A Linear Programming Model for Storage of Buffer Stocks of Foodgrains

December 4, 1971 The section dealing with the nature of the Indian family and the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation on the ideology of the joint family is interesting. There is a significant observation : "Recent research seems to indicate that the nuclear family certainly as far back as the Middle Ages in England was the predominant type" (p 122). Thus the evidence suggests that, in the West, the assumption that the large extended family broke under the impact of industrialisation is not correct. Recent research by anthropologists on the Indian family also suggests that the assumption that there were large joint households in the past in rural India and that they are breaking down under the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation is open to doubt, There are certain statements in the book with which it is difficult to agree. Thus, on the caste system, Cohn observes: "The caste system like any stratification system, requires groups with power to maintain the system. This power has been provided not by Brahmans, not by sacred authority, but by political power" (p 129), The caste system, as is well known, has existed through the ages and has passed through many vicissitudes. Even groups which did not have this form of social stratification, or were directly opposed to it, have in course of time acquired all the characteristics of the caste system. It has often been doubted whether the caste system could survive in a modern political democracy where there arc political parties and organised pressure groups. Yet the caste system has not only survived but has acquired new forms. One wonders how, in view of this, the caste system requires political authority or patronage for its maintenance.