"An attempt has been made to reconstruct life tables for India from 1901-11 to 1971-81 and to project for the decades 1981-91 and 1991-2001 by adopting a Brass relational model.  The earlier actuarial life tables seem to have been based on a British model of sex differentials in mortality leading to higher life expectancies for females--not in tune with Indian experience.  Consistency has been attained in this study by taking recourse to mortality patterns obtained from the Sample Registration System."