A joint family is more than living together

A joint family is on a disintegrating path ever since society graduated into an age of technological advance, changing
gender roles and better employment opportunities. Interdependence on each other in large families seems to have been
replaced by independent living and self-sufficient attitude.
Silent changes have been taking place in the family life of India for the last few decades. The old joint family system have
been disintegrating and in their places nuclear families, each with three or four members are coming into being. There
have been several causes that have been provoking disintegration of our old extended families.
Living together under one roof which was once about shared values and harmonious co-existence, today raises questions
on adjustment and compromise. Couples post weddings settle down away from their in-laws and relatives to avoid what
they now call an 'intrusion' into their conjugal space that decades back did not mean the same.
Staying away or close, the spirit of togetherness in a family should remain alive, forever!
1. Contact with the West:
Modernization in India started mainly with the western contact, especially through establishment of the British rule. This
contact had a special historicity which brought about many far-reaching changes in culture and social structure in Indian
Society.
Western culture presented before the Indians a new type of family, a family comprising of the spouses and children which
became more and more favored than the joint-family-living. The concepts of love, equality, freedom and close association
between the spouses which were prevalent in the western type of life became alluring for the Indians who were crushed
under the sense of sacrifice responsibilities and devotion, devoid of love and affection.

2. Industrialization:

Prof. Y. Singh holds that one way to characterize change is to associate conjugal or nuclear forms of families with
relatively modernized or industrial society and extended and joint types of families with traditional agrarian and preindustrial societies. George P.Murdock also holds that the forms and functions of family have undergone adaptive
changes in the technological and economic superstructure of society.
The joint family in India was found to be stable in the agricultural stage and in the village life when people did not realize
the necessity of going away from their families. But with the establishment of factories and industries in many places of
the country, agriculture was pushed to the background and with it changed those social institutions which were its
products. The industrial centres pulled persons of different families out of the traditional peasant societies comprising of
joint families.

People were compelled to leave their joint families and village communities. With the dawn of industrial era, the village
and cottage industries experienced adverse effects. The manpower released out of those village and cottage industries
found employment in the industrial centres scattered over many distant places in India. This struck at the roots of joint
families and the process of disintegration started. Furthermore the process of disintegration also gained momentum from
the rapid development of transport and communication.
3. Urbanization:

Urbanization and industrialisation are often construed as twin forces of change and both these factors influence each
other. Urbanization occurs due to industrialisation and vice-versa. With the high rate of urbanization the composition of
labours force changes considerably. The percentage of workers dependent on agriculture comes down and more and
more people run to cities and towns in search of jobs.
The urban centres also provide people with various amenities of life concerning transport and communication, sanitation
and health, education and employment etc. People are tempted with the lure of urban civilization and there is a rural to
urban type of migration. Since an extended family or joint family cannot always be maintained in the towns or cities, due to
high cost of urban living and problem of accommodation, people afford to live in the nuclear type of families.

4. Rapid growth of population:

Rapid growth of population brought corresponding increase of the pressure on land. Agriculture being the prime
occupation of the villagers, the rural youths faced the problem of unemployment due to the imbalance of man and land
equation. People began to move into urban and industrial centres in search of jobs. Thus they had to leave the traditional
joint families which resulted in the breakdown of jointness.
5. Modern Education:
Modern education changes the attitude of people. It enables people to get into jobs or profession. The educated men and
women, after obtaining the requisite qualifications, leave their families in search of suitable jobs or for purposes of
employment in various urban and Industrial centres. After getting jobs they settle down there and form the family of
procreation there. At the initial stage, they maintain close relationship with the family of orientation. But in course of time
their bond weakens and there occurs a breakdown in the joint family.
6. Enlightenment of Women:

Social reform movements, spread of modern education, womens awareness regarding their own position, all affected the
patriarchal authority of the joint family system. The spread of modern education enlightened the women, it made them
conscious of their rights and status in society. It brought about drastic changes in the practices and ideals of family among
the Hindus.
They were no more prepared to remain within the four walls of the household in the traditional subordinate position. Social
reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Ray, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Keshab Chandra Sen, Maharshi Karve and Pandit
Ramabai could work and achieve considerable measure of success for the cause of women. The real breakthrough,

however, came in the twentieth century when Gandhi launched the civil disobedience movement, and with unerring
instinct asked the women to come out of their homes to take part in it shoulder to shoulder with their men folk.
The joining of women in the Indian National Congress and political movement intermingled them in the National
mainstream and resulted in their economic independence. All these factors affected the patriarchal authority of the joint
family system and the in-laws failed to adjust with the educated and conscious women. As a sequel to that the process of
disintegration started in the joint family.

7. Family Quarrels:
Differences in the interest of members of a joint family, disparities relating to earning of the members and clash of
personalities caused quarrels. Conflicts also occurred due to unequal distribution of work at house, extra economic
burden and emotional strain and same type of treatment to the lazy members. These spoiled the happiness in the family
and caused dissatisfaction among the members of the family and many a time it became so intolerable that the
breakdown of joint family appeared to be the only way out.
8. Over-population and Impoverishment:
Due to unrestricted reproduction in the joint family, population increased. It brought pressure upon agricultural land.
Agriculture could not provide employment to all villagers, which was the main occupation of the villagers, so far. As a
result, the Indian village communities experienced the problems of poverty and unemployment. Hence, the unemployed
people were forced to migrate to the urban and industrial centres in search of employment. After getting their source of
livelihood in the town or cities they formed their families of procreation and had to part with their families of orientation.
9. Accommodation-Problems:
In the urban-industrial matrix the problem of accommodation is very acute. Due to the great density of population, and the
high cost of living the migrants are not in a position to afford a big house which can accommodate all the members of a
joint family, small houses become insufficient to accommodate all the members of the joint family. Hence single families
are only maintained in the place of work.
10. Developed means of transport and communication:
In the past, people were less mobile because of lack of transport and poor communication. Since they were relatively
immobile, they had to stay in the joint family and village community. But with the rapid development of the means of
transportation and communication, people have become more and more mobile. They now move from one place to
another within no time. In the past, the caste system was very rigid and people were taking to their family occupation. But
now due to the improved means of transport and communication, people move to different places in search of various
kinds of jobs and employment. All these factors cause the breakdown of the traditional joint family system.
11. Decline of Agriculture and Village Industries:
The joint family system was a product of the agrarian society. The villagers solely depended upon agriculture and agrobased cottage industries. But under the changed circumstances, the commodities produced by the village craftsmen and
artisans could not withstand the challenge posed due to low price and good quality products of the factories. As a result,
there was decline of village industries and finally they were closed down, the raw materials were sent to the industrial

centres for processing and to produce finishing goods. People in the rural areas lost their employment and went to the
industrial and urban centres in search of employment. These things brought about the disintegration of joint family.

12. Role of New Social Legislations:

Some legislations enacted during the British period proved harmful for joint family. The head of the family was legally
permitted to dispose of family properties for payment of debts etc. This enabled the Karta to waste the common earnings
easily. Therefore the earning members of the family were disgruntled which resulted in family conflict. The development of
industry trade, urban centres and western education brought about changes in opinion which ultimately affected law
through the growing body of legislation.
One general tendency of legislation has been to extend the legal rights of the individual; for example, the right to retain
personal earnings by the Gains of Learning Act, 1930, and the right of women to share in the property of the joint family,
by the Hindu Law of Inheritance (Amendment) Act, 1929 and the Hindu Womens Right to Property Act, 1937, Since,
independence the process has continued and fundamental changes in the law of inheritance have been brought about by
the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, That apart, the Civil, Marriage Act 1957 gave the freedom to the adult males and females
to marry according to their own choice.
The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 helped the women to seek divorce on certain grounds. All these legislations gave enough
facility to the members to divided the joint family immediately after the death of the father. The necessity of jointness has
also weakened due to various governmental provision relating to old age pension, widow pension, etc.

Disintegration of Joint Families

First, the spread of female education has been galvanizing the outlook of women about life. In most cases when an
educated girl enters her husbands family as a bride she can hardly reconcile herself to the old ideas of her domineering
mother-in-law. Consequently she desires to set up her independent establishment of her own.
Secondly, disparity in the income of brothers provides an incentive for disintegration of big families. The brother or
brothers who have decent income are tempted to have a separate establishment tastefully decorated and richly furnished
with modern amenities and luxuries.
Thirdly, thanks to globalization and e-mail which have turned the world into a global village. European consumerism
dazzles our life and it prompts the affluent members of a family to come out of the old way of life and indulge in rat race.
Fourthly, the girls who come to the same family as brides are brought up in their paternal homes in different social, cultural
and sometimes political environments and consequently they cannot pull together. So they often like to live apart from
each other to avoid bitter encounters.
Now as a result of the break-up of the joint family the people who suffer most are the old parents and the unemployed
members. Sometimes the old parents are to fend for themselves or to opt to live in a home for the old. It is a fact that a
nuclear family lives in economic solvency. But if any emergency crops up, the small family finds few helping hands to
share their trouble. Besides, the child or the children of a nuclear family live isolated from the mainstream of society and
so they often grow as strangers to fellow feeling.