Number of words: 222

The autonomous village community and the caste system were thus two of the special features of the old Indian social structure. The third was the joint family where all the members were joint sharers in the common property and inheritance went by survivorship. The father or some other elder was the head but he functioned as a manager, and not as the old Roman paterfamilias. A division of property was permitted under certain circum- stances and if the parties concerned so desired. The joint property was supposed to provide for the needs of all the members of the family, workers or non-workers. Inevitably this meant a guaranteed minimum for all of them, rather than high rewards for some. It was a kind of insurance for all including even the subnormal and the physically or mentally deficient. Thus while there was security for all, there was a certain levelling down of the standard of service demanded as well as of the recompense given. Emphasis was not laid on personal advantage or ambition but on that of the group, that is the family. The fact of growing up and living in a large family minimized the ego- centric attitude of the child and tended to develop an aptitude for socialization.

Excerpted from pages 274 of ‘Jawaharlal Nehru The Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru