Family, Community and Government
Family and community
Tell a joint family from a nuclear one, say what a community is and how many kinds the chapter allows, and read the real examples it gives of communities acting together.
The family is the fundamental and most ancient unit of any society. In Indian society today there are several types of family. A joint family has several generations living together — grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts, brothers, sisters and cousins. A nuclear family is limited to a couple and their children, and sometimes to one parent and children.
A word English does not have
English has few terms for family relationships. Indian languages have many more: Hindi has bua, tau, tai, chacha, mausi, nana and nani, and some languages, such as Tamil, have different terms for an elder brother or sister and a younger one. But in most Indian languages there is no word for cousin — because cousins are counted as brothers and sisters, which emphasises the deep bonds among the children in a family.
Have a play
Two households, drawn the same size.
Tap any part of the picture.
From family to community
Families are connected not just within themselves but also with the other families around them, and such a group of connected people may be called a community. Members of a community come together to celebrate festivals and organise feasts, weddings and other events; in some villages they come together for land preparation, sowing and harvesting. Over time communities have agreed practices on the use of shared water, grazing lands and forest produce — rules, though rarely written down.
Worked example
The chapter gives a real case of a community acting together. What happened around Jhabua, in Madhya Pradesh?
The region suffered from an acute water crisis, year after year.
A problem too big for one family and too small for the country: exactly the size a community handles.
Try it together
Now widen the word.
Community turns out to be a flexible concept, and the chapter gives several quite different things the word covers.
1.In many urban areas, associations of the people living in one neighbourhood make their own rules about waste management, cleanliness of common areas and taking care of pets. What are these associations called? Three words, beginning with Residents'.
Have a go
Your turn: relationships among family members rest on love, care, interdependence and one more thing, which the chapter glosses as working together. What is it?
Hint: The gloss is the definition: two words that mean doing something jointly.
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.