The joint family system is one of the most important features of the Hindu system of society. In olden times each family was a unit of the tribe. The joint family is a family in which the father and the sons live jointly along their wives and children. The head of the family was all-powerful in the house. He had the responsibility of keeping the family well-fed and well-brought-up.
The value of joint family in the Hindu system of society is very great. It occupies a very important place. In joint family system the property is shared by everyone and each has to contribute his own share of manual and mental labor required to keep the family going. The value to social progress and security under such a system is obvious.
The joint family system has its own advantages. In it each member learns how to adjust himself with the claim and interests of others. He also learns the lesson of co-operation and mutual aid. Living together the members love and understand one another. They cultivate the common interest of the family. The father, the mother, the brothers and the sisters all live together, eat together and play and work together and this kind of living is sure to teach the members lessons in patience, forbearance, sympathy and self-sacrifice. The father sacrifices his own interests for the welfare of the whole family. It is difficult to imagine peaceful ordered social life in the absence of the system of the joint family.
The system is not free from abuses and shortcomings. When family interest is cultivated in an excessive manner it leads to many vices which are a great hindrance to national and political progress. Family pride has often led to litigation and rivalry with other families and both have been ruined in the course of time. In the joint family there is only one earning member with many mouths to feed. Sometimes the tyranny is also exercised by the head of the family towards others who are mercy members without any voice in the affairs of the family. The members of the joint family become too homebred to be able to stand on their own legs in times of calamities of the family.
Reforms in joint family system are needed in order to keep it safe and make it a useful unit in the state. The true joint family is one of the most valuable institutions for making a state strong and progressive. The joint family is a valuable institution where individuals can yet develop own-selves without becoming selfish.
If the abuses of the joint family system are avoided it is evident that the system is one of the most helping in promoting both individual and social welfare and progress. As a unit of society the joint family plays an important role in the natural life of the country. Hence we should remove the abuses of the system and preserve it so that it will be a helpful factor in the welfare of the individual as well as society and the state.