Page 221 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Unit 28: Family and Marriage in India: Regional Diversities

Notes

There is a lack of partnership sense amongst husband and wife and lack of
closeness amongst father and children. As far as husband income is concerned,
women are totally free. In this respect, the south Indian families are totally
different from the North Indian families.

The Matrilocal joint families known as ‘Tarwad’ are found amongst the Nairs of Malabar in
Travancore and some other groups. The main characteristics of Tarwad families are as follows:
1. The property of Tarwad belongs to all men and women.
2. The unmarried sons are the members of mother’s Tarwad while the married sons are the
members of their wives’Tarwad,
3. The oldest family member manages the Tarwad property. He is called karnavan and his
wife is called Ammayi.
4. Karnavan is the absolute dictator. After his demise, the next senior/eldest member becomes
the karnavan. He can invest the money in his name, can pawn the property, can loan the
money, can gift the land and is not accountable to any member regarding income and
expenditure.
5. When a Tarwad takes a large form, it is split into Tavanzhi. With relation to women, Ta-
vazhi is the group of those individuals, which includes women, their children, and all the
inheritors of the woman’s descent.
The Tarwards before 1912 and those after 1912 are two different groups, with different charac-
teristics:
(a) Earlier, the Tarwad property was indivisible but now, it is divided.
(b) Earlier, the karnavan was the absolute dictator.
(c) Earlier, the Tarwad members were not entitled to family support untill and unless they
lived in the ancestral house, but now they are entitled to family support even if they live
away from the ancestral house.
(d) Earlier, worshipping the karnavan ancestors was a normal thing, but not anymore.
(e) Earlier, the relation between husband and wife was formal, but now this relation has
become more informal, personal and more cordial and close.
(f) Earlier, after the demise of a Tarwad member, his property would go to the Tarwad, but
now this property goes to his widow and children. In the absence of children, It goes to the
mother and mother’s mother. Kapadia (1947:348) has also written that it is a fact that there
is only are Tavazhi in more than 90% veedus (homes). This shows that in the last few dec-
ades, the atomization of Tarwads has increased.

The Tarwad of the Nair caste has been dissolved after the Travancore Act, 1912;
the Cochin Act, 1920 and their enforcement in 1933. Now, a woman’s property
goes to her sons and daughters and then to her father and husband.

28.4 Clan Organisation and Marriage Rules

A caste is divided into five Exogamy clans. The prominent characteristics of clan organisation
are as follows:

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