Urbanization and family change

How far have industrialisation and.urbanisation modified family relationships in India ? This is-a crucial question which has always
interested the sociologists. Based on the field investigation of five hundred families.of the Agarwal caste in Delhi area, Dr. M. S. Gore in this important study has tried to discover the effects of industrialisation and urbanizaion on the traditional Hindu joint family. For comparison families practising the same occupation have been selected from the urban, the fringe and the rural areas of Delhi.
The author in the first part gives a lucid analysis of the Hindu joint family and outlines theoretical reasons why it is expected
that industrialisation and urbanization are likely to influence the family system. Against this background he makes substantive study in the second part and shows how different aspects of family life are influenced in different ways and to different degrees by the processes of industrialisation and urbanization. The data tend to suggest that the factors of education and nature of occupa-
tion are likely to be crucial in bringing about a change of attitudes relating to the family. However, the author argues that since the
level of industrialisation attained in India generally and in the Delhi area in particular is itself limited, the changes to be expected
in living patterns are also likely to be limited. The author concludes that the Agarwal caste still largely conforms to the pattern of joint family living in behavior, role perception an attitudes but within the overall pattern of conformity, urban residence and education do seem to introduce a certain measure of variation. The findings thus support the hypothesis of a limited change.