A Selective Survey A Dharmalingam Investigation of aggregate demographic change in a population requires study of different demographic regimes contained in the whole. Demographic forces should also be viewed in the context of overall social development in concrete historical forms. Thus India's post-Independence demography, to be properly understood, must be studied in terms of the class structure and class relations not only of post-Independence India but also of the pre-Independence period under native and foreign economic and political powers.