Family Relationships

Hindus consider the family the basis of
society. The idealized Hindu family is a
multigenerational joint family, composed of elderly parents, their adult
sons, and their sons’ families. The sons
are considered the core of the family,
since the daughters will live with their
husbands’ families after marriage and
are considered to belong to them. When
the families become too large, or tensions between brothers develop to an
unbearable level, these joint families
divide into smaller households, upon
which the general pattern continues.
Hindu families have different names for
all possible family relationships. These
differing names reveal the exact nature
of the relationship and the person’s precise relationship in the family—as one
example, although in English the word
“aunt” can designate the sister of either
one’s father or one’s mother, there are
different names for both in northern
Indian languages. Some of this is related
to the higher status connected with the
father’s or the husband’s side of the family, and some of it has to do with proximity, since these relatives are more
likely to be living with one another in a
joint family or close by. These differences mark the lines of importance in
Indian families, which give greater
emphasis to the father’s side. One noteworthy term is the word for the wife’s
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Family Relationships
brother (sala), which in modern times
often serves as a term of abuse.