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PEOPLE
Eternal India
encyclopedia
FAMILY AND MARRIAGE
Human beings everywhere live in households. The family is the
first and the simplest social, economic and religious unit. According
to G.P. Murdock, "The family is a social group characterised by
common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It in-
cludes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a
socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children,
own or adopted, of the sexually inhabiting adults" (G.P. Murdock,
Social Structure,
Macmillan, New York).
Family and Kinship are central to Indian society. The Indian
family may be extended (joint) or nuclear. More often than not it
may contain a bit of both in response to the pressures of modernity
and urbanisation. A family member owes his or her family overrid-
ing loyalty. An individual's position within the family is defined by
age, sex and relationship to others; each person occupies a specific
role and enjoys rights and duties acknowledged by fellow family
members and society at large. All activities are designed to
conform to these considerations.
The traditional Indian joint family may house three or four
generations under one roof. It remains the primary social force in
the lives of most Indians.
The family in India was traditionally called
Avibhakta Kutumba
(undivided). It is usually a joint or extended family. Its principal
features are 1) It extends to three or four generations; 2) Its
members live together generally under the same roof having a
common kitchen and sharing whatever property the family might
possess and 3) It is a self-sufficient unit, socially as well as eco-
nomically. The joint family is governed by a family code in which the
respective roles of each party in the co-operative enterprise, which
the joint family basically is, the rights and obligations, are clearly
spelt out. The family code has recognition in law both customary
and statutory. It is inevitable that rules of conduct are strictly en-
joined for otherwise a community of people living together could
not function at all.
The joint family system was created over the years to serve
several needs. Primarily it evolved as an institution to keep landed
property intact and protect it from splitting and dispersing into un-
economic holdings. The joint family is also a refuge for the old, the
invalid and the unemployed as well as the unfortunate like the
young widow. The joint family protected its members against the
vicissitudes and sorrows of life. The loss of parents, old age and
handicaps were more bearable in the joint family group than in the
single family unit. It was a place where the old never felt aban-
doned and unwanted and relatives could turn to in times of dis-
tress. Living expenses were greatly reduced because of a common
roof and a kitchen. "And, above all, the joint family furnished, until
more recently, a philosophy and an outlook towards living where
duty was more important than individual rights and co-operation
higher in the scale of values than personal gain" (S.N. Chopra,
India : An Area Study,
Vikas, New Delhi 1977).
"South of the Himalayan range, the whole of the river system
fed by the Himalayas comprises a region where languages derived
from Sanskrit are spoken, and where patriarchal institutions pre-
vail. In Punjab, Sind, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, and parts
of Orissa, the family pattern is that of a patriarchal, patrilocal joint
family. The property is held jointly by the male descendants of a
common ancestor, but in this the ownership of each living male and
even of unborn heirs is recognised, and elaborate rules of succes-
sion and partition exist for the eventuality of a split in the family.
Each male has his own independent wife or wives. In this whole
region a woman is not allowed to speak with the elder brother of
her husband; she must not uncover her head before him. In Bengal
a man may not enter the inner apartments of the house, if the wife
of the younger brother is alone there. On the other hand, the rela-
tions of a woman with the younger brother of her husband are of
complete familiarity. In modern times this relationship is depicted
as that between elder sister and younger brother or between
mother and son. But folk-songs and proverbs and older literature
leave no doubt at all that the relationship was that between lovers.
In the whole of this region, children of father's brother or sister and
mother's brother or sister are called brothers and sisters and
marriage among them is strictly prohibited. It is customary among
certain castes to avoid altogether the marriage of a boy to a girl in
the family bearing the
gotra
of their maternal uncle's family. This
avoidance of the maternal uncle's
gotra
(clan among the non-brah-
manas) is a peculiarity of the northern plains. Thus the present
family institution, marriage practices, kinship systems and terms,
taboos, and familiar relationship all point to a patriarchal system
with junior levirate as the starting point in the near past and
perhaps fraternal polyandry and patriarchal household in the dis-
tant past." (Dr. Iravati Karve, "The Indian Social Organisation : An
Anthropological Survey " in
The Cultural Heritage of India 1970).
While the joint family system has provided stability and conti-
nuity it has not been able to cope with stresses brought about by
industrialisation, urbanisation and the revolutionary changes in
transportation leading to greater mobility. The joint family has
been an impediment to individual initiative and mobility. Hence the
growth of the nuclear family which consists of husband, wife and
their children. "The first and most basic form of (family organisa-
tion) called herewith the nuclear family consists typically of a
married man and woman with their offspring, although in individual
cases one or more additional persons may reside with them. The
nuclear family is a universal human grouping. Either as a whole
prevailing form of the family, or as the basic unit from which more
complex familial forms are compounded, it exists as a distinct and
strong functional group in every known society" (G.P. Murdock).
The nuclear family represents a movement from the village to
the urban area and from land to new employment opportunities in
non-agricultural activity in the urban areas. The household struc-
ture has had to be modified to meet the demands of education.
There is no simple, clear-cut distinction between nuclear and
extended families. The Indian family is a multifaceted structure.
But despite pressures, the nuclear family and the joint family co-
exist to some extent. Because of this fragmentation of land is
avoided although two of the five brothers may no longer be actively
engaged in agriculture. A more typical pattern is for men to come to
the city alone leaving wives and children at home in the village
where they can be cared for by the extended family. "Indeed the
nuclear, urban family finds its moorings in the village joint family
system of as great value as the resultant relief to the residual joint
family from decrease of burden on the limited land-holding." (S.N
Chopra,
India : An Area Study)
Marriage
- A
Samskaara
: The coming together of a man and woman
is necessary for the fulfilment of the threefold ideals of life i.e;
Dharma