7/28/2019 Family Studies Retrospect and Prospect http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/family-studies-retrospect-and-prospect 1/5 Family Studies: Retrospect and Prospect Author(s): A. M. Shah Reviewed work(s): Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan. 1-7, 2005), pp. 19-22 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4416002 . Accessed: 28/03/2012 05:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly. http://www.jstor.org
Family Studies: Retrospect and ProspectAuthor(s): A. M. ShahReviewed work(s):Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan. 1-7, 2005), pp. 19-22Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4416002 .
Accessed: 28/03/2012 05:43
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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
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of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
the commodity futures markets are cryingfor development, and not SEBI-like regu-lation. What is needed for such develop-ment is a new and innovative law in the
form of Commodity Futures Markets
(Development) Act, which should replacethe age-old Forward Contracts (Regula-tion) Act. The new act should provide for
mainly from outside the bureaucracy,with adequate financial and manpowerresources not so much to regulate com-
modity futures exchanges as to developthem as economically useful markets,to serve the price discovery and risk
management functions effectively and
efficiently, for the diverse physicalmarket functionaries - from farmers to
consumers at large.The chairman of CFMC must be a non-
official economist or agricultural econo-mist of repute, with high qualificationsand significant research experience in
commodity economics in particular and
agriculturalmarketing ngeneral.He should
be accorded the status equivalent to that
of unionministerof state in the ministryof
food andagriculture n the centralgovern-ment.The membersof thecommission need
to be economists and management profes-sionals with commodity marketing, priceanalysisand finance as background,drawn
partlyfrom civil service, but mostly from
outside the government. All of them may
be of the rankof either secretaries or ad-ditional secretaries in the central govern-ment.Theappointment f the chairmanand
membersof theproposedCFMC should be
for a minimum period of five years at atime. These conditions will strengthenthe independentandautonomous statusof
the commission.
Thecommissionshould be entrustedwith
mainly the developmental functions, with
minimalregulatorypowers to be exercised
in the event of serious irregularities and
market manipulations in the nature of
corners, squeezes and bear raids. The
commission must have the responsibilityof developing the different commodity
exchanges as independent self-regulatoryorganisations, and monitoring their acti-
vities on a continuing basis to assess their
economic utility. Of course, it is not the
purpose of this article to delineate eitherthe salient features of the proposed newAct or the CFMC. Suffice it to say that
not the integration of the commodityderivatives markets with the securities
markets, as proposed by the finance min-
ister, P Chidambaram,but the enactment
of a new law, and the constitution of an
autonomous Commodity Futures Markets
Commission as a powerful developmental
body,canstrengthen hecommodity futures
markets in the country. At any cost, the
commodity futures must be saved from
the deathtrapof convergence, and allowed
to grow freely so as to facilitate the
commodity players in the country to meet
with the challenges of international com-
petition. [Ei
Note
The author s an independentconsultingecono-mist. The views expressedin this article are his
personal.
The references in the article to the reportof theInter-ministerialTaskForceon the Convergenceof SecuritiesandCommodityDerivativesMarketshave beendrawn romthe DraftReportof the task
force,as
posted on the web site of the ForwardMarketsCommission,since the finalreport eemsto have not been released.
Fami ly Studies:
Retrospect n d Prospect
Recentworkinfamily studies has not advanced our
understanding f the amily. In most instances,thefamily
continues to be seen as a static unit and definedin stereotypicalterms.At the same time,the amily as a unitof studycontinues to
sufferas certaindisciplinesretain their academicdistinctions.Thereis also a dearthof scholars withgood reportingandobservationskills that are required opick up the nuancesa
study of the amily inevitably nvolves.
A M SHAH
I published in 1964 anextensive review
of literatureon the Indianfamily, with
particular reference to the terms and
concepts used in studying it. I included amore comprehensive review in my 1973
book. The last sentence of thatbook reads,"When we thinkof past achievements and
futuretasks, it looks as though we areonlyon the threshold of the study of the Indian
family" (p 173). When I see the literature
published since then - I do not claim to
have read all of it - I find we have crossedthe threshold but not gone very far after
crossing it.
Up until the 1940s the studies of the
Indian family were based almost entirelyon Indological sources, covering mainly
its property and ritual aspects. Since em-pirical studies on the family began in the
1950s, one fundamental achievement has
been the conceptual differentiation of
household from family. This has enabledus to understand the reality of our familylife more clearly. Not only has the qualityof ourmicro-studies improved, we are alsoable to integrate them with the macro-studies of demographers, economists andothers because the household is the unit
of enumeration in the census of India andin large scale surveys conducted by the
National Sample Survey and other
organisations. There is still considerable
scope for deepening and widening this
integration. The census of India, in parti-cular, should improve collection and
presentation of data on the household.Unfortunately, the census authorities have
not yet considered it necessary to involve
sociologists and social anthropologists in
the pre-census consultations on planningthe census. We shouldpressurisethe autho-
rities in this regard. At the same time,
however, we should carry out effective
studies of the census and survey data on
the household, so that we acquire greater
credibility and are able to strengthen our
case. (For a discussion of the census lit-
erature see my article 1999.)
Objection has been raised against using
the term household as a unit composed ofmembers relatedby kinship andmarriage,because the household might include one
or more servants. This is possible, but we
should ascertainwhether a servant s a full-
fledged member of the household. In rural
areas frequently a servant working with a
farmer lives and cooks in a separate hutorshed, and in urbanareasusually a servant
stays with the master for a short period.In any case, since only a wealthy house-
hold can keep a servant, andeven wealthyhouseholds are often wary of keeping
the same, a close study of servants' po-sition in the household should be a subjectof sociological study.
Anothercritiqueof theconcept of house-
hold is that it is not always a discrete unitbecause its boundariesarenotalwaysclear.
Firstof all, we shouldbe clear thata house-
hold is both a residential and commensal
unit - both 'ghar' (house) and 'chula'
(hearth) in all north Indian languages. It
is truethat ncertain situationsa household
may not have obvious physical bound-
aries, i e, its members may not reside in
a walled house. This happens amongnomadic groups in villages and among
migrantlabourersliving on footpaths and
otheropen spaces in cities. A close obser-
vation of these groups, however, wouldreveal that they too are divided into dis-
crete commensal units. We should note
that among poor people setting up a
hearth (chula) is very easy. It can be set
up with just three bricks or well-hewn
stones or by making carefully a hole in the
ground,and members of the household sit
around t to takefood. We should also note
that most nomads and migrant labourers
have houses in their base villages. In anycase, domestic life of nomads and migrantlabourers would be a fascinating subjectof inquiry.
The limitationsof the concept of house-hold are thus negligible, and should not
detract us from considering the household
as the fundamental unit of family life in
India. I hope I do not have to convince
sociologists and social anthropologists -
or, for that matter,any one else - that the
household is the primary site not only for
mundaneaffairs of life butalso formany of
its most intense sentiments and emotions.
Even the so-called mundane things of life
in it are often charged with sentiments and
emotions, andeven a single-person house-
hold has its distinctive emotional life.
I am amazed at the culturological dis-missal of household as a merely physicalunit.Firstly,we shouldrememberthegreatconcern with 'grihasthashram' (house-holder stage) and domestic rituals in tra-
ditional Indian culture. Secondly, even if
we leave aside the concern for physicalstructure of house in 'Vastushastra' (thetraditional science of architecture), manyrituals of marriageand other rites of pas-
sage concern the physical boundaries as
well as internal parts of the house, parti-cularly he thresholdand the hearth.Thirdly,
there is rich folklore about the household
inIndianlanguages.Forexample, aGujarati
proverb ays, "Duniyanochhedoghar" Theultimateboundaryof the worldis thehome).One utters this proverb when one returnshome from a long journey, even from a
pilgrimage, to convey that "One may go
anywhere in theworld butfindsreal solace
when one comes home". Another proverb
says, "Ghami uthi vanman ane vanmanuthi aag" (I went to the forest to escapefrom the home but fire erupted in the
forest). Fourthly,thereareelaboratenorms
of household formation, which I have
summarised under what I have called the
principle of residential unity of 'patrikin'and their wives, and I have examined
their observance in practice (see Shah
1973). There are also norms of behaviour
within the household and outside of it.
Culture is thus deeply engaged with
household.
I entirely agree that the household is notan isolated unit,and that relations between
households forming partof a larger familyare also important. In fact, the very at-
tempt to distinguish between family and
household goes hand in hand with estab-
lishing a relationship between the two. I
shall soon returnto this problem, but let
me reiterate in the meanwhile that the
household is the main site of family life,andanyfailure to distinguish it from the
family - as I even now see in many
writings on the family - is to run into
confusions of all kinds.
It is well known thatbrothers,and even
parents and sons, often live in separatehouseholds but continue to belong to a
family. Thereis asaying all over India that
living in separate households ensuresmaintenance of family ties. Wise parentsoften encourage household separation of
sons toensurefamily unity.Andnowadayssons often begin to live in separatehouse-
holds soon after marriagebut continue to
maintain relations with parents and other
members of the family. I P Desai had
emphasised this point long ago in his book
on Mahuva (1964) by elaborating his
concept of 'jointness'. Ihadalso raisedthe
same issue in my 1973 book but could not
tackle it there. I have however written a
chapter on 'Inter-Household Family Re-lations' in my recent book (1998). Patricia
Uberoi has also raised the same issue in
her recent essay (2003). This is undoubt-
edly animportantproblem, but achalleng-
ing one and needs tobe studiedwithrigour.If sufficient rigour is not applied we are
bound to repeatthe same old cliches about
the joint family.
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Rewriting Text Books is a great political controversy. Whom to support- secularor non-secular? Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, Ambedkar,C. F. Andrews, Anand
To study this problem, we have to getout of the framework imposed by Hindu
law and iturgicaltexts andevolve a frame-
work that can take care of the whole rangeof non-legal andnon-ritualdimensions of
family relationships. Urgency to do this is
increasing since the old legal and ritual
norms are themselves getting eroded. This
will require studies of the problem in the
field and with new conceptual and analy-tical tools. I do not think the census of India
or any large-scale survey will be able to
provide data in this regard. Family is a
fuzzy concept, notonly in English but also
in Indian languages, and I doubt if the
census or survey can handle it effectively.We should recognise, however, that
fuzziness has also its social uses, andtheyshould also be studied.
The main challenge is to mark the con-tours of family relations outside the house-
hold. As I haveshowninmyearlierwritings,
attemptsto define joint family in terms of
number of generations, as the legal and
liturgical texts do, are not likely to be
successful. In addition there is theproblemof taking care of a person's relations with
such crucialnearrelativesas his/herfather's
sister and mother's brother and sister (tonameonly afew) who fall outside the legaland ritual definition of joint family.
During the last 50 years or so we have
made considerableprogress in identifying
the various forms of household compo-sition. We have moved gradually from a
single form (joint family) to two forms
(joint and nuclear family) and then to a
multiplicity of forms. There is consider-
able scope for refining the formulation of
these forms, but the very recognition of
a multiplicity of forms is an importantstepforward. Old habits,however, seem to die
hard. Even now I find many writings in
theframeworkof only two forms,joint and
nuclear. Supervisors of many MPhil and
PhD students do not seem to tell them to
get out of the old framework. And surely,the newdevelopmentshave notyet reachedthe teaching of the Indian family even at
the MA level, let alone the BA level, in
many universities.
Recognition of household forms is onlythe first step. Our most importantjob is
to understand the content of life in thehousehold: interactionbetween members
of the household, their sentiments and
emotions, their pleasures and pains, their
tensions and conflicts. These interactionsare guided by norms and values attached
to positions and roles of the members. In
this regard every member - I repeat, everymember - of the household is important,and thereforeevery typeof household com-
position is important.I do not see how anymember can be excluded while formulat-
ing forms of household composition.When every member is taken into
account, the conventional terms nuclear
andjoint household become problematic.We have to recognise the incompletenuclear households of various types, be-
ginning with the single-person household.
When we do this, general statementsabout
the nuclear household become difficult, if
not impossible. Similarly, when all the
different types of joint household are
recognised, general statements about the
joint household also become difficult.
From this point of view, the dichotomyof nuclearand oint family is artificial. The
two types are only genealogical models
and analytical devices. They are not out
there in social reality. It is pointless to aska respondent, as is frequently done: "Do
you live in a nuclear or joint family?". I
made this point repeatedly in my writings,and PatriciaUberoi has done well to pleadin herrecentessay (2003) thatwe go beyondthe nuclear versus joint debate.
To go beyond this dichotomy, we have
to focus on the content of family life, and
there are some good beginnings in this
direction. Gender studies - studies of do-
mestic violence, child abuse, fertilitybehaviour, dowry deaths, deprivation of
women from inheritanceof property,prob-
lems of divorce and widowhood, and soon- have helped us understand he content
of family life. Surely, women's life is not
confined to the family, and the recent
protests against the UGC's move to linkthe Women's Studies Centres with familystudies make a legitimate point. Neverthe-
less, theseprotestsshouldnot lead togiving
uptheimportant ask of studying women'slife in the family. The studies of popularculture, particularly of cinema, have also
contributed to enhance our understandingof family life. And so have studies of the
family by psychologists.I have, however, threemajor complaints
about these studies. Firstly, almost all of
them are confined to one or two stereo-
typical forms of the family anddo not take
into account the multiplicity of its forms.
In other words, they neglect the fact that
every member of the family is important.For example, a great deal of attention is
given to thehusband-wife andparent-child
relationships while minimum, if no, atten-
tion is given to the brother-sisterrelation-
ship. To get an idea of other ignored
relationships, I suggest an exercise. Take
ajoint household composed of a male ego,his wife, their two or more marriedsons
and their wives and children, and his
unmarried sons and daughters; make an
exhaustive list of relationships between all
of them;and then check how manyof them
we have studied in depth. The outcome of
the exercise will be disappointing. If we
consider not just the dyads but also the
complex web formed by them, our
disappointment will be greater.
My second complaint about studies of
content of family life is that most of them
see the family in static terms and neglectits developmental process occurring over
time. Every role and relationship in the
family, as well as its composition, under-
goes transformation n the developmental
process, andgeneralisations should not be
made on the basis of its observationatonlyone point of time.
My third complaint is that most of the
gender studies highlight oppression ofwomen by men - usually some men - and
ignore oppression of women by women,leave aside oppression of men by women.
To get an idea of the numberof woman-to-
woman relationships involved, just count
them in the exercise on joint families sug-
gested above. The oppressionof women bywomen is also usually explained away by
resorting to the ambiguous conceptof patriarchy.
Changes in the Family
So farI have said nothing aboutchangesin the family. This subject will requireanotherpresentation.However, Imaymake
a few summary statements. (i) We con-
tinue to discuss this subject in the same
old framework of change from joint to
nuclear family. There are, however, suf-
ficient grounds for challenging it. Most
adivasi tribes and the lower castes and
classes seem to have followed the reverse
pathof change. (ii) We show little concern
for specifying the aspect of family while
discussing change, particularlywhether it
is change in the household or in the wider
family. (iii) We often do not realise thatwhat we consider to be change is often the
entire population of India lived in jointhouseholds, practised a uniform code for
inheritance of family property, and per-formed domestic ritualsaccordingto litur-
gical texts. Only a few historians are con-
cernedwithstudying hehistoryof the Indian
family from a new perspective and helpus construct a benchmark (see the work
of Kessinger 1974, 1976 andGuha 1998).
Although marriage s integral to family,we have given less attention to it than to
family. Most of our studies in this field
are even now about rules of marriage:
endogamy, exogamy, cross-cousin mar-
riage, and so on. Even in this regard a lot
of work remains to be done. We have
shown little concern for finding out the
extentto which aparticular ule s observed
in practice. We presumethat therewas no
choice in arrangedmarriages n traditional
India. Of course, in a regime of child
marriagea
child did not have choice. Thisdoes not, however, mean that the child's
parents and other elders did not have
alternatives to choose from. Conversely,in the so-called love marriages amongadults in acertain section of society todaychoice is restrictedby a number of social
factors. Secondly, we have yet to find out
therelationbetween forms of marriageand
forms of family. For example, I had sug-
gested that cross-cousin marriage mightlead to harmony between mother-in-law
and daughter-in-law in a joint household
and therefore there might be higher fre-
quency of such households in south India.This suggestion has not yet been tested
systematically. Even the rule of caste
endogamy is not as simple as it appears to
be. Even its infringement is not so simple.A close study of this problem is crucial
to understanding changes in caste to-
day. Most mportant f all,asregards ontent
of married ife we have yet to move from
facile general statements to systematic in-
quiry.(Foradiscussion on marriage ee the
chapteron it in my 1998 book.)I end my presentation with three brief
disciplinaryobservations.Firstly,thestudy
as well as teaching of family, kinship and
marriagehas suffered a great deal due to
the artificial distinction between socio-
logy and social anthropology. The earlier
we remove this distinction the better.
Secondly, among the various branches of
sociology and social anthropology the
study of family, kinship and marriagerequiresahigher degree of terminological,
conceptual and analytical precision. That
is why it is often called 'kinship algebra'.And thirdly, the study of family, kinshipand marriage requires special skills of
observation and data collection, because
entry into people's homes, even in rural
and tribal homes, is not always easy, and
observation of intense emotions in the
home is extremely difficult, and of some
emotions, impossible. Let us hope the
sociology of Indian family will be
blessed by entry of at least a few giftedscholars - good observers as well as
good analysts. B
[This is a revised version of author'skey-noteaddressat the seminaron 'Family in Contempo-
raryIndia:Changesand Challenges' at the De-
partment of Sociology, Punjab University,
Chandigarhon February12, 2004.]
References
Desai, I P (1964): Some Aspects of Family in
Mahuva, Asia PublishingHouse, Bombay.Guha, Sumit (1998): 'Household Size and
HouseholdStructure n Western ndiac 1700-
1950:Beginning
anExploration',
Indian
Economic and Social HistoryReview,35(1),
pp 23-33.
Kessinger,Tom G (1974): Vilyatpur1848-1968:Socialand EconomicChange n aNorth ndian
Village, University of California Press,
Berkeley.-(1976): 'HistoricalDemography f India:Results
and Possibilities', Peasant Studies, V(3),pp 2 8.
Shah, A M (1964): 'Basic Terms and Concepts
in the Study of Family in India', IndianEconomic and Social History Review, 1(3),
pp 1-36, Reprintedin Shah 1998.- (1973):TheHouseholdDimensionoftheFamily
in India: A Field Studyin a Gujarat Villageand a Review of Other Studies, Orient
Longman,Delhi andUniversityof California
Press, Berkeley.- (1998): The Fanily in India: Critical Essays,
Orient Longman,Delhi.- (1999): 'The Family in the Census of India',
Sociological Bulletin, 48(1-2), pp235-37.
Uberoi, Patricia(2003): The Family in India:
Beyond the Nuclearversus Joint Debate' inVeena Das (ed), TheOxford ndiaCompaniontoSociologyandSocialAnthropology,Oxford
University Press, Delhi.
Maharashtranter-basin
W a te r Transfer Proposal
Manyof theproposedwatertransferschemes in Maharashtra
requireheavyinvestmentnpower. But the state suffers roma perennialpower shortageand the governmenthas announced
power sopsfor farmers. Local watershedmanagement ystemsrather thannon-viable,multi-croremegaprojects like theinter-basin ransferscurrentlycontemplated,holdforwardmore viable options.
VUAY DIWAN
T heIndianRiverLinkingprojectpro-
posed in 1982 by the NWDA seems
to have been considerably infec-
tious. Thereafter, many states have pro-
posed many subsidiary links and inter-
basin water transfers within their bound-
aries. The MaharashtraPaani Parishad, astate-level non-government water forum
comprising a few important politicalleaders and retired echnocratsandbureau-
crats, has put forth a proposal with 13 dif-ferent schemes for inter-basin water trans-
fer throughout the state of Maharashtra.
This proposal propagates water transferfrom certain identified basins of surplusand abundant waters to deficit basins, by
way of lifting, tunnel building, canal
building, and creating storage reservoirs.The proposal puts up a claim to create an
additional irrigation potential of 30 lakh
hectares, and advocates an input of
Rs 34,000 crore, over a period of the next
20 years. It has been proclaimed by the
MaharashtraPaani Parishad that the pro-
posal has the support of the governmentof Maharashtra.One of the four regional
statutory boards of Maharashtra (which
were instituted underthe clause 371(2) ofConstitution of India) has already for-
warded a resolution towards immediate
implementation of one of these 13schemes
formakingadditionalwater available to the
Marathwadaregion of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra's Water Scenario
The Second Maharashtra Water and
Irrigation Commission stated in its
report that the total water use potentialin the state by 1996 was of 907 TMC.
