Wow. If you know you’re going to read this fascinating essay, which I highly recommend, avoid reading my spoilers below.

Galton, Ehrlich, Buck – by Scott Alexander

…still here? Today I learned:

In 1975, India had a worse-than-usual economic crisis and declared martial law. They asked the World Bank for help. The World Bank, led by Robert McNamara, made support conditional on an increase in sterilizations.

…

In the end about eight million people were sterilized over the course of two years. No one will ever know how many were “voluntary” by standards that we would be comfortable with, but plausibly well below half.

The West didn’t just tolerate this process, they supported it and cheered it on. The Ford and Rockefeller Foundations provided much of the funding. Western media ranged from supportive to concerned-for-the-wrong-reasons…

Maybe now you’ll go read it? I was pretty shocked to learn about this. In the mid-70s! Despite the enormous post-WWII backlash against forcible sterilization for eugenic purposes!

Wow.