The Hindu Joint Family: The Norms and the Numbers

Abstract

A N ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTIC of social science is that its generalizations are founded in particulars; yet as regards the recent history of the Hindu joint family there has been considerable disjunction between fact and generalization.' We not infrequently read, for example, of a particular incidence of joint families in a given region-always less than ioo per centfrom which fact alone the writer makes the inference that the institution is declining. One sociologist, finding that average family size in India was smaller than he had anticipated, implied that the joint family has never been of primary importance in India, that it has been an ideal rather than a rule.2 With procedures of this kind one is left to cope with the particulars via that most flexible of statistical devices, the only-fully factor; e.g., only sixty per cent or, according to preference, fully sixty per cent. The difficulty lies in the use of unanalyzed raw statistics. These can have *some use when compared with commensurate figures. There are, for example, Kolenda's comparison of the incidence of types of families in different regions of India and Orenstein's comparison of average household size through time. Such studies are useful in that they suggest new problems. But alone they cannot resolve our problem, for at the heart of it there is-or ought to be-not primarily demographic, but social data; and these are, first of all, social norms. We believe that the kind of norm relevant for joint family life can best be conceived as mutual expectation-anticipation-entailing obligation and social sanction; when the expectation is not met general disapprobation, at least, follows. This is clearly different from individual attitudes or social