KSLU Solved Question Papers
Indian Society: Continuity and Change
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 2
2020 Nov Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 2 Indian Society: Continuity and Change 2020 Nov Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2020 Nov examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2020 Nov examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2020 Nov examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Define Joint Family and explain the traditional features of Joint Family.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning of the joint family and the different definitions (Karve, Dube and Kolenda, Madan, I. P. Desai, M. S. Gore); its features one by one, each explained; its types (patrilineal and matrilineal, lineal and collateral); the role of the karta and the place of women; its merits and demerits in brief; the debate on whether it is breaking down (A. M. Shah, the household and the family, residentially nuclear but functionally joint); a conclusion.
Meaning of the joint family
The joint family is a family of more than two generations, or of brothers and their families, living together. Its members share property, income and worship, and accept the authority of a common head. It has long been regarded as the typical Indian family, especially among Hindus, though similar forms exist in other communities.
Definitions
Scholars have stressed different elements of jointness, and a full answer names them.
- Irawati Karve stressed co-residence. She described the joint family as a group who live under one roof and eat food cooked at one hearth. They hold property in common, share family worship and are related as a particular type of kindred.
- S. C. Dube and Pauline Kolenda stressed commensality, eating from one kitchen, along with common residence.
- T. N. Madan stressed joint ownership of property.
- I. P. Desai stressed mutual duties and obligations among kin, even when they no longer live together or own property jointly.
- M. S. Gore described it as a family of co-partners and their dependants. Its core is the bond between father and son and between brothers, rather than between husband and wife.
These definitions show that jointness has several dimensions: residence, kitchen, property, worship and obligation. A family may be joint in some and not in others.
Features of the joint family
1. Large size. It includes grandparents, parents, sons, their wives and children, and unmarried daughters. Widowed relatives and dependants may also live with it.
2. Generation depth. It spans three or more generations. Children grow up among grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.
3. Common residence. Members live under one roof, often in a large ancestral house. Even when some members work elsewhere, the ancestral house remains their home.
4. Common kitchen. Food is cooked at one hearth and eaten together. A separate kitchen is usually the first sign of partition.
5. Common property. Ancestral property, such as land and the house, is held jointly. Every member is maintained from it, whether or not he or she earns.
6. Pooled income. Earnings of members go into a common fund. Expenses are met from it according to need, not according to who earned.
7. Common worship. The family worships its family deity together and performs rites for the ancestors. Religious ceremonies bind the members.
8. Authority of the karta. The eldest male, the karta, manages property, settles disputes, arranges marriages and represents the family. His word is generally final, though he is expected to act for the good of all.
9. Patriarchal, patrilineal and patrilocal. Authority rests with men, descent runs through the father, and the bride comes to live in her husband's home. Matrilineal joint families, such as the Nair tarwad, are the exception.
10. Consanguine ties above conjugal ties. The bond between parents and sons, and between brothers, is placed above the bond between husband and wife. A young couple's privacy and independence are limited.
11. Mutual rights and obligations. Each member has duties to the others. Members care for the old, the sick and the widowed, contribute labour or income, and obey the head.
12. Socialisation and control. The family teaches caste rules, religion, occupation and manners. It also controls members' conduct, including choice of marriage partners.
13. Continuity. The joint family outlives its members. It continues across generations until it is formally partitioned.
Types of joint family
- Patrilineal and matrilineal. In the patrilineal form, common in most of India, property and membership pass through males. In the matrilineal form, such as the Nair tarwad of Kerala, they pass through females, and the senior maternal uncle, the karanavan, manages the family.
- Lineal and collateral. A lineal joint family consists of parents and their married son or sons with their children. A collateral joint family consists of married brothers and their families living together, often after the parents have died.
The karta and the women of the family
The karta manages the family's property and affairs, and in Hindu law he has special powers to deal with joint property for the family's benefit. Women's position in the traditional joint family was subordinate. The daughter-in-law entered as an outsider, under the authority of her mother-in-law and the elder men. Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act was substituted in 2005. Under it a daughter is now a coparcener in a Mitakshara joint family in her own right. This marks a major change in her status.
Merits and demerits in brief
Merits. It provides economic and social security and care for the old and the disabled. It pools labour, which suits agriculture, protects land from fragmentation, and gives children many elders to learn from.
Demerits. It subordinates individuals, especially women and younger members. It can discourage initiative because income is pooled regardless of effort. It limits privacy and can breed quarrels between members.
Functions of the joint family
- Production. In farming households all members work the family land, so labour need not be hired.
- Insurance. When one member falls ill or loses work, the others support him. The family acts as the social security system that the state did not provide.
- Care of dependants. Widows, orphans, the unmarried and the disabled have a secure place.
- Education in skills. Boys learn the family occupation and girls learn household management from elders.
- Religious continuity. The family keeps up ancestral rites and festivals.
- Marriage and alliance. Elders arrange marriages that preserve caste and build ties with other families.
A worked example
Consider a farming family near Mandya in 1980. The grandfather is the karta. His three married sons, their wives and nine grandchildren live in one large house and eat from one kitchen. The family owns twelve acres, which none of the sons could farm profitably alone. All earnings go to the grandfather, who pays for weddings, school fees and medical bills.
By 2020 the picture has changed. Two grandsons work in Bengaluru and live in rented flats with their wives. A granddaughter is a nurse in Mysuru. The land is still undivided and the house is still the family home for festivals. Major decisions, such as selling land or arranging a marriage, are still taken together. The household has split, but the family remains joint in property and obligation. This is the change sociologists describe.
Is the joint family breaking down?
A popular view holds that the joint family is disintegrating and being replaced by the nuclear family. Sociologists have qualified this view in three ways.
- It was never universal. A. M. Shah showed that large joint households were less common in the past than imagined. The average household was small even in the nineteenth century. Large households were more common among landowning and higher castes.
- Household and family differ. Shah distinguished the household, people who share a home and kitchen, from the family, a wider unit of kin and obligation. Households have become smaller, but family ties often remain strong.
- Functional jointness survives. Many families now live in separate homes but pool resources, take decisions together and support each other. They are residentially nuclear but functionally joint. I. P. Desai's emphasis on obligations captures this kind of jointness. Ramkrishna Mukherjee's study of West Bengal family structures also pointed to the continuing viability of the joint family.
The causes of change are industrialisation, urbanisation, migration, education, women's employment and new laws on marriage and succession. Yet the ideal of jointness remains strong in Indian values.
Conclusion. The joint family is a large, multi-generation family with common residence, kitchen, property, income and worship. It lives under the authority of a karta and is bound by mutual obligations. Scholars define it by co-residence, commensality, property or obligation, and it takes patrilineal and matrilineal, lineal and collateral forms. Social and legal change has shrunk the joint household and improved women's position, but jointness of obligation survives. The Indian joint family has therefore changed its form more than it has disappeared.
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