FAMILY IN

INDIA : A
SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
- Krishangee
Bhattacharyya
UID : SF0115020
 Aims and Objectives

• To study about the family system in India.

• To try to comprehend the changes that are undergoing in the Indian

family system

• To understand the causes behind these changes on the family system in

India
Literature Review
• Reeta Sonawat, “Understanding Families in India: A Reflection of Societal
Changes”.

• R Datta Choudhury, “Joint Family System-Its Present and Future.”(1957)

• J.P Singh, “Problem of India’s Changing Family and State Intervention”

• Ms. Nawaz Khan and Dr. Ms. Nuzhat Rizvi, “ Urbanization and Its Effect on
Joint Family System in India”

• Andre Beteille, “Family and Social Change in India and Other South Asian
Countries”
Introduction
• Family is defined as “a unit of two or more persons united by marriage,
blood, adoption, or consensual union, in general consulting a single
household, interacting and communicating with each other.”

• Gerald Leslie has defined “family as a group of two adults of opposite sex,
living in a socially approved sex relationship, and their own or adopted
children.”

• Aileen Ross defined “family as a group of people usually related as some

particular kindred, who may live in one household, and whose unity resides
in patterning of rights and duties, sentiments and authority.”
 Perspectives in Studying Family
• Three approaches in studying Family- the functionalist, the structuralist and the
interactionist.
• Functionalists studies family in the basis of:

1. Set of functions it performs and its contribution to the maintenance of the total
social system

2. Functional relationships between the family and the other parts of the total social
system

3. Functions for its individual members.

• In the structuralist approach, the family is seen in terms of a pattern of interrelated
statuses and roles at a particular time and as an organised pattern of interrelated
rights and obligations.
• In the interactionist approach, the family is concerned with the interaction between
individual members.
Indian Family System
• The family is the most important institution that has survived through the ages in India.

• India is a collectivist society that emphasizes family integrity, family loyalty, and family
unity.

• C. Hui and H. Triandis defined collectivism, which is the opposite of individualism as, “a
sense of harmony, interdependence and concern for others”.

• Historically, the traditional, ideal and desired family in India is the joint family.

• A joint family includes kinsmen, and generally includes three to four living generations,
including uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, and grandparents living together in the same
household. It is a group composed of a number of family units living in separate rooms
of the same house.

• With the advent of urbanisation and modernisation, younger generations are turning
away from the traditional Indian family form.
• The new modified extended family system that does not demand
geographical proximity or occupational involvement and a hierarchal
authority structure has replaced the traditional family system.

• This new family system encourages frequent visits; financial assistance; aid
and support in childcare and household chores; and involvement and
participation in life-cycle events such as births, marriages, deaths, and
festival celebrations.

• Even in the more modern and nuclear families in contemporary India,

many functional extensions of the traditional joint family have been
retained, and the nuclear family is strongly embedded in the extended
kinship matrix.
 Joint Family in India
• K.M Panikkar regarded the joint family system as the ‘basic pillar of the
Indian social system’.

• The concept of ‘jointness’ in the term ‘joint family’ has defined by different
sociologist in different manner.

• Sociologist like Iravati Karve gave importance to the term ‘co-residentiality’

with regards to jointness .

• B.S Cohn, S.C Dube, Pauline Kolenda etc. regarded co-residentiality and
commensality as essential ingredients of jointness.

• Sociologist like F.G Bailey gave importance to joint ownership of property

irrespective of type of residence and commensality.
• I.P Desai and few others gave importance to fulfilment of obligation i.e,
identifying oneself as a member of a particular family, rendering financial
and others kind of help etc. towards kin, even if the residence is different
and there is no common ownership of property.

• I.P Desai said that it is the relationship between the members of a

household among themselves and with those of another house hold that
determines the type of the family of the household.

• He points out that when two families having kinship relationship are living
separately but function under one authority, it will be considered as a joint
family.
Characteristics of Joint Family
• Authoritarian structure

• Familistic organization

• Status of the members is determined by their age and relationship

• The filial and fraternal relationships gets preference over conjugal

relationships

• The family functions on the ideal of joint responsibility.

• All members get equal attention.

Emerging Trends in Indian Family
• Neo-local residence

• Functional jointness

• Equality of individuals

• Equal status for women

• Joint- mate selection

• Weakening of family norms.

Disintegration of Joint Family
• In villages, the size of joint family has been substantially reduced or is found in its
fragmented form. Some of the families have split into nuclear families, while
others have taken the form of extended or stem families.

• The nuclear family also now the one of the characteristic feature of the Indian
society of all the households.

• According to the 2011 census, nuclear family constituted 70%, single member or
more than one member households without spouse comprised about 11% and the
extended and joint family or households together claim merely 20% of all
households in the entire country.

• The emergence of financially independent, career-oriented men and women, who

are confident of taking their own decisions and crave to have a sense of individual
achievement, has greatly contributed to the disintegration of joint family
• Sociologist like K.T Merchant, A.M Shah, Aileen Ross and others are of the
view that the joint family is undergoing fast change and these changes
has led to the disintegration of the joint family

• Dr. Irvathi Karve, David Mandelbaum and others are of the view that the
joint family are changing fast but still they continue to stay in relatively
smaller size.

• Sociologist like K.M Kapadia, I.P Desai, M.S. Gore are of the view that the
joint families in India are still continuing by withstanding the different
disintegrating forces.

• Moreover, it can be seen that the today’s big business houses like the
Tata, Birla etc. are all family ventures. So instead of the breaking of joint
families due to urbanization and industrialization, more joint families are
found in urban business communities.
Changes in Authority Structure
• In a traditional joint family, the authority within the family was primarily in
the hands of family elders.

• But, today, parents cleverly encourage their educated sons and

daughters-in-law to take independent decision in a joint and extended
family situation, leave aside urban areas, the similar situation has
started to emerge in rural areas too.

• Now boys and girls, contrary to the old practice, are beginning to assert
their wishes in mate selection.

• It is also found that some of the households are headed by women.

Causes for the changes in the Indian Family
System
Milton Singer has identified five factors which have affected the family the
most which includes-

• Education

• Industrialisation

• Urbanisation

• Change in the institution of marriage specifically in the age of marriage

• Legislative measures.
Conclusion
• The family system in India tells about the social structure of the
Indian society.

• It is found that the most desired and ideal family type is the joint
family.

• But, due to the different factors the system of the family in India is
fast changing

• This has started making the nuclear family a characteristic feature

of the Indian family system.