________________
FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
skeleton of a dead system which can be yet for a time kept formally intact only by depressing the standard of living of an entire class of society. This inevitably happens when tradition compels one or two people to prvide ü subsistence for more than can be provided for with their individual varnings. The habit of adhering to the custom of a disrupted form of family has cost the iniddleclass very dear. It has contributed to the plıysical deicrioration of the entire class. That is a tragcily -for the entire nation.
However, cven with the greatest of goodwill, none can go very far with an unbcarable burden. An elder brother may somehow manage to support and cuucate one or more younger brothers. But in most cases, it is simply beyond his capacity to maintain them with wives and children. The younger brothers are expected to contribute to the family exchequer by their earning. They cannot be dependent on the elder brother indefinitely. For themselves, that is a matter of shame ; for the latter an unbearable burden, carried too far. So, mass unemployincnt of the educated middle-class youths is bound to break up even the skeleton of joint family in that stratum of society. Generally, elder brothers undertake the responsibility of educating younger brothers, often prejudicing the future of their own children, as an investment. That is natural. Now that education does not guarantee employment, they will natu162
