Page 234 - DSOC402_SOCIOLOGY_OF_KINSHIP_ENGLISH

Sociology of Kinship

Notes tendency of the Indian society is to continue with the joint family system as there is no evidence
of either the breakage of parallel branches of the joint structure or any other form replacing the
paralleled tendency.”
The above-mentioned discussions clearly indicate that the future of joint families in India is not
dark. Though many changes have occurred with time, they are not a symbol of its disintegration
but of its changed form.
Since time immemorial, family has been considered the basic unit of society. A family is not only
essential for the human society, it is a safe and ideal institution. Since the last few years, the roots
of this institution have shaken. Sensing the danger, the United Nations Organisation declared
1984 as the International Year of the family. Now, it has become a trend to clebrate a ‘Day’ or
a ‘Year’ in the name of something, which is in danger. In India, there is the need to celebrate
‘Hindi Diwas’ (Hindi Day) so that the Indians do not forget that it is only Hindi which has the
capacity to be their National language.
In today’s materialistic age, every individual is so engrossed in his own interests that he has
no time to think about others and even if he does so, he does it as if he is doing a favour. The
fact of the matter is that today neither do the relations, nor do the joint families have any mean-
ing. Most of the Indians are moving far away from their families. Most of the people living in
modern families look up at joint families, where an individual’s happiness and sorrows were
shared by his parents, grand parents and siblings. Even today, this happens in joint families.
Joint families have their own merits. Joint families provide a full opportunity for the growth
of physical, mental and other capabilities. Most importantly, it provides an extremely healthy
environment for the social growth of children. But the rise of the industrial society and the
structure of economic activities related to it have limited the size of the joint families. The major
reason for the disintegration of joint families is the stepping out of women work, because of the
law age of some family members. Such hard circumstances are enough to disintegrate families.
They perceive their own parents as guests when they visit them. But these threads of relations
have not shredded totally as there is still a sense of shame left in some families.

Today man has become completely self centred and self-occupied. Today a
family means a husband, wife and children.

The technical and economic changes which occurred in the last few years have affected the
society and extensively changed the values. On the one hand, there are pre-established beliefs
while on the other hand, there is a mesh of a few modern forms of economic progress, which
have not brought any positive change in the interests of people or their customs, rites or rituals.
There is a contradiction in circumstances here, because of which the family unit is continuously
disintegrating. Now, the relations do not have warmth. A brother does not miss his siblings.
Parents are having a hard time. Change is the nature of times. There was never a time when
the process of change stopped. But the changes that have taken place in the last few years have
shattered everything. Dr. Rajendra Prasad in an article, gave an example in context with the
Indian culture. He says, “If we wish to lead a happy and peaceful life, then we should adopt the
teaching of the Vedas, which say ‘Indulgence with Sacrifice.’ Now, an example here, proves
how to use it in family life. He says, “Suppose there is a joint family where every member wants
each one in the family to be happy. For that, they make endless efforts to earn the maximum,
beyond their capacity. Every member of that family wants to earn the maximum for himself.
Their total earnings will be the same as in the first stage. In this manner, the total property will
be equal in both the cases. Now, if that is divided, everyone will get an equal share. But there
will be a difference in both the stages. In the first stage, there is no concern for struggle as the
individual is not doing it for himself, the involvement of others is also required in the struggle.

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