Tim Dyson is Professor of Population Studies at the London School of Economics. Educated in England and Canada, he has held visiting positions at the Australian National University in Canberra, the International Institute of Population Sciences in Mumbai, and the American University of Beirut. A past President of the British Society for Population Studies, in 2015 he delivered the initial keynote address at the forty-eighth session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development in New York. He has been interested in the demography of India since the 1970s, and has written extensively on the country's past, present, and future population.

• 1: The First Modern People 2: Prehistory and Early History 3: From Ancient Times to the Year 1000 4: Medieval to Mughal Times (c. 1000 to c. 1707) 5: Mughal Decline to Early British Rule (c. 1707 to c. 1821) 6: Company and Crown (c. 1821 to c. 1871) 7: Famines, Plague, and Influenza (c. 1871 to c. 1921) 8: Before and After 1947 (c. 1921 to c. 1971) 9: From Anxiety to Unconcern on Population (c. 1971 to c. 2016) 10: Conclusion Appendix I: The Population Density of Early Cities Appendix II: Demographic Estimates for 1881-1921

This book accomplishes what it set out to do-be a description of size and characteristics of India's population through the broad sweep of history-very well. It is likely to become a required reading for all demographers interested in India.