Social
Structure in India |
Indian society is multifaceted to an extent perhaps
unknown in any other of the world's great civilizations.
Virtually no generalization made about Indian society
is valid for all of the nation's multifarious groups.
Comprehending the complexities of Indian social structure
has challenged scholars and other observers over many
decades.
The ethnic and linguistic diversity
of the Indian civilization is more like the diversity
of an area as variable as Europe than like that of
any other single nation-state. Living within the embrace
of the Indian nation are vast numbers of different
regional, social, and economic groups, each with different
cultural practices. Particularly noteworthy are differences
between social structures in the north and the south,
especially in the realm of kinship systems. Throughout
the country, religious differences
can be significant, especially between the Hindu majority
and the large Muslim minority; and other Indian groups--Buddhists,
Christians, Jains, Jews, Parsis, Sikhs, and practitioners
of tribal religions--all pride themselves on being
unlike members of other faiths.
Access to wealth and power varies considerably, and
vast differences in socioeconomic status are evident
everywhere. The poor and the wealthy live side by
side in urban and rural areas. It is common in city
life to see a prosperous, well-fed man or woman chauffeured
in a fine car pass gaunt street dwellers huddled beneath
burlap shelters along the roadway. In many villages,
solid cement houses of landowners rise not far from
the flimsy thatched shacks of landless laborers. Even
when not so obvious, distinctions of class are found
in almost every settlement in India.
Urban-rural differences can be immense
in the Indian Society. Nearly 74 percent of India's
population dwells in villages, with agriculture providing
support for most of these rural residents. In villages,
mud-plastered walls ornamented with traditional designs,
dusty lanes, herds of grazing cattle, and the songs
of birds at sunset provide typical settings for the
social lives of most Indians. In India's great cities,
however, millions of people live amidst cacophony--roaring
vehicles, surging crowds, jammed apartment buildings,
busy commercial establishments, loudspeakers blaring
movie tunes--while breathing the poisons of industrial
and automotive pollution.
Gender distinctions are pronounced.
The behavior expected of men and women can be quite
different, especially in villages, but also in urban
centers. Prescribed ideal gender roles help shape
the actions of both sexes as they move between family
and the world outside the home.
Crosscutting and pervading all of these differences
of region, language, wealth, status, religion, urbanity,
and gender is the special feature of Indian society
that has received most attention from observers: caste.
The people of India belong to thousands of castes
and castelike groups--hierarchically ordered, named
groups into which members are born. Caste members
are expected to marry within the group and follow
caste rules pertaining to diet, avoidance of ritual
pollution, and many other aspects of life.
In India, people learn the essential themes of cultural
life within the bosom of a family. In most of the
country, the basic units of society are the patrilineal
family unit and wider kinship groupings. The most
widely desired residential unit is the joint family,
ideally consisting of three or four patrilineally
related generations, all living under one roof, working,
eating, worshiping, and cooperating together in mutually
beneficial social and economic activities. Patrilineal
joint families include men related through the male
line, along with their wives and children. Most young
women expect to live with their husband's relatives
after marriage, but they retain important bonds with
their natal families.
Despite
the continuous and growing impact of urbanization,
secularization, and Westernization, the traditional
joint household, both in ideal and in practice,
remains the primary social force in the lives
of most Indians. Loyalty to family is a deeply
held ideal for almost everyone. |
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Large families tend to be flexible and well-suited to
modern Indian life, especially for the 67 percent of
Indians who are farmers or agricultural workers or work
in related activities . As in most primarily agricultural
societies, few individuals can hope to achieve economic
security without being part of a cooperating group of
kinsmen. The joint family is also common in cities,
where kinship ties can be crucial to obtaining scarce
jobs or financial assistance.
The joint family is an ancient Indian institution,
but it has undergone some change in the late twentieth
century. Although several generations living together
is the ideal, actual living arrangements vary widely
depending on region, social status, and economic circumstance.
Many Indians live in joint families that deviate in
various ways from the ideal, and many live in nuclear
families--a couple with their unmarried children--as
is the most common pattern in the West. However, even
where the ideal joint family is seldom found (as,
for example, in certain regions and among impoverished
agricultural laborers and urban squatters), there
are often strong networks of kinship ties through
which economic assistance and other benefits are obtained.
Not infrequently, clusters of relatives live very
near each other, easily available to respond to the
give and take of kinship obligations. Even when relatives
cannot actually live in close proximity, they typically
maintain strong bonds of kinship and attempt to provide
each other with economic help, emotional support,
and other benefits.
As joint families grow ever larger, they inevitably
divide into smaller units, passing through a predictable
cycle over time. The breakup of a joint family into
smaller units does not necessarily represent the rejection
of the joint family ideal. Rather, it is usually a
response to a variety of conditions, including the
need for some members to move from village to city,
or from one city to another to take advantage of employment
opportunities. Splitting of the family is often blamed
on quarrelling women--typically, the wives of coresident
brothers. Although women's disputes may, in fact,
lead to family division, men's disagreements do so
as well. Despite cultural ideals of brotherly harmony,
adult brothers frequently quarrel over land and other
matters, leading them to decide to live under separate
roofs and divide their property. Frequently, a large
joint family divides after the demise of elderly parents,
when there is no longer a single authority figure
to hold the family factions together. After division,
each new residential unit, in its turn, usually becomes
joint when sons of the family marry and bring their
wives to live in the family home.
Throughout much of India, a baby's
birth is celebrated with rites of welcome and blessing--songs,
drums, happy distribution of sweets, auspicious unguents,
gifts for infant and mother, preparation of horoscopes,
and inscriptions in the genealogist's record books.
In general, children are deeply desired and welcomed,
their presence regarded as a blessing on the household.
Babies are often treated like small deities, pampered
and coddled, adorned with makeup and trinkets, and
carried about and fed with the finest foods available
to the family. Young girls are worshiped as personifications
of Hindu goddesses, and little boys are adulated as
scions of the clan.
In
their children, parents see the future of the lineage
and wider kin group, helpers in daily tasks, and providers
of security in the parents' old age. These delightful
ideals are articulated and enacted over and over again;
yet, a coexisting harsher reality emerges from a close
examination of events and statistics. Many children
lead lives of striking hardship, and many die premature
deaths. In general, conditions are significantly worse
for girls than for boys. Birth celebrations for baby
daughters are more muted than for sons and are sometimes
absent altogether. Although India was once led by
a woman prime minister, Indra Gandhi, and Indian women
currently hold a wide range of powerful positions
in every walk of life, there is a strong cultural
bias toward males.
That girls are victims of fatal neglect and murder
has been thoroughly discussed in the Indian press
and in scholarly investigations. It has been noted
that infant girls are killed with potions of opium
in Rajasthan and pastes of poisonous oleander in Tamil
Nadu--most especially girls preceded by the birth
of several sisters. Clinics offering ultrasound and
amniocentesis in order to detect and abort female
fetuses have become popular in various parts of the
country, and many thousands of female fetuses have
been so destroyed. In Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and
Punjab such selective abortions have been outlawed
because of pressure from feminist groups. More usually,
girls are simply fed and cared for less well than
their brothers.
Parents favor boys for various reasons. In the north,
a boy's value in agricultural endeavors is higher
than a girl's, and after marriage a boy continues
to live with his parents, ideally supporting them
in their old age. Political scientist Philip Oldenburg
notes that in some violence-prone regions of the north,
having sons may enhance families' capacity to defend
themselves and to exercise power. A girl, however,
moves away to live with her husband's relatives, and
with her goes a dowry. In the late twentieth century,
the values of dowries have been increasing, and, furthermore,
groups that never gave dowries in the past are being
pressured to do so. Thus, a girl child can represent
a significant economic liability to her parents. In
rice-growing areas, especially in the south, girls
receive better treatment, and there is some evidence
that the better treatment is related to the value
of women as field workers in wet-rice cultivation.
Throughout most of India, for Hindus it is important
to have a son conduct funeral rites for his parents;
a daughter, as a member of her husband's lineage,
has not traditionally been able to do so.For Indian
Children, both boys and girls, infant mortality rates
tend to be high, and in the absence of confidence
that their infants will live, parents tend to produce
numerous offspring in the hope that at least two sons
will survive to adulthood.
Most Indian children survive infancy and do not fall
victim to the cultural and economic pressures alluded
to above. The majority of children grow up as valued
members of a family, treasured by their parents and
encouraged to participate in appropriate activities.
Although relative ages of children are always known
and reflected in linguistic and deference behavior,
there is little age-grading in daily life. Children
of all ages associate with each other and with adults,
unlike the situation in the West, where age-grading
is common.
The young child learns early about hierarchy within
the family, as he watches affectionate and respectful
relationships between seniors and juniors, males and
females. A young child is often carried about by an
older sibling, and strong and close sibling bonds
usually develop. Bickering among siblings is not as
common as it is in the West; rather, most siblings
learn to think of themselves as part of a family unit
that must work together as it meets the challenges
of the outside world.
Young Indian children are encouraged to participate
in the numerous rituals that emphasize family ties.
The power of sibling relationships is recognized,
for example, when a brother touches his sister's feet,
honoring in her the principle of feminine divinity,
which, if treated appropriately, can bring him prosperity.
In calendrical and life-cycle rituals in both the
north and the south, sisters bless their brothers
and also symbolically request their protection throughout
life.
After about four or five years of indulgence, children
typically experience greater demands from family members.
In villages, children learn the rudiments of agricultural
labor, and young children often help with weeding,
harvesting, threshing, and the like. Girls learn domestic
chores, and boys are encouraged to take cattle for
grazing, learn plowing, and begin to drive bullock
carts and ride bicycles. City children also learn
household duties, and children of poor families often
work as servants in the homes of the prosperous. Some
even pick through garbage piles to find shreds of
food and fuel.
In some areas, children work as exploited laborers
in factories, where they weave carpets for the export
market and make matches, glass bangles, and other
products.Children reportedly as young as four years
old work long hours each day.
Education in a school setting is available for most
of India's children, and many young people attend
school. Officials state that education is "compulsory,"
but the reality is that a significant percentage of
children--especially girls--fail to become literate
and instead carry out many other tasks in order to
contribute to family income. More than half of India's
children between the ages of six and fourteen--82.2
million--are not in school. Instead they participate
in the labor force, even as more privileged children
study at government and private schools and prepare
for more prestigious jobs. Thus children learn early
the realities of socioeconomic and urban-rural differentiation
and grow up to perpetuate India's hierarchical society.
For many Indian children, especially boys, an important
event of young adolescence is religious initiation.
Initiation rituals vary among different regions, religious
communities, and castes.
Indian marriages are deemed essential for virtually
everyone in India. For the individual, marriage is
the great watershed in life, marking the transition
to adulthood. Generally, this transition, like everything
else in India, depends little upon individual volition
but instead occurs as a result of the efforts of many
people. Even as one is born into a particular family
without the exercise of any personal choice, so is
one given a spouse without any personal preference
involved. Arranging a marriage is a critical responsibility
for parents and other relatives of both bride and
groom. Marriage alliances entail some redistribution
of wealth as well as building and restructuring social
realignments, and, of course, result in the biological
reproduction of families.
In India there is no greater event in a family than
a wedding, dramatically evoking every possible social
obligation, kinship bond, traditional value, impassioned
sentiment, and economic resource. In the arranging
and conducting of marriages, the complex permutations
of Indian social systems best display themselves.
Matrimonials in Indi
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Some
parents begin marriage arrangements on the birth
of a child, but most wait until later. In the
past, the age of marriage was quite young, and
in a few small groups, especially in Rajasthan,
children under the age of five are still united
in marriage. In rural communities, prepuberty
marriage for girls traditionally was the rule.
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In
the late twentieth century, the age of marriage is
rising in villages, almost to the levels that obtain
in cities. Legislation mandating minimum marriage
ages has been passed in various forms over the past
decades, but such laws have little effect on actual
marriage practices.
Essentially, India is divided into two large regions
with regard to Hindu kinship and marriage practices,
the north and the south. Additionally, various ethnic
and tribal groups of the central, mountainous north,
and eastern regions follow a variety of other practices.
These variations have been extensively described and
analyzed by anthropologists, especially Irawati Karve,
David G. Mandelbaum, and Clarence Maloney.
Broadly, in the Indo-Aryan-speaking north, a family
seeks marriage alliances with people to whom it is
not already linked by ties of blood. Indian Marriage
arrangements often involve looking far afield. In
the Dravidian-speaking south, a family seeks to strengthen
existing kin ties through marriage, preferably with
blood relatives. Kinship terminology reflects this
basic pattern. In the north, every kinship term clearly
indicates whether the person referred to is a blood
relation or an affinal relation; all blood relatives
are forbidden as marriage mates to a person or a person's
children. As for matrimonials in south India, there
is no clear-cut distinction between the family of
birth and the family of marriage. Because mamtrimonials
in south india commonly involves a continuing exchange
of daughters among a few families, for the married
couple all relatives are ultimately blood kin. Dravidian
terminology stresses the principle of relative age:
all relatives are arranged according to whether they
are older or younger than each other without reference
to generation.
On the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Indian marriages are
contracted outside the village, sometimes even outside
of large groups of villages, with members of the same
caste beyond any traceable consanguineal ties. In
much of the area, daughters should not be given into
villages where daughters of the family or even of
the natal village have previously been given. In most
of the region, brother-sister exchange marriages (marriages
linking a brother and sister of one household with
the sister and brother of another) are shunned. The
entire emphasis is on casting the marriage net ever-wider,
creating new alliances. The residents of a single
village may have in-laws in hundreds of other villages.
In most of North India, the Hindu bride goes to live
with strangers in a home she has never visited. There
she is sequestered and veiled, an outsider who must
learn to conform to new ways. Her natal family is
often geographically distant, and her ties with her
consanguineal kin undergo attenuation to varying degrees.
In central India, the basic North Indian pattern
prevails, with some modifications. For example, in
Madhya Pradesh, village exogamy is preferred, but
marriages within a village are not uncommon. Marriages
between caste-fellows in neighboring villages are
frequent. Brother-sister exchange marriages are sometimes
arranged, and daughters are often given in marriage
to lineages where other daughters of their lineage
or village have previously been wed.
In South India, in sharp contrast, marriages are
preferred between cousins (especially cross-cousins,
that is, the children of a brother and sister) and
even between uncles and nieces (especially a man and
his elder sister's daughter). The principle involved
is that of return--the family that gives a daughter
expects one in return, if not now, then in the next
generation. The effect of such marriages is to bind
people together in relatively small, tight-knit kin
groups. A bride moves to her in-laws' home--the home
of her grandmother or aunt--and is often comfortable
among these familiar faces. Her husband may well be
the cousin she has known all her life that she would
marry.
Many South Indian marriages are contracted outside
of such close kin groups when no suitable mates exist
among close relatives, or when other options appear
more advantageous. Some sophisticated South Indians,
for example, consider cousin marriage and uncle-niece
marriage outmoded.
Rules for the remarriage of widows differ from one
group to another. Generally, lower-ranking groups
allow widow remarriage, particularly if the woman
is relatively young, but the highest-ranking castes
discourage or forbid such remarriage. The most strict
adherents to the nonremarriage of widows are Brahmans.
Almost all groups allow widowers to remarry. Many
groups encourage a widower to marry his deceased wife's
younger sister (but never her older sister).
Among Muslims of both the north and the south, marriage
between cousins is encouraged, both cross-cousins
(the children of a brother and sister) and parallel
cousins (the children of two same-sex siblings).
Finding the perfect partner for one's child can be
a challenging task. People use their social networks
to locate potential brides and grooms of appropriate
social and economic status. Increasingly, urban dwellers
use classified matrimonial advertisements in newspapers.
The advertisements usually announce religion, caste,
and educational qualifications, stress female beauty
and male (and in the contemporary era, sometimes female)
earning capacity, and may hint at dowry size.
In rural areas, matches between strangers are usually
arranged without the couple meeting each other. Rather,
parents and other relatives come to an agreement on
behalf of the couple. In cities, however, especially
among the educated classes, photographs are exchanged,
and sometimes the couple are allowed to meet under
heavily chaperoned circumstances, such as going out
for tea with a group of people or meeting in the parlor
of the girl's home, with her relatives standing by.
Young professional men and their families may receive
inquiries and photographs from representatives of
several girls' families. They may send their relatives
to meet the most promising candidates and then go
on tour themselves to meet the young women and make
a final choice. In the early 1990s, increasing numbers
of marriages arranged in this way link brides and
grooms from India with spouses of Indian parentage
resident in Europe, North America, and the Middle
East.
Almost all Indian children are raised with the expectation
that their parents will arrange their marriages, but
an increasing number of young people, especially among
the college-educated, are finding their own spouses.
So-called love marriages are deemed a slightly scandalous
alternative to properly arranged marriages. Some young
people convince their parents to "arrange"
their marriages to people with whom they have fallen
in love. This process has long been possible for Indians
from the south and for Muslims who want to marry a
particular cousin of the appropriate marriageable
category. In the upper classes, these semi-arranged
love marriages increasingly occur between young people
who are from castes of slightly different rank but
who are educationally or professionally equal. If
there are vast differences to overcome, such as is
the case with love marriages between Hindus and Muslims
or between Hindus of very different caste status,
parents are usually much less agreeable, and serious
family disruptions can result.
In much of India, especially in the north, Indian
matrimonial systems establishes a structural opposition
between the kin groups of the bride and groom--bride-givers
and bride-takers. Within this relationship, bride-givers
are considered inferior to bride-takers and are forever
expected to give gifts to the bride-takers. The one-way
flow of gifts begins at engagement and continues for
a generation or two. The most dramatic aspect of this
asymmetrical relationship is the giving of dowry.
In many communities throughout India, a dowry has
traditionally been given by a bride's kin at the time
of her marriage. In ancient times, the dowry was considered
a woman's wealth--property due a beloved daughter
who had no claim on her natal family's real estate--and
typically included portable valuables such as jewelry
and household goods that a bride could control throughout
her life. However, over time, the larger proportion
of the dowry has come to consist of goods and cash
payments that go straight into the hands of the groom's
family. In the late twentieth century, throughout
much of India, dowry payments have escalated, and
a groom's parents sometimes insist on compensation
for their son's higher education and even for his
future earnings, to which the bride will presumably
have access. Some of the dowries demanded are quite
oppressive, amounting to several years' salary in
cash as well as items such as motorcycles, air conditioners,
and fancy cars. Among some lower-status groups, large
dowries are currently replacing traditional bride-price
payments. Even among Muslims, previously not given
to demanding large dowries, reports of exorbitant
dowries are increasing.
The dowry is becoming an increasingly onerous burden
for the bride's family. Anti-dowry laws exist but
are largely ignored, and a bride's treatment in her
marital home is often affected by the value of her
dowry. Increasingly frequent are horrible incidents,
particularly in urban areas, where a groom's family
makes excessive demands on the bride's family--even
after marriage--and when the demands are not met,
murder the bride, typically by setting her clothes
on fire in a cooking "accident." The groom
is then free to remarry and collect another sumptuous
dowry. The male and female in-laws implicated in these
murders have seldom been punished.
Such dowry deaths have been the subject of numerous
media reports in India and other countries and have
mobilized feminist groups to action. In some of the
worst areas, such as the National Capital Territory
of Delhi, where hundreds of such deaths are reported
annually and the numbers are increasing yearly, the
law now requires that all suspicious deaths of new
brides be investigated. Official government figures
report 1,786 registered dowry deaths nationwide in
1987; there is also an estimate of some 5,000 dowry
deaths in 1991. Women's groups sometimes picket the
homes of the in-laws of burned brides. Some analysts
have related the growth of this phenomenon to the
growth of consumerism in Indian society.
Fears of impoverishing their parents have led some
urban middle-class young women, married and unmarried,
to commit suicide. However, through the giving of
large dowries, the newly wealthy are often able to
marry their treasured daughters up the status hierarchy
so reified in Indian society.
After marriage arrangements are completed, a rich
panoply of wedding rituals begins. Each religious
group, region, and caste has a slightly different
set of rites. Generally, all weddings involve as many
kin and associates of the bride and groom as possible.
The bride's family usually hosts most of the ceremonies
and pays for all the arrangements for large numbers
of guests for several days, including accommodation,
feasting, decorations, and gifts for the groom's party.
These arrangements are often extremely elaborate and
expensive and are intended to enhance the status of
the bride's family. The groom's party usually hires
a band and brings fine gifts for the bride, such as
jewelry and clothing, but these are typically far
outweighed in value by the presents received from
the bride's side.
After the Indian bride and groom are united in sacred
rites attended by colorful ceremony, the new bride
may be carried away to her in-laws' home, or, if she
is very young, she may remain with her parents until
they deem her old enough to depart. The poignancy
of the bride's weeping departure for her new home
is prominent in personal memory, folklore, literature,
song, and drama throughout India.
Every ten years the literate population of India
goes up by about 10%. During its independence, there
were only 12% literate Indians, according to the 1991
census there are 52% literate Indians, meaning that
over half a billion people are literate. Education
is monitored in India by state governments and this
finds its expression in different figures for different
states. Kerala in south India, with a population of
30 million, has the highest literacy rate in India
of about 90%. Rajasthan in north India, with a population
of 45 million, has the lowest literacy rate of about
40%.
Literacy rate among the urban population is higher
than among the villagers. It is also higher among
the men than among the women. In some states the gap
between literate men and literate women is very salient.
For example, in Rajastan and Bihar, the gap is about
30%, while in Kerala and Mizoram it is about 7%. Literacy
rate among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
is lower than in the general population. Among the
Scheduled Tribes it is the lowest because many tribes
still prefer to stay away from the main stream population.
But since independence the literacy rate among the
women and the lower castes has grown up at a much
higher rate than among the general population.
The state governments allow free education at primary
level. But, not all Indians get the opportunity to
go to school. Schools are funded from different sources
like government, local bodies and private funds. The
smaller the funds the less the students receive. School
institutions range from schools without any building
to schools with all the hi-tech facilities and even
sites on the internet.
According to researches made in the 1980s about one-third
of Indians study or studied in schools, which have
English as medium of instruction. This number has
gone up in the 1990s. For these people, English is
in many senses their first language and it is easier
for them to read, write and even communicate in English
than in their own Indian languages. This makes India
the second largest English speaking country in the
world after USA.
At the time of independence in 1947 there were 19
universities in India. In 1997 there were 219 universities
or institutions at university levels. The larger universities
have many colleges affiliated to them. The language
of instruction at the better rated colleges is English.
Among the universities, some universities are considered
as high standard good level universities. In 1995
there were over 5 million students in Indian universities.
In general, less then 3% of India's population has
academic education, which is very low compared to
world standard. But numerically India has almost 24
million university graduates. India is also among
the few countries in the world to launch satellite
and has proven its nuclear capability. Because of
this high number of academicians and their good knowledge
of English, many technology companies (especially
in the computer field) from around the world have
arrived in India.
