Dr. Bhasin and her colleagues have undertaken a formidable task in collating a vast amount of information and providing a compendium of data on much of what is known about the biological diversity of Indian populations.
There are four lengthy chapters and one shorter one. The former are reinforced byextensive maps and tables. The first by M.K. and V. Bhasin, gives a broad account of Indian demography and disease patterns. The second, by M.K. Bhasin and A. Khannacontinues the focus on disease with an account of its correlations and biological traits.
The next two chapters on the haemoglobinopathies. The first, quite short, is by G. Talukderand A. Sharma while the second, much longer, is by M.K. Bhasin, H. Walter and H. Danker-Hopfe. The last chapter by M.K. Bhasin and S. Nag examines the associations between consanguinity and fertility, morbidity and mortality.
All the topics mentioned above are important areas of research, and were the findings of the very large numbers of authors cited to be extensively discussed, the result would have been several large monographs. Wisely and/or for reasons of sheer self-preservation, the editor and authors have limited themselves to the presentation of extensive data tables, maps and lists of references, this enabling those with more specific interests in particular topics to get a grounding in the literature and a general ‘feeling’ for the
data.
