{{Short description|Indian demographer, economist, sociologist and scholar}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use Indian English|date=October 2019}} {{Refimprove|date=July 2007}}

'''Sripati Chandrasekhar''' (22 November 1918, Rajahmundry - 14 June 2001, San Diego, California) was a well-known Indian demographer, economist, sociologist, and scholar who has published extensively on demographics, especially related to India.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Papers of Dr. Sripati Chandrasekhar|year=2004|doi=10.1353/prv.2004.0005|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/prv/summary/v043/43.1brownlee.html|last1=Brownlee|first1=Kimberly|last2=Johnson|first2=Daniel M. (Daniel Milo)|journal=Population Review|volume=43|pages=76–81 |s2cid=153848394|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

thumb|Sripati Chandrasekhar

Chandrasekhar attended Vorhees High School in Vellore India which was a Protestant Christian school.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://voorheesschool.org/school-history/|title=SCHOOL HISTORY – Voorhees School &#124; Vellore}}</ref> Later, he attended Madras Presidency College, from where he graduated with a B.A. and M.A. in economics. In 1944, he earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University.

Sripati married Ann Downes, an American Quaker from New Jersey, in a wedding officiated by protestant unitarian John Haynes Holmes in 1947.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/HTML_findingaids/MSS-189.html|title=Sripati Chandrasekhar Papers, MSS-189}}</ref><ref>Wedding Photographs, 1947 (Box 34, Folder 53). Sripati Chandrasekhar Papers, 1879-2001, MSS-189. Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections. The University of Toledo Libraries.</ref> In April 1964, Chandrasekhar was elected to the upper house of the Indian parliament. He was appointed Minister of Health and Family Planning by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1967.

Chandresekhar was deeply concerned by the growing Indian population, and advocated a variety of population control measures such as sterilization, abortion, and abstinence. He faced criticism from traditional sectors of society, for example when he advocated that Indians begin eating beef, in contravention of Hindu tradition.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Foe of Overpopulation: Sripati Chandrasekhar|date=31 March 1967|newspaper=New York Times|page=15}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/23/world/sripati-chandrasekhar-indian-demographer-dies-at-83.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm |title=Sripati Chandrasekhar, Indian Demographer, Dies at 83 |author=Douglas Martin |newspaper=New York Times |date=23 June 2001 }}</ref> He also traveled through communist China, studying its population and social and economic trends.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/HTML_findingaids/MSS-189.html|title=Sripati Chandrasekhar Papers, MSS-189}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandrasekhar, Sripati}} Category:1918 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Indian demographers Category:Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu Category:New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science alumni Category:Indian expatriate academics in the United States Category:20th-century Indian statisticians