Q.Describe the trends in India's population growth based on Census data.

India's Census record since 1951 shows a clear arc of accelerating and then decelerating growth, with the Census of India providing the authoritative time series for this trend.

According to Census of India records, India's population has grown enormously since independence, but the rate of growth has followed a clear rise-and-fall pattern. Before 1921, growth was very slow, and the decade 1911–1921 actually recorded a population decline due to famines and the influenza epidemic — a point often called the 'Year of the Great Divide' in Indian demographic history. From the 1920s onward, as death rates fell due to improved public health and famine control while birth rates remained high, population growth accelerated sharply: the population rose from around 36.1 crore in the 1951 Census to about 54.8 crore in 1971, and further to about 84.6 crore by 1991. …

Quoting only the total population figure without describing the trend in the DECADAL GROWTH RATE, which is what actually sh …