Theories of social problems

Résumé du document

As Gandhi said "the soul of India lives in villages". The culture of India was born and is still living in them. The village is the smallest territorial unit, and since 3/4th of the Indian population lives in villages, understanding rural life leads to a larger understanding of the Indian society itself. Mostly, the architecture of the village is basic. The houses are made of mud, with palm trees leaves. Villages are almost self-sufficient. However, it would be a mistake to consider the village only as an autocratic political system. While political ties are strong, they are not and cannot be the only basis of the interdependence of families and individuals. The links are also economical, marital, and religious. Politically, every village has a Panchayat, irrespective of its size. The Panchayat is an institution comprising of well respected, elected or nominated people, who perform all executive, legislative and judicial duties in the village. It is the basis of the democratic system. Moreover, the Panchayat mostly performs welfare duties, such as education or health.

Extraits

[...] The division the society knows is based on the ability, the talents i.e the profession of each and every one. Indeed, in Aryan tribal societies, the labour was divided according every one's natural talent. As long as family is the first school, the son of a merchant will more easily learn by watching his father how to commerce, and not how to make pottery or how to fight. This way a merchant's son will also become a merchant, i.e.: the son of a Vaisha will be a Vaisha. [...]

[...] The villages are almost self-sufficient. However, it would be a mistake considering the village only as an autocratic political system: if the political ties are strong, they are not and cannot be the only basis of the interdependence of families and individuals. Indeed, the links are also economical, marital, religious . Politically first, every village has a Panchayat, no matter the size of the village. The Panchayat is an institution comprising well respected, elected or nominated people, who perform the duty of all executive, legislative and judiciar in the village: it is the grassroot of the democratic sytem. [...]

[...] This way, once the children have grown and are in age of working, they will provide them the same. Examine the factors responsible to the collapse of joint family The ideal of the joint family and its practical reality are not exactly the same. Nowadays, the joint family system has and is still collapsing. The reasons can be found in its main shortcomings. First of all, the intimacy in the joint family is quasi inexistent, as long as almost everything is done together. [...]

[...] The hindu marriage is monogamic. The choice of the wife or of the husband is not free: because marriage is already fixed in Heaven by the Gods, only astrology can reveal the sexual accointances between two people of the opposite sex. As long as love and individual choice is not the base of the marriage, homosexualty is out of question. Moreover, related people cannot marry : none of the people from 5 generations above the mother and 17 generations above the father should have been brothers and sisters and this genealogy is recorded is a register called Penji. [...]

[...] Among the overseas Indians, many marriages are still arranged with the assistance of the parents. Even the so called love marriages in India generally happen with the approval of the parents, although their blessing may sometimes be reluctant. Examine the origin of the caste system in India The cast system is deeprooted in Hinduism, so close that even reformers such as Mahatma Gandhi never dared to attack it. Indeed Gandhi insisted that casts are a natural reflection of human differences: some people are to priest, some others to fight, some others to do manual labour . [...]