Prelims · 6 Indian Society · APPSC Group 2
6.5 Family, marriage and kinship notes
8 notes, in reading order.
- 6.5.1Family: definitions, types, functions and the changing joint family
The family is the basic group that unites people through marriage, blood or adoption for living together, raising children and sharing resources; in India the classical form is the joint family, which is changing but has not disappeared.
Standard · 9 min · Full course - 6.5.2Marriage: forms, rules of mate selection (endogamy, exogamy, hypergamy) and residence
Marriage is a socially approved union that sets up rights over spouses and children; societies differ in how many spouses one may have, whom one may or must marry, and where the couple lives.
Standard · 9 min · Full course - 6.5.3Hindu marriage in tradition: the eight forms, gotra, anuloma–pratiloma and niyoga
Classical Hindu law treated marriage as a sacrament (samskara) with religious aims, recognised eight forms of marriage ranked from approved to condemned, and controlled choice of spouse through gotra and sapinda rules and the anuloma–pratiloma ranking.
Standard · 9 min · Full course - 6.5.4Kinship: descent, kin groups, degrees of kin and kinship usages
Kinship is the web of social relationships based on blood (consanguinity) and marriage (affinity); it fixes descent, inheritance, whom one may marry and how relatives must behave towards each other.
Standard · 9 min · Full course - 6.5.5Kinship zones of India and matrilineal communities: Karve, Nairs, Khasis and Garos
Irawati Karve mapped India into four kinship zones with different marriage rules, and pockets such as the Nairs of Kerala and the Khasis and Garos of Meghalaya show that matrilineal descent has long co-existed with the dominant patrilineal pattern.
Standard · 8 min · Full course - 6.5.6Hindu personal law: Hindu Marriage Act 1955, the Hindu Code and the 2005 succession amendment
The Hindu Code of 1955–56 replaced scriptural and customary rules with four statutes on marriage, succession, guardianship and adoption, and the 2005 amendment made daughters equal coparceners in joint family property.
Standard · 10 min · Full course - 6.5.7Muslim, Christian and civil marriage law: nikah, mahr, talaq, the 2019 Act and the Special Marriage Act
Muslim marriage (nikah) is a civil contract with a dower (mahr) and several forms of divorce, instant triple talaq is now void and a crime, and the Special Marriage Act offers every Indian a civil marriage regardless of religion.
Standard · 10 min · Full course - 6.5.8Courts on marriage and family: Shah Bano to Supriyo, irretrievable breakdown, live-in relationships and the UCC
Through a chain of judgments the Supreme Court has made choice of partner part of Article 21, struck down discriminatory marriage rules, allowed divorce for irretrievable breakdown under Article 142 and left same-sex marriage to Parliament, while the Uniform Civil Code debate under Article 44 has moved to the states.
Standard · 10 min · Full course
Practise Family, marriage and kinship. Questions with answers explained, from the same topics.
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