The Family in India: Structure and Practice

This volume brings together seminal essays which examine the meaning, forms and trajectory of the Indian family, and which go beyond the stereotypical joint/nuclear dichotomy that tends to dominate studies on the family. Using various methodological, conceptual and analytical tools, the essays cover both patrilineal and matrilineal family forms in different regions of India, and cover a wide range of historical and social situations. They are divided thematically into three sections: Section I deals with the nature of the family as an institution. Section II discusses the controversial issue of whether the joint family in India is disintegrating and beginning to emulate the nuclear family of the west. Section III comprises case studies of the lived structures and processes of the family in different parts of India. Making use of ethnography, this section brings out the changes that have occurred in the structure and composition of the family in India. This important volume comes at a time when there has been a resurgence of interest in the family, as well as in attendant issues such as gender and sexuality, the role of the state, changing demographic patterns, and the growing number of elderly people in the family. Bringing together ethnographies and analyses of the socio-cultural dimensions of familial relationship, this book will be of considerable use to students and scholars of family studies, sociology, anthropology and development studies.