India, March 23 -- In the late 19th century, the British biologist Francis Galton came up with a new field of population studies called eugenics (literally meaning "good birth"). Drawing on the work of his half-cousin Charles Darwin, Galton argued that the human race could be improved by encouraging the fittest members to have more children.

The eugenics movement spread across the West in the early part of the 20th century, with the focus gradually shifting from promoting desirable traits to removing undesirable traits.

In the US, this took the form of population control for minority groups (including forced sterilisations for African-Americans and native Americans). The movement took an even more horrific turn in Germany, with concentr...