rural–urban, age, sex, occupational, educational, ethnic and religious), determinants of population, population policies in India; and agriculture — production, productivity and yield of major food crops, major crop regions, regional variations in agricultural development, the environmental, technological and institutional factors affecting Indian agriculture, agro-climatic zones, the Green Revolution, food security and the right to food. It applies the general population geography of Unit V to India, so the theory is not repeated; the emphasis is on India's own spatial patterns and policies.

1. Population: distribution, growth, composition, determinants and policies

The 2011 census counted 1,210.9 million people, about 17.5 per cent of humanity on 2.4 per cent of the world's land, at an average density of 382 persons per km² — from 1,106 in Bihar, the densest state, to 17 in Arunachal Pradesh. The pattern follows its determinants: the fertile, irrigated alluvial plains of the Ganga and the coastal deltas are densely peopled; the Himalaya, the Thar and the forested plateaux of central India thinly so; mineral and industrial belts (Chotanagpur, Hooghlyside) and the metropolitan regions form islands of high density; and history — the long agrarian settlement of the plains — reinforces the physical pattern. India's growth since 1901 falls into four phases: stagnant (1901–21, with 1911–21 the only decade of decline, from famine and the influenza of 1918, which makes 1921 the "year of the great divide"); steady (1921–51); rapid — the population explosion (1951–81, peaking at 24.8 per cent in 1961–71); and high but slowing (1981–2011), when decadal growth fell to 17.7 per cent in 2001–11, the lowest since independence.

Composition (Census 2011)	Pattern
Rural–urban	68.8 per cent rural, 31.2 per cent urban; most urbanised large states Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra; least Bihar and Himachal Pradesh
Sex	943 females per 1,000 males; highest in Kerala (1,084), lowest among states in Haryana (879); child sex ratio 918
Age	About 31 per cent under 15 and about 8 per cent aged 60 and over — a young but ageing population entering its demographic dividend
Occupation	Work participation 39.8 per cent; of all workers about 24.6 per cent cultivators and 30 per cent agricultural labourers — the number of labourers exceeded cultivators for the first time
Education	Literacy 74.0 per cent (men 82.1, women 65.5); Kerala highest, Bihar lowest
Ethnic and religious	Scheduled Tribes 8.6 per cent; Hindus 79.8, Muslims 14.2, Christians 2.3, Sikhs 1.7 per cent (spatial patterns in the Unit VII chapter)

Population policies in India began with the world's first national family planning programme (1952), passed through the coercive sterilisation drive of the Emergency (1976), the renaming as family welfare (1977), the target-free approach after the Cairo conference (1996), and the National Population Policy, 2000 (replacement fertility by 2010, stabilisation by 2045 — set out in the Unit V chapter). The outcome is sharply regional: by NFHS-5 (2019–21) the national TFR had reached 2.0, but it ranged from about 3.0 in Bihar to about 1.1 in Sikkim, so India's demographic future is increasingly the future of the Hindi-speaking north, while the south and west age.

2. Agriculture: production, productivity, crop regions and regional variations

India produced over 330 million tonnes of foodgrains in 2023–24, a sixfold increase since 1950–51, and is among the world's largest producers of rice, wheat, pulses, milk, sugarcane and cotton. Rice is the leading kharif crop of the wetter east and south, the deltas and, since the Green Revolution, irrigated Punjab and Haryana; West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are the largest producers. Wheat, the main rabi crop, is concentrated in the north-west and the upper Ganga plain — Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab lead in output, and Punjab and Haryana in yield. Pulses and coarse cereals (millets) are grown largely on rainfed land in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka; 2023 was the UN International Year of Millets, at India's proposal. Productivity varies widely: yields in irrigated Punjab are roughly double those of the rainfed plateaux, and Indian average yields of most crops remain well below those of China and the leading producers.

Crop region	Core areas and controls
Rice	Eastern India, the coastal deltas and the south (rainfall above about 100 cm), plus irrigated Punjab–Haryana
Wheat	The north-western and upper Ganga plains with cool winters and assured irrigation
Cotton	The black-soil Deccan — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana — and irrigated north-west
Sugarcane	Uttar Pradesh in the north; Maharashtra and Karnataka in the peninsula, where yields and sugar recovery are higher
Plantation crops	Tea in Assam, northern West Bengal and the Nilgiris; coffee in Karnataka (Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru); rubber in Kerala
Jute	The Ganga–Brahmaputra delta of West Bengal and Assam

Regional variations in agricultural development are measured by productivity and composite indices (see the Unit VI chapter). The most developed belt is the irrigated north-west — Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh — followed by the coastal deltas and parts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu; the least developed are the rainfed, drought-prone plateaux of central and eastern India and the hill states. The factors are environmental — dependence on the monsoon (only about half the net sown area is irrigated), soil quality, drought and flood; technological — high-yielding seeds, irrigation (canals, and above all tube wells, now the largest source), fertilisers and mechanisation; and institutional — land reforms (abolition of zamindari, tenancy reform, ceilings and consolidation of holdings, far more successful in some states than others), the small and shrinking size of holdings (an average of 1.08 hectares in the Agricultural Census of 2015–16, with about two-thirds of holdings marginal, under one hectare), credit, extension, and markets and minimum support prices, which have favoured wheat and rice in the north-west.

3. Agro-climatic zones and the Green Revolution

Agro-climatic zones divide the country by soil, climate, water resources and cropping for agricultural planning. The Planning Commission (1988–89), under agro-climatic regional planning, delineated 15 agro-climatic zones: the Western Himalayan, Eastern Himalayan, Lower Gangetic Plains, Middle Gangetic Plains, Upper Gangetic Plains, Trans-Gangetic Plains, Eastern Plateau and Hills, Central Plateau and Hills, Western Plateau and Hills, Southern Plateau and Hills, East Coast Plains and Hills, West Coast Plains and Ghats, Gujarat Plains and Hills, Western Dry Region, and the Islands. Finer schemes exist — ICAR's National Agricultural Research Project divided the country into 127 agro-climatic sub-zones, and the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning into 20 agro-ecological regions.

The Green Revolution was the rapid rise in cereal output from the mid-1960s, after the droughts of 1965–67 and dependence on American food aid. Its package combined high-yielding varieties — above all the dwarf Mexican wheats bred by Norman Borlaug and adapted in India under M.S. Swaminathan, with C. Subramaniam as agriculture minister, and later IR-8 and other rice varieties — with assured irrigation, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, credit and minimum support prices with procurement by the Food Corporation of India (1965). It built on the Intensive Agricultural District Programme (1961) and the High-Yielding Varieties Programme (1966). Its geography was selective: it began with wheat in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, where irrigation already existed, and spread to rice and to parts of the south only later. The results were national self-sufficiency in cereals, but also widened regional and interpersonal inequality, a narrowing of the cropping pattern to wheat and rice at the expense of pulses and millets, falling water tables from tube-well irrigation of paddy, soil degradation and micronutrient deficiency, and crop-residue burning. Programmes such as Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (from 2010–11) aim to extend the gains to the lagging east.

🎯 Why the Green Revolution began in the north-west

The new wheats needed controlled water and heavy fertiliser to outyield traditional varieties. Punjab and Haryana already had canals and were quickly adding tube wells, had consolidated holdings and enterprising owner-cultivators, and grew wheat. Rainfed eastern and central India had none of these, so the package widened the gap before it narrowed it.

4. Food security and the right to food

The World Food Summit (1996) defined food security as existing when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food; it has four dimensions — availability, access, utilisation and stability. India's instruments grew from the Public Distribution System of the 1960s, with buffer stocks held by the Food Corporation of India, to the Targeted PDS (1997). The legal turn came through the courts: in PUCL v. Union of India (the "right to food" case, from 2001) the Supreme Court read the right to food into the right to life under Article 21 and turned schemes such as mid-day meals and the ICDS into entitlements. The National Food Security Act, 2013 made this statutory: it covers up to 75 per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population, entitling each person in a priority household to 5 kg of foodgrains a month (originally at ₹3, ₹2 and ₹1 per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains, and free since January 2023) and each Antyodaya household to 35 kg, together with maternity benefits of at least ₹6,000, mid-day meals and supplementary nutrition. One Nation One Ration Card makes entitlements portable for migrants. The geography of food insecurity, however, follows that of poverty and malnutrition — the tribal and rainfed districts of central and eastern India — rather than that of production.

Key takeaways

2011: 1,210.9 million people, density 382 (Bihar 1,106, Arunachal 17), decadal growth 17.7 per cent; 1911–21 the only decade of decline; four growth phases from stagnation to explosion to slowing.
Composition: 31.2 per cent urban, sex ratio 943 (Kerala 1,084, Haryana 879), literacy 74 per cent, agricultural labourers now outnumber cultivators; TFR ranges from about 3.0 in Bihar to 1.1 in Sikkim.
Over 330 million tonnes of foodgrains (2023–24); rice in the east, south and deltas, wheat in the north-west, cotton on black soils, sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra; the irrigated north-west leads, the rainfed plateaux lag.
Environmental (monsoon, half irrigated), technological (HYV, tube wells, fertiliser) and institutional (land reform, 1.08-ha average holdings, MSP) factors; the Planning Commission's 15 agro-climatic zones.
The Green Revolution (from the mid-1960s; Borlaug's wheats, Swaminathan) began with wheat in Punjab, Haryana and western UP and brought self-sufficiency, inequality and falling water tables; NFSA 2013 covers 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban people with 5 kg of grain a month, after the PUCL right-to-food case.

Practice questions (12)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

According to the 2011 census, the average population density of India was:
1. 325 persons per km²
2. 382 persons per km²
3. 1,106 persons per km²
4. 243 persons per km²
Show answer
Answer: B — 382 persons per km²
India's density rose from 325 in 2001 to 382 in 2011. 1,106 is the density of Bihar, the most densely populated state.
1921 is called the "year of the great divide" in India's demographic history because:
1. A national family planning programme began
2. India's population first crossed 500 million
3. The decade 1911–21 was the only one to record a fall in population, after which growth never reversed
4. The first synchronous census was taken that year
Show answer
Answer: C — The decade 1911–21 was the only one to record a fall in population, after which growth never reversed
Famine and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused the only decadal decline (1911–21); after 1921 population grew continuously. The first synchronous census was 1881 and family planning began in 1952.
Which state recorded the highest sex ratio (females per 1,000 males) in the 2011 census?
1. Bihar
2. Haryana
3. Punjab
4. Kerala
Show answer
Answer: D — Kerala
Kerala recorded 1,084 females per 1,000 males, the only major state above 1,000. Haryana had the lowest among states at 879, reflecting the son-preference belt of the north-west.
In which of the following regions did the Green Revolution first make its greatest impact? Select all that apply.
1. Haryana
2. Assam
3. Odisha
4. Punjab
Show answer
Answer: A — Haryana; D — Punjab
The new wheat varieties needed assured irrigation, which Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh had. Rainfed, rice-growing eastern states such as Odisha and Assam benefited much later — the reason for the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India programme.
The Planning Commission's agro-climatic regionalisation (1988–89) divided India into how many agro-climatic zones?
1. 15
2. 127
3. 36
4. 20
Show answer
Answer: A — 15
The Planning Commission defined 15 agro-climatic zones, from the Western Himalayan to the Islands region. 127 is the number of NARP agro-climatic sub-zones, 20 the number of NBSS&LUP agro-ecological regions, and 36 the IMD's meteorological subdivisions.
The National Food Security Act, 2013 provides for coverage of up to:
1. 50 per cent of the rural and 75 per cent of the urban population
2. 75 per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population
3. All households below the poverty line only
4. The entire population
Show answer
Answer: B — 75 per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population
NFSA covers up to 75 per cent of rural and 50 per cent of urban people — about two-thirds of the population — with 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month, and Antyodaya households with 35 kg per household.
Which of the following is a well-documented adverse consequence of the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana?
1. A shift from wheat and rice to pulses and millets
2. A steep fall in groundwater tables due to tube-well irrigation of paddy
3. A reduction in the area under irrigation
4. A decline in the use of chemical fertilisers
Show answer
Answer: B — A steep fall in groundwater tables due to tube-well irrigation of paddy
Water-intensive paddy grown on subsidised power and tube wells has lowered water tables across much of Punjab and Haryana. The cropping pattern moved the other way — towards wheat and rice and away from pulses and millets — and fertiliser use and irrigation rose.
Assertion (A): In India, wheat gained from the Green Revolution earlier and more than rice. Reason (R): Dwarf high-yielding wheat varieties from Mexico, suited to the irrigated north-west, were available from the mid-1960s. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
Both are true and R explains A. The Borlaug wheats arrived first and fitted the irrigated, wheat-growing north-west; rice varieties suited to India's diverse, often rainfed paddy lands took longer, so the "wheat revolution" preceded any rice revolution.
According to the Agricultural Census of 2015–16, the average size of an operational holding in India was about:
1. 0.5 hectares
2. 2.3 hectares
3. 4 hectares
4. 1.08 hectares
Show answer
Answer: D — 1.08 hectares
The average holding fell from 2.3 ha in 1970–71 to 1.08 ha in 2015–16, and about two-thirds of holdings were marginal (under 1 ha) — a key institutional constraint on mechanisation and investment.
Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, how many kilograms of foodgrains per month is each person in a priority household entitled to? Type a number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 5
Each member of a priority household is entitled to 5 kg of foodgrains a month; Antyodaya Anna Yojana households receive 35 kg per household. Since January 2023 the grain has been free.
The Supreme Court case in which the right to food was read into Article 21 and mid-day meals were made an entitlement is:
1. PUCL v. Union of India (from 2001)
2. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala
3. Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum v. Union of India
4. M.C. Mehta v. Union of India
Show answer
Answer: A — PUCL v. Union of India (from 2001)
The People's Union for Civil Liberties petition of 2001, filed during a drought while grain rotted in FCI stores, produced orders converting food schemes into legal entitlements, preparing the ground for the NFSA. M.C. Mehta and Vellore are environmental cases; Kesavananda concerns the basic structure.
The black-soil areas of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana form the core of India's crop region for:
1. Jute
2. Tea
3. Cotton
4. Wheat
Show answer
Answer: C — Cotton
Moisture-retentive black soils on the Deccan lava plateau suit rainfed cotton. Jute is concentrated in the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta, tea in Assam, northern Bengal and the Nilgiris, and wheat in the north-western plains.