Changing pattern of family in India/ by C.M.Abraham ... [et al]

IN 1957, a Christian Consultation of sociologists, theo logians, workers of the Christian Home Movement and: Church leaders was held in the Christian Retreat and Study Centre, Rajpur, on the theme: The Changing Pattern of Family in India. The papers and findings. of the Consultation were published as a Bulletin (CISS Bulletin-Volume IV, No. 2). Out of it arose the idea of publishing a book on the same subject by a group. In fact, several of the contributors to this volume were participants in the Consultation.

This is not a collection of individual papers. It is a composite work, the result of group study and writing. Though each chapter was originally written by one person, it has undergone radical revision as a result of group criticism. The writers were together for a week in Rajpur early in 1959 where the first draft of the book was produced. It was then dupli cated and sent out for comment to about twenty-five friends in India and abroad. The manuscript under went further revision as a result. Some portions were, rewritten in their entirety in the light of the sugges tions for alterations received. Therefore the book may legitimately claim to represent a certain consensus of thinking among a group including the writers and their friends.

The book expresses the mind of a Christian group. They have approached the problem of reorganisation of family from the point of view of the Christian understanding of the nature and destiny of man. It is impossible to discuss moral issues without some presupposition about human destiny; and it is better to make it explicit and examine them in the open. But there is nothing communal about the approach of this book.