THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY

SPECIAL NUMBER JULY 1961

Chamar Family in a North Indian Village

A Structural Contingent
Bernard S Cohn
Most field workers who talk about family structure in India freeze processes which take place over time. To analyze family types, we. have to look at the individual families we are studying at a moment in time. The view taken here differs from this in trying to view the type of family not as a fixed entity but rather as a structural contingent. In cultural a north Indian villager the distribution of family types traditions, structural necessities, and economic factors. found is a result of the interaction of

The types of family which can be seen in the village are nuclear and extended. Extended families may be thought of as two sub-types, unstable and stable; the stable ones are those which are often called joint. To illustrate the importance of the underlying conditions of family structural contingents, I will describe the situation found among the caste, found in village Senapur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. holds cient; factors turn is types and Chamars, the a actualization of the landless agricultural

My hypothesis is that it is not only land or property which tends to bring about joint family houseamong Chamars; rather a combination of factors may be Involved, Land is important, but not suffisome of the wealthiest Chamar families do not have joint-family households, The combination of should include urban employment and literacy. Literacy leads to a drive for Sanskritization, which in an incentive for joint families. K a r v e adds that the j o i n t f a m i l y always has an ancestral seat or locality which is the home for the members of the j o i n t f a m i l y even though trade or service takes them away f r o m the locality. It is the argument of this paper that not only do we have to include these cultural phenomena in our discussions of changing family types but that the simple structural criteria used to define f a m i l y type need to be re-examined to determine the structural pre-conditions w h i c h set the type of f a m i l y and household given individuals w i l l live in at any given time in their life. Most field workers who talk about f a m i l y structure in India freeze processes w h i c h take place over time. To analyze f a m i l y types, we have to look at the i n d i v i d u a l families we are studying at a moment in time. The view taken here differs f r o m this in t r y i n g to view the type of f a m i l y not as a fixed entity but rather as a structural contingent. In a n o r t h I n d i a n village the dist r i b u t i o n of f a m i l y types found is a result of the interaction of cult u r a l traditions, structural necessities, and economic factors. The type of f a m i l y which can be seen in the village are nuclear I " t y p i cally consisting of a m a r r i e d man and woman w i t h their offspring, although in i n d i v i d u a l cases one or more additional persons may reside with them" (Murdock : "Social Structure" 1949: 1) ], and extended | " t w o or more nuclear families affiliated through an extension of the parent-child relationship" ( M u r d o c k : 1949 : 2) ]. Extended families may be thought of as two subtypes, unstable and stable; the stable ones are those w h i c h are often called joint. Extended families, w h i c h are the cultural ideal among Hindus in north I n d i a , develop in response to specific conditions, among w h i c h are a t r a d i t i o n of l i v i n g j o i n t l y , an economic base to support a Joint f a m i l y , sufficient role differentiation w i t h i n the f a m i ly, clear lines of authority among the generations, the need for a labour pool, and longevity of members of the f a m i l y . To illustrate the importance of the u n d e r l y i n g conditions of f a m i ly types and the actualization of the structural contingents, I w i l l describe the situation found among the Chamars, a landless a g r i c u l t u r a l caste. found in village Senapur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Senapur is a large m u l t i -caste village, w h i c h is dominated by the l a n d l o r d T h a k u r caste The total area of the village is a little over 2,000 acres; and the population in 1953 was 2,100. of w h o m 600 were Chamars and 450 Thakurs. The Chamars. who provide most of the agricultural labour for the Thakurs. live in six hamlets w h i c h are located away

S O C I A L scientists w o r k i n g o n questions of the nature d i s t r i bution, and processes of change affecting the I n d i a n f a m i l y have generally used simple structural c r i teria to develop the classifications of f a m i l y types. Most of these scholars tend to t h i n k in terms of nuclear and j o i n t families. I n this view the j o i n t f a m i l y is associated w i t h the r u r a l , pre-modern sector of the society, and the nuclear f a m i l y is viewed as the result of modern i n d u s t r i a l and urban conditions. A few scholars, notably Dr I P Desai have pointed to the complexities involved in the relationships w i t h i n even what appear to be nuclear families and have argued that the whole conception o f the j o i n t f a m i l y i n urban I n d i a is changing but that the direction of change is not s i m p l y f r o m the j o i n t to the nuclear f a m i l y and there are many i n t e r m e d i a r y types to be f o u n d . Desai has called strongly for the use of c u l t u r a l c r i teria as well as structural criteria in the study of the f a m i l y . Dr I r a w a t i Karve's standard definition of the j o i n t f a m i l y strongly suggests the need for cultural as well as structural criteria : A joint family is a group of people who generally live under one roof. who eat food cooked at one hearth, who hold property in common and who participate in common family worship and are related to each other as some particular kind of kindred.

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from the m a i n village site where the Thakurs and the artisan castes reside. Chamar Family Types The Chamars themselves have no separate terms to distinguish the types of households they live i n ; they use one w o r d generally to encompass those w h o l i v e in one household. ghar, w h i c h l i t e r a l l y means "house". Other words are used for the w o r d we use. for f a m i ly, but often they encompass more than those who l i v e in one household and refer at times to lineage segments as well as the household. The w o r d ghar, when used in the context of a f a m i l y , means those who take their food f r o m one chula (stove). Those who take food f r o m the chula f o r m the commensal group, which means to a Chamar the sharing of property and rights, a common pockelhook, a common larder, common debts, common labour force, and usually one recognized bead. The head of the household is usually the oldest competent male in the household. In affairs of the hamlet, the househ o l d in recognized as the basic u n i t and is easily recognized by the other Chamars. who can name the mem Iters of every household and identify the head. The 122 households of Chamars in Senapur, on the basis of structural criteria, may be d i v i d e d in the f o l l o w i n g fashion: in w h i c h the Chamars live is based on a number of complex social, economic and cultural factors w h i c h determine at any given t i m e w h i c h type of household a Chamar lives i n . F a m i l y t y p e f o r the Chamar is not a fixed given, but a structural contingent. Most Chamars would express that the ideal household should consist of three generations, in which the grandfather, his sons, and their wives and families a l l lived in one house and ate f r o m the same chula. The Chamars had before them as a model the T h a k u r f a m i l y , which was usually but not always, the three generation j o i n t f a m i l y . Some Chamars thought that the Thakurs got some of their economic, political and social strength f r o m their f a m i l y structure. In Table 1, of those 42 families who were classified as extended, only 14 approximate the cultural ideal type of a j o i n t f a m i l y in that there were either three generations l i v i n g together, or if the grandparental generation had died off. the brothers were over the age of twenty. M a n y of those families classified as extended predictably were going to break apart w i t h i n a few years. In many of the cases there were several sons, one or two of w h o m may have been m a r r i e d and many have had infant offspring, g i v i n g three generations!; but when the sons got older, usually above the age of twenty, the households w o u l d break apart i n t o their constituent nuclear components. Those fourteen w h i c h I call j o i n t households had sons or sons-in-law over twenty w i t h children over five years of age. It should be noted that the age of consummation of marriage among the Chamar males was usually between 15 and 17 w i t h the wives being 14-16. There are several i m p o r t a n t factors which make the achievement of the ideal joint family difficult among the Chamars : demography, economics, the role of women and mobility. Demography Chamars, especially males, have low life expectancies. Out of 319 Chamar males, in village Senapur only 19 were above the age of f i f t y . Out of 338 females, only 25 were above the age of fifty. Clearly a three generation f a m i l y is impossible if the t h i r d generation is nonexistent. My impression was that

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those Chamars w h o survived c h i l d hood usually d i e d between the ages of 35 and 45. A m o n g the Thakurs, where the j o i n t f a m i l y is much more prevalent, my impression is that life expectancy is much higher. Economics It was difficult to obtain accurate statistics on land held and cultivated and on other possessions among the Chamars. Before. 1952, no Chamar owned l a n d ; all land was owned by Thakurs. A f t e r the L a n d Reform A c t of 1952, however, a few Chamars had the option of becoming landowners. The key concept in the relation of Chamars to the land is not how much they own, but how much they cultivate and under what types of tenure. In December 1952, by their own estimates, the 122 Chamar households cultivated 124 acres as non-permanent tenants and only 12 acres as permanent tenants. In a d d i t i o n , they cultivated nine acres on a sharec r o p p i n g basis. Chamars estimate that four acres are needed to support a household of 5-6 people. Is there any relationship between f a m i l y type and land h o l d i n g ? The six hamlets in w h i c h Chamars live in the village were classed as r i c h . middle, and poor, in terms of land held. In every hamlet, extended families have s l i g h t l y more land per capita than nuclear families.

Table 2 : Land Holding

Poorest Joint : 3.4 biswas Nuclear : 2.4 biswas Middle Joint : 6.2 biswas Nuclear : 5.6 biswas Rich Joint : 11.1 biswas Nuclear : 6.9 biswas per capita per capita per capita per capita per capita per capita

Table 1
Nuclear Single aged adult M a n . wife and unmarried offspring; or w o m a n and u n m a r r i e d offspring Extended M a n . w i f e , sons, sons' wives and offspring Brothers, wives and offspring M a n , w i f e , daughters. daughters' husbands and offspring 8

72 80

24 14

4 42 Table I summarizes some structural facts about the composition of the families among the Chamars as they were in 1953. It does not tell is anything about the family as a process, and it does not tell us a n y t h i n g about the f a m i l y over time. The type of household nuclear, extended a n d / o r j o i n t

The average Chamar household cultivates a l i t t l e under one acre. The average T h a k u r f a m i l y cultivates six times as much. Connected w i t h the amount of land cultivated is a range of other economic factors w h i c h affect household types. A Chamar attaches great i m p o r tance to the land he cultivates, even though on the average the produce of his o w n c u l t i v a t i o n provides food for himself and his f a m i l y for only about four months of the year. Most of the land w h i c h a Chamar cultivates is part of his pay for w o r k i n g as, a permanent a g r i c u l t u r a l labourer f o r the

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starvation diet for at least two to four months a year. The average Chamar f a m i l y grows o n l y a f o u r months supply of food on the land they cultivate. Other income is earned by daily wage w o r k f o r Thakurs or by outside employment in an i n d u s t r i a l centre. D u r i n g August and January, even by p o o l i n g all its sources of income, the average Chamar household gets only a halfp o u n d of coarse g r a i n per head, per day. For those who get jobs in the village, their wages are at their lowest p o i n t d u r i n g these months. The most frequent explanation given for the Chamars for the splitt i n g up of j o i n t - f a m i l y households was squabbling over food. In twelve cases of p a r t i t i o n on w h i c h I have data, in eight the stated reason for breakup was quarrels over differential contributions of food and income. A brother w i t h one small c h i l d does not see w h y he should share his meagre earnings w i t h a brother who has three small child ren arid hence gets a larger share of the common household food supply. Thus it appears that a joint-family household requires something above a bare minimum subsistence for its co'n t i n nation. The Role of Women The small amount of land cultivated leads to another factor tending towards nuclear-family households amolig the Chamars. There is no reason for the Chamars to pool their labour to cultivate their small plots. A man and his wife and children are f u l l y capable of p e r f o r m i n g a l l agricultural operations, except the sowing of sugar cane, w h i c h is the only a g r i c u l t u r a l activity i n w h i c h Chamars engage on their own plots for w h i c h more than one adult male is needed. For artisan castes. such as Lobars or Kohars. or for T h a k u r landlords, a pool of labour is an economic asset. For example, several carpenters can w o r k together more efficiently w i t h respect to tools, facilities, and tasks, and thus an extended-family household is an advantage. After disputes over food-sharing. the most common cause for separations a m o n g Chamars is disputes between brothers" wives or between wives and their husbands' mothers A Chamar woman is a f u l l economic partner of her husband. She does the same a g r i c u l t u r a l l a b o u r that her husband does, except p l o u g h i n g . 1053

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She is p a i d the same rate as a man for a g r i c u l t u r a l labour. I n a d d i t i o n , many Chamar women act as servants in T h a k u r households, h e l p i n g T h a k u r women w i t h a l l tasks except those w h i c h take place in the kitchen. For their work as house servants, they are p a i d in grain, cloth and cooked food. When a Chamar woman gets into a dispute w i t h her mother-in-law, she is in a strong position because of her i m p o r t a n t economic contribut i o n to the household. Her threat to leave the household is taken seriously, because it w o u l d mean considerable economic loss to her husband's household. Chamar women do leave their husbands for short or long periods, and they can divorce their husbands. A woman's father or brothers are not. unhappy to see her come home, because she can contribute to their household. For a T h a k u r woman to r e t u r n to her father's house on a permanent or semi-permanent basis is almost unheard of. Not only is t r a d i t i o n against i t . but a T h a k u r woman w o u l d become to some extent a burden on her f a t h e r s house. When a T h a k u r woman is y o u n g , she contributes indoor labour and children to the household. But. in comparison to a Chamar woman, she does not make such a direct and visible cont r i b u t i o n to the income of the househ o l d . A T h a k u r w o m a n is directly under the c o n t r o l of the older women of the house, while a Chamar woman is out w o r k i n g and mixing w i t h men. The Chamar woman has a view of herself as a person apart f r o m her husband. She is a f u l l and active economic c o n t r i b u tor to her household and she may demand separation of the j o i n t family household if she feels it would be to her benefit. In a joint family household, there is need for the submission of its members to the a u t h o r i t y of a head. A l o n g w i t h this, there should be role differentiation. In most Chamar households, the economic roles of husbands and wives are interchangeable.
Mobility

Thakurs. A c t i n g as a permanent or as a day a g r i c u l t u r a l labourer is the m a i n source of income for a Cham a r ; for all but a few Chamars, this is the only way to make a l i v i n g in the village. The peak w o r k i n g period of a Chamar is when he is between 15 and 3 5 ; after that he is considered by Thakurs as o l d . Older Chamars cannot get employment as ploughmen and have a harder j o b getting d a i l y w o r k than the younger and better workers. Therefore there is a sharp decline in the economic role of the Chamar male as he grows older and contributes m u c h less to the household. It should be noted that the decrease in economic importance is not so sharp among Chamar women as they grow older. They continue into their fifties and sixties to be economically product i v e ; they may act as servants in Thakur houses, or they may be m i d wives, or they may release younger Chamar women for held work. In T h a k u r households, men do not have a comparable loss of economic role. It is true that these days Thakurs do much the same work as Chamars, except for actual p l o u g h i n g . Thus, as a T h a k u r male grows older, he is 'not able to make as much of a direct physical contrib u t i o n to the household. Rut since T h a k u r holdings are comparatively larger, an older T h a k u r man may still have a role as f a r m manager; because of his knowledge of crops, a g r i c u l t u r a l technique and marketing, he can s t i l l keep the household managerial role in his hands. He oversees and directs the activities of bis younger brothers, sons, and hired labour. He still continues to be head of the household in the economic sphere of the f a m i l y ' s activities. The Chamar man, on the other hand, loses his economic role as he grows older. Once his a b i l i t y to contribute directly t h r o u g h his labour is lost, his p o s i t i o n as the head of the household is weakened. His a b i l i t y to h o l d his sons arid younger brothers together in a j o i n t f a m i l y decreases, if it does not disappear. Another factor connected w i t h their lack of land and t h e i r low economic p o s i t i o n w h i c h presses Chamars to live in nuclear-family households rather than in extendedf a m i l y households is the bare subsistence level of Chamar l i f e . Most Chamars of Senapur are on a semi-

Traditionally there should be a locus, in a physical sense, for a joint-family household. The, i m portance of a t r a d i t i o n a l seat of a joint f a m i l y is obvious among the Thakurs. They point p r o u d l y to heir ancestry and to their eon neeion w i t h the village and the local

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region, A T h a k u r knows his genealogy f o r fifteen to seventeen generations. He remembers the ancestors who lived, farmed, and fought in the village and the r e g i o n . To a T h a k u r , l a n d and f a m i l y are one. Even under modern conditions, the interests of the j o i n t f a m i l y and its l a n d are always p u t first, even at the cost of caste s o l i d a r i t y . A Chamar's roots are "not in his land, b u t to a T h a k u r who has p r o vided h i m w i t h land and the opportunity to gain a livelihood. The p r i m a r y tie of a Chamar to a village and a locality is t h r o u g h his T h a k u r by means of the T h a k u r - P r a j a tie. Before the enactment of the L a n d Ref o r m Act of 1952, the T h a k u r s owtied all the land in the v i l l a g e ; all non-Thakur households owed a p r i mary allegiance as praja (dependent) to that T h a k u r household on whose l a n d they had b u i l t their house. Theoretically, the T h a k u r protected his praja and supported h i m in time of need. The praja owed allegiance and assistance to his T h a k u r . Even other Chamars often describe a fellow Chamar, not by name, lineage or householdas upper caste men describe their fellow caste membersbut by referr i n g to h i m as the praja of a p a r t i cular T h a k u r . The p r i n c i p a l reason a Chamar stays in his village is because that is where he can get w o r k . The greatest d e p t h I f o u n d in Chamar genealogies was three ascending and throe descending generations, compared w i t h seventeen for some T h a k u r s . The Chamar does not need the genealogical knowledge that the T h a k u r does as there is l i t t l e l a n d to be passed to kin. F r o m a study of Chamar geneal o g i e s it was evident that over the last seventy years there has been considerable geographic mobility among Chamars. Out of f o r t y - e i g h t households f o u n d in the largest Chamar hamlet, only eight c l a i m e d to be first settlers i e, that they came w i t h the T h a k u r s . The other f o r t y households have m i g r a t e d to the village f r o m elsewhere d u r i n g the past t w o h u n d r e d years. Fifteen per cent of the l i v i n g adult males in the village were f r o m villages other than Senapur. As far as I can find o u t , a l l adult T h a k u r males were b o r n in the village, There are three situations w h i c h lead Chamars to move. A serious dispute w i t h his l a n d l o r d w i l l make a Chamar flee w i t h his stock and few belonging; he usually flees to the village of his wife's f a m i l y , his mother's f a m i l y , or his m a r r i e d sister. If a Chamar has l i t t l e land in his natal village, and i f his fatherin-law has l a n d and no sons, he often goes to his father-in-law's v i l l a g e ; he settles in his father-inlaw's house and hopes that his son w i l l inherit the father-in-law's cultiv a t i n g rights o r l a n d . I n Setiapur in 1952, there were four such men Jiving in or near their fathers-inlaw's houses. A t h i r d reaaon f o r leaving is if a Chamar hears of an o p p o r t u n i t y to get more land to f a r m in another village, usually the village of affines or uterine k i n ; but in one case a Chamar f a m i l y consisting of a father and two sons and their families left the village because they c o u l d buy land in another village. The m o b i l i t y of Chamar f a m i l i e s tends to break up j o i n t families, as often o n l y part of a household moves, leaving behind a nuclear f a m i l y . The k i n ties among the Chamars who move seem p a r t i c u larly brittle and after one or two .generations knowledge of the k i n who have moved is lost. Establishment of Joint-Family Households As I have already stated, most of the Chamar j o i n t - f a m i l y households are o n l y t e m p o r a r y j o i n t family households. A Chamar household continually changes in response to certain conditions. We freeze process to talk about it; but we should not lose sight of the fact that for Chamars the j o i n t - f a m i l y is a structural contingent not a fixed form. W h a t I mean by a s t r u c t u r a l contingent can be seen in the f o l l o w i n g example, w h i c h shows the effects of extra-village employment on Chamar households in the village. Of the f o r t y - t w o j o i n t - f a m i l y households, eighteen had one or more members w o r k i n g outside the v i l l age. Of the eight nuclear-family households, fourteen had members w o r k i n g outside the village. U r b a n employment w o r k s i n two ways to m a i n t a i n or b r i n g about t e m p o r a r y j o i n t - f a m i l y households. F i r s t , if a m a n leaves his f a m i l y b e h i n d w h i l e he goes to w o r k in the c i t y , he usually leaves his f a m i l y w i t h his parents o r w i t h his b r o t h e r . F o r the p e r i o d of the man's absence,

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there is a j o i n t f a m i l y since the money r e m i t t e d f r o m the city goes i n t o the common fund and what l a n d the man may have is used jointly. When the m a n returns, however, he may set up an independent household; and he w i l l then not share the money he brings back. I call this type of j o i n t f a m i l y an unstable j o i n t f a m i l y : one which has been set up to meet a p a r t i c u l a r economic situation. Outside employment may also be a m a j o r factor in setting up a stable j o i n t f a m i l y : a three-generation joint f a m i l y existing through t i m e . The families of the three Chamar school teachers illustrate this. In each case the children who became school teachers grew up in j o i n t families. This is not a c c i d e n t a l ; probably only a j o i n t f a m i l y a m o n g the Chamars could afford to forgo a child's labour so that he could get sufficient education to become a school teacher. Kaeh of the three teachers continued to live in a three generation j o i n t - f a m i l y household after getting his education, though none of them is head of his household. In one of these j o i n t families, the oldest generation consists of two brothers and their wives. Whether the j o i n t families w i l l continue after the oldest generation dies off, I do not k n o w . I do think, however, that it is the steady cash income combined with the little land they have to work w h i c h makes it possible for these joint families to endure. In several other cases industrial labour on the part of a younger son or brother seems to p e r f o r m the same f u n c t i o n . Another factor which seems to stabilize j o i n t families is t r a d i t i o n ; some of the Chamar families have a tradition of l i v i n g in j o i n t - f a m i l y households. These families tend to be the relatively wealthy and powerful Chamars and also tend to be the leaders of the Chamars. My hypothesis is that it is not only land or p r o p e r t y w h i c h tends to b r i n g about j o i n t - f a m i l y households among Chamars: rather a c o m b i n a t i o n of factors may be involved. L a n d is important but not sufficient; some of the wealthiest Chamar families do not have j o i n t f a m i l y households. The combination of factors should include urban employment and literacy. L i t e r a c y leads to a d r i v e for Sanskritization, w h i c h in t u r n is an incentive f o r j o i n t families.

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