For the Indian students of Sociology, the study of the Indian family system deserves special attention, not only because they are born in Indian families but also for here the family system differs in material respects from the western family system. The family in India does not consist only of husband, wife and their children but also of uncles, aunts and cousins and grandsons.
This system, called joint family or extended family system is a peculiar characteristic of the Indian social life. A son after marriage does not usually separate himself from the parents but continues to stay with them under the same roof messing together and holding property in common.
The family has joint property and every person has his share in it since the time he is born. The earnings of all the members are put in a common fund out of which family expenses are met. Non-earning members have as much share as the earning members. The Indian family system is thus like a socialistic community in which everyone earns according to his capacity and receives according to his needs.
The family in India is based on patrilineal descent. Children are identified by name and allegiance with the father’s family. Property is passed from generation to generation within the father’s family.
Definition of Joint Family
1. According to Chandra Shekhar, “In a word joint family is simple, the common ownership of means of production & common enjoyment of fruits of labor.”
2. According to Elliot and Merrill, “Family disorganization includes any weakness, maladjustment of dissolution of the ties binding members of this group together.”
3. According to Dr. Mower, “It is the disruption of the family relationship, climax of long series of conflicts which have threatened the unity of the family. This sequence of conflicts may be called family disorganization.”
4. According to Karve, “A joint family is a group of people who generally live under one roof, who eat food cooked at one hearth, who hold property in common and who participate in common worship and are related to each other as some particular type of kindred.”
5. According to I.P. Desai, “We call that household a joint family which has greater generation depth than individual family and the members of which are related to one another by property, income and mutual rights and obligations.”
6. According to Davis, “The joint family consists of persons having a common male ancestor, female offspring not yet married, and women brought into the group by marriage. All of these persons might live in a common household or in several households near to one another. In any case, so long as the joint family holds together, its members are expected to contribute to the support of the whole and to receive from it a share of the total product.”
7. According to Jolly, “In a joint family not only parents and children, brothers and stepbrothers live on the common property, but it may sometime include ascendants and collaterals up to many generations.”
8. According to Henry Maine, “The Hindu joint family is a group constituted of known ancestors and adopted sons and relatives related to these sons through marriage.”
MERITS OF JOINT FAMILY
1. Division of Labour:
Joint family secures the advantages of division of labour. Each member of family has some allotted work on the basis of age and sex. Every phase of family’s life is managed by all members including women and children.
2. Ensures Economic Progress:
It enables economic progress of the country since everyone in the family is guaranteed bare subsistence, a first condition of economic progress. Unless people are assured of food and shelter they would not devote themselves sincerely to the work of country’s progress. It is an essential condition of national progress that the citizens must at least get two meals a day. Joint family provides this to its members and thus enables them to devote themselves to nation’s progress.
3. Opportunity for Leisure:
It provides opportunities for leisure to the members. The female members divide the household work and finish it within a little time spending the rest of it in leisure.
4. Economy in Expenditure:
A joint family avoids the unnecessary expenditure of separate house-hold establishment. Savings are possible in the joint family since the household purchases are done jointly. As joint family requires large quantities of commodities for its consumption, they can be purchased at a time at lower prices and thereby money can be saved.
5. Social Insurance:
In the joint family the orphans find a comfortable asylum instead of being thrown out. Similarly, widows are assured of their proper living for whom remarriage in India is unthinkable. The joint family acts as a social insurance company for the old, sick and incapacitated.
6. Provides Social Security:
The joint family provides social security to the weak, aged, sick, infirm, the disabled and such other needy persons. An individual’s life from cradle to cremation is looked after by the joint family. In times of accidents, crisis and emergencies, one can rely on one’s joint family for the help.
7. Social Control:
The joint family by exercising control over the behavior of its members acts as an agent of social control. The individuals are taught to subordinate their individual interests to the group interests. The elder members of the family keep a close eye on the activities of every individual. Therefore, deviant behavior normally is not to be found among the members of the joint family system.
8. It Encourages Social Virtues:
A joint family system encourages many social virtues. Since the members belonging to joint family have different taste and habits etc. It is essential that all should be adjusted and accommodated; Members develop love, affection, sympathy and many other social virtues.
9. Avoids Fragmentation of Holdings:
It avoids fragmentation of holdings and the evils inherent therein. It prevents property from being divided.
10. Socialism:
According to Sir Henry Maine, the joint family is like a corporation where trustee is the father. Everyone in the joint family works according to his capabilities but obtains according to his needs. Thus it realises the socialistic ideal from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
DEMERITS OF JOINT FAMILY:
There are certain defects which are inherent in its constitution. These are as follows:
1. Dependency on Limited Members:
Often whole financial responsibility of a joint family rests upon the shoulders of one or more earning members. They are thus compelled to do more and more labour resulting in the breakdown of their mental and physical health.
2. Home for Idlers:
Joint family is the home for idlers and drones as the non-earning members do not want to earn their livelihood. When a person can eat comfortably without exerting himself, he is unlikely to indulge in any strenuous activity. Mostly, in the joint family, it happens that some people have to exhaust themselves while the others lead a life of utter lethargy
3. Hindrance to Social Mobility:
The joint family is said to be more conservative in nature. Since it is dominated by tradition, it is slow to respond to the modern trends. It does not encourage its members to go after change. Members are more concerned with safeguarding their statuses rather than with changing them. Hence social mobility is very much limited here.
4. Encourage Litigation:
The joint family system encourages litigation, for at the time of partition of common property, generally disputes crop up which are not settled without a recourse being taken to law. In case of agricultural families, partition leads to fragmentation of holdings which is harmful from the viewpoint of agricultural progress.
5. Slot and Laziness:
In a joint family, all the members are provided equally, irrespective of their incomes. This gives rise to slot and laziness. When means of subsistence are available in joint family, other members do not worry about employment. Children and women in a joint family often remain neglected and due to equal treatment of all children a talented one does not get a chance to develop their abilities.
6. Leads to Quarrels:
It is the hotbed of quarrels and bickering, especially among the female members. Generally, there is hatred and jealousy between the wives of brothers. There is continuous strife and fighting over the doings of children. There is also the clash of ideas and temperaments on account of which there are constant quarrels between the elder and younger members of the family.
7. Family Tensions and Clashes:
The joint family is a hotbed for tensions and dissensions because there are varying degrees of interests which clash with each other and result in quarrels. Frequent quarrels among women and between elder and younger members are a common feature of many joint families in India.
8. Privacy Denied:
In a joint family privacy is denied to the newlywed couple. The brides of the sons do not get an opportunity to develop their personality. They serve the entire family like slaves. They hardly meet their husbands during the day. The invariable presence of other family members shames the bride and she cannot freely talk to her husband. Any natural love between husband and wife is prevented from blossoming. There is also no limit to the injustice done by the mother-in-law. In some cases, this injustice becomes so inhuman and unbearable that women become fed up and commit suicide.
9. Low Status of Women:
An important feature of the joint family system is the low status of women. During childhood, a woman is subordinated to her father, during youth to her husband and during old age to her son.
10. Unfavourable to accumulation of capital:
It is not favourable to a large accumulation of capital. When one has to share one’s income with a large family, it is not possible to save much. The property of the family being jointly owned is sometimes allowed to go to waste.
11. Uncontrolled procreation:
In the joint family, the responsibility for bringing up and educating the children is shared. No individual feels responsible for controlling procreation because of the limited income of the family. The offspring of one member will be treated on the same footing as others. No distinction is made between the statuses of the family members. In this way, no direct benefits occur to an individual in the joint family by practising family planning or earning more.
Thus, the joint family system has got both its strong proponents as well as opponents. However, we are to remember that no institution is perfect and also that no institution full of defects can exist very long. The joint family system has been in existence since society changed from the agricultural stage of economic development. While the system is breaking down in cities, it still largely prevails in the villages, especially among the agricultural families. Though there may be exceptions here and there, it cannot be said that the system has been completely abolished. It is no doubt true that the system, once considered the pillar of stability, is finding it difficult to withstand the dizzying pace of social mobility and the transformation of values.
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