Man in India January-March 1951

1 THE PLACE OF HUMAN BIOLOGY IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND ITS UTILITY IN THE SERVICE OF THE NATION S. S. SARKAR ()NE of the chief aims of any science lies in its usefulness in the ‘- service of mankind. [...] Thompson has very aptly pointed out that the steady growth of the western countries is the unusual while fluctuations in growth as in India are far more usual in the experience of mankind." The recent report of the Royal Commission of British population and Titmuss's chapter on "The Statistics of Parenthood" in the book "Rebuilding Family Life in the Post-war 'World" already referred to have [...] The almost coplete replacement of the Hindus of the East Bengal now in Pakistan by the faster growth of the Muslims in the same country is to some extent due to the prohibition of widow marriage. [...] At the same time it is the duty of the anthropologist to bring home to the public and the State the utility of this character not only in the detection of criminals but also its importance in all transactions in which personal identification is involved. [...] This is definitely the action of selection which accoring to Darlington is continually changing the character of the chromosome pool by differences of survival and of fertility." The "differences of survival" is also apparent in some of the Moulik clans in South Bengal.