It was a wintry afternoon on Dec­ember 1 in Nagpur when Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat took the stage and called upon Indian (Hindu) couples to do their patriotic duty—have at least three children. The RSS chief, known for his Hindutva musings and cultural prescriptions, painted a grim picture: “According to population science, when growth is below 2.1, a society perishes on its own. Nobody destroys it.” He was referring to the total fertility rate (TFR), the benchmark for population replacement. At a TFR of 2.1, each woman on average would have two children to sustain the population at a stable level. With India’s TFR now at 2, the RSS chief felt a demographic decline had to be averted—hence the call for larger families.