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Unit 4: Family
documentation of the variety of family systems in different parts of the world. Studies by scholars Notes
like M.S.A. Rao, M.S. Gore, and Milton Singer have shown that jointness is more preferred and
prevalent in business communities, and many nuclear families maintain widespread kin ties. Several
recent researches in the Industrialized West have also emphasized the supportive role of kin and
their function of acting as a buffer between the family and the impersonal wider world (Abbi, 1970).
Social historians too have shown that the nuclear family was prevalent as a cultural norm in Europe
and the United States even before industrialization. However, it has to be noted that the supportive
role of kin does not have the compulsory character which is found in the family obligations of the
Indian nuclear family. The youngsters in the nuclear family still willingly follow the norm of
responsibility towards the primary kin, such as parents and siblings, solidarity of the close kin, and
some sense of unity of the family, even though living in separate households (Leela Dube, 1974: 311).
All these changes have modified our family system. While the population movement from the rural
to the urban areas has led to decline in authoritarian power, growth of secularism has developed a
value system which emphasizes individual initiative and responsibility. Individual now functions
without any restrictive familial controls. Formerly, when man worked in the family and all family
members helped him in the work, there was more intimacy among the family members but now
since he works in the industry away from the family, the intimacy in the relations has been adversely
affected. The effect of industrialization on the pattern of family relationship is also evident from the
decline in self-sufficiency of the family, and attitudinal changes toward family. Industrialization has,
thus, contributed markedly to the creation of a new social and psychological setting in which the
survival of the early joint family with its authoritarian familistic organization has become very difficult.
Change in Marriage System
Change in age for marriage, freedom in mate selection and change in attitude towards marriage have
also affected our family system. Children who marry at a late age neither obey the parental authority
nor perceive the eldest male as the main person in decision-making. The freedom in mate selection
has promoted inter-caste marriages which in turn has affected the relationship structure in the family.
Similarly, since marriage is no longer considered religiously important and break in marital relations
has come to be legally accepted, it has weakened the corporate authority of the family as symbolized
by the husband’s power.
Legislative Measures
Lastly, legislative measures have also their impact on family pattern. Prohibition of early marriage
and fixing the minimum age of marriage by the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, and the Hindu
Marriage Act, 1955, have lengthened the period of education and functionally contributed to the
adjustment of couples in new environment after marriage. The freedom of mate selection and marriage
in any caste and religion without the parents’ consent after certain age permitted through by the
Special Marriage Act, 1954, sanctioning of widow remarriage by the Widow Remarriage Act, 1856,
the freedom of breaking the marriage by the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and giving share to daughters
in paternal property by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, have all not only modified the inter-personal
relations and the composition of family but also the stability of joint family.
Family Disorganization
Family disorganization is a condition of a family characterized by the breakdown of harmonious
relations and co-operation among the members, or breakdown of social control, or unity and discipline.
A state of disorganization in the family also exists when there is role conflict among the set of members,
say between husband and wife or parents and children or daughter-in-law and parents-in-law or
brothers and brothers. When a family does not seem to be functioning in a ‘desirable’ way, that is,
when the enacted roles of members are not in conformity to the expected roles (of society), a state of
disorganization is judged to exist. The ‘personal disorganization’ of any one member in the family
(that is, the condition in which he cannot function effectively because of inner confusion usually
resulting from his acceptance of contradictory standards of behaviour or because of having accepted
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