“‘— JN-T“ TL ’3‘“. '
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ALLOCATION OF OCCUPATIONAL STATUS AND
LEGITIMATE SEXUAL MATURITY IN THREE
NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE CALCUTTA
METROPOLITAN DISTRICT

Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
MARY JANE HIGDON BEECH
1973

v -,~r:€._l_‘~'

  
   
   

  

LIBRARY
Michigan 3‘"
UnivcrsltY

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

ALLOCATION OF OCCUPATIONAL STATUS
AND LEGITIMATE SEXUAL MATURITY
IN THREE NEIGHBORHOODS
IN THE CALCUTTA METROPOLITAN DISTRICT

presented by
Mary Jane Higdon Beech

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph.D. Jegreein Socmlogy and
Anthropology

 

 

 

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Feb. 14, 1973 A ‘1 'IfL (AI-TIA “Q L_c~'(fl.5
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ABSTRACT

ALLOCATION OF OCCUPATIONAL STATUS
AND LEGITIMATE SEXUAL MATURITY
IN THREE NEIGHBORHOODS
IN THE CALCUTTA METROPOLITAN DISTRICT

By

Mary Jane Higdon Beech

Achievement has generally been opposed to ascription
in analyses of status allocation. The practice of referring
to ascribed and achieved statuses as types of statuses blurs
the extent to which both ascription and achievement operate
in the assignment of most statuses. In this thesis I anal-
yze variations in the application of the principles of as-
cription and achievement to determine not which statuses are
chosen and achieved or ascribed and affirmed, but rather how
these principles coexist and interact in the allocation of
adult occupational and familial statuses.

The data on which the thesis is based were collected
in upper-middle class, lower-middle class,and lower class
Bengali, Hindu neighborhoods in the Calcutta Metropolitan
District in 1967 and 1968. Two sets of structured interviews
were conducted: the first with household heads to obtain
basic social statistics describing the residents of each
neighborhood and the second with unmarried males and females

between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five to obtain data

on their education, occupational aspirations, friendship

 

  

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01,."

Mary Jane Higdon Beech‘

  

a~, .In Calcutta the examinations by which educational
'achievenent is measured are universalistic in content and
administration, but competition is restricted especially at
the primary level by limited access to the resources neces-
sary for learning. The increase in primary education has
not kept pace with increases in secondary, college,and uni—
versity education. The percentages of both boys and girls
from the upper-middle class neighborhood who have entered
college is higher than the percentage of boys in the lower.
class neighborhood who have continued in school beyond the
primary level. In each of.the neighborhoods girls receive
fever years of formal education than boys of the same socio-
economic status, with three-fourths of the girls in the
loverAclass neighborhood remaining illiterate.

Occupational placement for males is closely related to
educational attainment and.reflects.a-similar admixture of
achievement and,ascriptions For Bengali women, however”
there are few occupational opportunities except for well-
educated professionals and for domestic servants. Though

rsiatively few of them succeed, most students, both male and

.igllle, aspire to becoming professionals. The process of
accommodating.tbeir aspirations to the available job oppor-
‘ Afliiihiefl which.most.boys must accept, is paralleled for

=c1ass.girls by the process of accommodating them-

  

3‘ to becoming housewives.

   
  
  
    
     
     
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
 
  
  

Mary Jane Higdon Beech

nasting patterns of friendship and club membership.

-ifihmstitute the main unit of the social and economic division
gm: labor" (Eisenstadt 19563 270) is extended to include var-

iations in status allocation between males and females. A1-

. t
4 though middle class girls report more friendships than boys,
' ‘they are less likely to belong to clubs and have few oppor-

' .‘ ‘gumities to participate in the relatively complex patterns

0
: ;._¥¥§ interaction-oteam sports, adda (”a form of group discus-

'i‘.

sign“), and arrangement of community pujas--which character-
, $33 boys clubs in Calcutta.
r Nuclear households predominate in each of the neigh~
,‘jhnrhoods studied, with well under half of the population
4 "fined fewer than one-fourth of the households being commensal-
9% in? joint. Simultaneously, the joint family is demonstrably
fix~fltmong as an ideal family type which almost all respondents
€T,¢.v te. Two processes appear to minimize the impact of t
'. Igswapparent contradiction. The first is a redefinition of I
.:.&ssential qualities of family jointness to allow for the

\graphic separation required by occupational mobility.

I..the family. Youth increasingly participate in the

Roi mate selection, but almost all want their elders

WWW-1'7“,
,.

 

 

ALLOCATION OF OCCUPATIONAL STATUS
AND LEGITIMATE SEXUAL MATURITY
IN THREE NEIGHBORHOODS

IN THE CALCUTTA METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
BY

Mary Jane Higdon Beech

A THESIS

Subniitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Sociology

Department of Anthropology

1973

  
 

   
   
  
  
 
 

O"

'“ tints the social sciences. Margaret Hanson has been a

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many persons have contributed to the motivation, the
education,and the means which culminated in the writing of
this thesis. My debts to them are greater than I can ade-

-quately acknowledge.

I especially want to thank those who have most close-
ly guided my professional socialization. John Useem has
combined continued encouragement with careful probing into
the sociological assumptions underlying comparative research.
Ralph W. Nicholas" extensive knowledge and perceptive appre-
ciation of Bengali culture stands as a model to emulate. His
willingness to provide careful tutorial guidance and his dem-
onstration of analytic virtuosity have stimulated intellectual
“curiosity among his students. William T. Ross first raised
the possibility of study in South Asia and I am grateful that
'he recruited me into the program in Bengal studies and for
his continuing concern. John T. Gullahorn's kind and straight-

;fprward suggestions have been most appreciated. Rachel van

:Meter Baumer was a patient teacher of the Bengali language

.and a most gracious guide and hostess during our introduction

.to_Ca1cutta. Ruth Hill Useem has been a vital presence, pro-

.moting the best interests of the woman in graduate school.
‘ ;Rabert C. Hanson and Edward Rose at the University of Color~

“.gflo provided the early training in research which attracted

'V c role model and creator of options. My fellow stu-

ggt.these universities and in Calcutta have enriched my

 

   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
    
 
   
    
 
 
  

‘I am obliged to many people in Calcutta who provided
an, intensive experience in adult socialization and who facil-

f‘ 'itated the research process. First among them is Sabita

' r
< l

‘Bh’attacherjee Sarkar who worked with me patiently and pro-

t 'Buctively throughout the study. My personal affection for

I ”fit has grown out of the intensity of her efforts to commun-
icate the elements and the nuances of her culture. Swaraj
Sidecar and Kumaresh Kar also contributed able assistance in
Tintsrviewing and processing the data. Sandip Sarkar f ur-

:‘I fished both special assistance and continuing friendship.
mun Mitra facilitated the arrangements for our research
find living in Calcutta.

‘ .“'1"‘ I am grateful to a number of social scientists at the
1 .' WMBity of Calcutta, the Anthropological Survey of India,
,5 It" {is Indian Statistical Institute, the Calcutta Metropolitan
Q 1 Manning Organization, and the Indian Institute of Manage-
in Cr

-‘ Q
)

I) who discussed the research with me and advised me at

 

-

”fit-{bus stages. Nirmal K. Bose, Meera Guha, and Santi Priya

it

‘

W‘ 9 gee were especially helpful immediately after our arrival.

q’
'm 3‘ b I am also deeply endebted to the residents of Panchan-

:2“;

S’Hu'sy'schedules to be. interviewed. I feel a special

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.Q’Iof their neighborhoods are unintended, and represent
“‘ifildequate understanding.

The field research which was the basis for this disser-
'tation was supported by an NDEA—related Fulbright-Hays Grad-
i_;ate Fellowship. Support for predoctoral research was also
C"provided by a grant from the Midwest Universities Consortium
rand an NDFL Summer Fellowship.

‘ Throughout my life Archie Higdon and Alice Mae Higdon

(have given the loving support and continuing intellectual

' 'ptilulation without which a graduate education would have
‘been impossible. Robert P. Beech played a crucial role in

. 'Iths development of this dissertation. He helped refine many

.' fhof the explanations and served as a sounding board and in-

; ,téfllectual stimulus during long periods when I worked away

{I .'£ron my fellow students and academic advisers. His concerted

: I eEforts to reduce the role conflicts facing me are greatly
._ Epfinreeiated. Robert D. Beech, whose conception preceded my
f“s§rrrval at Michigan State, has from his earliest years ac-

7.}dgptsd the process of field research and endeavored to un-
ystand its content. Richard A. Beech, whose earliest mem—

;‘_ are of Calcutta and who refers to himself as part

in has_helped me appreciate the impact of that period

iv

7"

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

_ , Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .'-‘ W ' 'statué Allocat ion a o o I a o O I a o a I I I I o
..t N‘Description_of Research Sites . . . . . . . . . .

H-x, Badur Began, an Upper—Middle Class
Neighborhood.in North Calcutta . . . . . . .

Mallik Para, a Lower-Middle Class
Neighborhood in Howrah . . . . . . . . . . .

Panchanantala, a Lower Class Bustee in South
Calcutta I I I O O O I O I U I I. C O O O I i

‘ Neighborhood Selection . . . . . . . . . . .
a. Caste Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I income Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . .
A'R,» .Berceived Socio—Economic Stratification . .
.,iv. Perceived Vertical Mobility. . . . . . . . .
{tyyx, Geographical Mobility . . . . . . . . . . .
efifitayeathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
fiifigpwflousehold Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
aiéé;.4§dolescent Interviews . . . . . . . . . . .

,_‘ ; mucation o o u o I a a o o a a o o o o a u

’ éefil Facilities 0 O O O I I I O O O O l O
. _‘ fl. } 1 ‘ ,
jof Formal Education . . . . . . . . . .

1 curricula n n o o u o a I I a o I o I

.10
.12
.18
.20
.24
.28
.30
.33
.35
.36
.40
.40
.43
.47
.51

 

 

  
   
  
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 

m"

._i.—; Itioxlal Goals I I a

EBEratification . . . . .

Male Occupational Entry

The Science Line .
The Technical Line
The Commerce Line .

.g the Arts Line . . .

Females .‘. . . . .

vi‘ l "¢E:!”1e Models I o I o I I

Ndhievsment and Ascriptive Factors

: enerational Changes in Education . . .

I 1113 Occupational Entry . . . . . . . . . .

Lt‘ The Professions as the Ideal . . . .

Business as an Alternative . . . . .

Caste-Related Occupations . . . . . . . .
“? Female Occupational Entry . . . . . . . . . .
} ‘ Occupations of Adult Women . . . . . . .

Occupational Aspirations of Adolescent

~ niv; Relationships with Peers . . . . . . . .

   

itemmal Friendshipsa-Patano Bandhu . . . . .

‘..

1 " 1f
. {‘14} 0'

Mianin Pujas. . . .

  

in Educational

52
. 56

. 6O

66

74

85

90

.103
.106
.107
.119
.124
. 129
.132

.135

.138
.139

 

 

   
   
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
    

W‘
'ng h'1‘Ihs Conjugal Family and the Joint Family
‘;" as Ideal Constructs . . . . . . . . . . .143

The Conjugal Family and the Joint Family
as sets of IdEals I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 145

The Conjugal Family and the Joint Family
as Observable Patterns .of Behavior . . . . .150

Lineal Juncture . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Collateral Juncture . . . . . . . . . .161
Less-Than-Nuclear Households . . . . . .163
Fertility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167

The Relationship between Ideal and Observed
Family Structure I I I I I I I I I I I l I I 172

The Allocation of Legitimate Sexual Maturity . . .176
' Types of Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
'Courtship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
Criteria for Mate Selection . . . . . . . . .194
- Age at Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Freedom of Marital Choice . . . . . . . . . .210

smary I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I l I I 214 ~ -

1 dix A: Household Survey
‘I‘I‘ s—(II_ IIIH‘A -' I...“ ‘ v-
;, ~2=dix BB Adolescent Survey, English Form 3.

,Idix'BQ: Adolescent Survey, Bengali Form

 

  
 
  
  
   
   
  
   
  
  
  
   
  
     

LIST OF TABLES

Distribution of Population by Sex and Age . . . . . 17
n" Distribution of Reported Caste Membership . . . . . 19
Socio-Economic Class of Neighborhood, Reported by
Household Head 0 D l 0 I O I O O O O . O I I l I O l 2 5
Eresent Position on Ladder of Economic Status,
Reported by Household Head . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

x, Perceived Vertical Mobility in Terms of Past,

;"- Present, and Future Positions on a Status Ladder. . 29
Birthplace of Household Head . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Proportion of Youth Interviewed . . . . . . . . . . 37

‘ 233$ Proportion of Youth Who Completed Class IV . . . . 41
g; Percentage of Students by Age Cohorts . . . . . . . 48
3 Educational Achievement of Youth . . . . . . . . . 50
' a

‘.' Curricula Studied by Female and Male College
studmt's I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ' I I I I a I I 52
“‘ Educational Achievement of Parent of the Same Sex . 53
Educational Goals of Student Respondents . . . . 57
;fi0bcupational Goals of Mhle Students . . . . . . . . 71
w. - a ‘
;Distribution of Occupations of Male Workers over
film Twenty-Five 0‘ I I I I o o I I I I I I I I I I I 72
fiflistribution of Occupations of Male Workers between
sifle Ages of Thirteen and Twenty-Five . . . . . . . 74
‘.\ ‘
7gtribution of Occupations of Female Workers over
_-TwentY-Five l I I I a n I I I I u I I o I I I o 94
pational Goals of Female Youth . . . . . . . .101

ion of Reported Friendships . . . . . .

viii

 

 

 

   
   
   
   
   
  
  
   
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

‘xifl§*'tionsh1p between Number of Reported Friendships

u‘

3 Neighborhood ; . . . . . . . .-. . . . . 112
”Relationship between Number of Repdrted Friendships
and Student Status . . . . . . . . . . 113
Relationship between Number of Reported Friendships
and Respondent's sex 0 I o I l I' n o o a o 114
Relationship between Activities Shared with Best
Friend and Respondent's Sex . . . . . . . . . 116
Relationship between Place where Best Friends
Congregate and ReSpondent's Sex . . . . . . 118

Relationship between where Best Friendship Originated
and Respondent's Sex .

Distribution of Club Membership 125

Relationship between Club Membership and Respondent°s
Sax ‘ ' 1

Distribution of Preferred Family Type——Lineal

Juncture . . ... . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . 148
Distribution of Preferred Family Type--Collatera1
Juncture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Distribution of Observed Household Types . . . . . . 151
Summary of Household Structures . . . . 152
Distribution of Households with Possible Juncture. . 156
Patterns of Lineal Juncture .I. . . . . . . 158
ii _Form of Lineal Juncture by Number of Sons . . . . . 160
Distribution of Widows and Widowers . . . . . . . . 165
Distribution of Families in Which Spouses are
lGeographically Separated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
.fmenn Number of Births per Couple by Effective 2*
Narriage DuratiOn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 3‘
afimflxu-and Sex of Children Preferred by Youth . . . 170' E
of Marriage Preferred by Youth . . . . . . . . 181 y
'ribution of Household Heads Who Will Accept an 3'
w ste' Marriage . . . . . . . w . . . . . . . . 186

ix

 

 

-tion of Youth Who Report Romantic
:emal Friendships I O U C I C I D O O O O O l l 89

   
   
 
  
 
   
   
   

rationship between Preferred Type of Marriage and
, 'ting O o I o o o I u a o I O I u 0 a O I a a I n o 193

p " Griteria for Mate selection Reported by HOUSEhOld
'#
‘ "H‘ad . O I U C I I ' I ‘ I I C O O O I O ' O O I O I l 195

‘<)interia for Mate Selection Reported by Youth . . . 196

.“Preferred Age for Marriage Reported by Household

.........................204
iVMNEGian Age at Marriage for Men . . . . . . . . . . . 205
'Kedian Age at Marriage for Women . . . . . . . . . . 205
5“¥Proportion of Young Men Ever Married by Age Cohort . 207
:1Proportion of Young Women Ever Married by Age

Cohort........... ............207

_ I. lwu' ‘-

ta V
* U- Hedian Age Difference between Husband and Wife by
grant Me of Husmnd I I O I O O I i I O O O O i I 209

 

 
 

 

; CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Status Allocation

The paired concepts of ascribed status and achieved
status have dominated the sociological literature on status
allocation since Linton introduced them in 1936° Achieve-
ment has generally been opposed to ascription in models of
status allocation. In this dissertation I analyze variations
in the application of achievement-oriented or performance
principles and ascriptive principles in status allocation
and suggest how they conflict with and complement each other.

Ascribed statuses are those which are assigned

to individuals without reference to their in-

nate differences or abilities. They can be

predicted and trained for from the moment'of

birth. The achieved statuses are, as a mini-

mum, those requiring special qualities, although

they are not necessarily limited to these. They

are not assigned to individuals from birth but

are left open to be filled through competition
and individual effort (Linton 1961: 203).

    
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  

 

Linton emphasizes the flexibility of role behavior and the
extent to which most. if not all, persons can be taught the
behavior deemed culturally appropriate to the statuses which
they are assigned. The primary reference points for the
ascription of status are sex, age. family relationships, and
"birth into a particular socially established group. such as
’ a class or caste" (203). As originally described by Linton.
." achieved statuses are always relatively few, often serve as

"baits for socially acceptable behavior or as escapes for the

2

    
   
  
 
   
  
  
   
  
 
    
   
 
   
   
  
  
  
   
  
  
  

talents or abilities.

a limited number of statuses do require spe‘
cial gifts for their successful performance. Since
1 , such gifts rarely manifest themselves in early
childhood, these statuses are. of necessityg thrown
open to competition. All societies rely mainly on
~their ascribed statuses to take care of the ordin-
‘-' ary business cf living. Most of the statuses which
are thrown open to achievement do not touch this
business very deeply (Linton 1961: 207)

O I 0

Parsons modified the concepts somewhat when he defined
~achievement in terms of performance and ascription in terms
'of the prospective incumbent's attributes.

Ascri tion: the role-expectation that the role incum-
bent, In orienting himself to social objects in the
relevant choice situation, will accord priority to
the objects' given attributes (whether universalisti-
cally or particularistically defined) over their ac-
tual or potential performances.

Achievement: the role-expectation that the role incum-
nt, in orienting to social objects in the relevant

choice situation, will give priority to the objects'

actual or expected performances, and to their attri-

butes only as directly relevant to these performances.

3”V“ over attributes which are essentially independent of

_ the specific performances in question (Parsons and

‘P"" Shils 1951s 83).

' ; H**" Both Linton and Parsons recognize that ascribed status-

('3‘. ‘88 Of royalty in a hereditary monarchs, may require exten-

,, _ .

:3 sire and sometimes rigorous training. Although failure to

<t complete the required training may eliminate a few potential

status incumbents, on the whole the ascribed status is filled

$§ggypersons having certain specifiable attributes. Both the-

‘lfsjalBO'recognize that the competition for achieved

.1‘<‘may be limited by law or custom to persons having

3‘attributes, including previously ascribed or achieved
Inga

   
  
      
  
     
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
    
 
  
   
   
   
  
  
 
 
 
   
 
 

   

NZ; 3
hr
,nQne hand, competition for what is considered to be an
,' gfifiieved status is limited to a tiny segment of the popu—

o . ,
‘- flfltion, or on the other hand, when an ascribed status is

liassigned on the basis of attributes, such as an academic

.-— degree, which although they are often irrelevant to the sta-

tus'being assigned, are competitive to some extent. In fact,

fivfrtually all statuses are assigned on the basis of both
.attributes and performances. Thus, following Parsons, one
they refer to ascriptive factors or principles and achievement
:factors or principles which operate in the assignment of a

'perticular status.

L A greater reliance on ascriptive status allocation in

0' more traditional societies has been contrasted with a greater

0 wreliance on achievement-based status allocation in more modern

‘ societies. The opposition of ascription and achievement is
;§grt of a pattern of contrasted variables which are compo-
‘.:sflm¢scfi"various models defining tradition and modernity. The
7';€Rudolphs summarize those contrasts which they find heuristi-

.veelly useful:

-6, ,, "modernity" assumes that local ties and paro-

j ""'chial perspectives give way to universal commit-

, u‘Q;_ ments and cosmopolitan attitudes; that the truths
’ ‘cf utility, calculation, and science take prece-

. .,.I,K,\ldence over those of the emotions, the sacred, and

A! ' the non-rational; that the individual rather than

‘unJm the group be the primary unit of society and pol—

itics; that the associations in which men live and

_ work be based on choice not birth, that mastery

~‘33T I _ rather than fatalism orient their attitude toward
.';'cv, the material and human environment; that identity
" .\ :1 ; chosen and achieved, not ascribed and affirmed;
-t work be separated from family, residence, and

' 'ikity in bureaucratic organizations; that man—

.he delayed while youth prepares for its tasks

paged, surrender much of its authority to youth
‘3 ‘ some of theirs to women; that mankind dease

.A
.u‘

 

 

  

4

to live as races apart by recognizing in society
and politics its common humanity; that government
cease to be a manifestation of powers beyond man
and out of the reach of ordinary men by basing
itself on participation, consent, and public ac-
countability (Rudolph and Rudolph 1967: 3-4 Note).

Global social changes throughout the world appear to

be in the general directions indicated by the Rudolphs. In
large part the roots of these changes can be traced to indus-
trialization.

The prime social characteristic of modern indus—
trial enterprise is that the individual is ideally
given a job on the basis of his ability to fulfill
its demands, and that this achievement is evaluated
universalistically; the same standards apply to 311
Egg hold the same 19b. His link with the job-Is
functionally specific; in other words, the enter-
prise cannot require behavior of him which is not
relevant to getting the job done.

 

 

Being achievement-based, an industrial society is
necessarily open-class, requiring both geographical
and social mobility. Men must be permitted to rise
or fall depending on their performance. Moreover,
in the industrial system, jobs based on ownership
and exploitation of land (and thus on inheritance)
become numerically less significant, again permitting
considerable geographical mobility so that individuals
are free to move about in the labor market (Goods
1963b: 11-12).

However, having accepted that the general directions

of change, not just in India, but throughout the world, are

from relatively more ascriptive, particularistic, diffuse,

and collective orientations toward more performance-oriented,

  
    
  

it is

- ‘5'1‘7'.

v’v

universalistic, specific,and individualistic orientations,

doubtful whether the terms "modern" and "traditional"

ale more illuminating than ambiguous. During his continuing

~i ‘;u_g§search on the processes of cultural and social change in

¥ .

  

 

 

  

       
   
 

.l

5 .—;'
o_' .

5

...was convinced that the dichotomy between "tra-
ditional" and "modern," whether in the popular

form of Western "materialism" versus Eastern "spir-
ituality," or in the more sophisticated social sci-
ence form of "traditional" versus "modern” societies,
was not a useful theoretical guide for understanding
India. There'were just too many cases of coexist—
ence and interaction between the "traditional" and
the "modern." The more important and interesting
task was to find out more about the processes and
mechanisms of cultural change involved in these con
existences and interactions and about how Indians
were becoming "modern" without becoming less Indian
(Singer 19723 247).

Both Singer in detailing the process by which both orthogen-
etic and heterogenetic innovations gain legitimacy through
'traditionalization" and the Rudolphs in documenting the
modern elements in traditional Indian institutions have shown

the error in dichotomizing tradition and modernity.

The cumulative effect of the misdiagnosis of
traditional societies and the misunderstanding of
modern societies has been to produce an analytic
gap between tradition and modernity. We find the
literature Speaking of an abyss between them;
stressing incompatibilities between their norms,
structures, and personalities; and describing the
hollowness of men and institutidns in midpassage.
Because they are seen as mutually exclusive, to
depart from one is disorienting and traumatic, to
enter the other alienating and superficial. Nor
does the notion of transitional society escape the
preoccupation with the dichotomy between tradition
auflwmodernity, for it assumes rather than challenges
it. If the two systems are taken to be fundamentally
different and incompatible, then social engineers
working with new blueprints and new materials are
required. Change takes on a systematic rather than
adaptive character (Rudolph and Rudolph 19673 6).

Typologies of traditional and modern institutions have

been based on this dichotomy. As ideal-type constructs,

caste and class, the jajmani system and the bureaucracy, and

- joint family and the conjugal family have been contrasted.

i to differentiate among varying levels of abstraction--

 

 

  

6

the ideal-type construct in the Weberian sense; the set of
ideals viewed as legitimate, proper, or good; and the observ-
able pattern of behavior—«has further obscured the study of
particular institutions.

The difficulties that can arise from the use of
ideal-typical concepts in empirical investigation
have often been recited. They can screen out per-
ceptions of the particular and the exceptional that
contradict dominant trends and motifs. Such theo—
retical screening is especially inimical to the an-
alysis of social change because it eliminates from
consideration latent, deviant, and minority alter-
natives. With some alteration in historical circum-
stances, such alternatives may become the source of
new or transformed identities, structures, and
norms. Social change and the new realities it cre-
ates arise not only from the impact of objective,
exogenous, or revolutionary forces on established
systems but also from alternative potentialities
within such systems. Marxist theory brilliantly
stresses this insight when it emphasizes the crea-
tive possibilities of historical contradictions.
Ideal—typical or heuristic analyses of modernity
and tradition in particular historical and national
settings are likely to miss these creative possi-
bilities in so far as they assume that the charac-
terological, structural, and ideological components
of each are absent in the other and thereby place
modernity and tradition in a dichotomous rather than
a dialectical relationship. Such a divorce of modern-
ity and tradition can be and sometimes is compounded
by deducing a model of tradition from a model of
modernity and proceeding, in the study of moderni-
zation in particular traditional societies, on the
assumption that the deduced model provides the point
of departure for change (Rudolph and Rudolph 1967:
8-9 .

What has been said about dichotomizing tradition and

   
   
  
  

modernity may also be said about dichotomizing the princi-
ples which have been used to define these concepts. Thus,

positing a dichotomous rather than a dialectical relation-

«tea
V‘-}2,l¥313 of status allocation by failing to consider the

bship between ascription and achievement has hindered the

  

 

7

   

extent to which these two principles coexist and interact.
The practice of referring to ascribed statuses and achieved
statuses as types of statuses blurs the extent to which both
ascriptive and achievement-oriented principles operate in
the assignment of most statuses.

My task, then, is to try to examine the process of
status allocation in three small neighborhoods in Calcutta,
to determine not which statuses were chosen and achieved or
ascribed and affirmed, but rather how these principles co-
exist and interact, conflicting with and complementing each
other in the allocation of adult statuses in the economic
and familial spheres. I am not concerned primarily with
economic or family institutions as ideal types, but with
the process of placement through which the residents of these

neighborhoods assume adult roles.

Description of Research Sites
The three neighborhoods in which the study was conduct-

ed are small, primarily residential, relatively homogeneous,
Bengali, Hindu 25:51 or "neighborhoods." Family households
rather than "messes"2 predominate with almost equal numbers

of males and females.

    
 

Badur Bagan, an Upper-Middle Class Neighborhood
in North Calcutta

Bidur Bagan is a middle to upper-middle class neighbor-

\
"gin North Calcutta where two and three-story, owner-

‘

 

 

8

a football field. It is one block west of Upper Circular
Road, near the Bose Institute and the University of Cal-
cutta Science College. I interviewed the heads of eighty-
five of the approximately one hundred families living in
the houses surrounding the park and in the immediately ad-
jacent alleys. Settled in the nineteenth century by Bengali
bhadralak,3 eighty-seven per cent of the residents are of
the three upper castess Brahman, Kayasthi, and Baidya. As
professionals, office workers, and businessmen, adult males
i earn from a few hundred to several thousand rupees per month,
with a median reported household income of Rs. 600. Fifteen
per cent of the adult females work outside the home, mainly
as educators. Children in Badur Bagan attend the better
Bengali—medium schools. Most boys complete at least one
college degree. Girls typically complete at least a seconde

i ary education and many go on to college. Amenities such as

   
   
  
 
 
 
   
 
  

 

underground sewers and drains, city water,and electricity
are taken for granted, while telephones and refrigerators

are neighborhood prestige symbols. Badur Bagan Lane and Ram-
lgishnadas Lane which form the sides of the park are wide
enough for a car, but one sees few automobiles in the im-
mediate neighborhood, in quiet contrast with the adjoining

‘hmer Circular Road which is choked with traffic.

Mallik Para, a Lower-Middle Class Neighborhood
in Howrah

Mallik Para is a lower-middle class neighborhood in How-

"; the industrial suburb across the river from Calcutta.

7'" XI ..

   
  
   
     
  
   
  
  
  
   
 
   
    
     
 

9

cent of the households are upper

,fi,a;the,Mahisyas, an agricultural caste, with twenty-
. per cent of the households are the largest single
,gféagte group, own more property, and are generally the dom-

‘Uinant caste. Land acquired in 1828 by the para founder has
i -

;g!fidu§lly been filled, partitioned,and sold both to accomo-

': date his own extended family and the influx of migrants from
I

«: Howrah and Hooghly districts. In parts of Howrah to the

:koast of Mallik Para buildings now occupy all land except for
,{the narrow roadways, but in Mallik Para three small tanks

'1§.amd,an open area where boys play soccer remain. One and two
' Pptpry houses are set on both sides of the bicycle path which

x'.1flapaved as it leaves the road, but narrows to a dirt path
1

as.it extends into the interior of the neighborhood. The

‘ {gland in the interior section is owned by outside landowners

ifihdthe housing is of the type prescribed by'the laws govern-

'1éfihg,hustees. Drains are open and there is no underground
,.

Ltséégage system. Electricity is available only where house

vigggprs also own the land on which the house is situated. At

‘% gigptine of the study ninety-three families lived in houses
; ... "V

§fi§figh}6pened onto Mallik Para Lane. However, because of

 

  

 

1.0

   
  
   
    
    
   
 
   
    
  
   
  
    

lined.householdrincome is Rs. 255 per month. Only seven
.51‘icent of the eighty-one adult women over age twenty-five.
-dsfifiprkloutside the home. They are from the poorest families
g-:%and typically are hired to do housework for their neighbors.
,ff ingot boys in Mallik Para complete a secondary education,

’tlhile girls frequently drop out of school a year or two

«earlier.

r --Panohanantala, a Lower Class Bustee in South Calcutta
., ogw PanchanantaI§.is a bustee4 located on railway land in
gaputh Calcutta. It derives its name from a small temple ded—

‘;ieated to the god Panchanan. The dieties Panchanan and Sit—

 

Gama, represented by stones, a Narayan sila, a Sib lin a, and
.ne‘gflgg for Sasti are housed in a pakka or "permanent" build-
‘ctng‘on debatra land immediately to the north and west of the
lfifluflnms. A Brahman priEst performs pujas in exchange for free
jii§¥9931ng' but derives his income from an office job. Only one
'«aieefien (22 Panchanantala Road) of the bustee was surveyed.
.

{s§t.is the central Section in which the neighborhood school

     
 
  
  

‘ égglg.meeting room is located and in which the panchayat ("coun-
flfitl‘)'secretary lives. This section and the areas to the north
truest of it are inhabited almost entirely by Bengali Hin-

‘ nanother section to the east and slightly south is in-

 
  
 
 
  
  

. 'V‘
0.,
v ”I
1'." F.

q. \

.
.,r.'.

   

11

    
 
  
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
 
 
 
   
   
  
 
   
 

. ‘7iiesjwere reported to be living in the bustee. In the

‘ Kriéétion I surveyed in 1968, we identified 152 households but

" ggyould estimate that there were about 160 households in

.. that section and a total of between five and six hundred

households in the entire bustee, with more huts being built

to accommodate the continuing influx of people from rural

areas. The houses in Panchanantala are constructed of clay

31th tile roofs and arranged in parallel rows of four to

'twelve adjacent rooms. Typically the houseowner lives in

. one.or two rooms and rents the remaining rooms of his house
go-tenants for ten to fifteen rupees per month. The occu-
pancy rate is 4.3 persons per room with ninety-seven per
cent of the households occupying one small room. There is
‘go.electricitys open ditches serve as drains; and water
games from one city tap or from a tubewell outside the

_ #Bighborhood. The caste composition is more varied than
lib either of the other neighborhoods studied, with only

' rgighteen per cent of the households claiming upper caste

.r?§§§tps. Many men work in the construction industry as paint-
E 4§;§,and masons. Other men sell vegetables or fish in nearby

I; ignmiahat Market. Permanent unemployment.is rare, but inter-

}:fifiéfifitent days or weeks of unemployment are common, especially

.‘-{e§gday laborers and workers in the constructionindustry°

Jr” .§£,eeonomic strata where earnings are used almost entirely'

i‘i‘ the steady, though lower wages of the women are
"‘i3:. Fifty-eight per cent of the adult women work,

V
...

. c"

. , 1,

ifihgn_as maids in middle class Bengali homes. Family

 

 

    

  

12
hummes between Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 are common, with a
median reported household income of Rs. 130. Seventy-one
per cent of the female youth have received no schooling

and few male youth get more than a primary education.

Neighborhood Selection

The research was started in Mallik Para about two
months after our arrival in Calcutta in January, 1967. I
had met with several social scientists in Calcutta and dis-
cussed with them the nature of the study I hoped to do,
but the actual selection of Mallik Para as a research
site was more fortuitous than systematic. Having visited
the area where Raymond Owens (1971) was studying small
scale engineering workshops and the neighborhoods where
one or two of the entrepreneurs in his sample resided, I
went alone to look at other neighborhoods in Howrah. Get-
ting down from the bus I wandered through several neigh-
borhoods—-the object of considerable curiosity--unti1 I
was engaged in a conversation by several children. An out—
going young Brahman woman invited me into her home so that
the women could talk to me. While there an invitation
came for me to visit the home of the EEEE founder. Then
a young man invited me to have lunch with his family. Af-
tor this hospitable welcome I returned several times to

determine if the neighborhood met the criteria I had spew

(I.

e
I.
I

 

 

 

 

  

13

caste composition was typical of the Bengali population

in Howrah and the distribution of occupations, income,and
education appeared to be typical of the lower range of the
middle class.

The research was extended to Badur Bagan and Panchan-
antala in December, 1967 to investigate the ways in which
the patterns of status allocation observed in Mallik Para
differ among families of higher and lower socio—economic
status and education and the extent to which they are more
generally typical of the urban,Benga1i,Hindu population.
0f course,three neighborhoods with a total population of
!umer two thousand can not encompass the variation found
in a metropolitan district with a population of over six
million in 1961. Still, I felt it necessary to study these
two additional neighborhoods to gain what understanding I
could, in the remaining five months, of the effects of dif-
fering socio-economic status on status allocation. North
Calcutta, an area where Bengali bhadralok have been con-
centrated for two hundred years, is an appropriate part of
the Calcutta Metropolitan District in which to study the
largely professional, middle to upper-middle class. How-
lever, it should be noted that, in part because it is an
older area, neighborhoods like Badur Bagan retain a rela-
tively conservative segment of the middle class, while
Western-oriented and upward mobile sections of the middle
,class have tended to move to South Calcutta and the newer

£jg§fifiqhs. Badur Bagan, like Mallik Para, was selected from

5..

 

’l

.-_I

.5

 

 

14

.among other potential research sites in the area because

of the relative homogeneity of the population and the re-
lative absence of industrial and commercial establishments.
Panchanantala was selected in large part because of its
convenience to our residence and because of the relative
ease of entry through my acquaintance with several bustee
residents who worked in the neighborhood where we lived.

I did, however, check with the bustee survey (Gov't of West
Bengal 1960) to be sure that Panchanantala was not marked-
ly atypical of other bustees in Calcutta.

The neighborhood, rather than the school or college,
was selected as the unit of study because I wanted to know
a cross section of Calcutta°s population, not just the ed-
ucated and sophisticated higher class segment of the pop-
ulation. I also wanted to see youth operating in the con-
fines of the family, not only in the university setting
where they may appropriately adopt the stylish, Western-
oriented, English speaking mode of internationally oriented
~students. I felt I needed to immerse myself in the rela-
tively conservative home life of the Bengali family to
grasp the significance of the changes which are taking
place. Of course, those "modern" practices which are gen-
erally accepted by Bengali families in urban neighborhoods
of varying socio-economic status, may remain outside the

experience of the typical Bengali, the rural youth growing

it in the villages of the delta. In addition, the Bengali

.\.

 

15

   
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
   
   
  
  
 
   
  
  
 
  

. ee-rof (discrete, bounded neighborhoods. Even though
‘r’nei‘ghborhoods can be ranked by social class, they are
Mified by a variety of distinctive characteristics in-

. a 3 feigning local religious sites, crafts or trades concen—

i, hated in the area, the names of early residents, especi-

I '31:”. land owners, caste or ethnic groups which are heavily
represented, and particular geographic features. As widely
._ ”itemized and "important" units of social organization,
i,‘.'(,§alcutta's neighborhoods provide "natural" avenues for ac-
‘,€ess to samples of homes and families.

(«. There are, certainly, limitations in using the neigh-
‘E‘birhood as the primary unit of study. The number of youth
‘ha particular age group is limited. Because youth in any
" sheer—neighborhood go to a variety of private and municipal
{figs-Ghouls (over thirty from Mallik Para and over forty frOm
{:m Bagan), it becomes difficult to view the same youth
i‘hthe school setting. Even clubs (sports, dramatic, lit-
~ :myand political) typically draw membership from a lar-
has: area, and the youth in each small neighborhood belong
.pWy‘ outside clubs as well as to the informal neighbor-
.V. V ‘V,'§gergroups described in Chapter IV. Even in neigh-
Swami so exclusively residential as these, the sources

‘ eutside the 253. and bilateralkinship networks
L , swell. beyond. the neighborhood. In spite of these

 

 

. a

  

16

-neighborhood was found to be a compatible setting for me
as a foreign researcher as much in need of enculturation
as of studying a particular social process.

It was stated above that these three neighborhoods
cannot be considered representative of the total popula—
tion of the Calcutta Metropolitan District.5 One way in
which they are atypical is indicated by the fact that one
third of Ca1cutta°s total population and more than half of
the total working population in the Calcutta Metropolitan
District does not speak Bengali as its native language
(CMPO 1966: 11-12). There is only one Hindi speaking fam-
ily in Mallik Para and there are only three Hindi Speak-
ing, one Oriya Speaking, and one Tamil Speaking households
in Panchanantala.

In the total population of Calcutta there are almost
twice as many males as females, the ratio in 1951 being 57
females to every 100 males (CMPO 1966: 12). Most of these
men are non-Bengalis, but many Bengali men also come to
Calcutta leaving their families in the village where liv-
ing costs are lower. In the three neighborhoods studied
the numbers of men and women are more nearly equal. In
Panchanantala there are 89 females for every 100 males, in
Hallik Para the ratio is 95 females for every 100 males,
and in Badur Bagan the ratio is 99 females for every 100
males. The distribution of the population in each neigh-
, horhood by sex and age is shown in Table 1.1.

. In addition to selecting Bengali neighborhoods with

 

 

  
    
   
    
     
    
  
  
  
   
     
    
  
 
  
   

r‘ J ;. .. 17
"-5,."“F‘:’-’”7“‘ ' TABLE 1.1
o . 1 . 7.. .
11". '" BISTRIBMION or POPULATION BY SEX AND AGE

 

 

.- yo: 2':

:“4? ‘7 h T
..{ :fis—;.
‘V - Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
). Females Males Females‘ Males Females Males
" ;lge N % N % N % N % N % N %
' .

 

_""0_9 97 31% 93 26% 54 23% 64 26% 26 12% 25 11%
110.19 51 19% 92 26% 63 27% 4a 20% 53 25% 41 19%
:. Rea-29 30 10% 45 13% 42 18% 45 18% 42 19% 45 21%
ernuee 58 18% 42 12% 26 11% 42 17% 37 17% 33 15%
'z'm449 27 9% 51 14% 18 8% 16 7% 17 8% 22 10%
{$350459 23 7% 15 4% 1o 4% 15 6% 19 9% 25 11%
1' $0489 a 3% 14 4% 9 4% 10 4% 1s 7% 17 8%
3709- 11 3% 1 0% 11 5% 5 2% 7 3% g 3%

ABE-1331s 100% 353 99% 233 100% 245 100% 216 100% 219 100%

rted.

 

fbfg§fighporhoods in which the population is relatively homo-
y‘ég!§pons,in socio-economic status and primarily residential.
a -y“ ‘

'f’:;:5:fsections of Calcutta and Howrah are characterized by
Z‘. ‘

    
 

.ffjfzindustrial, retai1,and residential occupancy and by
\.

nfigpugh broadly homogeneous there.is considerable var-
{cia economic status among the.residents of each

  

    

   

18
not unlike that of people in the Panchanantala bustee. At
the other end of the scale, a few families in Mallik Para

who have recently built houses are probably wealthier than

the average family in Badur Bagan.

Caste Distribution

The reported jégi or "caste" membership of the house-
holds in the three neighborhoods studied is shown in Table
1.2. In Badur Bagan none of the household heads hesitated
to report his caste, though there was at least one instance
of an intercaste marriage in which the household head re-
_ “the msknnd's and wife's castes as the same. In Mal-
lik Para most residents were frank about reporting caste,
the few exceptions being among the households with status
inconsistency and in households with a mixed marriage. In
Panchanantala, however, inquiring about caste was a very
sensitive subject, more offensive than asking about income.
One reason for this sensitivity is that members of the lowest—
ranking jati-ewill not be knowingly hired for domestic ser-
vice in many households. There are several extended fam-
ilies in which different households reported different caste
membership. I suSpect that in Panchanantala the self—
reported membership of both Kayastha and Mahisya 133; is
somewhat higher than would be granted by the community.6
. The caste composition of these neighborhoods appears
to be fairly representative of that in the greater Calcutta

iggtropolitan District. In statistics taken from the 1931
. r., . .
YT

‘

  
 
 

1.9

TABLE 1.2

 

DISTRIBUTION OF REPORTED CASTE MEMBERSHIP

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Caste Households % Households % Households %

 

Brahman 7 5% 23 26% 3o 35%
Baidya —— -- -- -_ 5 6%
K5yasth'i 20 13% 18 21% ‘ 39 46%

Mahisya (in-
cluding Kai-

barta) 44 29% 24 28% -_ _-
Paundra
Khatriya 20 13% 1 1% -_ _-
Napit 8 5% -- -_ -- __
65513 10 7% 1 1% 1 1%
nears 9 6% -- -- -- _-
other or not
ascertained g 39_96 2._0 Q £9. 13%
152 100% 87 100% 85 100%

The name of the caste is listed above if five or more house-
holds belong to it.

In Badur Bagan six other castes are represented by one
household each.

In Mallik Para there are several families of Sarnakars, Sub—
arnabaniks, Sutradhars, and Aswina Tantis. Eight other
castes are represented by one household

In Panchanantala twenty-five castes were recorded. In ad-
dition to those listed above, families belong to Barui,
Kumfir, Baisnab, Kolu, Tiyar, Rajbansi, Dhopa, Saha,and Jug1
castes.

Other also includes those households for which no descrip-
«on of caste was obtained either because the household
- was not interviewed or did not wish to reply.

 

 

 

 

 

20

Census, which was the last to enumerate population by
caste, Owens (1971: 90) shows that Brahmans, Kayasthas,
and Mahisyas, in that order, are the most populous castes
in both Calcutta City and Howrah City, while in Howrah
District the Mahisyas are the most populous caste. (The
Muslims, however, did outnumber any single Hindu caste in
undivided Bengal and in both Calcutta and Howrah in 1931.)
These same three castes are most numerous in the neighbor-
hoods studied.

The proportion of upper caste families varies directly
with the social class of the neighborhood, but within each
neighborhood social status is not related to caste rank.
Particularly noticeable in this respect is Mallik Para where
the founding family and several other relatively affluent,
land-owning families are Mahisyas and where most Brahman

and Kayastha families are tenants.

Income Distribution
In the household survey each household head was asked
to report his total family income. In Panchanantala there
was little resistance to this question, and reSpondents
clearly stated either a daily wage (typically Rs. 3) or a
monthly salary, with vendors giving an estimate of their
earnings. However, in Mallik Para and eSpecially in Badur

Bagan, there was considerable resistance to reporting in-

tapas. and a number of men in Badur Bagan explicitly report-

 

 

  

21
was more often done where household income was derived par-
tially or entirely from investments, rents, fees, or sales
rather than entirely from a fixed salary. Even where in—
come was reported candidly, the figure reported typically
did not include tips, travel,or lunch allowances, overtime
or bonuses, or the annual puja bonus which may equal one
month's salary. Thus, the reported averages are somewhat
below real earnings.

The CMPO (1966: 13) reports that the average per cap-
ita income in West Bengal in 1961-62 was Rs. 327, higher
than that of the surrounding states. In each of the three
neighborhoods the per capita income in 1967-68 was above
that state average. Figured as a median of the per capita
monthly incomes of each household, multiplied by twelve,
the median annual per capita income is Rs. 384 in Panchan-
antala, Rs. 600 in Mallik Para, and Rs. 1500 in Badur Bagan.
It seems safe to say that even after.discounting something
for inflation,the typical family in Panchanantala with two
earning members has an income as large or larger than the
Bengali villager who cultivates a small plot of land as a
share crapper. On the other hand, living conditions in a
bustee are much more congested; sanitation and health con-
ditions are horrible. Furthermore, the primary school en-
rollment in the Calcutta Metropolitan District is well be-
hind the rural areas of the state, mainly due to the lack
:6f~provision for free education in the city (CMPO 1966: 31).

.i§F$°B families who must depend on free municipal schools

 

 

  

 

22

thus have less opportunity to educate their children than
rural families.

"About one-quarter of the total population of Calcutta
City and one-third of the population of Howrah Municipality
. . . live in bustees" (CMPO 1966s 91). Among the bustees
in Calcutta, Panchanantala is said to be in relatively good
condition because it is relatively new, because it is out
of the central city and near a pond where bathing and laun-
dry are possible, if unhygenic, and because there is a pan-
chayat which takes an active interest in improving the
bustee. Certainly there are other bustees which are more
congested and more deteriorated than Panchanantala. There
are also bustees and colonies inhabited by sweepers and
other very low ranked castes whose social status, if not
always economic status, is much lower than that of the res-
idents in Panchanantala. In addition, there were estimated
to be at least 30,000 homeless pavement dwellers in Calcut-
ta in 1966 (CMPO 1966: 27). So while Panchanantala and
part of the interior of Mallik Para are bustees, their res-
idents do not represent the bottom-most stratum of Cal-
cutta's population, and if they are said to belong to a
lower class it is with the.understanding that they share
the position with more than a quarter of the population of
the Calcutta Metropolitan District.

At the other end of the socio-economic hierarchy, Badur
Bagan is certainly not.an upper class neighborhood, nor in

c any way typical of the upper-most stratum of Calcutta society.
L

 

 

 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
   

23

Badur Bagan is not characterized.by the multistoried man-
sions with large grounds found in some parts of Alipur and
New Alipur. As a neighborhood it is older and more congest-
ed than many of the middle class sections of South Calcutta,
such as the Lakes Area surveyed by Sarma (1964). With a
median reported household income of Rs. 600 and few person-
al incomes above Rs. 3000 per month, Badur Bagan falls some-
where in the middle strata, eSpecially in comparison to
Western salaries. And a comparison with Western salaries
is not out of place in an urban metropolis like Calcutta
where many foreigners regularly reside. Within the profes—
sional and managerial upper-middle strata of Calcutta there
is a Western-oriented, mainly English speaking status group
many of whose members are employed in third culture occu-
pations (see Useem and Useem 1955). However, relatively
few of the residents of Badur Bagan have been abroad, al-
though many of them have relatives who have studied or
worked abroad. Similarly, in Badur Bagan Bengali is the
ordinary language of conversation, though it is heavily
interspersed with English and though many of the men and
some women Speak English fluently as a.second language (and
definitely better than I speak Bengali). But, if Badur
Bagan and Panchanantala are not.representative of either

end of the socio-economic continuum in Calcutta, and if, as

stated earlier, there is some overlap between neighborhoods

‘0'.‘a‘

,. .13 the income, education, occupational types, housing condi-

 

 

\-
II

.c\

u

  

 

  

24
nevertheless a considerable disparity between the average

levels of these indicators of socio-economic status between

Panchanantala and Mallik Para and between it and Badur Bagan.

Perceived Socio-Economic Stratification

To gain an understanding of the relative position of
the three neighborhoods studied in the pattern of socio-
economic stratification, it is also helpful to know how the
residents place themselves. For that reason each household
head was asked to which socio-economic class he would say
most people in his neighborhood belonged. The distribution
of responses is shown in Table 1.3. The residents of Badur
Bagan typically reSponded in terms of class: madhyabitto
("middle class") or gggg madhyabitto ("upper-middle class").
Most household heads in Mallik Para also replied that the
people were madh abitto, but some replied simply that they
were majna mifhi ("in the middle") or thEmuti ("so—so").
Quite a few said the population was mixed with some middle
class and some "working class" (éramik sreni) residents.
A number of respondents used the English words"middle class"
or'labor class? One man, noting the tendency for status
inconsistency with matriculated clerks from Mallik Para
earning less than factory workers in other neighborhoods,
replied that people in Mallik Para are generally gagib 51233
s’iksito or "poor but educated."

In Panchanantala the.most frequent response was simply

 

25
TABLE 1.3
SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS OF NEIGHBORHOOD,

REPORTED BY HOUSEHOLD HEADS

 

 

 

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
N % N % N %

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upper class -- -- 2 3%
Upper-middle class -- l 1% 23 36%
Middle classa 8 7% 44 66% 35 55%
Lower-middle classb 33 28% 18 27% 3 5%
Lower classc lg 65% _3 _§% :: ___

Totals ' 117 100% 67 100% 64 99%

aIn addition to madh abitto or "middle class," this
category includes mE'ha ma hl or "middling," thEmuti or

"so-so," and sadharon or "ordinary."

bIn addition to nimno madh abitto or "lower-middle
glass" this_category includes the following responses:
sramik sreni or "working class";"mixed middle and working
classesr'and"some middle, some garib"or "poor."

the most common response in this category is garib
9r " or." Other responses include nimno-bitto or n1mno
sreni meaning "lower class" or "low born" and the expres-
sion din fine, din khai meaning "what one brings [earns],
he eats."

 

When used alone, the terms bhalo ("good"), bhilo noi
("not good"), and kharap (”bad") were not classified, be-
cause they were used by other respondents in conjunction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

26
response was to classify them as sramik sreni or working
class. Another frequent reSponse which adequately desa
cribes the circumstances of many people in Panchanantala
was din fine; din khii which means, literally, "what one
brings [or earns], he eats," or colloquially, "from hand
to mouth;” In Table 1.3 I have classified"working class“
with"1ower-middle class"and“poor"with“lower class; al-
though I think it is debatable whether they have differ-
ent referents. In their ordinary thinking, most people
appear to distinguish among the "aristocracy" or abhijfit-
barge (to which none of the respondents claimed member-
ship), the "middle class" or madh abitto, and the "work-

ing class" or sramik sreni. People do, of course, make

 

finer distinctions when comparing the status of one per-
son with another, usually on the basis of one or more of
the Specific component attributes of socio-economic
status.

In the household interview another question was asked
(prior to the one on social class) which avoided the prob-
lems of semantics by simply asking the reSpondent to in-
dicate his position on a diagram of a ladder which had
seven steps with the highest step representing the posi-

. tion of'a man whose abosthfi or "circumstances" are very
good and the bottom step representing the position of a
man whose circumstances are very bad. Each respondent was

asked his present position, his position five years ago,

 

  
    
 

.Iyfi what his position would be five years in the future.

.‘ I
"1"“
.

 

 

. "3,:_~§1e step of the seven step ladder. (In Mallik Para the
~ to“ .. 1. 3 '

 

 

27

TABLE 1.4
PRESENT POSITION ON LADDER OF ECONOMIC STATUS,

REPORTED BY HOUSEHOLD HEAD

 

 

Position on

 

Ladder Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Circumstances
very good
7 -- -_ -_
6 l 1% l 1% 7 11%
5 2 1% 9 12% 6 9%
4 ll 8% 24 32% 38 58%
3 l3 9% 17 23% 11 17%
2 38 28% 18 24% --
l 72 53% 5 7% 3 5%
circumstances — -— — -—— — ——
very bad
Totals 137 100% 74 99% 65 100%
\_

 

The distribution of the respondents" reported circumstances
at present are shown in Table 1.4 above. The range and var-
iation of reported individual circumstances, shown in Table
1.4, is remarkably similar to the distribution of responses
deScribing the social class of most neighborhood residents,
shown in Table 1.3. In both Badur Bagan and Mallik Para
“Oat household heads describe the neighborhood residents

as "middle class" and place themselves on the fourth or mid-

  

 

 

  

28

of the majority.) Of those who don’t describe the neighbor—
hood residents as middle class, the majority in Badur Bagan
assign them to the upper-middle class, while the majority
in Mallik Para assign them to the lower-middle class. Sim—
ilarly, of those who don't place themSelves on the fourth
step, a much larger proportion of household heads in Mal-
lik Para than in Badur Bagan place themselves below the
middle step. The major difference in perceived status is
between Panchanantala and the two middle class neighborhoods.
The majority of household heads in Panchanantala describe
the neighborhood residents as poor and assign themselves to

the first or bottom step of the ladder.

Perceived Vertical Mobility

A comparison of past, present,and future positions on
the status ladder yields a measure of perceived vertical
mobility, as shown in Table 1.5. The majority of house-
hold heads in Panchanantala report that their circumstan-
ces now are worse than they were five years ago, while only
twelve per cent report that their circumstances have im-
proved. In Badur Bagan and.Ma11ik Para the proportions of
respondents who report that their circumstances are better,
the same, or worse are more nearly equal so.that although
almost two thirds of the respondents report.some_change up
or down, there is not an overall pattern of upward or down-
ward mobility in these two neighborhoods. In Panchanan-

tala the high proportion of responses indicating worsening

'_§.

1
I a.
'\ .‘ .
4 -.
' .

  

 

 

29
TABLE 1.5
PERCEIVED VERTICAL MOBILITY IN TERMS OF PAST,

PRESENT, AND FUTURE POSITIONS ON A STATUS LADDER

 

 

Circumstances Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
(abostha) Present Future Present Future Present Future
shown by compared compared compared compared compared compared

position on to past to present to past to present to past to present
ladder N % N % N % N % N % N %

 

Better (up) 17 12% 54 40% 26 35% 44 60% 16 25% 34 54%
Same 47 34% 26 19% 24 34% 15 21% 26 41% 10 16%
Worse(down)74 54% 6 4% 23 32% 11 15% 21 33% 3 5%
Don't know -- 51 37% -- 3 4% -- 16 25%

Totals 138 100% 138 100% 73 101% 73 100% 63 99% 63 100%

 

conditions appears to reflect primarily the large number of
residents who had recently been forced to leave their village
homes to come to Calcutta because of the drought and food
shortages in West Bengal in 1967, and secondarily the acute
unemployment situation in Calcutta with recurrent strikes
that left many daily wage earners dependent on their wives'
earnings for long intervals. In spite of recent deteriora-
tion, however, most of the respondents who were willing to
make a prediction were optimistic that conditions would im-

prove in the future.

   

n
opal

 

-
ul-

'7
9
Old

I».

C..

.01

‘1‘

 

3O

Geographical Mobility

 

The gradual movement of Bengali Brahmins and Kayasthas
from an early participation with the_British in commerce in
the eighteenth century to widespread investment in zamindari
land is described by Bose (1967: 320) and Calkins (1971).
The Permanent Settlement of 1793 and the Sunset Law com-
pelled many zamindars to mortgage their land to the newly
prosperous classes of the city who generally became absentee
landlords. The upper castes ". . .also recognized the need
of Western education; and their familiarity with the English
language made ready berths available for them in mercantile
houses as well as in administrative services" (Bose 1968:
31). Several factors, including the.loss of property in
East Bengal after Partition, the statutory abolition of zam-
indari in West Bengal, and the progressive reduction of in-

come from rural property through the fragmentation of hold-

 

ings,haveled the descendents of nineteenth century Brahmin
and Kayastha zamindars to place a greater reliance on income
from the professions, especially law, medicine, engineering,
education,and accounting (Bose 1968: 31).

The homes in Badur Bagan were, for the most part, built
by Bengali-landlords who controlled revenue-producing land

outside Calcutta, but who also had urban jobs. At least

 

five zamindari families, including nine of the eighty-five

 
 
 
  

households interviewed, still bring substantial income from
inherited land-holdings in the country. All of these fam-

. ilies own houses in Badur Bagan as well as village property.

our
. ,
y a,
1“ I
‘1

31

 

One family employs a rent collector (g6mast3) to supervise
its village estate; the other families have at least one
family member (father, brother, or son) overseeing their
land in the village. These zamindari families are not from
any one area, but have land in Howrah, Hooghly, the 24
Parganas,and Midnapore districts. Thus, about ten per cent
of the households in Badur Bagan--and they are among the
' wealthier households—_still depend, in part, on revenue
from rural property and have an active tie to a village.
The typical family in Badur Bagan still claims a share
in family land somewhere in Bengal, but no longer derives
any economic benefit from rural property. As shown in
Table 1.6, about one-fifth of the present household heads
in Badur Bagan were born in areas of West Bengal outside
Calcutta, and another one-fifth were born in East Bengal,

many of them in villages where their families were land

    
   
  
  
   
 
     

 

owners. Most of them came to Calcutta for education and
remained on in government or professional positions.

Among the neighborhoods.studied, only in Badur Bagan
were as many as half of the present household heads born
in the cities of Calcutta or Howrah. In Panchanantala
fully ninety per cent of the household heads were born out-
side Calcutta, and most of them.have come to Calcutta from
villages within the last ten years. The main sources of
immigrants into Panchanantala are villages near Laksmikan-
tapur, Canning, Diamond Harbor,and other stops on the South

{Eastern Railway. Panchanantala stands on the railway right

 

I
a".
0.3!

 

 

q
.u.

9'?

32
TABLE 1.6

BIRTHPLACE OF HOUSEHOLD HEAD

 

 

Birthplace Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
N % N % N %

 

Calcutta or

Howrah City 15 10% 33 40% 38 51%
Howrah District 5 3% 29 35% 5 7%
24 Parganas 87 59% 2 2% 2 «3%
West Bengal,

other districts 7 5% 13 16% 10 13%
East Bengal 26 18% 4 5% 16 21%
Other states in

India .2 .316 __1 .11 .3 _52

Totals 147 100% 82 99% 75 100%

 

of way north of Dhakuria station and so is ideally situated
to absorb incoming families as they arrive.

In Mallik Para, also, the main sources of immigrants
have been rural areas reached by the rail lines which radi-
ate out from Howrah. Most of the immigrants to Mallik Para
have come from villages on the Amta line or the Champadanga
branch of the narrow gauge railway which fed into its own
small station in Howrah. Other immigrants arrive on the
regular railway lines which run north and south out of How-
rah Station.

The effect of the transportation network in determ1n~

ing residence is also evident in the placement of the East

n.-
1
.lo‘

'-
I"
~

 

II:

 

33
Bengali population. Coming into Calcutta from the north
and east, most of them settled in Calcutta with relatively
few making their homes in Howrah. In both Badur Bagan and
Panchanantala the proportion of household heads who were
born in East Bengal is about the same as the eighteen per
cent of Calcutta's total population whose birth place was
in East Bengal. Many of the East Bengali residents of Badur
Bagan had homes in Calcutta or had studied there before
Independence, but in Panchanantala most of the East Bengali
residents came as refugees in 1947 or during one of the
later disturbances.

Whereas the migration patterns into Calcutta and How—
rah follow the rail lines, the emigration back out to the
suburbs follows the bus lines. This pattern is most ob-
vious in Mallik Para where several families have bought
land and eventually moved out to Ramrajatala which is the
last regular bus stOp on the line which goes west past Mal-
lik Para. In Badur Bagan expanding families generally pre-
fer to look for housing in South Calcutta. but some move
to Dum Dum or other northern suburbs° Even in Panchanantala
families tend to move south to Dhakuria and the south east-
ern fringe of the Calcutta Metropolitan District where at

least one or two families have bought land°

Data Gathering
In Mallik Para an initial period of about four months

was spent observing neighborhood activities and conversing

.,;

.m-

 

.
.A

'I-

‘i

34
informally with the neighborhood residents. After the
first few weeks during which I struggled with my own in-
adequate Bengali. I was able to hire a research assistant.
Sabita Bhattacherjee. who had just completed her M.A. in
social geography. We worked together meeting. talking
with,and later formally interviewing the residents of Mal~
lik Para and then Badur Bagan and Panchanantala.7 My un—
derstanding was increased by her translation into English.
or more typically into simplified Bengali or a mixture of
Bengali and English. The two major survey schedules. the
household survey and the adolescent survey. were prepared
during these first few months of casual contacts. on the
basis of activities and interests reported by the residents
of Mallik Para. Most of the formal interviews were con-
ducted and recorded in Bengali by Sabita and by the two
male research assistants who were hired for periods later
in the study. I was present at most of the interviews.
especially of the girls. and often asked the reSpondents
to explain their answers further or to amplify particular
points. I did conduct a few interviews alone. but my slow—
ness in recording the answers in transliterated Bengali
and my lack of comprehension of the finer distinctions be-
ing made by the respondents made me reluctant to do so

more often than necessary.

up.
.

.ul

-4

 

35
Household Survey

The heads of the households in the'three neighborhoods
were interviewed to obtain basic information including
household composition and the age. sex. caste. education.
occupation. and marital status of the household head. his
parents and siblings. his wife (or husband) and children,
and their spouses and children. if any. as well as of any
other members of the household. Questions on birthplace
and subsequent residences. on household facilities. on soc-
ial status,and on household income were also asked. The
final section of the household survey consisting of ques—
tions on educational. occupational. and marital aSpirations
was presented to the heads of households including youth
between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. A copy of
the revised household schedule is included as Appendix A.
The original schedule used only in Mallik Para included a
variety of questions about caste relations which are not
directly relevant to status allocation and which were elim-
inated in the revised survey to reduce the amount of time
required from each household.

Within the somewhat arbitrarily designated boundaries
of the three neighborhoods I attempted to interview the
head,of each household. In Mallik Para the heads. or in
a few cases another member. of all but six households were
interviewed. The heads of four of these households refused
to be interviewed after a misunderstanding resulting from

a discussion of the caste membership of the households. The

36

other two were widows living alone who were too old and
ill to be interviewed. The composition of these house-

holds is known and included in the tabulation. However.

most of the other data were not available. Because of the
extended period of research in Mallik Para, I am quite cer--

tain that no households inside the designated boundaries

of the neighborhood were overlooked. In Badur Bagan and

Panchanantala where the research period was much briefer

and where there was no preliminary period of observation.
I am equally sure that I missed some households. probably
from five to ten per cent of the total. because they were

not known to us. The households which were hardest to

find were those in which the tenants rent only one or two

JTooms in a larger house and those in which most or all of

the members are gone all day.

Adolescent Survey

The youth in each of the three neighborhoods were in-
terviewed individually on various aSpects of their educa-
t‘ion. occupational goals. previous work eXperienc—e. friend-
ship. membership in voluntary associations. family relation-

ships. relationships with friends of the other sex. and

emipectations regardingmarriage. The revised adolescent

SQhedules in English and Bengali are included as Appendices

El and 82 respectively. A few of the questions asked in

Mallik Para were eliminated when additional forms were pre-

pared for Badur Bagan and Panchanantala. generally because

37
TABLE 1 . 7

PROPORTION OF YOUTH INTERVIEWED

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Females Males Females Males Females Males

 

All youth ages 13-
25 reported in

household survey 54 87 85 64 84 60
Single youth ages
1.3-25 22 7O 54 62 73 60
Number of single
youth interviewed 15 37 49 46 64 40
Number of married
youth interviewed 12 3 -- -— —- —-
TOtal interviews 27 4o 49 46 64 4o

 

 

al'lswers to them were not readily forthcoming from the youth
in Mallik Para or because the information obtained did not
appear to be relevant to status allocation.

My goal was to interview all the single youth between
the ages of thirteen and twenty—five in each of the three
neighborhoods. This age range was selected to extend from
a15>E>J:'oscimately the age of puberty to the age at which youth
enter occupations and marry. bfevertheless. on the one hand.
virtually all of the young men in Mallik Para and Badur
Bagan remain single up to age twenty-five and more than
half of the men between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-

nihe also remain single. while on the other hand. the age

38
at marriage of girls in Panchanantala is low enough (median
sixteen) to limit the number of single girls available to

be interviewed. Thus. in Panchanantala twelve married girls

were also interviewed to increase the number of females

about whom generalizations are made.

Even with the interviews of these married girls. the
number of girls interviewed in Panchanantala is smaller than

the number of either boys or girls interviewed in either of

the other neighborhoods. A major factor is the difference

in the sex ratios in the age range studied in these neigh-v

borhoods. As shown in Table 1.6, in Panchanantala there are

fewer girls than boys in the age range studied. whereas in

the other two neighborhoods there were more girls than boys

reported in the household survey. In the total population

0f the three neighborhoods the ratio of women to men is
less in Panchanantala than in Mallik Para or Badur Bagan.
as was shown above in Table 1.1. primarily because of the

Somewhat larger number of men residing in Panchanantala whose

Wives and children remain in villages. Only in Panchanantala

is the number of boys studying or working and living away
from home (usually outside Calcutta) matched by the number
of young men coming into Calcutta for work or education. How...
eVer. even adding in the absent unmarried sons and daughters
wtlose fathers live in each of the three neighborhoods and ’
Subtracting the unmarried youth whose fathers reside else-1

wt‘tere doesn't create a substantially more balanced sex ratio.

39
Another reason for the unequal numbers of boys and

girls interviewed in each neighborhood is in the preportion

of the total number who were interviewed. In each neighbor-

hood a larger proportion of girls than of boys was inter-

viewed. In Badur Bagan and Mallik Para many of the older

boys and in Panchanantala many girls and boys throughout
this age range are away at work during most of the day. dur-
ing the hours when we were ordinarily in the neighborhood.

thus making it difficult to schedule interviews with them.

The lower proportion. of interviews with male youth also

reflects the difficulty of a female researcher working with

a female research assistant. The two male assistants in-

terviewed most of the boys and because. they worked with me

for a shorter time, we never developed the same thoroughness

in interviews with boys which we had with girls. For a
Variety of reasons. then. I did not achieve my goal of in—

terviewing all the single youth in the designated age range

in each neighborhood. The responses of those who were in~

1tierviewed are presented in the following chapters.

CHAPTER 2
EDUCATION

Literacy and Primary Education
Universal primary education is a goal Specified in the

Federal Constitution of India (1949: 20) and reaffirmed in

each Five-Year Plan (Laska 1968: 58-85). India is progres—

sing toward this goal. but by 1961 only one state had a
primary level enrollment ratio of 100% in the terminal grade.
In Kerala virtually all children complete the four years of

Primary education considered necessary to establish perman-

ent literacy. In West Bengal 399,400 children were enrolled

in Class IV in 1961. a number equal to 47.5% of all those

ten years old in that year. For boys only the correspond-

ing figure is 55.9% and for girls 38.8% (Laska 1968s 50).
This is higher than the primary level enrollment ratio for

India as a whole. but lower than for Kerala. Maharasntra.

I‘4aciras. Gujarat, and Mysore. The literacy rates irrespective

of age are higher for Calcutta than for other districts in
West Bengal (Census of India. Paper No. 1 of 19623 368). but
although the coverage for primary education was expected to
reach eighty per cent in the rural areas of West Bengal. it
was only expected to reach seventy-one per cent of the chi l-
d1:“en between six and ten years in the CalcuttaMetropolitan '
District by the end of 1966 (CMPO 1966: 30).

The percentages of adolescents in Panchanantala. Mal-

lik Para, and Badur Bagan who remained in school through

40

41
Class IV are shown in Table 2.1. Badur Bagan and Mallik

Para have high primary level completion ratios. while Pan-
chanantala has a ratio much lower than that for the state
as a whole. The proportion of children completing a pri-
mary education is directly related to the socio-economic
circumstances of the neighborhood. In each neighborhood.
as in all the states of India. more boys than girls remain

in school through Class IV.

TABLE 2.1

PROPORTION OF YOUTH WHO COMPLETED CLASS IV

‘1
¥

 

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagana
___ F M F M F M
Percentage who com- b
Illeted Class IV 13% 39% 88% 95% 98% 100%
Persons age 13-25 53 87 83 62 84 59

aNot including resident servants of this age.

bWhen the household head could not specify the extent
c31f a family member's education. it was sometimes necessary
t4) use the designation "literate." In cases where an ado-
143scent later provided information on his school attendance.
u10st of those classified as literate had less than four years
c’If schooling. Fourteen boys in Panchanantala are categorized
as literate and are not included in thepercentagerwho com-
EXleted Class IV. Thus. the proportion of males in Panchan-
al'ntala who actually completed a" primary education may be
EBlightly higher than the percentage shown. No other cole
‘JHMn has more than three persons categorized as literate. On ‘
the other hand. a few persons who reported remaining in school
through Class IV may have dropped out before the end of the
Year or before taking the Scholarship Examination. given to
at.11 students at the end of Class IV.

\

42

The proportion of children who complete the primary

level of education is closely related to the number who

enter school. In Badur Bagan all and in Mallik Para all

but three persons between the ages of thirteen and twenty-

five have been to school. In Panchanantala. however. three-

quarters of the girls and one-quarter of the boys between
the ages of thirteen and twenty-five never went to school.
When children in Panchanantala do not go to school.

it is usually because their parents need their labor and
cannot afford their schooling. In the bustee a girl's labor

is often needed by the time she reaches school age. Many

Women in Panchanantala work as domestic servants in mid-
dle class homes in South Calcutta. A girl is eXpected to

Care for her younger siblings while her mother works. If
She has no younger siblings or if another sister looks af-

ter them. a girl often accompanies her mother to the houses

where she works. What she learns while helping her mother

makes it possible for her to work alone in other homes by

tLl'le time she is twelve or thirteen. Boys. too. are some-

times sent out as domestic servants. often living and work-

ing full-time in a single household. Even by the age of

eight a boy may begin hawking firewood. .vegetables. or other

900:18 or may work with his father if the family°s financial

cquumstances make it necessary.

43
Educational Facilities
Children from Panchanantala attend several primary
schools. There is a one room school within the bustee run

by the Panchanantala Pally Panchayet. Many of the adoles-

cents who have gone to school started at the Panchanantala
School. However. at the time of the study. the panchayat
had been able to hire a teacher for only one hour each

morning. The Corporation School on Cornfield Road. about

a mile from the bustee. serves most of the boys who con-

tinue beyond the early primary classes. This corpora-

tion school is one of the 254 operated by the municipal

government of Calcutta. (Separate sessions in the same

building are counted as separate schools in this enumer-

ation.) At the school on Cornfield Road a morning session.

from 6230 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. is held for boys and a day
Session is scheduled for girls from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
‘iith.classes at the primary and intermediate levels. Neithm
Gar the Corporation School nor the Panchanantala School
cDharge fees. When scholarships can be obtained. or if
parents can afford it. children go to other schools in the
‘ficinity. Some of the adolescents in Panchanantala have
gone to village schools before coming to Calcutta.

No single primary or secondary school serves a major-
iuty of the students in any of the neighborhoods studied.

Adolescents who grew up in Mallik Para went to over thirty

schools. The typical student changed schools once or

twice before completing high school. though a few students

44

remained in one school from Class I through Class XI. It
is not uncommon for a child to be tutored in his home at
the primary level. entering school in Class II or III or
even later. Primary schools. such as the Puratan Sayer
Primary School and the Kalitala School take many children
from Mallik Para in their first few years. However. by
the end of Class IV. and often sooner. most boys and girls
transfer to high schools. which include primary as well

as secondary classes. Most high schools attended by stu-

tdents from Mallik Para and Badur Bagan are operated on a
rush-profit basis. many of them by religious organizations.
Most girls in Mallik Para went to the Mahakali Girls°
School. the Kasundia Christian School. the Sri Durga
(iirls° School. or the Deshbandhu Girls° School. Most
Ixoys attended the Vivekananda Institution. the Ramkrishna
School. the Harendra School. or the Deshbandhu School.
Several of these schools and the other schools attended by
Eitudents from Mallik Para. especially the girls' schools.
Still have the curriculum leading to the school final EX:
amination. whereas most of the schools near Badur Bagan
l“ave adOpted the higher secondary program. Howrah Girls°
Ckbllege enrolls most of the local girls who continue their

SChooling beyond the school final or higher secondary ex-

al'ninations. Several technical institutes and colleges in
bOth Howrah and Calcutta enroll boys from Mallik Para for

50b training and formal education beyond the secondary

level.

45

The number of schools attended by youth in Badur Bagan
exceeds that in Mallik Para. with the youth interviewed in
Badur Bagan reporting attendance at over forty schools.
Quite a few children attended the Jitendra Narayan Kinder-
garten School and the Sisu Siksha Shavan at the nursery and
primary levels. Fourteen girls. but no boys. received their
elementary education at a Corporation School. (Girls from
families with many children more often went to the Corporu
ation School.) The school to which the largest number of
girls from Badur Bagan were sent is the Mahakali Pathsala
"founded by the Marathi Sannyasini. Mataji Tapaswini.. . .
where Bengali girls were to be educated in the best San-
skritic traditions of India" (Bose 1968: 45). Other high
schools drawing girls from Badur Bagan include the Brahmo
Girls° School. the Central Calcutta Girls' Academy. and the
Sri Vidya Mandir. Boys in Badur Bagan attended the Brahmo
Boys' School. the Calcutta Academy. the Rani Bhabani. and
St. Paul's School. From Badur Bagan about half of the
college students. including two-thirds of the female stu-
dents. go to City College. Vidyasagar College. which like
City College is very near Badur Bagan. also attracts many
students. with twelve additional colleges throughout Cal~
cutta enrolling the remaining students.

From the pre-primary or kindergarten classes. children
are assigned homework which includes readying. capying. and
figuring simple sums. Typically some older person assists

the child with his homework each day. In many middle class

46

families it is the mother or an older sibling who super-
vises a child's homework. In other families a tutor is
hired to perform this function. The proportion of stu-
dents who are tutored regularly increases up to the higher
secondary examination and decreases somewhat after that.

The coaching class, where a small group of students is
tutored together. is an alternative form of extra-curricular
instruction. particularly pOpular at the secondary and col-
lege levels. As Bose (1968: 47) indicates, coaching clas-
ses are often attended by students who have failed an ex-
amination and want to appear again as private candidates.

A tutor-receives from five to fifty rupees per month depend—
ing on the number of children in the household. the time
Spent. the difficulty of the subjects tutored. and his

own qualifications. Ten rupees is a typical fee for a high
school girl who tutors one or two primary level students an
hour each day.

The need for tutoring at the primary level is greatest
in families where the parents are less educated and less
familiar with the demands of the school. Even in Panchan-
antala those parents who can somehow manage the expense.
hire a tutor for their children.. In Mallik Para about
half of the students had tutors at the time of the studyg
others had been tutored previously. This is higher than
the proportion of students receiving tutoring in either of

the other neighborhoods.

47

 

Duration of Formal Education

In Panchanantala the effect of the demand for their
labor and of the small. but significant. cost of education
is that most girls never go to school, and though most boys
enter school. the majority drop out before completing the
primary level. While all but one of the girls and two-thirds
of the boys interviewed in Panchanantala had drOpped out of
school before age thirteen, the majority of boys and girls
in Mallik Para have remained students through their teens.
In Badur Bagan it is only after the age of twenty-one that
more than half of either the boys or girls have completed
their formal education, as shown in Table 2.2.

Not only do boys and girls from lower income neighbor-
hoods drop out of school sooner; even those who remain in
school are generally reading in a lower class. The median
class in which students between the ages of thirteen and
fifteen are enrolled is Class IX in Badur Bagan.Class VII
in Mallik Para. and Class V in Panchanantala. Thus. it
takes longer for a child from a lower or lower-middle class
neighborhood than for a child from an upper-middle class
neighborhood to obtain an equivalent education. In Panchan-
antala almost all of the students had stayed out of school
for a year or more. or had repeated at least one class.

Even in Mallik Para more than half of the boys and girls '
had repeated at least one class. In most instances the stu-
dent failed the annual examination. In some cases personal

or family illness resulted in high absenteeism. often

48

 

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smmmmuspmm mummlmmHHmz MHmucmsmnwmmm

 

mBQOOO mwd Mm mfizmQDBm m0 mwdfizflommm

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49
including absence from the final exam. Inability to pay
the school fees was another cause for delayed advancement.
A student might also be put back a year after transferring
to another school which did not accept his previous school's
standards.

The highest level of education attained by boys in
Panchanantala. Mallik Para,and Badur Bagan is shown in
Table 2.3. There is a clear disparity among the neighbor-
hoods in the level of education attained. In Panchanantala
the median level of education attained by boys is primary:
in Mallik Para it is secondary: and in Badur Bagan it is
college. With more than half of the boys in both Mallik
Para and Badur Bagan still studying, the disparity will cer—
tainly increase as these boys also complete their school-
ing. In the upper-middle class neighborhood. Badur Bagan.
the percentage of boys who have entered college is higher
than the percentage of boys in the same age cohort in Pan-
chanantala who have remained in school beyond the primary
level.

The educational achievement of girls is shown in Table
2.3. The disparity among the three neighborhoods parallels
that shown for boys. The median level of education attained
ranges from no schooling for girls in Panchanantala. to the
middle classes for girls in.Mallik Para, to the secondary
level for girls.ianad r Bagan., As the girls.ianallik Para
and Badur Bagan complete their schooling,the average level

of achievement for females in these two neighborhoods can

50

TABLE 2.3

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUTH

 

 

 

 

 

 

Males
Highest level Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
attained NS 8 2 % NS S g % NS 5 2 %
No schooling 24 -- 24 28% l -- l 1% 0 -- O 0%
Primary 32 4 36 41% 2 2 4 6% O O 0 0%
Middle 13 5 18 2r% 7 13 20 32% 3 4 7 12%
Secondary 5 2 7 8% 13 10 23 37% 6 15 21 36%
College _l _l _g 2% _5 _2 $3 23% _8 g; 31 53%
Totals 75 12 87 100% 28 34 62 99% 17 42 59101%
Females
Highest level Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
attained NS S :2 % NS S 2 % NS S 2_ %
No schooling 40 -- 4O 75% 2 -- 2 2% O -- O 0%
Primary 9 O 9 17% 14 2 16 19% 3 O 3 4%
Middle 2 l 3 6% 21 16 37 45% 2 5 7 8%
Secondary l 0 l 2%» 10 14 24 29% 8 36 44 52%
College .9 __0. __9 ___0% __1. .2 .2 5% .23. .22 §9 __36%
Totals 52 l 53 100% 48 35 83 100% 21 63 84 100%
NS = Non-students
S = Student _
5.: Sum of students and non-students
---------- Underlines median level.
Primary = Classes I-IV and persons classified as “literate"
Middle = Classes V-VIII
Secondary = Classes IX4XI and Pre-university
College = All baccalaureate and higher degree programs and

technical training for which a higher secondary
diploma is required.

 

51

be expected to increase somewhat. Already a higher per-
centage of girls from Badur Bagan have gone to college than
the percentage in Panchanantala who have learned to read.

In comparing the educational achievement of males
and females a consistent disparity is evident. In each
neighborhood the median educational level attained by males
is one level higher than that attained by females. Thus.
in Panchanantala while most girls have never gone to school.
the typical boy has a primary level education. In Mallik
Para while the typical girl has not progressed beyond the
middle classes. most boys have some secondary level educa-
tion. In Badur Bagan the typical adolescent girl is finish-

ing secondary school. though the typical boy is in college.

Educational Curricula

The education of girls and boys differs in the curricula
pursued as‘well as in the amount of schooling. Eighty-two per
cent of the female college.students take a program leading
to a Bachelor or Master of Arts degree. while only thirty-
one per cent of the male students take arts. In Badur Bagan
there are more boys than girls in the science and commerce
curricula. In Mallik Para most.male college students study
commerce or engineering. Altogether a considerably higher
proportion of male than female college students Specialize

in scientific. commercial,and technical subjects.

52
TABLE 2.4

CURRICULA STUDIED BY FEMALE AND MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS

 

 

 

 

Female Male

Curriculum If % N %
Arts 28. 82% 15 31%
Science 5 15% 12 24%
Commerce 1 3% ll 22%
Engineering 8 16%
Law 2 4%
Medicine ;; ‘___ _l _3%

Totals 34 100% 49al 99%

aThis is more than the number of male college students
because three boys are pursuing degrees in two fields. Mul-
tiple degrees in the same line (i.e.. B.A. and M.A.) are
counted only once.

 

Intergenerational Changes in Education

At least in the three neighborhoods studied. the dis-
parity in the amount of schooling received by persons from
neighborhoods of differing socio-economic class is not recent.
but has persisted at least from the parental generation. The
highest level of schooling attained by the fathers of the
boys in Panchanantala. Mallik Para. and Badur Bagan are shown
in Table 2.5. In each neighborhood.the median level recorded
for boys between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five (Table
2.3) is the same as that of their fathers. a remarkable sim-
ilarity over a period of about thirty years. To be sure.

in Panchanantala and Mallik Para a higher percentage of boys

 

(In

53

TABLE 2.5

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT OF PARENT OF THE SAME SEX

 

 

Fathers of boys

 

Panchanantala

t“

 

Highest level Mallik Para Badur Bagan
attaineda N % N ' % N %
No schooling 20 36% l 2% O 0%
Primary 25 _43% 8 20% 0 0%
Middle -;-_--13% 8 20% 3 &%
Secondary 3 3% 16 39% 12 32%
College _Q 0% :§---_é§% 23 60%
Totals 55 99% 41 101% 3;---IOO%

Mothers of girls

 

 

Highest level Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
attained N % N ‘% N %
No schooling 15 71% 6 18% 1 3%
Primary -g—-—-2;% 17 50% 15 44%
Middle 0 0% 15----§§§ 7 21%
Secondarya 0 0% 1 3% -;----26%
College .2. .923 .2 _025 __2_ .331:
Totals 21b 100% 34 100% 34 100%

aThe levels of education are defined as in Table 2.3
except that Secondary includes only Classes IX and X.
The Intermediate Arts and Intermediate Science courses
are included in the college level.

b

The number of mothers whose educational achievement is

recorded is relatively small because information was
not collected on the mothers of married women. unless
The existence of sib-
lings of the same sex also decreases number of parents.

they reside in the neighborhood.

 

54
than fathers have more than the median level of education.
Moreover. boys in each neighborhood are still enrolled in
schools. colleges,and universities. In Badur Bagan over two-
thirds of the boys have not completed their schooling. Thus.
the younger generation of males will eventually be more ed—
ucated than their fathers. Nevertheless, in the typical
family there is no sharp discontinuity between the educa-
tion of a father and his sons. but rather an average increase
of a few years with. perhaps. one or two sons having less ed-
ucation than their father and the other sons having more
education.

Middle class girls stay in school longer than their
mothers did. In Mallik Para girls have stayed in school
twice as long. on the average. as their mothers did. While
their mothers typically left school after Class IV. girls
between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five have completed
a median of eight years of schooling and almost half of the
girls are still in school. In Badur Bagan thirty girls be-
tween the ages of thirteen and twenty—five have passed the
pre-university or higher secondary examinations and are in
college. Only two of their mothers were reported to have
attended college. In Badur Bagan the gap between the num-
ber Of years of schooling received by men and by women has
narrowed in the present generation. In the.parental gener-
ation. the typical man in Badur Bagan had been to college;
his wife left school after Class IV or Class VI. In the

present generation the typical girl completes a secondary

55
education and may. as the majority of boys do. go on to
college. In Badur Bagan as high a proportion of girls as
of boys in the age cohort studied are still in school or
college.

In contrast. the data do not show any increase in the
education of women in Panchanantala. The proportion of
girls who are illiterate is as high as the proportion of
their mothers who are reported to be illiterate. Where the
illiteracy rate is highest. there has been the least inter-
generational change in education. In Panchanantala the
labor of girls is needed in more families and at earlier
ages than that of boys. Parents in Panchanantala can see
the potential economic advantage of educating a boy. but
if girls are educated. it is usually so that they can be
married into a family where they will not have to work.

The intergenerational changes in education in Panchan-
antala. Mallik Para,and Badur Bagan are consistent. for the
most part. with Laska's finding of a more rapid increase in
secondary level enrollment than in primary level enrollment.
In West Bengal between 1957 and 1961 primary level enroll»
ment increased by 16.3%. while enrollment in the middle
ClaSDdS increased by 28.8%.and in the secondary level by
26.8%. Even university enrollment increased by 18.4% (Laska
1969: 101-04). "In the absence of effective procedures for
restricting access to the higher levels of the school system.
there has been an increasing tendency for those students wno

apparently complete the primary level to undergo schooling

56
at the higher levels of the educational system" (Laska 1969:
98-99). He also shows that at each level the proportional
increase in enrollment was greater for female students than

for male students.

 

Educational Goals

Each of the adolescent reapondents was asked. "How much
education would you yourself like to have and in what sub-
jects?" The answers varied with the respondent's sex. with
the social class of the neighborhood,and with his education-
al eXperiences up to that time. The rankable replies of
respondents who are still students are shown in Table 2.6.
Almost all of the students set their sights above the second-
ary level.

Even in Panchanantala seven of the nine male students
who gave Specific replies hope to continue their education
after passing the higher secondary or pre-university exam-
inations. Three want to be licensed or degree-holding en—
gineers. three would like to earn bachelor's degrees. and
one wants a Master” of Commerce degree.

In Mallik Para baccalaureate degrees are the goal of
most students. both male and female. The boys are almost
equally divided among those seeking higher education in the
arts. commerce. and engineering. The girls. with few ex-n
ceptions. hope to earn Bachelor or Master of Arts degrees.

In Badur Bagan most male students hope to complete a

program of graduate training. such as a master's degree or

57
TABLE 2.6

EDUCATIONAL GOALS OF STUDENT RESPONDENTS

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Males Females Males Females Males
N % N % N % N % N %

 

Secondary 2 22% l 3% 4 13% l 2% O 0%

Baccalaureate 6 67% 21 70% 19 63% ll 21% 5 17%
Post graduate _1 11% _§ 27% _Z 23% 49 77% 35 83%
Totals 9 100% 30 100% 30‘ 99% 52 100% 30 100%

Secondary = School Final. Pre-university and Higher
Secondary diplomas

Baccalaureate B.A.. B.Sc.. B. Com.. B.A.B.T.. B.E. and
- engineering licentiate programs requiring
three years beyond the Higher Secondary

diploma.

Post graduate

M.A.. M.SC.. M. Com.. M.B.B.S.. L.L.B..

Ph. D. and certification such as C.A. which
requires an additional examination beyond
the baccalaureate.

 

medical training (M.B.B.S.) or to pass the examinations to
be certified as a chartered accountant (C.A.) or lawyer
(L.L.B.). Engineering alone among the fields requiring only
a baccalaureate degree is attractive to male students in
Badur Bagan. Girls in Badur Bagan also want graduate train-
ing. primarily in the arts. although as many girls as boys
hope to train to be physicians. More girls than boys hope

to do research after the M.A. leading eventually to a Ph. D.

58

The aspirations fathers have for the further education
of their adolescent children are generally similar to those
expressed by their sons and daughters. Most fathers of male
students in Mallik Para hope their sons will complete a
bachelor's degree. Fathers of female students typically
hope their daughters will at least complete a secondary ed-
ucation and many would be pleased if their daughters went
to college. In Badur Bagan most fathers hope their sons
will eventually earn an advanced degree or certification.
Fathers of female students typically expect their daughters
to go to college. but fewer fathers are eager to have their
daughters earn masterfs degrees than girls are to earn them.
The typical father has higher educational aspirations for
his sons than for his daughters. although many fathers have
the same high aspirations for both sons and daughters. None
of the fathers stated that girls should have more education
than boys. When it occurs. there is more likely to be a
difference of opinion on educational goals between a daughter
and her parents than between a son and his parents.

To some extent an individual°s educational goals are
limited by his horizons. For example. doctoral research was
not generally understood in Panchanantala or Mallik Para and
a Ph. D. degree is not the goal of any adolescent respondent
in those neighborhoods. In Badur Bagan several persons have
doctoral degrees. research is_understood to be a prerequisite
to getting the degree,and a few of the adolescent reSpondents

hope to continue their education up to the Ph. D.

59

The countervailing tendency is for a student°s sights
to be readjusted upwards or downwards as he progresses
through the educational system. Educational goals are fre-
quently couched in terms of performance. A father expects
his son to continue his education "as far as possible." As
long as a middle class student continues to pass successive
examinations with scores high enough to a110w him to con—
tinue in the program of his choice. he will aspire to pro-
gressively higher levels. However. if a student fails an
annual examination and if after repeating the class. perhaps
in.a different school. he again fails the exam for that
class. it is usually conceded that he has gone as far as
was possible for him. A single failure on an annual school
examination or on the statewide school final or higher se-
condary examination does not ordinarily terminate a person°s
education. but it may lower his and others° estimates of his
ability. Two successive failures. however. are usually tak-
en to indicate that a student has gone as far as possible
and someone will suggest that it is time he had a job.

Financial difficulties sometimes cause the middle as
well as the lower class student to drop out of school. The
loss of a man's income through unemployment. a business re-
versal,or death often produces an economic crisis in the
family. and as a consequence his children may have to leave
school. If his father dies prematurely. the oldest son usu-
ally must go to work almost immediately. In a few families.

the mother°s early death has meant that the oldest daughter

60
had to leave school and take over the cooking and other
housework. Families at the lower end of the middle class.
without extensive investments or savings and more often with
a single wage-earner. are particularly vulnerable.

Many girls. eSpecially in Badur Bagan. remain in col-
lege or the university until their marriages have been ar-
ranged. Prolonging a girl°s education gives her family a
ready eXplanation for those who ask why she is not yet mar—
ried. It also improves the chances that she will appeal
to some family with a highly qualified son. if perhaps nar-
rowing the field of potential mates. One father thus aha
swered the question on how long a girl's education should
continue with the phrase. "until she is married." It is
not unusual for a girl's education to be terminated

abruptly once her marriage has been arranged.

Achievement and Ascriptive Factors
in Educational Stratification

Two of a person's attributes. his sex and the social
class of the neighborhood in which he lives. have been shown
to affect his chances of success in school. The education
system is ostensibly more achievement-oriented than other
institutions which socialize the adolescent. However. the
demands for performance differentially affect youth from d1-
verse status groups.

At the primary level the demands for performance press
hardest on students from poor families. They have the least

choice of schools. They cannot afford books and do not have

61
supplementary materials in their homes. Their parents of-
ten cannot helthhem. and few can afford the extra tutoring
which is provided for many middle class children. Yet the
standards are the same for lower as for middle class stu-
dents. All compete on the statewide Scholarship Examination
at the end of Class IV.

Through the primary and middle classes the education
system is a one track system. For students who remain in
school and who can qualify. there is.a choice of science.
arts. commerce.and technical training in Classes IX through
XI. This creation of additional educational options has
paralleled the pattern of increasing industrialization and
the diversification of the occupational system. and has in
turn created an additional opportunity and necessity for
choice making in the process eventuating in occupational
allocation.

Upper-middle class students. most of whom have compar-
atively little difficulty at the primary level. begin to
feel the pressure for achievement at the secondary level in
the competition for entrance into the science course in the
higher secondary school. for a good showing on the terminal
examinations. and for entrance to the better colleges. A
student°s family can send him to good schools. provide him
with materials. and hire tutors. but even the upper-middle.
class student must validate his position by performing adef
quately on a series of examinations.

For males the pattern of educational mobility which

i

n-
‘1".

{_J

62
emerges from these data is one of relative consistency in
educational background, performance. and aspirations with
a gradual increase in education. For middle class females
there is a pattern of rising educational aSpirations and
performance. with greater divergence between the present
and parental generations both in expectations and perform-
ance. For lower class girls the educational system remains
outside their realm of eXperience. In the bustee the assump-
tion is that most families cannot afford to send their child—
ren. eSpecially their daughters, to school. A decision must
be made to send a particular child to school and to encour-
age him to study although hisrpeers are not students. In
the.middle class neighborhoods the eXpectation is that child-
ren will go to school and college. Decisions must be made
when a student is having difficulty or if the family's fi-
nancial condition changes so that a particular type of ed—
ucation is no longer feasible.
As Collins hypothesized and attempted to demonstrate
for the United States.
The power of "ascribed" groups may be the rime basis
of selection in all organizations. and technical skills
are secondary considerations depending on the balance
of power. Education may thus be regarded as a mark of
membership in a particular group (possibly at times
its defining characteristic). not a mark of technical
skills or achievement. Educational requirements may
thus reflect the interests of whichever groups have
power to set them.(1971: 1008).
A "contest mobility" school system.(Turner. 1960) has pro-
duced a widely educated middle stratum because of the many

dropouts who never achieve the elite level of schooling to

63
which they aspire and at which eXpert skills and/or high
cultural status is acquired. Increasingly higher levels of
education are recognized as the goal and a moderate level
of education has become a requisite attribute of reSpect—
able middle—level status (Collins 1971i 1015). The result
is a system of allocation in which status groups are compet-
ing to gain or retain power through control over an osten-
sibly universalistic educational system.

Calcutta°s bhadralok. who have the resources (money
for tuition and tutoring. educated family members and refer-
ence materials in the home. access to school authorities.
etc.) to support their youth through the better private
schools and colleges. attempt to maintain their position as
the city's elite against the demands of lower ranking stat-
us groups who are trying to better their position in the
hierarchy through performance in the educational system.
Because Specific levels of performance on universally ad-
ministered examinations are set as the chief criteria for
entrance to professional‘training. to government positions,
and to most positions in the large industrial and commer-
cial firms as well. the competition is fierce and individ-
ual yauth from high status families sometimes fail to meet
the standards set. 0n the whole. however. the control of
the bhadralok.over access to quality education is sufficient
to guarantee stability in the system of stratification.
while allowing limited mobility fram the lower levels of

the middle class. However. in the present circumstances

64

with the movement of capital and employment opportunities
out of Calcutta. even with somewhat reduced immigration
into the city. there are many educated unemployed. and
the competition for good examination scores is grim with
correspondingly high rates of cheating and examination dis—
turbances.

Broomfield outlines the character of this struggle in
the early part of the twentieth century.

The problem the Hindu bhadralok faced from the
beginning. a problem which they never solved and
which played its part in the tragic finale to this
story. was the problem of a caste elite whose econ-
omic and political strength rested on its successful
participation in imported, liberal institutions--
the bureaucratic. educational. legal. and legisla—
tive systems--which were by their nature oOpen ended°
(that is. the basis for recruitment was ability. not
birth) and which therefore tended to create an open
society. The Hindu bhadralok were proud of their
achievement. but they also valued their high-caste
status. They wished to develop the adopted institu-
tions. which had served them so well in the nine-
teenth century. and yet they were concerned to pre-
serve the social order. with its ascribed advantages
for themselves. They knew that further institutional
development would bring increasingly insistent demands
from the lower orders for accommodation: for the wid-
er opening of the doors of schools. colleges. and of-
fices to non-bhadralok. They were understandably ap-
prehensive of the social effects of such accommodation.
and uncertain of their own ability to control the pace
and direction of change(l968: 318).

The real losers in this struggle for increased educa-
tion as an avenue to higher social status have been the
lowest ranking status groups. those with the least power to
set the standards or obtain the facilities to meet them. i
The increase in primary education in West Bengal has not
kept pace with the increase in secondary. college. and uni—

versity education. The Calcutta Metropolitan District has

u!

Ho

38

S'.’

y.
'5‘!

.6

65
lagged much behind the average for other urban areas in In-
dia in providing primary education and eSpecially free ed—
ucation for the poor (CMPO 1966: 30). At the local level.
the result is that three-fourths of the female youth in
Panchanantala have never attended school. In short although
the examinations by which educational achievement is meas—
ured in India are universalistic in content and adminiStra—
tion. they are not relevant to the lifestyle.of much of the
population nor Specific to the demands of the occupational
system. and competition is restricted especially at the pri-
mary level by limited access to the resources necessary for

learning.

CHAPTER III

OCCUPATIONAL ENTRY
Male Occupational Entry

The Professions as the Ideal

Almost all adult men in Badur Bagan. Mallik Parapand
Panchanantala have urban occupations which are the primary
source of household income. Men in the professions. includ-
ing medicine. law, education, engineering. civil service.
and accounting, generally are more highly educated and high-
ly respected than men in.other occupational categories.
with the exception of a few official and executive posts
and some businesses, the professions are also the most re-
munerative occupations held by men in the neighborhoods
studied.

An indication of the prestige of the professions is
the diSproportionate frequency with which adolescents aSpire
to the professions. As shown in Table 3.1. among the male
students between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. nine-
ty per cent of those in Badur Bagan and the majority of
those in Mallik Para and Panchanantala aspire to profession-
al occupations.

In the individual interviews. each adolescent was asked
what occupation he wanted to have as an adult. as well as
what occupation his parents wanted for him. In Badur Bagan.

where almost all of the thirty-one students interviewed

66

67
hope to be professionals. the occupations most frequently
given in response to this question are: chartered account-
ant (7). engineer (6). physician (5). educator (5). and
lawyer (4). Fewer of the thirty male students interviewed
in Mallik Para aspire to being physicians (3). educators (3).
accountants (2). and none wants to be a lawyer. but a
larger prOportion of the students who aSpire to profession-
al occupations want to be engineers (8). Similarly, in Pan—
chanantala five of the seven male students who aspire to
the professions want to be engineers.

In each of the neighborhoods the proportion of adoles-
cent males who aspire to professional positions is much
higher than the prOportion of men inthat neighborhood who
are professionals. Badur Bagan was classified as an upper—
middle class neighborhood. in part. because of the high
proportion of men in professional positions. Even there
only twenty-five per cent of the men are professionals. The
thirty men classified as professionals include eight physi-
cians. five lawyers, six accountants and auditors. six en—
gineers and technicians. a professor. a research scholar.

a personnel officer. a professional musician,and a school
teaChcr. In Mallik Para. the lower-middle class neighbor-
hood. eight per cent of the men have been classified as pro-
fessionals. They include a lawyer. two accountants. an en-
gineer. a navigator. and three school teachers.

These classifications are. to a certain extent. arbi-

trary. Some men do not perform the roles for which they

68
have been trained and licensed. Other men fill positions
for which they do not have the formal qualifications. For
example. one of the physicians has become a sannyasi and
sees very few patients. A.man with a law degree (B.A.B.L.)
works as a railway clerk. Of the accountants and auditors
only two are chartered accountants. Of the engineers only
one has a degree specifically in engineering; most of the
others have bachelor's degrees in science. Of the four school.
teachers only one has a bachelor's degree, making them the
least educated of the men classified as professionals. Both
men with Specialized degrees (M.B.B.S.. B.A.B.L.. and C.A.)
and those who have professional roles were included among
the professionals. Although these criteria are relatively
unrestrictive. the men classified as professionals consti-
tute, on the whole, a highly prestigious, highly educated.
and highly paid category of workers.

Professional placement is the goal of the majority of
male students in each of the neighborhoods studied. yet re-
latively few of them will become professionals. Among males
up to age twenty-five who have already taken jobs. the per—
centage of those in professional positions is the same as
the percentage of older men in the same neighborhood who are
professionals, as shown in Tables 3.2 and 3.3. The educa-
tional qualifications of those who are still students will
eventually be higher than that of adolescents who have left
SChool and joined the labor force at younger ages. Thus.

as the Students in this age cohort gradually complete their

69

education and get jobs, the proportion of professionals in
the younger age cohort seems likely to increase somewhat
above the proportions in older age cohorts. Still. most
students who aSpire to professional positions will not suc-
ceed in obtaining them and will enter other occupations.

The high frequency of professional aSpirations seems
best explained as an awareness and acceptance of certain
professions as the culmination of a line or curriculum in
which a student is enrolled. rather than a firm expectation
that he will achieve that goal. As described in Chapter 2.
students in higher secondary schools are placed in four
major curricula:‘ science. commercial, technica1.and arts
in Classes IX through XI. The division is continued at the
college level with baccalaureate curricula in science. com-
merce. engineering, and arts. These curricula are general-
ly referred to by the English term. ”lines." Many parents
phrase their aspirations for their son. not in terms of a
particular occupation. but rather in terms of one of these
lines. For example. a father. when asked what occupation
he wants for his son. may reply. "in the technical line" or
"in the science line." Thus, a certain latitude remains for
the youth°s own preferences and abilities as well as for
the uncertainties of the labor market. The cognitive class—
ifiCation of occupations by lines is not limited to parents
whose children are in higher secondary schools. but is used

as well by parents whose children will probably not attend

high school.

70

The most frequently aSpired to professions may be seen
as end points of these lines: to become a physician is the
culmination of the science line; to become a chartered ac-
countant is the culmination of the commerce line; to become
an engineer is the culmination of the technical line; and
to become a lawyer or a professor is the culmination of
the arts line. Such a view is overly simplistic. Within
each line there are other Specialities. such as becoming a
research physicist or a pharmacist. which may be as selective
and require as much education. In addition. some professions.
including law and engineering, may be attained through eith-
er of two of the four lines.

The cognitive classification of occupations into lines
with a limited number of high-ranking professions as goals
for students who succeed in each line, is consistent with
the pattern of educational aspirations couched in the con-
ditional terms. fatadur sambhab or "as far as possible."

As an indication of this tendency. parents sometimes qual—
ified their statements of educational or occupational goals
with the phrase. parjanta. or "up to." An example is "Egg-
merce lineee. C.A. parjanta." ESpecially in Badur Bagan.
minimal expectations were often expressed too. for example.
"at least B.A." In short. the stated occupational aspira—
tion is the ultimate goal; the line is the means; and the.
Sizudent proceeds as far as possible.

The subject matter and related skills which are taught

t1> the student are defined by the line'or curriculum. His

71
TABLE 3.1

OCCUPATIONAL GOALS OF MALE STUDENTS

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan

 

N % N % N %

Professions 7 64% 17 57% 28 90%
Office workers -- -- 4 13% 2 6%
Business -- -- l 3% l 3%
Industrial labor 1 9% l 3% -- -~
Athlete -- -- 2 7% -- _-
Good job. educated

man. serVice to

country 2 18% 4 13% -_ __
No answer _l ‘_g% _l _g% z: 2:
Totals (male students

who were interviewed) 11 100% 30 99% 31 99%
All male students 12 34 42 A

 

achievement in that line is a function of the student°s abil-
ity. his persistence and especially the resources at his dis-
posal. as discussed in Chapter II. Alternative occupations
are open to persons in each line who terminate their formal
education at various points. The discussion of male occu-
Pational entry is organized according to these lines to il-
lustrate the ways in which professional aspirations are mod-

if:ied upon leaving the educational system.

72
TABLE 3.2
DISTRIBUTION OF OCCUPATIONS OF MALE WORKERS

OVER AGE TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan ’

 

N %. N % N ‘%

Professions -1 -- 8 8% 30 25%
Office workers -- -- 38 36% 42 35%
Business 4 3% 16 15% 26 22%
Industrial labor 13 10% 24 23% 8 7%
Service workers 25 18% 8 8% -- --
_Small scale trade 30 22% 4 4% l 1%
Construction workers 40 30% -- -- -— --
Day laborers 14 10% l 1% -- --
Insufficient infor-

mation or no

urban employment _g _15 _Z _Z% ‘ig 19%

Totals 135 100% 106 101% 119 100%

Description of Occupational Types

Professions include medicine. law.accounting, engineering.
teaching, and research.

Office work includes primarily clerks. typists. stenographers.
cashiers. etc. A few officers, superintendents. inSpect-
ors, and a few peons were also included.

Business includes work shop owners. order suppliers. whole—
sale trade, sales representatives. and other business-
men with a reported household income of Rs. 150 or more
per earning member. '

Industrial workers include mechanics. welders. machinists.
refrigeration and air cOnditioning workers. fitters,
and other factory workers.

73

TABLE 3.2 (cont'd.)

Service workers include drivers. bearers. cooks. barbers.
laundry workers. servants, rickshaw pullers. tailors,
and restaurant workers.

Small scale trade includes fish and vegetable dealers. tea
stall owners. biri shop owners. and hawkers; those with
an income less than Rs. 150 per working member. Al-
though a couple of fish dealers earn over this amount
they are included here Since most fish sellers earn
less.

Construction workers include masons. painters and decorators.
carpenters and molders,and their assistants.

Day laborers contract for work on a daily basis typically
earning about Rs. 3 per day.

Retired and temporarily unemployed workers are categorized
by their previous employment. Only three men over age
twenty-five in each neighborhood reported themselves
as unemployed. though, as noted previously, many la-
borers. especially in Panchanantala. may go for days
or weeks without work or work part time or fewer hours
per week than they want to, in a situation of chronic
underemployment. Many other men work at jobs which
require less education. eXperience. or skill than they
have. Some workers also receive incOme from rural
land or from part time work as agricultural labor.
Income from rural land and rural employment are dis—
cussed in Chapter I.

Although the questions on employment Specified the type
of work rather than the Specific employer. many men reported
working in various government Services. including railway.
bus. airport. Customs. tax. printing. post and telegraph.
telephone. and police services and the courts. I would estim~
ate that about one-fourth of the men in both Badur Bagan and
Mallik Para work for some government agency at the municipal.
State. or national level. ‘The railway service employs more
men from these neighborhoods than any other single government
agency. The government employees range in rank from peons
to officers. :

74
TABLE 3.3
DISTRIBUTION OF OCCUPATIONS OF MALE WORKERS BETWEEN

THE AGES OF THIRTEEN AND TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan

 

N % N % N %
Professions -— -— 2 8% 4 25%
Office workers 3 5% 9 38% 4 25%
Business -- -- 4 17% 4 25%
Industrial labor 16 28% 6 25% 2 13%
Service workers 11 19% 2 8% 1 6%
Small scale trade 11 19% 1 4% —- --
Construction
workers . 13 23% -- -- -- __
Insufficient
information _3 _§% :: ;:_ _l _6%
Totals 57 99% 24 100% 16 100%
Unemployed non-
student males . 21 ll 4

 

The Science Line
Students and their parents generally consider the sci-
ence line to be the most difficult of the four curricula.
Although it is possible to enter the science line at the
college level. a student who plans a career in medicine or
any science has a better chance of being admitted to a B. Sc.

program at the college level if he has taken the science

75
curriculum in a higher secondary school. Entrance to the
high school science course is limited by examination and
in Badur Bagan not all of those who wanted to be admitted
passed the qualifying examination. Male students in Badur
Bagan who don't show an early aptitude for science are
typically counselled into the commerce or arts curricula.

In Badur Bagan fourteen male students between the ages
of thirteen and twenty-five are studying for or have re-
cently completed a B. Sc. degree. In Mallik Para only one
student in this age cohort has earned a B. Sc. and there are
no male students in either Mallik Para or Panchanantala who
are studying for a B. Sc. degree.

Although the number of students is too small to make
more than a guess about the trend, it appears that the many
young boys who aSpire to careers in medicine are attracted
or pushed towards other fields of Specialization by the time
they graduate from college. Several younger boys aspire to
careers in medicine, but of those already in college in a
B. Sc. course, almost all have opted for occupations other
than medicine. In Badur Bagan four of the five male stu—
dents who want to be doctors are still in high school. two
of them still in eighth grade and not yet in the science
course. Similarly in Mallik Para none of the three boys
who want to be doctors is yet in Class IX. The one older.
student in Badur Bagan who plans to be a doctor is study-
ing for a B. Sc. with honors in chemistry. He passed the

Higher Secondary exam in Division I and was among the tOp

76
ranking students in his class in the annual school exam-
inations each year. His older brother. who was not in-
terviewed, is already in medical school. Of the nine male
college students interviewed who are studying for or have
recently completed the B. Sc., two want to be professorse—
one in zoology, the other in physics--and six want to be
or have jobs as engineers or technologists.

In Badur Bagan students who want to be engineers gen-
erally prefer to complete the relatively prestigious B. Sc.
before entering a college of engineering. For the student
who has the early preparation for entrance to the science
curriculum this path gives him a more general scientific
background for engineering and keeps more options open for
future employment. Students educated in this way, however.
often lack the practical experience with materials which
is part of the technical program in the higher secondary
school and of the licentiate training programs in engineer-

ing.

The Technical Line
The technical line is pOpular in all three of the neigh-
borhoods Studied. Altogether more students aspire to be en-
gineers than to be in any other profession. New jobs have
Opened in the industrial sector at the same time as the pres-
tige and relative income of clerical jobs are declining.
Certainly, there is unemployment among young engineering

graduates, but less than among recent graduates in the arts.

77
Many parents in each of the neighborhoods think that the
best employment opportunities for their sons lie in the
technical line.

This is a relatively recent change. In Badur Bagan
only one man over twenty-five is a licensed engineer. al-
though about fifteen men work in engineering and technical
jobs or have businesses of a technical nature. such as
electroplating and sound recording. In Mallik Para there
are no licensed engineers, although many men work in engin-
eering firms and a few have established small scale fac-
tories.

The technical course in the higher secondary school
and the engineering licentiate programs offer many lower-
middle and working class students an opportunity to become
engineers. The high school technical course includes not
only an emphasis on mathematics and the physical sciences,
but also practical training in the Operation of industrial
tools. such as the lathe and welding torch. The student
who passes this course can go on to a three year licentiate
program in engineering, Specializing in electrical, mechan-
ical,or civil engineering. The licentiate program is of-
fered not only by the larger engineering colleges, but also
by technical training institutes, such as those run by the
Ramkrishna Mission.

Two families in Mallik Para exemplify the increasing.
interest in engineering as a profession and in the technical

line generally. In both of these families the fathers have

78
more than a high school education. One father is a school
teacher, the other works in a government office. All of
their sons are or want to be engineers.

The first family moved to Mallik Para from their vil-
lage home ten years ago when the older of the two sons had
a broken leg and needed extended medical attention. Both
sons took the technical course at the Vivekananda Institu—
tion, one of the better high schools in the vicinity of Mal-
lik Para. The older son completed the Licentiate in Mechan-
ical Engineering (L.M.E.) at the Ramkrishna Mission. He
has applied for admission to a program leading to the A.M.I.E.
The younger son, who is still studying for the L.M.E., trans-
ferred to Jadanur Polytechnic which has night classes so
that he could take an apprenticeship at a large engineering
firm. He likes this arrangement, he said, because it gives
him an opportunity to get practical eXperience related to
the theoretical course work. Like his older brother, he
wants to get a higher degree in engineering after completing
the L.M.E.

In the second family the oldest son, age twenty-five,
is a civil engineer working outside West Bengal. He is ad-
mired by his two younger brothers, both of whom also want
to be engineers. The middle son who became involved with
a local gang some years ago, and dropped out of school after
finishing Class IX, has recently gone back to complete a -
high school diploma. He wants to be an engineer, but is

uncertain about the likelihood of achieving his goal. The

79
youngest son was not yet in high school, but has consistent-
ly done well in school.

Boys who do not have an engineering license or a bach—
elor's degree generally must begin as apprentices. Approx-
imately one-fourth of the male job holders twenty-five years
old or under in Mallik Para and Panchanantala are appren-
tices or workers in the engineering industry. Those with
a high school diploma or some formal technical training typi-
cally get jobs with the larger established engineering firms.
The beginning wages of workers in the engineering industry
are closely related to the years of schooling and to the
amount of scientific and technical training they have had.
For example, one boy who passed the school final examination
has worked for two and a half years as an apprentice in an
air conditioning company, checking and repairing air condi-
tioners. As an apprentice his salary is about one hundred
rupees per month. Another boy who quit school after Class
VIII, but later took a technical course at a local training
institute, has worked in four different large industrial
workshOps in the past three years. He started at fifty
rupees per month and at the time of the interview earned
one hundred and thirty rupees.

Boys with less education more often must take appren-
ticeships at small workshops where the wages are lower and
there are fewer fringe benefits. A seventeen year old who
left school after Class VI has worked as an apprentice

welder for one and a half years and earns seventy rupees

80
per month. Similarly, another boy who left school after
Class VIII has worked as an apprentice machinist for one
and a half years and earns sixty rupees per month.

The first student from Panchanantala to become an en-
gineer is in the third year of the licentiate program. He
is highly regarded by other boys in the neighborhood and
was frequently named as the person they want most to be like.
Two or three other boys in the neighborhood seem likely to
complete high school in the next few years and may go on
to a licentiate program. For the majority of boys in Pan-
chanantala, who have no hope of completing even the techni-
cal course at a higher secondary school, the technical line,
as they also refer to it, still offers the mdst attractive
job opportunities. Many boys are willing to Spend many
years as a lathe or welding apprentice earning little more
than fifty rupees per month in order to qualify for a semi—
skilled job in an engineering firm. Like the less educated
boys in Mallik Para, they face keen competition for regular
jobs in the larger unionized factories where salaries are
somewhat higher and where there are generally more employee
benefits.

The starting salaries of those with engineering licenses
or bachelor's degrees are much higher than those of appren-
tices. One reSpondent with a B. Sc. degree earns.about four
hundred rupees per month as a supervisor in a metallurgical
firm. This appears to be typical of the salaries of recent

graduates who have been working in industry for a few years.

81
It is more than double what boys with high school diplomas
typically earn and several times more than the younger and
less educated apprentices in small workshOps earn.

In Spite of annual increases, the initial disparity in
income based on prior education appears to continue as long
as men remain employees of an engineering firm. One way to
break out of the lock—step pattern of advancement is through
entrepreneurship-—the establishment of a small scale work-
shOp. Those who become factory owners have the possibility,
regardless of their formal education, of moving well above
the salary level of most men in the professions. To succeed
as a factory owner, however, typically requires verylong
hours and hard physical labor.

Howrah is known as an important center of the engineer—
ing industry in India. Most engineering firms in Howrah
started with fewer than ten workers and with very little
capital. It has been "estimated that within Howrah City
more than one hundred and twenty-five men (almost all Mahis—
yas) have started with almost no capital other than savings
from their wages and have in their lifetimes become million-
aires in the engineering industry of Howrah" (Owens 1971: 4).

Mallik Para is almost entirely residential, but one
small-scale engineering firm has recently begun Operating in
the neighborhood. Scales for use by retail ShOpS in weighing
food and other commodities are manufactured here. A brochure,
printed in English, advertises two models, one for packed

goods, the other with a pan for grain or other loose products.

82
The factory owner worked in a larger factory before starting
his own shop. His work experience rather than extensive for—
mal education prepared him to establish this enterprise while
still in his thirties. Several other men in Mallik Para own
small workshops elsewhere in Howrah, none of which, however,
has yet produced a millionaire. In Badur Bagan there is also
at least one factory owner. None of the men in Panchanantala
own factories individually, but the Panchayat Operates a
cooperative workshop which provides work for some Of the men.
Thus, persons in all three neighborhoods have an active in-
terest in the engineering industry, and boys in each neigh-
borhood are being encouraged to get the type of education
which will qualify them as engineers, or if that is not pos-

sible, at least the training to be skilled industrial workers.

The Commerce Line

Like the technical line, the commerce line is increas-
ingly popular with middle class male students. The Bachelor“
and Master’ of Commerce degrees are sought by more and more
students who hope eventually to become chartered accountants
or, in some instanCes, lawyers. A few Of the students who
are studying for commerce degrees eXpressed interest in car-
eers in business or commerce as such. Some plan to go into
a family practice or to establish a separate practice in ac-
counting or law. The typical Commerce student, however, ex-
pects to find employment as an accountant or an Officer in

an established firm.

83

Some students take the commerce course in a higher
secondary school; others enroll in a program leading to a
Bachelor‘ of Commerce degree after completing the arts
course in a higher secondary school or after taking the
pre—university examination in arts or commerce. Many col-
leges do not demand the same high levels of performance on
early tests from commerce and arts applicants as from sci-
ence applicants. For example, one student who passed the
school final exam in the third division and the pre-university
examination in arts in the second division was admitted to
City College and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce
degree. He was currently enrolled in the University of Cal-
cutta Law College. In Spite of low scores on the school fi-
nal exam, he has attained a reasonably good prOSpect of
becoming a lawyer.

In Badur Bagan four of the six accountants, Of whOm two
are also chartered accountants and one is also a lawyer,
have degrees in commerce. Eight additional men in Badur
Bagan and two in Mallik Para have also completed the B. Com.
and four have some college training in commerce. One man
is in the West Bengal Civil Service. Of the others who have
no further degrees.or certification beyond the B. Com.,
three have businesses, one is a bank clerk, one is an ad-
vocate, one works for the post office, two have other of-
fice jobs, and one supervises.his family's agricultural '
land. Those who completed less than a B. Com. are employed

in clerical and typing jobs. The recent commerce graduates

84
and dropouts are similarly employed. Thus, if the careers
of these older men are typical, relatively few of the com-
merce students will ever become chartered accountants. Still,
like other students, they aim for the profession at the end
of the line.

Sons ofabothfif the chartered accountants in Badur Bagan
aspire to being chartered accountants. In the first family
the Oldest son is only sixteen and a student in the commerce
course at a higher secondary school. Along with playing car-
om, helping his father with his accounting work was reported
tO be his favorite leisure time activity. In the second fam-
ily the older son is an engineer. The younger son has com-
pleted the B. Com. and is studying simultaneously for a mas-
ter's degree in commerce, a law degree, and the accounting
examinations. These two boys are perhaps atypical in mak-
ing early decisions to study commerce, in the apparent strength
of their aspirations,and in having parental models.

The two first year commerce students in Mallik Para are
probably more typical of the commerce students. Both come
from families who own their homes and have lived in the
neighborhood for many years. Neither of their fathers at-
tended college. One studied commerce at the secondary lev-
el at the Vivekananda Institution. After graduating he
wants to become a chartered accountant. .The other student
passed the higher secondary exam in the third division On
his second try. He is one of the few boys who would prefer

to go into business, but he says that if a "salaried position"

85
(gékgi) is available, he will have to take it.
Commerce is, thus, a line which accepts the ordinary
as well as the exceptional student. The commerce course
prepares them for diverse office jobs, eSpecially those like
bank jobs which require some knowledge of mathematics, as
well as for business and, with further education, for ac-

counting or law.

The Arts Line

A general education in the liberal arts was sometimes
said to be the best education for a gentleman. A young man
with a B. A. or an M. A. from one of the better colleges
may go on to such prestigious government services as the
I. A. 8., into law, to an academic or literary career, or
into business. Of the boys who were interviewed all of
those who are now in college studying for the B. A. either
want Or think their parents want them to complete the M. A.
before taking a job, Four of the seven want to be teachers
or professors and see the arts line as preparatory to a
career in education. Two of the others plan to go into
family businesses and the third wants to be a tea estate
manager. For them the arts line provides a general educa-
tion, rather than Specific career training. One younger
boy, who is preparing for the higher secondary exam, plans
to complete an.M. A. and then take.the.examinations for A
entrance into the Indian.Administrative Service.

In Badur Bagan the men over twenty-five who have

86
completed an M. A. include a jute technologist, an officer
in the post office, and a bank clerk. In Badur Bagan and
Mallik Para men with B. A.'s have a variety Of jobs includ—
ing ones in banking, business, customs and other government
service, teaching, and clerical work.

For many young arts and commerce graduates clerical
jobs are the most readily available white collar work. For
the arts or the commerce student who drOps out of college
before graduating, whether for academic, financial, or per-
sonal reasons, and for the youth with a general secondary
education and no Specific skills, clerical jobs are often
the only kind of white collar jobs they can find. ,Many mid—
dle class young men want the reSpectability Of an Office
job, are reluctant to enter industry, and don't have the
capital or inclination to start a business. For these and
other reasons they turn to clerical work.

As shown in Table 3.2, the occupational category which
subsumes more men in Badur Bagan and in.Mallik Para than
‘any other is office work, most of which is clerical work.
The railways have provided clerical jobs for some men in
both neighborhoods. Others have clerical positions in the
various branches of the federal, state, and municipal gov-
ernments, in banks and in large commercial and industrial
firms. Many clerical workers in Mallik Para cross the How-
rah Bridge daily to work in offices in Calcutta.

The educational attainment of clerical workers ranges

from some secondary education through matriculation to

87

intermediate and baccalaureate degrees in arts and commerce.
On the average office workers have less education than pro-
fessionals, but about the same as businessmen. Their house-
hold incomes, however, are generally considerably less than
those of businessmen.

Clerical jobs were formerly more prestigious and rela-
tively more remunerative. Clerks educated in the English
language once controlled the access of the Bengali pOpula-
tion to the colonial power structure. With independence and
increasing bureaucratization clerical work is more routine
and less influential. With increases in education a much
higher percentage of the population has the necessary qual-
ifications for clerical work. Until relatively recently
clerical work, and the supervisory and officer's posts into
which clerks may be promoted, provided a reSpectable middle-
class life style. This was eSpecially true in Mallik Para,
where the cost Of living is slightly lower and the standard
of comparison is less grand than in Badur Bagan. However,
salaries for office workers have not risen as fast as those
in industrial jobs. It also appears that Opportunities for
earning additional income on the side have been reduced.
Some clerks, as well as many teachers, now find it necessary
to supplement their household incomes by tutoring neighbor-
hood students. I

Changes in the economic rewards and status accorded-
to clerical workers are recognized by many youth and their

parents. Although clerical and other office work occupy

88
more men than any other type of work, none of the male stu-
dents aspires tO a clerical position. That no male student
aspires to being a clerk does not mean that none will become
clerks. In Badur Bagan four Of the seventeen males age
twenty-five and under who are already working are clerks.
In Mallik Para five Of the twenty—three workers age twenty-
five and under are clerks. Of these nine young clerks, two
studied arts in college, four studied commerce in college,
and three have a secondary education.

A tight job market with high unemployment among the
college-educated still forces many young men into clerical
positions, though few if any of them wanted to be clerks.
That clerical work does not represent the end point Of a
line, but is rather an occupational category in which those
who cannot attain the goal of professional placement find
work, is a partial explanation for the lack of aspirants
to clerical jobs. In addition, the down grading of the
social and economic status of clerical work, along with
the increasing acceptance of women.in clerical positions,
which is discussed below, seems to indicate the beginning
of a trend common to many industrializing countries. "In
developing countries, we never find women in. the majority
in clerical occupations. . . . .With.economic development,
the percentage of women in clerical occupations increases
and there is a fair degree of correlation between the stage
of economic development reached in a.given country and the

percentage of women in the clerical sector" (Boserup 1970:

89
Business as an Alternative

The family or individually owned business enterprise
is one alternative tO salaried employment. As mentioned in
Chapter I, Bengalis have tended to Opt for investment in
land rather than in manufacturing or trade. They have gen-
erally preferred professional and white-collar office jobs
to the risks of entrepreneurship. Still, in the neighbor-
hoods studied, between nineteen and twenty-five per cent of
the adult men are engaged in small and medium scale trade
and manufacturing of various sorts, as shown in Table 3.2.

In Badur Bagan families have businesses dealing in a
variety of products from milk and fish, to cloth, books,
drugs, and machine parts. In several of these enterprises
a man's sons work with him. A few family concerns have been
passed on from the previous generation, but most of the
businesses were started by the present household head. In
two households sons of the household head have started tech-
nical businesses.

In Mallik Para most of the men classified as business-
men Own small engineering workshops or work as independent
order—suppliers in the engineering or textile markets. One
man has a wholesale tea business. .Another owns a restau-
rant. One large joint Mahisya family has diverse business
interests. .The oldest brother Operates.the grdcery store
which was established.by their father. The second brother,
who was also in the grocery business, died almost ten years

ago. The third brother has a wholesale business in rice

90
products, such as mug; and khai, and in ggg. He also owns
a dress shop. The youngest brother has a ready-made cloth-
ing business. At the time of the study there was a possi-
bility that they would buy into an engineering workshop as
well. The two younger brothers, who are particularly en-
terprising, are both under thirty-five years Old.

In Panchanantala most of the trade is in unprocessed
food products, chiefly vegetables and fish. Selling vege-
tables or fish in Gariahat Market is typically a family
business in which young boys are gradually included. Fam-
ily members with residences in both a village and the bus-
tee may catch fish Or buy fish or vegetables in the country
and bring them north to the market by railway. Vegetable
sellers tend to be relatively poor; fish sellers are some-
what better off, and men who own cattle or buffalo khatal

typically make good incomes.

Caste-Related Occupations

Few adult men in the three neighborhoods studied work
at jobs which are traditionally associated with their par-
ticular castes (jati). In Badur Bagan one Goara family has
a milk business. In Mallik Para there are two Brahman
priests. In the preceeding generation a couple of men
of the Svarnakar j§£$ did gold work, but among the men now
living in Mallik Para the only goldsmith is a Mahisya. .In
Panchanantala more men work in caste—related occupations,

but even allowing for the occasional misrepresentation of

91
of a household's 'ati, fewer than ten per cent of the adult
men work in caste-related occupations. Several Brahmins
work as cooks, but not all men who work as cooks are Brah-
mins. One Baisnab lives on the money he collects while
singing religious songs on the street. Two Of the fam—
ilies with a fish business are of the Kaibarta jati, tra-
ditionally a caste of fishermen, but the other families
in the fish business are of other castes (Keora, Bengali
Christian, and Kayastha). Kaibarta men.are also employed
as a house painter, an office bearer, and as day laborers.
There are Sutradhar families in two neighborhoods, but none
of them are carpenters. Conversely, none of the men who
are carpenters by trade are Sutradhar by caste.

Two occupations which remain closely tied to caste
are the washing of clothes and hair cutting. These ser-
vices may be performed within the family and personal laun-
dry may be done within the home by domestic servants of
various castes. As publicly contracted services, however,
they are almost,always done by members of the appropriate
castes. In Panchanantala, several Napits work as barbers
and a family of Dhopas runs a laundry business.

Even fewer of the young men than of those over twenty-
five will go into caste-related occupations. Those most
likely to remain in caste-related occupations are the sons
of men who have organized their caste role into a busineSs.
For example, the laundry shop to which customers bring

their laundry and pay by the piece or on a monthly basis

92
can be relatively remunerative for a family whose members
have little formal.education, though the work is both hard
and hot. Businesses dealing in particular foods such as
milk, sweets, Oil, and fish, while not limited to members
of a particular caste frequently have been.established by
members of the jati traditionally associated with that
trade, and their sons are likely to continue the business
if it is successful.

Although a few of the non-student males age twenty-five
and under have gone into family caste-related businesses,
none of the male students interviewed aSpired to a caste-
related occupation. For those who remain in school up to
or beyond the secondary level, factory or office jobs are
more appealing and lack the stigma of many Of the caste—

related occupations.

 

Female Occupational Entry

It is generally assumed, in Calcutta as elsewhere, that
every healthy adult male will have a job bvahich he can
support himself and his dependents. The same assumption
is not made for adult females. .There is a norm against em-
ployment for women, especially in jobs which involve contact
with unrelated males. However, that norm is weak in the
city and many exceptions are made both for poor women and
fOr highly educated women. Although the employment of wOmen

may not be preferred, it is sometimes accepted. The deci-

sion to permit or encourage a particular female to have a

r.‘

93
job may be made at any of several critical junctures includ-
ing when she is enrolled in school, at the termination of
her formal eduCation, in the negotiation for her marriage,
when family expenses increase, if her husband is ill or un-

employed,or following the death of her husband.

Occupations of Adult Women

The proportion of adult women who have jobs varies con-
siderably among the neighborhoods studied, as shown in Table
3.4. There is a curvilinear relationship between the social
class Of the neighborhood and the proportion of women who
have jobs. In Panchanantala.a majority of the adult women
work. In Mallik Para very few women work. In Badur Bagan
the percentage of women with jobs, though lower than in
Panchanantala, is about twice as high as in Mallik Para.
This relationship reflects the kinds of occupations which
are Open to Bengali women in Calcutta.8

Most lower class women must work to help feed them-
selves and their children. The salaries of men in unskilled
or semiskilled labor are not enough to provide food and a
minimum of clothing.and shelter for a family, eSpecially if
there are several children or if a period of unemployment
or illness puts a family into debt. The women in Panchanan-
tala have jobs because they must. .In Mallik Para, too, only
the poorest women work, women whose household income, hOuse
ing and family circumstances are similar to those of women

in Panchanantala. In these two neighborhoods almost all of

94
TABLE 3.4

DISTRIBUTION OF OCCUPATIONS OF FEMALE WORKERS

OVER AGE TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan

 

N % N % N -%
Physician .5 1
Psychologist 1
Principal 1
Teachers 8
Tutor l 2
Clerk 3
Peon 1
Mill worker 1
Tea shOp owner 1
HOSpital ayah 5 1
Domestic servants ll ._3 __
All women
with jobs 79 58% 6 7% 16 15%
Women without
jobs 58 g 75 93% 88 151

Totals 137 100% 81 100% 104 100%

 

95

the employed women work as domestic servants. A jhi ("maid"
or, literally, "daughter") washes pots and pans, does gener-
al cleaning (excluding bathrOOmSL.and makes preliminary food
preparations such as peeling and chOpping onions and other
vegetables. A ifli usually works at several houses, Spending
a couple of hours at each house Once or twice every day.

She typically earns from twenty-five to sixty rupees per
month depending on the number of households She serves. A
few women work as §y§§ ("nursemaids") or cooks in well-to-do
households which employ several full-time servants. In
addition to work as domestic servants, uneducated women

can get work as hospital ayas, caring for the personal needs
of patients.

In Panchanantala the proportion of women with jobs var-
ies with age. Above the age of thirty and up tO about Sixty
the majority of women are working. Between the ages of fif-
teen and thirty, however, onIy about one third of the women
have jobs. A higher proportion of single girls than of young
recently married girls have jobs. The ideal is for a girl
to be married into a household with ample means so that She
won't have to work. The temporary realization Of this ideal
is usually facilitated by factors associated.with the stage
of the family cycle. A son's marriage typically occurs at
a time when there are relatively few dependents in the fam—
ily. If the groom has brothers, they are probably old .
enough to contribute to the family income. If he has Sis-

ters who must be married, or extra financial burdens, his

96

marriage is typically postponed for a few years. The groom's
father iS often still working, and if the groom is a laborer,
he is near the peak of his own earning capacity. Thus, most
brides in Panchanantala have several years after marriage
during which they do not work outside the home. This is the
time when their first children are born. Later as the chil-
dren grow Older, the wife too must get a job in order to feed
them.

The characteristics of employed women in Badur Bagan
differ markedly from those of employed women in the other
two neighborhoods. Most of the employed women in Badur Bagan
are educators: professors, teachers, or tutors. There are
also three women with clerical jobs and one physician. Their
occupations are possible because of their educational qual-
ifications. Ten of the Sixteen have bachelor's or master's
degrees. Whereas employed women in Mallik Para and Panchan-
antala tend to be less educated than other women in their
neighborhoods, employed women in Badur Bagan are more edu-
cated than their peers. In Mallik Para and Panchanantala
women generally work outside the home only when their earn-
ings are necessary to provide the basic essentials of food
and shelter. In Badur Bagan, by contrast, only three of
the Sixteen employed women provide the entire household in-
come. Although most of the others contribute Significantly
to household income, they typically also express the desire
to participate professionally. Another distinguishing char-

acteristic of employed women in Badur Bagan is the high

97
proportion who are Single.9 Ten of the sixteen employed women
in Badur Bagan are single, compared to only three of the
ninety-eight unemployed women over age twenty-five. Five Of
these ten single women are between twenty-six and thirty
years Old and are likely to marry in the future. Still the
Single professional woman is present in Badur Bagan as an
alternative role model for girls.10

As Boserup indicates, professional women are a function-
al part of a society which secludes women. "Even in coun—
tries with a tradition Of seclusion for women and with few
girls among the students there is a demand for professional
women, Simply because custom requires that if a girl is to
be educated, she should be educated by female teachers, in
Special schools for girls. Similarly, it is thought that
decency requires women to be taken care of by female health
personnel, female social workers, etc.. In other words, in
countries where women live in seclusion, the demand for pro-
fessional women doesnot.violate the rules of seclusion,
but indeed is a necessary result of those rules" (Boserup
1970: 125-26).

Until recently there has been very little Opportunity
for Bengali women to work unless they were either well edu—
cated professionals or very poor and willing to work as do-
mestic servants. If necessary.a middle class woman with
less than a secondary education, who couldn't qualify asia
teacher, might tutor or teach needlework or Singing to

neighborhood children. Many high school and college

98
students, both male and female, earn extra money by tutor-
ing in the early morning or late afternoon. The low income
of tutors reflects the supply of persons who are looking
for such work.

Gradually clerical positions are being Opened to women.
In Badur Bagan three women over twenty-five and one under
twenty-five work as clerks. Their education varies from
high school matriculation tora B. A. degree. The growing
tendency for household heads to recognize Office work as
suitable for girls, discussed below, should.increase the
Opportunities for girls with a secondary education to find
acceptable jobs.

Factory work is another possible Source of employment
for women. However, in the neighborhoods Studied only one
woman and two girls under twenty-five have found industrial
jobs in a mill, a soap factory, and a light-bulb factory.
With high unemployment and Strong competition from union-
ized men, it may be some time before women are generally
accepted in factories. Job OpportunitiesinlCalcutta for
lower-middle class women with less than a high school educa-

I

tion thus remain extremely limited.

Occupational Aspirations of.Adolescent Females
In the individual interviews each girl.was asked what
she wished to be when She grew up. The same wording was
used as in the interviews with male adolescents. The girls'

reSponseS tended to be of three types: an occupation,

99
further education (including training in Singing or sewing),
or marriage. Girls who Specified a career or further edu-
cation sometimes, but not always, added ". . .and marriage"
or ". . .before marriage." The type of reSponse is closely
related to whether or not the girl is a student. Almost
all female Students hope to have a job or at least to have
enough education to get one, but girls who have left school
typically do not express Occupational aspirations. A few
exceptions are girls who have recently completed a degree
and are looking for a job. Because the proportion of Stu-
dents is related to the social class Of the neighborhood,
the percentage of girls who hope tO get jobs also reflects
the social class of the neighborhood. There are more girls
in Badur Bagan, fewer in Mallik Para and only two in Pan-
chanantala who want to have jobs.

Like the male Students, most female students aSpire to
the professions. Most hope to be teachers (16) or profes—
sors (12). About the same proportions of girls (10) and
boys (8) want to be physicians.-.One.middle class girl wants
to be a nurse. Only one girl wants to be a chartered ac-
countant, one wants to be a lawyer, one an engineer, one
a research scholar,and one a pilot, and these few girls who
aSpire to traditionally male occupations are not always op—
timistic about their chances of entering them. For example,
the girl who says engineering is her first choice, and that
her older brother encourages her.to be.an engineer, still

thinks that she will probably become a professor. In

100
addition to the professions, one girl wants to go into bus—
ineSS and two Specify that they would like office jobs.
Seven girls say only that they hope to have gakri which
can refer to any salaried position, but most often refers
to a clerical or Similar office job.11

In the household survey the heads of households with
adolescent girls were asked, "DO you thinkgirls Should
have an occupation?" The majority in Badur Bagan and Mallik
Para answered, "Yes." The prOportion of household heads who
approve of girls having jobs is related to the social class
of the neighborhood, but is not directly related to whether
or not the adolescent girl in that household is a student.

In addition to those who think it is acceptable for girls

to work, several household heads gave qualified approval.

One said he is not opposed if it is necessary for a girl to
have a job. Another man said he would approve if his
daughter's future husband allowed her to work. Informal
conversations indicated that many of the parents who reSpond-
ed positively also have reservations about their daughters
having jobs. Still the high rate of positive reSponseS was
surprising in view Of the low proportion of adult females
with jobs in Mallik Para and Badur Bagan.

Of the nineteen household heads in Badur Bagan who Spe-
cified the type of job they thought acceptable for a girl,
fourteen favor jobs in education. One wants his daughter
to be a physician. Two Specify office work,rand two say any.

type of work is acceptable. In Mallik Para seven of the

101
TABLE 3.5

OCCUPATIONAL GOALS OF FEMALE YOUTH

 

 

fir

Females Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
who
Specify Non— Non— Non-

Student student Student student Student student

 

Q

An occupation -- l 19 l 36 2
Further education

or training in

Singing or sewing -- 1 6 2 16 -_

NO occupational

goal -- 18 4 13 1 8
No answer or
don't know _l _Q _2 z: 2: _l
Totals 1 26 32 16 53 11
c -~ Marriage was sometimes mentioned in addition to a job

or further education, but was always mentioned when neither
a job nor further education was mentioned. The number of
girls who would prefer to remain Single through life can not
be determined from the questions asked.

Students Non-Students

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occupation-

Or further 77 7 84

education

NO occupation 5 39 44
Totals 82 46 128

Chi square = 134.1, df=l, p<.001

 

102
fifteen household heads Specify Office or clerical jobs,
one says sales clerk, and two say any good job. Only four
Specify teaching and one medicine. In Panchanantala although
most Of the eleven reSpondents who approved Of girls having
a job said any job was acceptable, two Specified office
work, one teaching,and one handwork. On the whole,those
household heads who approve of girls having jobs are more
realistic than their daughters about the kinds of work which
are available to girls with their educational qualifications.
In particular, fathers in Mallik Para are more likely than
their daughters to accept clerical or other office work as
suitable for girls.

The lack of realism in many girls' occupational aspir-
ations is also indicated by the sharp contrast between stu-
dent and non-student aSpirations. In the neighborhoods
Studied most boys who are not in school or college are work-
ing, often in jobs other than the professional positions to
which they once aSpired. However, most girls who are not
in school or college not only are not working but, in con—
trast to female students, do not report any occupational as-
piration. If they can not be doctors, professors, or teach-
ers, they can rarely find jobs. The process of accommodating
one's aspirations to the available job Opportunities, which
most boys must accept, is paralleled for middle class girls
by the process of accommodating themselves to becoming house-
wives. The end of a middle class girl's formal education

is Often a time of personal crisis. NO matter how much the

103
typical boy readjusts his occupational goals, the process
is rarely as discontinuous as the abrupt change in aspir-
ations which is typical for a girl at the termination of

her schooling.

Role Models

 

In the individual interview, each adolescent was asked,
"Among the adults you know: people in your household, rela-
tives, neighbors, teachers,and others —- whom would you most
like to be like?" Less than half of the tOtal number of ado—
lescents interviewed were willing to name someone they em-
ulated. The proportion was lowest in Panchanantala where
only two girls and nine boys named someone, but even in the
other neighborhoods more than a third of the adolescents
said there is no one person they emulate.

A boy, in designating whom he emulates, typically chooses
an older male in the same occupation to which he aspires or,
less frequently, whose behavior is admirable. One fourth
of the boys selected a member of their household: father,
father's brother, or an older brother -- and several boys
selected other relatives outside the household. The fre—
quency with which males mention family members and the high
rate of congruence Of the model?s occupation with their own
occupational goals suggest again the continuity of the typ-
ical boy's socialization. ‘

In contrast, girls in Mallik Para and Badur Bagan do

not want to follow in their mother's steps. Only one girl,

104
one of the two in Panchanantala who designated a role model,
named her mother. Nor did any girl name any other female
member of her household, though some designated relatives
who live outside the neighborhood. With few exceptions, the
mothers of girls interviewed in Badur Bagan and Mallik Para
have only a primary or secondary education and pass their
time as housewives. The women identified as role models
are characterized by higher education and by occupational
roles. Eleven of the twenty-four women designated as role
models by girls in Badur Bagan are explicitly described as
having at least an M. A. degree; others also may have mas-
ter's degrees. Eleven of the twenty-five women designated
as role models by girls in Mallik Para were explicitly stat-
ed to have at least a bachelor's degree. Professors, school
teachers,and doctors, and also a chartered accountant, an
advocate, a social worker, a nurse, an office—worker,and a
professional Singer were among the women whom girls in Mal-
lik Para and Badur Bagan want to be like.

Where the role characteristics emulated by a girl are
traditionally held by males, a man is often named as the
person She emulates. NO boy designated a woman as his role
model, but seven girls in Mallik Para and twelve in Badur
Bagan named men as role models. A unique example is the
girl who wants to be a pilot like Tapan Chowdhury, an Air
Force flyer killed in action in 1965. Six girls want to
follow the example of male relatives who have gone to Great

Britain or the United States for doctoral studies. Others

105
have fathers, Older brothers,or professors in fields like
medicine, law, engineering and the physical sciences which
these girls hope to enter. Achieving, active, socially
recognized people demonstrate the possible alternatives
to passive womanhood. Thus, in Badur Bagan where some
girls can conceptualize an individualistic life-style,
but where far fewer women than men pursue careers, one
third of the girls who designated a role model Specified
a man.

After education and occupation, appearance and mari-
tal status are the characteristics of role models most
frequently remarked upon by girls. The inclusion of a
favorable comment on her appearance appears to be an af-
firmation of the marriageability of the role model. In
Badur Bagan five of the ten female role models whose mar—
ital status is designated are Single. A girl who says
that the woman she emulates is good looking implies that
the model has chosen to have an occupation, and is not
working Simply because her family can not find a suitable
husband for her. The role model is not only a progressive,
working woman, but also meets the traditional criterion
of feminine acceptability--beauty. The physical appear-
ance of a male role model was never mentioned by girls or

by boys.

CHAPTER IV

RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEERS

A basic premise of this chapter is that the interper-
sonal skills learned in clubs, which are age groups with
multiple relationships, differ qualitatively from skills
learned in friendships, which are diadic. Friendships are
an important extension of an individual's diffuse, partic-
ularistic, and affective bonds outside the kin group to his
social peers. Age groups, including clubs, serve as chan-
nels for the learning of universalistic, achievement-oriented
role diSpOSitionS. Clubs with an emphasis on games, eSpeci-
ally Sports, facilitate the development of the generalized
other; that is, in getting the attitude of the group as
distinct from that of a separate individual. This ability
to put himself into relation with whole groups is a primary
element in leadership (Mead 1964: 216-228).

Eisenstadt postulated that ”age groups arise in soci-
eties in which the family (or kinship group) does not con-
stitute the main unit of the social and economic division
of labor, and in which the individual must acquire and learn
various general role diSpositionS which cannot be learned
within the family" (1956: 270).12 The prevalance of clubs
as age groups in the three neighborhoods studied in an in-
dustrializing metrOpolitan area in which jobs are not effect-

ively controlled by the kin group is consistent with Eisen-

stadt's postulate. There is some evidence that peer

106

107

relationships in Bengali villages were, and perhaps still
are, primarily diadic, with an emphasis on friendships
rather than age groups.

Eisenstadt's theoretical formulation may be extended
to include variations in the socialization of different
segments Of a Single society. In the neighborhoods studied
age groups are an important socializing force for most ado-
lescent boys but not for most adolescent girls. The rela-
tive importance of friendships and clubs in the socializa-
tion of adolescent girls and boys is found to differ signif-
icantly. The peer relationships of boys are centered around
neighborhood clubs. Each Of the neighborhoods has an active
Sports and puja club formed by local boys. Many boys are
also members of clubs outside the neighborhood. The peer
relations of girls, however, are primarily diadic, consist-

ing Of friendships with Specific others.

Friendships

 

Friendships are characterized by diffuse, particular-
istic, and affective interpersonal bonds. Friendships are
intimate, encompassing, and enduring. However, some rela-
tionships within the family also have these same qualities.
An element of choice and the equalitarian nature of friend-
ship differentiate it from kinship.

Although a child's family and kin group are almost en—
tirely fixed by birth, he has some choice of his friends.

A child's range Of choice is limited by the supply of

108

potential friends among children of the same sex and simi-
lar age within his area of mobility. Within their circle
of acquaintances, children form a few friendships which, for
whatever reasons, are mutually satisfying. In Bengal friend-
ships may be encouraged, but cannot be imposed by adults,
even though marriages are often arranged by adults. Friend-
ships may also be formed with classmates or other peers whose
families are not directly known to each other. The word
"bandhu" is not used as casually as Americans use the word
"friend." A Bengali friendship is typically intimate and
enduring, but over time may fade or be broken. In discon—
tinuing friendships, as in forming them, youth have consid-
erable choice although parental.injunctionsare not unknown.

The equalitarian character of friendship contrasts with
the elaborate ranking within the Bengali Hindu kinship sys-
tem. In this system Siblings and cousins are ranked by
their age relative to ego°s° Ego addresses and refers to
brothers older than himself as ggg; and to older sisters as
gigg. Younger Siblings are referred to by the generic term
for brother, bhii, or sister, bgn, and are addressed by
name. If ego has more than one Older brother, the brothers
are ranked according to birth order: hero for the Oldest,
£219 for the second, sejg for the third, and ghgtg for the

youngest. These terms are prefixed to dada and contracted

 

as barda, mejda, sejda, and choda. Brothers and sisters
are ranked separately. The same set of prefixes is used for

older Sisters and also for ego°s parents° brothers and

109

Sisters and their Spouses. The children Of ego's father's
and mother's siblings are classificatory siblings to ego
and are addressed and referred to as Siblings, with adjec—
tives Specifying the exact relationship, if necessary for
clarity. The terms gig; and did; are also used to indicate
respect in addressing unrelated persons somewhat but not too
much older than ego (unless of considerably lower status).

Relations among children Of the same age, chiefly
neighborhood children and classmates, are equalitarian. It
is among these children that friendships are formed. The
form Of address is familiar (tgmg) or intimate (32;) and
names are used reciprocally.

In the individual interviews, each adolescent was
asked a series of questions about his best friend and then
about each of his other friends. The number of friends des-
cribed by the respondents ranged from none to eight, with a
median of two, as Shown in Table 4.1. The patience of the
interviewers and their rapport with the reSpondentS may have
influenced the number of reSponses. One interviewer failed
to record the particulars about some Of the friends named,
mainly by male respondents in Badur Bagan and Panchanantala,
and it is possible that he may have elicited fewer responses
as well. However, in Mallik Para where there was a long
period of observation and casual conversation before inter-
viewing was begun, and where another interviewer, who was
very thorough, interviewed most Of the boys, the discrepancy

in the median number of friends named by the boys and girls

110
is even greater. The reliability of the findings would be
increased if the Study were repeated in other neighborhoods,
but I am reasonably confident that the differences in the
number of friends reported reflect differences in the Oppor-
tunities to form friendships and in the relative importance
Of diadic relationships.

The number of reported friendships varies with the
social class of the neighborhood, according to whether the
respondent is a student or not, and with the respondent's
sex as Shown in Tables 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4

Adolescents in Panchanantala report significantly
fewer friendships than adolescents in either of the middle
class neighborhoods. The number of friends is eSpecially
low for married girls. (Married as well as unmarried girls
were included in the sample in Panchanantala because there
were SO few unmarried girls between the ages of thirteen
and twenty-five.) After their marriages girls typically
lose contact with childhood friends. Most of these girls;
have not been married long enough to form friendships in
Panchanantala. Several of the girls and their husbands have
only recently migrated to Calcutta after Spending the first
years of their marriages in the husbands' villages. By con-
trast unmarried girls and boys in Panchanantala usually re-
port at least one friendship. Still, the number of friend-
ships reported by unmarried adolescents adolescents in Pan-
chanantala is lower than the number reported by youth in

other neighborhoods. High mobility, early entry into the

111
TABLE 4.1

DISTRIBUTION OF REPORTED FRIENDSHIPS

 

 

 

Number Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
of Females Males Females Males Females Males
friends NS S NS S NS S NS S NS S NS S
0 12 1 10 0 2 0 0 1 4 4 0 1
1 5 0 12 3 4 1 3 4 2 4 4 8
2 4 0 3 2 1 3 5 10 4 6 3 6
3 3 0 3 5 0 3 1 6 0 11 l 10
4 l 0 1 1 4 9 0 3 2 l9 0 5
5 O O 0 O 2 11 1 4 O 4 O 1
6+ _9._2 _2_0‘ __3._§ .52.; .941. _9_9.
Totals 26 1 29 ll 16 33 14 29 12 52 8 31

NS Non-students

S Students

 

labor force, little leisure time and low self esteem are prob-
ably among the factors which discourage the development of
enduring interpersonal relationships by lower class youth.’
Students report Significantly more friendships than
adolescents who are not in school or college. The relation-
ship exists fOr both girls and boys in each.neighborhood ex—
cept for girls in Panchanantala where there is only one
female student and for boys in Mallik Para where students
and non-students report the same average number Of friends.

Further examination of the relationship between student

112
TABLE 4.2
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUMBER OF REPORTED FRIENDSHIPS

AND NEIGHBORHOOD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number

of Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan Totals

Friends
0-2 52 34 46 132
By 14 58 57 129
Totals 66 92 103 261

Chi square = 29.28, df = 2, p<.001

 

status and number of reported friendships in each of the
columns in Table 4.1, indicates, moreover, that male stu-
dents in Panchanantala report as many friendships, on the
average (median), as male students in Mallik Para or Badur
Bagan. Education is, thus, an important leveling factor,
whether because students have more leisure in which to form
friendships or because the prestige of educational achieve—
ment makes them more desirable as friends.

The number of reported friendships has been shown to
be related to the social class of the neighborhood in which
the reSpondent lives and to his student status. QIn the pre-
ceeding chapters a series of educational and occupational

variables have been consistently shown to be related to

113
TABLE 4.3
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUMBER OF REPORTED FRIENDSHIPS

AND STUDENT STATUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of

friends Non-Student Student Totals
0-2 78 54 132
3+ 26 ‘ 103 129
Totals 104 157 261

Chi square = 41.26, df = l, p<.001

 

social class, student status, and also to the sex of the
reSpondent. Males have scored higher on these variables
along with youth from higher class neighborhoods and stu-
dents. In the number of reported friendships, however,
females report significantly more friendships than males.
This relationship is not established by females in Pan-
chanantala who have few friends, but by females in Mallik
Para and Badur Bagan who report many friendships.

This finding seems to contradict the accumulating
evidence that adolescent males generally have greater op-
portunities for personal development. However, further
consideration of thealternative modes of interaction
developed by boys in clubs indicates that the middle class
girl's continuing emphasis on friendship through adolescence

is a fixation rather than a progression. The high number

114
TABLE 4.4

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUMBER OF REPORTED FRIENDSHIPS AND SEX

 

 

Number of

 

 

 

 

 

 

friends Female Male Totals
0-2 57 75 132
3+ 82 47 129
Totals 139 122 261

Chi square = 10.89, df = l, p<.001

 

of friendships reported by middle class adolescent females
is interpreted to reflect a blockage of their movement into
the kind of group relationships formed by adolescent males
in clubs and a consequent over-emphasis on diadic relation-
ships. Because their marriages are typically postponed to
the late teens or early twenties and because they are not
in the labor force, middle class female adolescents have
the time and resources to develop interpersonal relation-
ships. However, restrictions imposed on girls at about the
time of puberty limit their modes of interaction.

Physical activity is restricted by the change from the
frock to the sari. Girls wear cotton dresses until they
reach puberty, but begin wearing saris regularly thereafter.
The school uniform for girls in the lower school classes
is typically a white dress with a sash in the school's color;
for girls in the upper classes it is typically a white sari

with a border in the school's color. Many schools make the

115
transition in Class IX; other schools change a year or two
earlier. In some schools the dress varies with the indiv-
idual girl's age and development rather than by class.
Bengali girls sometimes wear the Punjabi style of dress,
usually for Specific periods of physical activity. Punjabi
dress may be worn frequently during the transition to saris,
but "modesty" (1311;) was said to keep older girls from
wearing it.

The relationship between the activities which the res-
pondents reported sharing with their best friends and the
respondent's sex are shown in Table 4.5 (In this and.the
following tables only the characteristics attributed to the
best or first named friend are included, to avoid any bias
towards the type of friend preferred by those adolescents
who report many friendships.) Conversation is the activity
most frequently reported by both girls and boys. For girls,
however, conversation is almost the only pasttime shared
with friends. Boys report playing games or sports almost
as frequently as conversation. A few girls also mention
playing, but these are girls between the ages of thirteen
and fifteen who have not made the transition to the sari
and still wear "frocks." Among the other activities men-
tioned, boys more often report walking around the city,.
whereas, if girls report an activity other than conversa-
tion, it is most often studying, eSpecially in Badur Bagan.
Both boys and girls occasionally reported going to the mov-

ies with their friends.

116

TABLE 4.5
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACTIVITIES SHARED WITH BEST FRIEND
AND RESPONDENT'S SEX

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Female Male Totals
Conversation 102 48 150
Sports and games 11 43 54
Other activities 38 30 68
Totals 151 121 272

Chi square = 36.37, df = 2, p<.001

Conversation - galpa karé is the term generally used. Adda,
used by a few older Boys, was also coded as conversation.
Adda has a group rather than diadic connotation. &

Sports and games - khelé karfi refers to the playing of any
sport or game and was sometimes preceded by the game played:
soccer (football), Cricket, badminton, caroms or cards.

 

Other activities include: "Walking or wandering about the city"
- beran5 55 a, ghuriyé beran6; "studying" — lekhfi para;
mov1es — Cinema; bathing and singing. ‘ '

 

 

More than one activity was often reported and is included.

 

Restrictions are imposed not only on the activities of
girls, but also on the places where they can gather for infor-
mal interaétion. Girls are discouraged from hanging around the
neighborhood after they have reached puberty. Older girls gen-
erally talk with their friends inside their homes whereas boys
more often sit on a low wall, lean against a tree, loiter
around the playing field,or stroll up and down the street.
There is usually no restriction of a girl's movement between
houses within the neighborhood, but standing leisurely and wait-
ing for something to happen, as boys may do, is criticized if
done by girls. These differences in the restriction of casual

interaction in public places are reflected in the places where

girls and boys get together with their friends, as shown in

117

Table 4.6. Boys usually meet their friends in the neighborhood!
or on the street. Girls, and especially the older girls, get )
together with their friends at home, school, or college. In
Panchanantala, where the rooms are barely large enough for a
bed, and where girls are not in school, girls as well as boys
must meet their friends in the neighborhood. Because there is
no substantial relaxation of norms on public modesty, the effect
seems to be to limit interaction among older girls in the bustee.
The relationship between where a reSpondent first met his
best friend and the reSpondent's sex is shown in Table 4.7.
Most boys and girls met their best friend in the neighborhood,
but a larger proportion of girls than boys met their best
friends at school or college. Of all reported friendships
(not only the best or first-reported friendships), most female
friendships are initiated at school or college, but most male
friendships are initiated in the neighborhood. AdoleScent girls
more often than boys accord their classmates the status of
friend. There appear to be no differences in the structure of
the schools or colleges which boys and girls attend or in the
time Spent at school, which account for the differences in the
in the proportion of friends who are classmates. .The explana-
tion appears rather to lie in the relative attractiveness of
the alternative modes of interaction open to boys and girls.
The activities of boys after School are mainly group Sports
whereas girls sit at home talking or studying with a friend.
Visiting and talking with school friends appears to be rela-

tively more attractive than staying home, but less attractive

than playing soccer. Moreover, it is relatively easy for one

118

TABLE 4.6

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLACE WHERE BEST FRIENDS
CONGREGATE AND RESPONDENT'S SEX

 

 

Female Male Totals
Neighborhood 2 52 84
Home 49 13 62

School or college 35 l 47
Other places 7 8 25

 

Totals 123 95 218
Chi square = 38.8, df = 3, p<.001

Other places include the reSpondent's home village, a club
or playing field, or a friend or relative's home.

If the respondent meets his friend in two places, both have
been recorded.

TABLE 4.7
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WHERE BEST FRIENDSHIP ORIGINATED
' AND RESPONDENT'S SEX '

 

 

Female Male Totals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neighborhood 57 71 128
School or’college 48 19 67
Other places 9 20 ' 29

Totals 114 100‘ 214

Chi Square = 18.4, df = 2, p<.001

Other places where respondents met their best friends
include their home villages, a club or playing field,
and a friend's or relative's home in order of their
frequency. '

 

119
student to make arrangements to visit another after school.
However, unless a school or club formally arranges for Sports,
the easiest way for a group of boys to gather regularly for
playing is within the neighborhood. It is apparently as a
consequence of factors such as these that girls attach greater
importance than boys to relationships formed at school or

college.

Formal Friendships—-Patano Bandhu
In Bengal there is a traditional procedure for the formal-
ization of friendships through the adoption of a Special form
of address and a ritual exchange. The generic name for "formal

friends" is péténo bandhu. Day describes formal friendship

 

among boys in a Burdwan village in the late nineteenth century.

Indeed, a Bengali peasant lad has generally three
friends, all of them close and intimate; and there

does not seem to be the slightest jealousy mainfested

by them. The three friends have three different names.

A boy generally has a séfigét, a bandhu, and a mita--

all meaning the same thing, namely, friend. But when
one peasant boy says to another peasant boy "you are my
sangat," he can never become his bandhu or mita; the
sangat remains sangat all his life: and the same is true
of'the bandhu and the mita. Nor do these words indicate
different degrees of intimacy, as a boy is equally intim-
ate with all three. A mita is usually one's namesake,
but)this is by no means invariably the case (1872: 150-
151 . " ‘

Girls formalize friendships in the same way. §§i, mean;
ing female friend, is mentioned by Day and seems to be the
most common friendship term used by Bengali girls. §§i
is the name used in five of the eight formal friendships

reported in Panchanantala and in two of the three

120
reported in Badur Bagan. A sai friendship was reported only
once in Mallik Para, by a girl who formed the friendship at

her mother's brother's house (mémfir bari) in the village.

 

Nita, especially between girls with the same name, and bandhu
are used by girls as well as boys, but I have never heard
S"g't, which has a rather coarse connotation, used between
girls.

There are also friendship names which indicate the
ritual object exchanged or the ritual occasion on which the
ceremony is performed. Makar, pgég, and 2221 are the friend—
ship names most frequently used by girls in Mallik Para and
are of these types. A Makar friendship is initiated on
Makar SankrEnti, "the last day the sun is in the zodiacal
Sign of Capricorn" (Makar), which is the last day of the
Bengali month Paus, in the middle of January. The two
friends feed each other Makar gggi, a Special rice. A gégar
friendship is initiated by the exchange of sagarjal, "water
brought from the Gangésagar," the confluence of the Ganges
River with the Bay of Bengal. This is an important pilgrim-
age Site on Makar Sankranti. Makar is the mount or vehicle
of the Goddess Ganga. A phag friendship is initiated on
Holi, called D61 in Bengal, by the exchange of phag or‘éblr,
"a red powder" used to smear one another on this Spring
holiday. A phgl friendship is initiated through the ex—
change of flowers (Raul) and is not limited to any one day.
Several kinds of flowers may be used, and in a variation of

the phul friendship, friends call each other by the name of

121

 

the flowers exchanged, such as chanpé, jui, or belphul.
In addition to the ritual object exchanged, the friends
may exchange sweets and sometimes a dress or sari.

Formal friendships may be initiated at any age during
childhood, adolescence,or adulthood. The forty formal
friendships for which the age of initiation was reported
by girls in Mallik Para were formed between the ages of
six and seventeen with the median at eleven years.

Patano bandhu may be of the same or different castes.

 

In Mallik Para less than one third of the patano bandhu
are between girls of the same jat;. Day, though noting
that interdining may be restricted, also says that pgtago
bandhu may be of different castes. "Amongst the different
classes of the peasantry and artisans of Bengal, there is
a vast deal of friendly intercourse; and it is by no means
an uncommon thing for lads of different castes to vow eter-
nal friendship with one another" (1872: 149). Nor is caste
ordinarily a consideration in any of the friendship choices
an adolescent makes. Less than one third of all the friend—
ships reported by boys and girls were between members of
the same 133i, which is about what might be eXpected by
chance, eSpecially in Badur Bagan where two castes account
for eighty-one per cent of the households and in Mallik Para
where three castes account for seventy-five per cent of the
households. ‘
Caste is indirectly related to social class, and the

neighborhoods studied were selected on the basis of

122

differences in social class. In each of the neighborhoods
studied there is a range of castes, but the proportions of
different castes vary, and the lowest ranked castes are
not included in any of the neighborhoods studied. Both
Mallik Para and Panchanantala include a few families be-
longing to scheduled castes, but there are no practicing
sweepers or scavengers in any of the neighborhoods studied.
Thus, residential patterns limit the contact of adoles-
cents with others of sharply divergent means and indirect-
ly limit their contact with members of other castes. But
within the limits of his acquaintance a boy or girl can
choose friends without regard to caste.

Boys and girls rarely choose their relatives as
friends, perhaps only because they are seldom of the same
age. In no instance did a boy or girl name his own bro-

ther or Sister as a friend or patano bandhu, and well

 

under five per cent of all friendship choices were be-
tween recognized relatives.

In villages the tradition of formalizing friendships
seems to be practiced as much by boys as girls. In the
three neighborhoods studied, however, only girls have for-
mal friendships. Adolescent boys stated that formalizing
friendships was only for girls, even though I found exam—
ples of formal friendships between boys in villages where
I was taken by neighborhood families. A few older men in
the three neighborhoods did admit having patano bandhu in

the villages where they grew up, but not in the city.

123

The rejection of the custom of formalizing friendship
by one sex, while it is maintained by the other suggests
sex-Specific changes in the structure of peer relation-
ships. The cessation of formal friendships between boys
is another example of the emphasis on diadic relationships
between boys being diSplaced by the increasing involvement
of urban male adolescents in neighborhood athletic clubs.

Even among girls the frequency of formal friendships
differs among the three neighborhoods studied. Formal
friendships are initiated by more girls in Mallik Para
than in Panchanantala or Badur Bagan. Over half of the

adolescent girls in Mallik Para reported having from one

 

to four patano bandhu. In Panchanantala one third of the

girls reported having patano bandhu, but in Badur Bagan

 

only three of the Sixty-four girls interviewed have patano
bandhu. Girls in Badur Bagan suggest that the custom is
"rural" (ggéi) and unsophisticated. The custom of formal-
izing friendships is mainly rural. However, boys in Mallik
Para are as "rural" as girls in Mallik Para, but only girls
have patano bandhu. Variation along a continuum from aS-
cription to achievement-orientation differentiates girls
and boys in Mallik Para,.and more generally also differen-
tiates the rural and urban patterns of division of labor.
In the predominantly ascriptive rural social system dif-
fuse, particularistic relationships, including friendShips,
are emphasized. By contrast, in an achievement—oriented

neighborhood like Badur Bagan, where girls as well as boys

124
can become professionals through educational achievement,

relatively specific, universalistic relationships are em—

.phasized. In Chapter III it was shown that with the pre-

.sent employment pattern for women, girls in Mallik Para

Izave less opportunity than girls in either Badur Bagan or

I?anchanantala to find employment. Girls in Mallik Para,

:Like rural adolescents, are caught in an ascriptive sys-

t:em in which their futures are largely determined by the

family through arranged marriages.

Clubs
The distribution of club membership by neighborhood

Earns sex is shown in Table 4.8. For both boys and girls

fiseeparately the proportion of adolescents who have been
<=£Lub members increases with the social class of the neigh-

There are proportionately fewer club members in

borhood .
IPanchanantala than in either of the middle class neighbor-

Iixmods. In each neighborhood a much higher proportion of

IDCJYS than girls belong to clubs.
the boys in both Mallik Para and Badur Bagan belong to

Over three-fourths of

Q1 ubs, but even in Badur Bagan less than one-fourth of
3

‘tllnue girls reported having ever beenta member of a club.1

Not only do a significantly higher preportion of

b'bys than girls join clubs, as shown in Table 4.9, but

beS also remain club members over a longer period than

Sari-Jrls. Girls generally belong to Special girls' sections

<:’:E? predominantly male clubs.

I.

The activities for girls

125
TABLE 4.8

DISTRIBUTION OF CLUB MEMBERSHIP

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Female Male Female .Male Female Male
.N % N % N % N % N % N %

 

Club members 2 8% 12 31% 9 18% 34 79% 14 22% 29 81%
Non-members 24 92% 21 69% 49 82% _9 21% 32 78% _Z 19%

Totals 26 100% 39 100% 49 100% 43 100% 63 100% 36 100%
A person was classified as a club member if he had ever been
a member of a club. Fifteen of the twenty-five girls, but
only two of the seventy-five boys are no longer active mem-
bers of clubs to which they formerly belonged.

Eight respondents who did not answer the question were not
included in the tabulation.

 

TABLE 4.9
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLUB MEMBERSHIP AND

RESPONDENT'S SEX

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Female Male Totals
Club members 25 i 75 100
Non-members 113 43 156
Totals . 138 118 256

Chi square 2 55.17, df = l, p<.001

 

126

include bratacErI (a type of folk dance), drill, exercises,

 

singing,and dramatics. These activities are intended pri-
marily for preadolescent girls, and most girls drop out
of such clubs before the age of sixteen. Over half of the
adolescent girls who reported having belonged to clubs, are
no longer members of these clubs.

Each of the neighborhoods studied has a boys' Sports
and puja club. The Bangiya Tarun Samiti,"Bengali Young Men's
Clubf'includes the majority of the boys interviewed in Badur
Bagan. The members range in age from fourteen to twenty-

four. At present the club is only for boys, but there was

 

formerly an active girls' section with bratacari, drill and
other activities. In Badur Bagan there is also a club, the
Netaji Bélyak Sanga, "Netaji Boys' Club," for boys between
the ages of nine and fourteen. Like the older boys' club
it is primarily a Sports and puja club.

The Mallik Para Boys' Association is the neighborhood
Sports and puja club in Mallik Para; Its members ranged
in age between fifteen and twenty-two.

The Panchanantala Bhratri Sanga, "Panchanantala Brother's
Association," like the other neighborhood clubs, is a Sports
and puja club. Its members range in age from fourteen to
eighteen and are generally somewhat younger than boys in
the other neighborhood clubs.

Residence in the neighborhood is the primary cirterion
for membership in each of these clubs. None of the clubs

owns a club house. The dues vary but are collected primarily

127
through subscriptions to pay the expenses of conducting a
puja. Additional funds are raised, if necessary for buying
athletic equipment. When they are not playing or practic-
ing, club members often hang around together talking. For
this kind of free-flowing group conversation, the term

adda rather than galpa karfi is generally used. Smoking,

 

which is strictly proscribed in the presence of one's eld-
ers, is often enjoyed by club members among themselves.

In addition to the relatively informal neighborhood
clubs, there are numerous athletic clubs in Calcutta and
Howrah which offer programs for both adults and adolescents.
Many of these are well organized institutions, with their
own club houses and playing fields and with substantial
budgets. Some clubs are organized for a Specific sport,
such as hockey, soccer, cricket, swimming, shooting,or
gymnastics. Others offer a variety of Sports and some may
have a library or reading room, a dramatic section,or pro-
grams of community service. Some clubs have ties to polit-
ical organizations (see Bose 1968: 49-59).

Because adults plan the programs and control the fi-
nances in the larger athletic clubs, youth do not get as
much opportunity to develop organizational skills as in
neighborhood clubs. Athletic clubs may, however, offer
superior facilities and instruction for developing physical
skills. In addition, athletic clubs often provide the model
on which neighborhood clubs are organized. The Opportunities

for development which the two types of clubs offer, thus,

128

compliment one another. To the extent that adults impose
stability and eXpertise, adolescents must relinquish the
initiative in planning and executing their activities.

Neighborhood boys clubs were passed over quickly by
the researchers studying voluntary organizations under
Bose (1968: 58-59) because they are transitory, unstable,
too small to be powerful, and too numerous to catalogue.
Neighborhood clubs do not ordinarily contribute tangible
social services, but it is my contention that they are more
effective than larger clubs in developing the social or-
ientations and skills necessary for group leadership. In
order to be effective in this way, neighborhood clubs must
be relatively unstable. Because adolescence is brief,
there must be a rapid turnover of boys exercising author-
ity, lest one age group lose the Opportunity to learn or-
ganizational skills. In some neighborhood clubs there is
a gradual transition in membership as older members drop
out and younger boys are included. In other neighborhoods
where there isn't adequate recruitment and transfer of
power, one informal club is replaced by another, gener-
ally younger, group with a new name. Neighborhood clubs
must also be relatively small if they are to be democratic,
offering a maximum opportunity for each adolescent to par-

ticipate in the decision-making process.

129

Sarvajanin Pujas

 

In his discussion of the conditions under which ado-
1escent age groups become deviant, that is, work in oppo—
sition to the goals of the larger society, Eisenstadt out-
lines three levels of the extent of harmony between age-
groups and the general social structure. The degree of
integrative orientation of age-groups is indicated, at the
highest level, by ”the extent to which fully institution-
alized roles are allocated to age groups" (Eisenstadt
1956: 277). The performance of Sarvajanin Pujas by neigh-
borhood clubs has this kind of integrative potential. A
puja is an eXpressive, integrative religious ceremony which
demonstrates and enhances the solidarity of the group which
Sponsors it, whether that group is a family, a neighborhood
club, a caste association, or some other institution. In
the neighborhoods studied, adults delegate to the youth in
the neighborhood clubs the arrangement of Saraswati, Kali,
and sometimes, Durga Pujas. Saraswati Puja is also cele-
brated separately by some families and is celebrated in many
schools. Durga Puja is the most important and most expensive
puja and is typically Sponsored by the larger clubs with
adult supervision. Bose describes the change from family
to Sarvajanin Pujas.

The net result has been that the loyalties to

the joint family or the parish have no longer very

much opportunity to feed upon. New social integra-

tions tend to Spring up in their place; and one of

the curious directions in which this has been taking

place happens to be temporary and very casual in

character. In every quarter inhabited by Bengali
residents, there is a multiplicity of public worship

130

of various gods and goddesses. Formerly, the wor—
ship of Durga or Saraswati or Viswakarma was a
matter in which particular families or castes were
privately concerned. Even if there was ostenta—
tion, the functions remained, in most cases, pri-
vate. Barwari or public organizations were not very
numerous. In contrast, today, the soaring number

of Sarvajanin Puja, or "collective worship" gives
the young men of a locality an excuse for clubbing
together for a while. The rise and enthusiasm cre-
ated by Sporting clubs all over the town affords
another excuse of a similar nature; only, in the
latter event, the integration happens to be on a
comparatively more durable scale (Bose 1967: 347-48).

 

The urban neighborhood is not a center for the produc-
tive or eXpreSSive activities of the majority of adult men
who work and find recreation outside the neighborhood. Nor
are urban neighborhoods an important locus for women's ac-
tivities. Most women have a few friends in the immediate
vicinity of their homes, but for social interaction a woman
is as likely to visit relatives in another part of the city
as to go to the far side of the neighborhood. A social de-
finition of urban neighborhoods seems to require consider-
ation of the groupings of adolescent and preadolescent
boys. It is the solidarity of these boys in their neigh-
borhood clubs which is enhanced by the performance of Sar-
vajanin Pujas. At another level neighborhood pujas also
eXpress the respect of youth for the religious values and
symbols of the larger community. With adult support for
the youth through contributions and sponsorship neighbor—
hood pujas increase the harmony between adolescents and
their elders. There is a tremendous potential fOr inter—
generational conflict in Calcutta in an economic situation

in which adults cannot adequately fulfill the demand for

131
education or provide for the entry of youth into the occu-
pations for which they have been trained. The importance
of the integrative activities of neighborhood boys clubs
in this situation should not be overlooked.

Making the arrangements for a neighborhood puja also
provides practical experience in organizing a complex
social event. The boys must collect contributions, nego-
tiating with each household for a suitable sum. Accounts
must be kept and are usually published in the puja bro-
chure. Almost every club which organizes Durga Puja has
a puja brochure for which advertisements must be solicited,
articles written, photographs and art work assembled,and
arrangements made with a printer. The pandal must be built
and arrangements made for lighting and sound. The image
must be ordered. Lumber, cloth, decorations for the pandal,
and the food to be used as offered to the deity must all
be purchased.

The collective acts of bringing the image from the
potter, keeping watch over it through each night, hiring
a truck, and finally, culminating in the procession to the
Ganges for immersion enhance group solidarity. They also
ostentatiously demonstrate to other clubs each group's
ability to command support in the locality.

Generally, neighborhood girls play a relatively small
part in the final stages of the preparations in such tasks
as drawing 31 anfi, which are designs made with a thin paste

of ground rice, making flower garlands, and preparing the

132
fruit which is to be offered to the Goddess. The planning
and supervision of the puja are done almost entirely by
boys. A few girls get eXperience in planning a puja if

their schools celebrate Saraswati Puja.

m ".3

EEEEE! "devotional vows,? are the primary religious
rituals performed by girls in all of the neighborhoods stud-
ied. B5253 are performed individually by a girl or woman
to increase her pupya, "virtue" or "religious merit," as
well as for specific objectives. In Mallik Para a larger
proportion of girls have performed brat§,and they have gen-
erally performed more brats than girls in Badur Bagan or
Panchanantala. That this is not simply a carryover of a
rural custom is indtzated by the frequency with which books
are consulted to learn additional brat; as well as to learn
the "correct" way of performing a brata with which a girl
or woman is generally familiar.

The brat; most frequently performed by girls in Mal-
lik Para are Sibbrata, Kulkulti, Jaymangalbar, Punyapukur,
Harir Caran, and DaS Putul. Girls in Badur Bagan observe
Itu, Sibbrata and Jaymangalbar. Perhaps a dozen more brat;
which may be observed by unmarried girls were reported by
a few girls or by girls who lived outside the neighborhoods
studied. Sibritri is observed by the majority of the girls
in all three neighborhoods.

Sibbrata is performed by girls every morning in the

133
month of BaiSSkh (April—May). A girl rises very early and
bathes, in the Ganges if possible. She makes a Bib lifi a,
a phallic representation of the god Siva,:tof clay and
worships it with flowers and leaves, so that she will have
a husband like Siva.

Kulkulti is performed by girls every evening in the
month of Karttik (Oct.-Nov.). A girl lights three radi ,
"small clay lamps," under a tulsi tree, a symbol of Visnu.
521, ”plumr leaves are used in the worship.

Jaymangalbar, "Victorious Tuesday," is observed every
Tuesday in the month of Jyaista (May-June). Both girls and
married women perform this brata, fasting until noon, per-
forming puja to the Goddess Candi and eating only nirémis
or "vegetarian" food for the rest of the day.

Punyapukur, like Sibbrata and many other £5333, is
performed by girls every morning in the month of Baisakh.
A girl digs an elaborate hole in the courtyard. A branch
from 3.221: "wood apple," tree or sometimes from.a tglgi,
"basil," tree or both are planted in the hole. Worship
is conducted with cowrie shells, vermilion,and flowers.

Harir Caran, "Hari's Feet," is also observed in the
morning during the month of Baisakh. A pair of footprints
is drawn with sandalWood paste on a metal plate and wor-
shipped with flowers or ggrba grass.

Das Putul, "Ten Dolls," is also performed in the morn-
ing in the month of Baisakh. Ten figures are drawn in the

courtyard with ground rice paste. They represent ten gods

134
and goddesses whose qualities a girl wishes for herself
or family members. Repeating a verse, the girl prays
that her husband will be like Ram, and her devotion to
him like Sita's, that her d295, "husband's younger brother,"
will be like Laksman, her husband's father like Dasarath, her
husband's mother like Kausalya, and that her sons will be
like those of KuntI, etc.

Itu Puja, worshipping Itu, a form of the Sun God, is
more pOpular in Badur Bagan than in Mallik Para and may be
done by married women as well as girls. Seeds are planted
in an earthen pot in the month of Agrahfiyan (Nov.-Dec.) and
allowed to sprout. At the end of the month the pot, like
the image of a goddess, is immersed.

Sibratri, "Night of Siva," in the month of Phélgun
(Feb.—March) is not ordinarily thought of as afbrgta, or
"vow," because it is done on only one day of the year.
However, it requires an individual act of fasting and wor—
ship and is thus similar to bratg. A girl fasts the entire
day without food or water and then remains awake through
the following night worshipping Siva at approximately three
hour intervals. Many movie theaters offer all night pro-
grams, ostensibly to help the girls stay awake, but also
adding an aura of festivity. Another option is for girls
to go to public temples. Several of the girls in Panchan-
antala go to Kalighat to worship. The more serious girls,
however, maintain quiet vigils at home. Most girls in Mal-

lik Para continue to fast without water through the night

135
.and break the fast only after feeding a Brahmin the next
morning. In Badur Bagan an abbreviated form of the rit-
ual, in which a girl breaks her fast after sundown, is
more common.

All of these brata and many others may be performed
by a girl after she reaches the age of five. Any brata
undertaken Should be observed for four consecutive years
and may be repeated for four year periods. Several brata
may be done during the same years. There are additional

brata Specifically for married women and a few for widows.

Relationshipbetween Age Groups and Status Allocation

Whereas boys organize religious ceremOnies as a group
for the entire neighborhood, girls attempt to improve a
future over which they have little control by making and
keeping individual vows. Girls may develOp patience and
fortitude through fasting and careful adherence to prescribed
patterns of behavior, but they have little opportunity to
develop leadership or organizational Skills.

Similarly, while boys are developing teamwork through
group sports, the physical activity of girls is sharply
curtailed. Even during the preadolescent period when greater
physical activity is allowed, the types of activities which
are planned for girls are individualistic. In drill and
exercises girls repeat the actions of a leader. There is
no multiplicity of roles corresponding to the various pos-

itions in team Sports. Girls rarely have any opportunity

to play any team sport or game.

136

The few girls who belong to clubs for a Short period
almost all belong to clubs which are directed and super-
vised by adults. Girls rarely have the opportunity to ~
establish informal neighborhood clubs, and thus less chance
to make or implement group decisions or to develop leader-
ship skills. The role diSpositions developed through in-
tense diadic friendships and through individualistic ritu-
als are particularistic, diffuse,and ascriptive”

Bose indicates that the widespread proliferation of
Sarvajanin Pujas and Sporting clubs among boys ihfiCalcutta
is relatively recent. The emergence of local sports and
puja clubs has apparently paralleled the transfer of the
allocation of productive labor from family and caste to
government bureaucracies and business and industrial corpor-
ations. This is consistent with Eisenstadt's postulate that
age groups are formed where the individual must acquire
universalistic, achievement-oriented role dispositions to
operate effectively in occupational systems which are not
controlled by the family.

Age groups have not, however, arisen in those segments
of the population in which the family still constitutes
the main unit in the social and economic division of labor.
Age groups have not arisen among females in Calcutta and
Howrah; for them the arranged marriage is still the pri-
mary allocative mechanism.

Age groups serve as a channel for the learning of some

of the general role diSpositions which the individual must

137

acquire to function in the economic and political Spheres
of an industrialized society. Universalistic, instrumental,
achievement-oriented role diSpOSitions are among the role
diSpositions which are generally learned outside the fam-
ily, in age groups. The two principal activities of neigh-
borhood clubs in Calcutta, competitive team Sports and the
organization of Sarvajanin Pujas, are ideally structured

to foster the development of these role diSpositions and

to integrate the age group with the larger community.

CHAPTER V
FAMILY STRUCTURE AND THE ALLOCATION OF LEGITIMATE

f

SEXUAL MATURITY

As in economic and political institutions, there are
adult statuses in the family which are allocated according
to cultural and societal standards of maturity. "One of
the main criteria of adulthood is defined as legitimate
sexual maturity, i.e., the right to establish a family, and
not merely the right to sexual intercourse" (Eisenstadt
1956: 30). The definition of legitimate sexual maturity
as the right to establish a family is not without ambiguous
implications. Just as the English word, family, has sever-
al referents, the Bengali word, aribEr, has at least three
denotations: wife, wife and children, and members of a man's
household. The right for a man to have a wife and children
must be distinguished from his right to set up a separate
household which is determined not only by sexual maturity
but also by normative patterns of residence and rules of
succession. '

It is also necessary to distinguish between legal rights
and customary practices. In Bengal the two are often con—
tradictory, with the legal system offering the individual
certain options which, however, may be exercised only at
the risk of social ostracism. Similarly, the words "right“
and ”establish" in Eisenstadt's definition imply a high de-

gree of individual control or choice, whereas the extent of

138

139
individual choice in deciding when or even whether to marry
and in the selection of a mate varies considerably among
and within societies.

Thus, the norms governing the allocation of legitimate
sexual maturity are imbedded in the family structure of a
particular society. Nevertheless, the use of generic terms
to describe family structure and status allocation facili-
tates cross cultural comparison and the develOpment of the-
oretical formulations.

Family Structure14

 

A modicum of Specificity in the analysis of family
structure may be obtained by Specifying the tevel of ab-
straction, what is shared, and who Shares it. From among
the many family typologies, the definitions of these three
dimensions drawn up by Goode (1963a), Ames (1970), and
Kolenda (1968) are used here.

Goode describes three facets of the conjugal family
differing in the level of abstraction: the conjugal fam—
ily as an ideal-type construct, in the Weberian sense;
the conjugal family as a set of ideals viewed as legiti-
mate, prOper, or good; and the conjugal family as an ob-
servable pattern of behavior (196332240, 251). Analyses
of the joint family also refer variously to an ideal con—
struct, a set of ideals,and an observable pattern of
behavior.

With reference to what is shared by the Indian family,

140
Ames defines five "complementary structural dimensions
that are both closely interrelated and independently
variable" (1970: 3).
First, there is the custom or routine of budgeting,
cooking, and eating together in one common mess with
other family members (the commensal dimension, or
what some Indians call "messing together"); second,
there is the grouping of those who normally live
under one roof (residential or household dimension);
third, there is the unilineal corporation of those
who share joint rights to property (property or co-
parcenary dimension); fourth, there is the bilateral
network of mutual aid and obligation, the members
of which share certain institutionalized responsi-
bilities and privileges (network dimension); and
finally, there is the subjective dimension of the
peoples' idealized concepts or "models" of their
own social structure (ideal dimension) (Ames 1970:
3-4).
The first four of these dimensions refer to observable
patterns of behavior; the last to what Goode calls a set
of ideals. The principal differences between.AmeS' ter-
minology and that used here are my use of the word “house-
hold" to refer to the commensal dimension not the resi-
dential dimension and my use of the term "extended family"
to refer to a group of households which are commensally
separate, but share the same house or a cluster of ad—
jacent buildings (i.e., Ames' residential dimension). The
emphasis in this chapter is on the relationship between
the set of ideals accepted by the residents of the three
neighborhoods and the patterns of commensal, residential,
and coparcenary groupings.
Commensality is the criterion used by the Census of

India for defining households. Kolenda (1968: 344) compiled

the available quantitative data from twenty-six studies of

141
Indian family structure, and She found that although no two
social scientists had used precise1Y,the same rules for de-
fining family types, commensality-was the most frequently
used criterion for defining what is shared.

Legally‘a family is joint so long as it maintains a
joint estate regardless of whether it remains joint in food
or worship, though it need not own prOperty to be joint.

In his review Of studies on Indian family structure Bailey
(1960: 347) recommends using property ownership as the
principal criterion of family jointness. However, among
urban residents who receive monetary incomes from non-family
enterprises, complete coparcenary jointness is rare among
brothers and uncommon even between a father and his married
sons. In families which are commensally joint, members
often have separate bank accOunts and may own personal or
business property individually. Earning members often con-
tribute a fixed amount rather than their total salary to

a common household fund for food and other regular expenses.
Simultaneously they may be saving to build a separate house
or to pay for educational and marriage eXpenses for their
children. The urban property most frequently held jointly
is a house or houses built by an immediate ancestor. A

few families own business or industrial.firms jointly. Many
trespondents also retain a share in_yillage prOperty ranging
from the small house plot of a day laborer to large agri-.
cultural holdings and brick country homes. The wide varia-

tion in the extent of village property and the diverse nature

142
of coparcenary ties with village relatives complicates the
study of the urban joint family estate.
Propinquity and mutual kinship obligations bring to-
gether the extended family, defined here as two or more
households united-by kinship bonds and living in adjacent

dwellings. Even when not reinforced by commensal or co—

parcenary jointness, the presence of several households of
a single group of kinsmen affects the social structure of
a neighborhood.' When organized by an effective leader,
an extended family can be the'focus of local power and
*Social activity.

Kolenda defines twelve family types describing the
composition of the commensal household based'on four c1ass+
ifactory principles.

First, a joint family must include two related
married couples. Second, these couples may be
related lineally (usually in a father-son rela-
tionship, occasionally in a father—daughter re—
lationship), or collaterally (usually in a bro-
therAbrother relationship, occasionally in a bro-
ther-sister relationship). Third, the unmarried
relatives (including widowed Or_divorced) who are
not children of any of the married couples in a
family supplement the family,_whether it is a
joint, nuElear, or subnuclear family. Fourth,
where there is no married couple and the rela-
tives were formerly part of the same nuclear fam-
ily, then it is a subnuclear household. If;not,
it is either an'"other" type of household or a
single person houSehold (Kolenda 1968: 347—348).

 

Kolenda's definitions are used here in desoribing those who
comprise particular family types to increase the number of

studies using'Comparable categories, even though they dif-v
fer slightly from the popular Bengali understanding of fam-

15

ily jointness. Particularly with reference to a widowed

143
male head of a household who owns agricultural land or other
property which will be inherited and divided only after his
death, there is considerable logic in the local understand-
ing that this widower heads a joint household including his
married son. A widowed woman, however, is typically viewed
as supplementary to the household, if control of family
land or other property has been assumed by her son. Thus,
with respect to the coparcenary dimension, Kolenda's re-
quirement that there be two married couples for a joint
family is at times arbitrary, being contrary to the fact of

shared property.

The Conjugal Family and the Joint Family
as Ideal Constructs

A major focus in the study of the family has.been on
the relationship between family structure and economic
structure. It has been widely argued that the conjugal
or nuclear family as an ideal construct is functionally
appropriate for an industrial economy. Goode concludes
his review of studies of the relationship, ”In general,
the ideal type of the conjugal family demonstrably does
fit the central demands of an industrial system. On the
other hand, there are necessary strains between the two,
and there are theoretical and empirical limits on the ad-
justments between them" (19631: 251). The emphasis in in—
dustry on universalistically measured achievement as a
criterion for economic role allocation creates a stress

on the family for greater individual autonomy. The

144
conjugal family ideally allows greater personal autonomy
than most forms of joint family structure, though perhaps
not so much autonomy as in some forms of communal family
structure.

While recognizing that many forms of joint family
structure exist, Linton posited a generic "consanguine
family" as the principal alternative to conjugal family
structure and discussed its properties as an ideal construct
(1936: 159-63). Students of the Indian family have been
more specific in considering the relative compatibility
of the patrilineal, patrilocal extended or joint family
with urbanism and industrialism (Karve 1956; Kapadia 1966;
Ross 1961; and Sarma 1964). Kolenda summarizes many fac-
tors which appear to be conducive to the formation of
conjugal households, including: the development of market
cash economies diSplacing subsistence agriculture, salaried
occupations and secular education, changes in family law
and in legal practices relating to joint property, and
the influx of people to the cities. Conversely, she sum-
marizes various manifestations of industrialization which
may serve to strengthen the joint family, including: the
formation of an economic base to support a joint family,
the demand for educated males which has increased the ex-
tent and cost of dowry, the need for a concentration of
capital and labor in new family enterprises, and the pos-
sibility of complementing the urban cash income of some

males with the security of rural property and lower living

145
costs for the rest of the family who remain in the village

(Kolenda 1968: 340-341).

The Conjugal Family and the Joint Family
as Sets of Ideals

Both the joint family and the conjugal family also ex-
ist as sets of ideals. In Bengali the joint family is re-
ferred to as the ek anno-bartti paribEr or "family which
shares food” (literally, "the One rice family"). Bengalis
think of this as the natural condition of the family. Al-
though at any given time less than half the population ac-
tually lives in joint households and all families have been
partitioned, most within the memory of someone still living,
“the point is that the partitioning itself requires some
Special positive action. If the family is merely 'left
alone,‘ it will be joint" (Nicholas 1961: 1059). A married
son or brother who establishes a conjugal household apart
from his father or brother(s) is said to filfidfi thfike or
Elédé khSi, "to live separately” or "to eat Separately."

He has separated or removed himself from the pre-existing
family.

In Calcutta the conjugal family as an ideal is known
primarily through Western literature and foreign contact.

I know of no Bengali term which denotes the conjugal family
as a system of family relationships precisely comparable to
the ideal-type construct of the conjugal family described
by Goode and others. The Bengali term paribar may refer

to a man's wife and children, but it may equally be applied

146
to a lineally or collaterally "joint family" as a group of
persons dependent upon the male karté ("doer," "actor")
whose "family" it is said to be. The paribar "belongs to"
the male household head, in contrast to the conjugal family
in which the primary bond is, ideally, an equalitarian
union between the two Spouses and in which the phrase "my
family“ may be used by any member. In the absence of a
Bengali word with the same connotations, middle class Ben-
galis (eSpecially those who are not household heads) some-
times use the English word "family” to refer to members of
the household. Alternatively and more typically, the word
"barite" is used to refer generally to members of the

household, as in "barite pachanda kare gé" ("in the house—

 

hold they do not approve"). Additional elements of a Euro-
American type of conjugal family system, like the "love
marriage," have been recognized and incorporated into col—
loquial Bengali and are debated as alternative ideals.
Furthermore, certain norms, like that requiring a demon-
strated earning capacity for males as a prerequisite to mar—
riage, which are logically part of the conjugal family con-
struct,have been accepted as part of the joint family ideol-
ogy.

Social scientists studying Indian family structure reg-
ularly differentiate the lineal joint family between a
father and his married son(s) and the collateral joint fam-
ily among married brothers. .Although Bengali Hindu norms

on remaining joint with one's father differ from norms on

147
remaining joint with one's brothers, I am not aware of any
Bengali phrase which is generally used to distinguish be-
tween the lineal joint family and the collateral joint
family.

It is still considered a breach of filial duty to

leave one's parents in their old days, and social

opinion also discourages break-up of the family so
long as the parents are alive. The father's owner-
ship of the family lands also works as a deterrent

to the splitting up of the family. . . . .But the

attitudes and values for joint families extended

through collateral relationship are different. The
accepted social code is that brothers Should and do

separate (Basu 1962: 90).

The adolescent reSpondents in Panchanantala, Mallik
Para,and Badur Bagan were each asked if they preferred to
live jointly or separately. In order to distinguish be-
tween the lineal joint family and the collateral joint
family, two questions were asked.

After your marriage, if you have your choice, would

you prefer to live with your mother and father/

husband'sifather and husband's mother or alone with
your wife/husband?

Many years later after your father/husband's father

has died, wOuld you prefer to live with your brothers/

husband's brothers and their wives and children in a

joint family or separately with only your own wife/

husband and children?

Almost all male youth state a preference for continu—
ing to live with their parents after their marriage, as shown
in Table 5.1. Female youth, in virtually the same propor-
tions, state a preference for living with their husband's
parents. Accordingly, there are no significant differences

between the proportions of male and female youth in each

neighborhood who prefer to maintain a lineal joint household.

148
TABLE 5.1

DISTRIBUTION OF PREFERRED FAMILY TYPE--LINEAL JUNCTURE

 

fl f

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Female Male Female Male Female Male
N % N %V N % N % N % N %

 

fi—

Joint family 21 81% 32 80% 47 98% 41 95% 58 91% 37 95%

Conditionally
jointa -- -- 2 5% -- -- -- -- l 1% -- --
Conjugal family 5 19% 3 8% l 2% -- -- 4 6% 1 2%
No parents -- -- 1 2% -- -- -- -- —- —- -- --
NO answer 2; :2. _Z .225. :2 ‘_'_ __Z .275 __J; _QE _1: .315
Totals 26 100% 40 100% 48 100% 43 100%» 64 99% 39 99%

i

aThe category ”Conditionally joint" includes any response
which was qualified in any way, such.as "if my father allows”
or "if we don't quarrel. "

 

TABLE 5.2

DISTRIBUTION OF PREFERRED FAMILY TYPE--COLLATERAL JUNCTURE

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para' Badur Bagan
Female Male Female Male Female Male
N % N % N % N % N % N %

 

Collateral Joint

Family 16 59% 27 68% 38 79% 28 64% 39 61% 27 69%
Conditionally I

joint 1 4% 5 12% 3 6% 7 16% 10 16% 5 13%
Conjugal family 9 33% 4 10% 7 15% 3 T% 15 23% 2 5%
No brothers —- -- -- -— -— -- 4 9% -- -- . 3 &%
No answer ' _l ._3§ 4 10% -- -- 2 4% -- -- 2 3%

Totals 27 100% 40 100% 48 100% 44 100% 64 100% 39 100%

 

149
There is, however, a small, but statistically significant
(p<.01) difference among the neighborhoods. Although the
percentage of youth in Panchanantala who prefer to remain
lineally joint is still very high (80%), it is less than
the correSponding percentages (97% and 92%) of youth in
the other two neighborhoods.

The majority of both male and female youth in each
neighborhood also state a preference for maintaining a
collateral joint household after the father's death, as
shown in Table 5.2. But in each neighborhood and for both
sexes the prOportion who prefer to remain collaterally
joint is less than the proportion who prefer to remain
lineally joint. There is a noticeable tendency for male
youth to use conditional phrases such as "if my brothers
are willing” or "if it is possible" whereas girls are
somewhat more likely to state a preference for living sep-
arately. If the conditional reSponseS are grouped with
those stating a preference for remaining collaterally
joint, significantly more male youth than female youth may
be said to prefer to remain collaterally joint. This would
lend support to Kolenda's hypothesis that, in addition to
other factors, ”nuclear families develop in large part
upon a wife's instigation. . . . . when she has strong bar-
gaining power" (1966: 45). However, one cannot discount the
possibility that male youth are using conditional terms out
of deference or reSpect for existing family unity, rather

than from a greater determination to remain collaterally

150
joint. Whereas female youth answer the question hypotheti-
cally in reference to the yet unknown brothers of her future
husband, the male youth answer the question with an aware-
ness of the already existing relationship between themselves
and Specific older or younger brothers. If conditional
reSponseS are grouped separately or if they are grouped
with stated preferences for living separately, there is no
significant difference between males and females in any of
the neighborhoods.

Nor is there a linear relationship between the propor-
tion of youth who prefer to remain collaterally joint and
the social class of the neighborhood. The highest pro-
portion of youth preferring collateral jointness, as with
lineal jointness, is in Mallik Para, but the difference
among neighborhoods is not statistically significant.

0n the whole the responses to these two questions de-
monstrate a considerable acceptance of the ideal of the
joint family. In the absence of specific circumstances
which indicate otherwise, the joint family is the form pre-
ferred by most youth, both male and female, both educated

and uneducated, both affluent and poor.

The Conjugal Family and the Joint Family as Observable
Patterns of Behavior

The number of households of each of the Specific family
‘tYpes defined by Kolenda is Shown in Table 5.3 for Panchan-
antala, Mallik Para,and Badur Bagan. A summary of the fre-

quencies appears in Table 5.4.

151
TABLE 5.3

DISTRIBUTION OF OBSERVED HOUSEHOLD TYPES

 

Y—

 

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Lower Class Lower4Middle Middle Class
Class

Household House- Persons House- Persons House— Persons

Types holds holds holds
Single-person 8 8 5 5 2 2
Subnuclear 20 61 ll 37 8 24
Supplemented

subnuclear 5 25 2 12 1 3
Other-less-than-

nuclear 7 l6 -— -- 2 5
Nuclear 81 369 40 204 31 139
Supplemented

nuclear 24 144 19 131 19 140
Lineal joint 3 24 3 24 7 53
Supplemented

lineal joint 2 17 2 17 l 13
Lineal-collateral

joint —— —- 1 l4 2 l6
Supplemented

lineal-collateral

joint 1 12 —- -- l 15
Collateral joint -- -- 1 9 l 6
Supplemented col-

lateral joint 1 6 3 45 5 63
Other joint -- -- -- —- 5 52
Resident

servants 1 3 22

Totals 152 683 87 501 85 553

 

152
TABLE 5.4

SUMMARY OF HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE

 

 

Households Households Persons Persons Persons per

 

 

Household type Number Percentage Number Percentsge Household
Panchanantala
Less than nuclear 40 26% 110 16% 2.8
Nuclear 81 53% 369 54%
Supplemented
nuclear 24 16% 144 21% 6.0
Joint 7 5% 59 9% 8.4
Servants ___ ___; __1 __Q% ___
Totals 152 100% 683 100% 4.5

 

Mallik Para

 

Less than nuclear 18 21% 54 11% 3.0
Nuclear 40 46% 204 41% 5.1
Supplemented
nuclear 19 22% 131 26% 6.9
Joint 10 11% 109 22% 10.9
Servants ___ ____ __3 ‘__l% .____
Totals 87 100% 501 101% 5.8

 

Badur Bagan

 

Less than nuclear 13 13% 34 6% 2.6
Nuclear 31 36% 139 25% 4. 5
Supplemented

nuclear 19 22% 140 25% 7.4
Joint 22 26%. 218 39% 9.9
Servants 22 __g%

_ _

Totals 85 99%. 553 99% 6.5

 

153

There are fewer commensally joint families in Panchanan-
tala, Mallik Para,and Badur Bagan than in other localities
in Bengal previously studied. Even after the figures are
adjusted to account for differences in classification, the
proportion of joint households is much lower than in the
Lake Area and Shyambazar neighborhoods of Calcutta studied
by Sarma (1964: 193-206). While the percentage of upper
caste households in the Lake Area (89%) and Badur Bagan
(87%) are similar, as are those in Shyambazar (45%) and
Mallik Para (47%), there are many more joint households in
the neighborhoods Studied by Sarma. The Lake Area is char-
acterized by higher economic status, newer homes and less
crowding, all of which are conducive to the expansion of
the family within a particular house. The residents of
Shyambazar and Badur Bagan are probably economically and
occupationally similar and more affluent than those of either
Mallik Para or Panchanantala. Still, there are fewer joint
and supplemented nuclear households in Badur Bagan than
there were in the Shyambazar neighborhood in 1956, but more
than Mallik Para or Panchanantala. As Sam also found,
families who own their homes are somewhat more likely to
be joint than those who rent.

The villages studied by Basu (1962), Nicholas (1961),
and Sen (1965) all had more commensally joint households '
than either Mallik Para or Panchanantala. In more recent
research in Midnapore Nicholas found lower proportions of

joint and supplemented nuclear households for two of four

154

villages surveyed than in villages previously surveyed in
Bengal, but the proportion of joint households is still as
high or higher than in Mallik Para. Within the Bengali vil-
lages previously studied, there were fewer joint households
among agricultural laborers than in other occupational
groups. Similarly Panchanantala with a high proportion of
day laborers has fewer joint families than Mallik Para where
more men have permanent positions. For the most part,
though, whether the comparatively low proportions of joint
households are the result of economic or occupational char-
acteristics of the residents of Panchanantala, Mallik Para,
and Badur Bagan; whether they result from differences in
data gathering and classification; whether there is a cy—
clical variation due to unknown.Qndogenous or exogenous
variables; or whether they indicate changes over the past
ten years remains incompletely explained.

Another approach to the interpretation of varying pro-
portions of joint families is through the comparison of

16 In a joint family

possible and existing household forms.
the link or juncture among the couples may be lineal or
collateral or both. Lineal juncture in a family is possible
if a man and his wife are both living and if his father and
mother are living (regardless of residence) and/or if the
couple has one or more married sons. If neither of these-
conditions exist, lineal juncture is not possible within

the customs of patrilineality and patrilocal residence ac—

17

cepted in Bengal. Households characterized by lineal

155
juncture include those designated in Kolenda's typology as
lineal joint, supplemented lineal joint, lineal-collateral
joint, and supplemented lineal-collateral joint. Collateral
juncture is possible in a family if a man has one or more
'brothers and if both he and at least one of his brothers
are presently married. Families with possible lineal junc-
ture, that is, with married couples in two generations, often
have possible collateral juncture in either the parental or
filial generation or occasionally in both. Collateral
juncture is also possible in many families with married
couples in only one generation. For other households there
is no possibility of either lineal or collateral juncture
because one or both of the hquand's parents has died, he
has no married son,and he has no living married brother.
By definition it is also impossible for households with no
married member to have lineal or collateral juncture,
though in some instances these subnuclear or Single—person
households could supplement a joint household of married
relatives. Table 5.5 shows the distribution of households

with possible lineal and collateral juncture.

Lineal Juncture

For most households there is no possibility of lineal
juncture. Fewer than a quarter of the households in any
neighborhood are in the stage of the family cycle18 when

lineal juncture is possible. In any community the

156
TABLE 5. 5

DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS WITH POSSIBLE JUNCTURE

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan

 

1‘__

Households with Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent

Possible lineal

juncture with and

without possible

collateral

juncture 26 18% 14 17% 21 25%

Possible collateral

juncture but no

possible lineal

juncture 57 39% 36 43% 39 46%

Married person(s)
but no possible
lineal or colla-

teral juncture 38 26% 18 22% 12 14%
No married person 24 12% 15 18% 13 15%
Totals 145 100% 83 100% 85 100%

No information on
husband's father
and brothers 7 4 0

 

proportion of households with possible lineal juncture is
principally a function of interrelated demographic variables
including life eXpectancy, age at marriage, number of sons
born, and average interval between their births.

There are substantially more households with possible
lineal juncture in Badur Bagan than in the other two neigh-
borhoods. This difference results primarily from the
greater longevity of adult men in Badur Bagan (Beech
1971: 193-195). While the effect of greater life expect-

ancy among those of higher socio-economic status is to

157

increase the possibility of lineal juncture, later age at
marriage among those of higher socio-economic status has
the opposite effect, to decrease the likelihood of possi—
ble lineal juncture. As will be shown in a later section,
there has been a rise in the marriage age in each neigh—
borhood, but the linear relationship between age at mar-
riage and the social class of the neighborhood has been
maintained. If the marriage age continues to rise and to
remain considerably higher among those of higher status,
it may eventually counteract the effect of longevity on
possible lineal juncture.

Of the households with possible lineal juncture, the
proportion which are fully commensally joint varies direct-
ly with the socio-economic status of the neighborhood, as
Shown in Table 5.6. Commensal jointness is the modal
pattern in Badur Bagan and Mallik Para. A secondary pat—
tern of geographic separation with joint property occurs
often in cases where a son has migrated to Calcutta from
the country or from Calcutta to another city for employ-
ment, taking his wife and children. Less often the father
and mother come to Calcutta leaving a younger, more able
son to work in the fields or supervise the land. A fam-
ily was classified as following this pattern only if the
respondent reported owning some joint property and if
visits reportedly occur at least once a year. In three
additional cases of rural-urban separation in Panchanan-

tala, one family has no prOperty and two families have no

158
TABLE 5.6

PATTERNS OF LINEAL JUNCTURE

 

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Families Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
Commensally and
residentially
joint 6 23% 6 43% 11 52%

Commensally joint
with one but not
all sons -— -- -- f- 3 14%

Geographically sep—
arate, but with
some shared prOp-
erty and regular

visitation 11 42% 4 29% 4 19%
Lineal separation. _g 35% _4 29% _3 14%
Totals 26 100% 14 101% 21 99%

 

regular visitation. In Panchanantala geographic separation
with some joint property is the most frequently occurring
form of lineal juncture, with commensal jointness occurring
in fewer families.

Other possible patterns such as commensal separation
within the same house or parents and married sons living
separately within the Calcutta Metropolitan Area occurred
relatively infrequently. The households classified as lin-
eally separate do include a few families in which sons
have moved from crowded quarters to gain additional Space
with no apparent animosity. For example, one family with

six married sons has gradually separated as the older sons

159

were able to afford to build houses. Another family is
commensally separate, but the two younger children move
freely between the households, eating and sleeping with
either their parents or their brother and his wife. How—
ever, the largest number of families with lineal separation
involve some marital irregularity. In three instances, a
widower has remarried after the death of his first wife,
and a son of the first wife has separated after disagree-
ments with his step-mother. In two families sons have
separated from fathers who live with "mistresses." In
three other families a son has married a girl of his own
choosing whom his parents have not accepted. But not all
"love marriages," even those which are intercaste, result
in the couple being ostracized. In several households L/
a We of a different caste has been accepted into
a joint family. I

Table 5.7 shows the relationship between the form of
lineal juncture and the number of married sons in a fam-
ily. Data from all three neighborhoods have been combined,
and only households with some form of lineal juncture have
been included. Families with one married son are more
likely to be commensally joint than to follow the second-
ary pattern of geographic separation with joint property.
Conversely, families with two or more married sons are
° more likely to be separated geographically though retain-
ing some joint property than to be commensally joint. In

the family cycle the lineal joint family becomes a

160
TABLE 5.7

FORM OF LINEAL JUNCTURE BY NUMBER OF SONS

 

 

 

One son 2 Two or more sons

Fully commensally joint 18 5
Commensally joint with
one but not all sons -- 3
Geographically separate,
but with some shared
property and regular
visitation _§ 11

Totals 26 19

 

lineal-collateral joint family at the marriage of the second
son. The expansion of a household puts additional stress
on the joint family. There must be Space enough for each
married couple to have a separate room. With the arrival

of grandchildren there are more people to feed and clothe.
The father is older and more likely to have retired. With
a greater need for funds, there is added impetus for the
sons to seek better paying jobs, which often means moving

to a new location.

The possibility of lineal juncture does not preclude
the possibility of collateral juncture in the parental
generation. For the forty-five households for which in—A
formation is available, more than half of the heads of
households with possible lineal juncture have married

brothers still living. However, it is only in Badur Bagan

and only in three households, classifed as other joint,

161

that collateral juncture in the parental generation occurs
in combination with lineal juncture. In these three house-
holds the family has remained collaterally joint beyond
the expected time of separation until one of the brothers
has a married son. That is, two or more brothers have con-
tinued to eat together and share the same house throughout
the period while their children were growing up, until

one son, typically the first son of the oldest brother,

has married. There are, thus, two or more agnatically
related married couples in the parental generation and

one or more married couples in the filial generation. Ex-
cept in these cases, married brothers have generally sep—

arated before their sons reach marriageable age.

Collateral Juncture

Over half of the households in each neighborhood are
at a stage in the family cycle when lineal juncture is no
longer possible because one or both of the husband°s par—
ents have died, and when lineal juncture with a son is not
yet possible because none of the sons is old enough to be
married. The majority of the husbands in these house-
hold: have married brothers, thus making collateral junc-
ture possible, as shown in Table 5.5. For other families
there is no possibility of lineal or collateral juncture,
and the nuclear or supplemented nuclear household offers
the maximum possible juncture (unless consideration is ex-

tended to patrilateral parallel cousins or other kinsmen

162
who would not normally be expected to live jointly).

The probability of having a married brother, like the
possibility of lineal juncture, increases with the socio-
economic status of the neighborhood. The ratio of house-
holds with possible collateral juncture to households for
which nothing other than nuclear composition is possible
increases from 1.5 for Panchanantala, to 2.0 for Mallik
Para,and 3.2 for Badur Bagan. The kinship charts of nu-
clear households with no possible juncture show more in-
stances in which a brother has died either as a child or
after his marriage in Panchanantala and Mallik Para than
in Badur Bagan, but there is no difference in the relative
number of younger brothers who are yet to be married. Thus,
the indications are that lower mortality, rather than a
difference in the proportion of households at a particu-
lar stage in the family cycle, has resulted in the increased
possibility for collateral juncture in Badur Bagan.

The actual occurrence of commensal jointness among
families with possible collateral juncture is also related
to the socio-economic status of the neighborhood, but is
very low in each neighborhood. Only one household in Pan—
chanantala, four in Mallik Para,and six in Badur Bagan are
collateral or supplemented collateral joint households, as
shown in Table 5.3. Although collateral juncture is pos-
sible in many more families than lineal juncture, lineal
juncture occurs much more often than collateral juncture.

Among those who have been in Calcutta or Howrah for a

163
generation or more, extended families encompass many house—
holds between which there is no commensality or shared
property. In Panchanantala there are eight extended fam-
ilies including eighteen households, in Mallik Para there
are six extended families including sixteen households, and
in Badur Bagan six extended families including fifteen
households. In Panchanantala the related households occupy
rooms in the same or nearby houses, but are not necessarily
contiguous. In Mallik Para and Badur Bagan the dwellings
occupied by each extended family are adjacent. Several ad—
ditional households in each neighborhood are linked through
a sister-brother relationship, but are not considered part

of a single extended family.

 

Less-Than-Nuclear Households

Like other localities studied in Bengal, these three
neighborhoods have relatively high proportions of less-
than-nuclear households. Two factors account for most
of the less—than-nuclear households in the neighborhoods.
The first is the high frequency of widowhood in conjunction
with norms proscribing-widow remarriage. The second is the
frequent separation of Spouses to take advantage of employ-
ment opportunities in Calcutta while maintaining a village
base.

The prOportions of less-than-nuclear households trun-
cated by the death of one or both spouses is remarkably

similar among the three neighborhoods. About one out of

164
seven families is headed by a widow or widower and contains
no married member. Even more households, about oneuthird
of the households of all types, include a widow, as shown
in Table 5.8. A much Smaller but still Substantial portion
of households include widowers. Women are more likely to
be widowed primarily because of the great difference in the
ages of males and females at marriage. The percentage of
households including widows and the percentage including
widowers are both somewhat higher in Mallik Para and lower
in Badur Bagan than in Panchanantala. More widowers have
remarried in Mallik Para than in other neighborhoods, us-
ually taking second wives much younger than themselves,
thereby increasing the probability that these women will be
widows.

In all three neighborhoods when a man's wife dies while
he is still reasonably young, a second marriage is accepted
and often expected. Sometimes the second marriage will be
arranged within a few months after the first wife°s death.
Widow remarriage, however, is generally proscribed among
Hindus in Bengal. Only in Panchanantala did widows acknow—
ledge having a permanent relationship with a second man.

Of the seven reported cases, four were examples of the
levirate, three with her husband's own younger brother

and one with a "classificatory" brother (FaBrSo) of her-
husband. There were no children from the widows' second
unions except in one case. In this leviratic marriage the

child was said to be the husband's rather than the deor's

165
TABLE 5.8

DISTRIBUTION OF WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
N % N % N %

 

Households includ-
ing any woman ever
widowed 47 31% 32 37% 22 26%

Households includ-
ing any man ever
widowed 15 10% 15 17% 8 9%

Number of widowed
men who have re-
married 8 ll 1

 

(HuYoBr) although he was born six years after the hus—
band's death (see Karve 1965: 358-359). A reported case of
infanticide in another neighborhood involved the newborn
child of a widow and her dear. Thus, even in Panchanantala,
although a few widows acknowledge having a union with a
£325 or another man, they appear not to have regained the
full status of married women with the right to bear children.
The main difference among the neighborhoods in the
total number of less—than—nuclear households Shown in
Table 5.4 is attributable to the difference in the number
of families in which a married couple is geographically
separated. There are many more families including Spouses
who are geographically separated in Panchanantala than in
Mallik Para or Badur Bagan, aS shown in Table 5.9. The

separated couples are in families both with and without the

166
TABLE 5.9
DISTRIBUTION OF FAMILIES IN WHICH SPOUSES ARE

GEOGRAPHICALLY SEPARATED

 

 

Spouse in Calcutta

 

Household type Husband Wife Total
Panchanantala

Subnuclear households 9 6 15

Supplemented nuclear
households 5 l 6

Mallik Para
Subnuclear households 3 O 3

Badur Bagan
Supplemented nuclear
households _1 _Q _l
Totals 18 7 25

 

possibility of lineal or collateral juncture. In the three
neighborhoods studied in a total of eighteen households one
or more married men work in Calcutta leaving their wives
and children in the village. In a few of these families

an older son accompanies his father for work or education.
In seven households a wife and some or all of her children
are in Calcutta working as household servants while her
husband works as a laborer in the country. In all but one
of the families with separated Spouses, the adults were
born outside Calcutta.

Some men in Panchanantala divide their time between

Calcutta and the village, either bringing produce or fish

167
from the country to market or as laborers who move season-
ally between the village and Calcutta. Eight men reported
maintaining two households, typically with the first wife
and her children in the village and a mistress or second
wife and children in Panchanantala. In only one of the
eight families is the first wife in Calcutta. In several
families the two women reportedly refer to themselves as
satin or co-wivee,and in two of these polygynous famil-
ies one son of the village wife lives in the household in
Panchanantala. In other cases the woman in Panchanantala
is referred to as a raksité, a "kept" or "protected woman,"
a "mistress." In all except one of the reported polygynous
both women have children. Polygynous marriage was formerly
accepted in Bengal and practiced, particularly by the Ben~
gali Brahmins (Risley 1903: 190; Kapadia 1966: 105—106).
It is no longer permitted by law and is no longer favored
by the upper castes, and though its acceptance has not total-

ly faded away, its occurrence appears to be diminishing.

Fertility

Fertility, as indicated by the total number of children
born to women who have reached age forty-five while still
married, is highest for women in Mallik Para who have a
mean of 7.2 children, compared with 4.8 for women in Pan-
chanantala and 4.9 for women in Badur Bagan. Reporting on
a sample of residents of sixty villages near Banaras sur-

veyed by S.N. Singh, Collver (1963: 89, 95) indicates an

168
average of 7.12 children born to women with unbroken marriage
duration and shows a child-bearing profile similar to that
in Mallik Para as shown in Table 5.10. The child—bearing pro—
files of the three Calcutta neighborhoods differ in the later
years when women in Mallik Para are more likely than women in
Panchanantala or Badur Bagan to continue having children. In
Badur Bagan the smaller number of births appears to be the re-
sult of conscious efforts to limit family size. In Panchanan-
tala, on the other hand, the smaller average number of births
appears to be largely the result of the frequent and often long
separations of married couples brought about by the employment
Situation.

The difference among neighborhoods in the pattern of child
hearing has an important effect on the family cycle. Children
born later in the lives of their parents will be younger when
their parents die. In fact, the median age of a man at his
father's death is twenty-two in Mallik Para as compared with
twenty-nine in Panchanantala and thirty-six in Badur Bagan.
Thus, in Mallik Para fewer of a man's sons are likely to be
married before his death, and a greater responsibility for sup-
porting and arranging the marriages of younger siblings is
likely to fall on older brothers.

If current intentions are transferred into realities, the
fertility of urban women will be radically reduced in the next
generation. Each of the adolescent reSpondentS was asked,

After you are . . . married, how many children
would you eventually like to have?

As Shown in Table 5.11, more than half of the youth in each

169
TABLE 5.10

MEAN NUMBER OF BIRTHS PER COUPLE BY EFFECTIVE MARRIAGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DURATION
8
/”+Mallik Para
/
/1 Iz—‘J’Villages
Mean 7 V” A; near Banaras
/ 1: (Collver,
Number I ,’ 1963: 89)
/ /
of I _l
6 ’5 /
I I AP
Births I;
per
Badur Bagan
Couple 5
”Panchaanantala
4
3
2
1
0 l

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0-4 5-9 10-14-15-19 20-24 his-29’ 30+

Years of Effective Marriage Duration

170
TABLE 5.11

NUMBER AND SEX OF CHILDREN PREFERRED BY YOUTH

 

 

 

Children Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
preferred Female Male Female Male Female Male
None -- l 3 l __ _-
One son 1 3 3 l 6 3

One son, one
daughter 8 16 26 19 39 21

Two sons, no
daughter 3 2 l -- 6 4

Two sons, one
daughter 12 7 5 10 8 8

One son, two
daughters 1 -- -- _- -- _-

Two sons, two
daughters -- 3 7 4 l 1

Three sons,
one daughter -- —— __ 1 -- = -_

Sex not Specified

One child -- -- -- l -- --
Two children -- 2 1 2 2 ——
Three children 1 l -- l 2 2

Six children -- --

.1
Totals 25 35 47 4o. 64 39

If more than one response was given, the reSponse has been
coded as the largest number.

 

171
neighborhood state a preference for one son and one daughter.
All but fifteen of the 245 reSpondents who want children Spe-
cified the number of children desired separately by sex.
Sixty-three per cent of them, including the fifty-six per
cent who want one son and one daughter, want equal numbers
of boys and girls. All but one of the remaining eighty-
five respondents hope to have more sons than daughters. The
differences between male and female reSponses are minimal as
are those among youth from the three neighborhoods. The
median and modal number of children desired by youth of both
sexes in each neighborhood is two, except for girls in Pan-
chanantala among whom slightly more prefer three rather than
two children. Overall, there is no statistically significant
difference between the number or the sex of children pre-
ferred according to the sex of the reSpondent or the social
class of the neighborhood. The consistency in the small
number of children desired by both male and female youth
in contrast to the recorded fertility of women now over
forty-five years old demonstrates the success of the Indian
government's campaign to pOpularize family planning. Prob-
lems in using various birth control devices reported by
married women and other variables which may intervene in
the relationship between desired and actual numbers of
children born contraindicate undue optimism, but it is

clear that at least the message of the family planning

agencies has reached these urban youth.

172

The Relationship between Ideal and Observed
Family Structure

There is a prevalence of nuclear households in each of
the neighborhoods studied, with well under half of the pop-
ulation and fewer than a quarter of the households being
commensally joint. The proportions of joint households in
Panchanantala, Mallik Para, and Badur Bagan are lower than
those previously reported for other localities in Bengal.
Simultaneously, the joint family is demonstrably strong as
an ideal family type which almost all respondents advocate.
Two processes appear to minimize the impact of this contra-
diction between ideal and observable behavior. The first
is a redefinition of the essential qualities of family
jointness. The second is the granting of more individual
prerogatives within the family.

Particularly with reference to one's own family, to
be joint is not to have separated. As long as a commensal-
ly or geographically separated family maintains a common
estate it is legally joint. Moreover, because the common
understanding of family separation implies a division of
property or disinheritance, families which are geographi-
cally separated to take advantage of better opportunities
for employment are not generally considered to be separate
by the residents of the three neighborhoods. Even though
there may be very little or even no joint property and no
sharing of wages between a son and his father, if relations
are amicable and mutual obligations are maintained, a son°s

urban employment may enhance family prestige and be viewed

173
as a family asset and not detrimental to family unity.
Norms governing the residence of the wives and child—
ren of men employed away from their parental homes have
changed. AS Sarma states,
When the system of undertaking service away from
home developed in the British administration, it
used to be held immodest for a man to take his
wife with him, and she was left in his parental
control. Then the feelings changed, and the par-
ents themselves began to ask the son to have his
wife accompany him, and it became normal for a
man to settle elsewhere away from his parental
family. Today mostly the men of low standard
of living remain alone in the city, due to the

lack of sufficient income for a separate family
maintenance (1964: 198).

A family in which the married sons are commensally and
geographically separate, but remain in good standing and
can eXpect to receive a share of any eventual inheritance,
is no different in these respects from the ideal conjugal
family described by Goode (1963: 240), but it remains legal—
ly and psychologically joint in Bengal. Thus, the nineteen
to forty-two per cent of the families with possible lineal
juncture which are geographically separated can be seen as
either essentially joint or essentially separate. The am-
biguity of classifying families which are commensally and
geographically separate, but have not severed ties of shar—
ing (no matter how little property they share), is probably
a major factor in conflicting interpretations of trends in
Indian family structure. 1
With the diminution of the proportion of total family
resources which are shared, ritual and emotional relationships

appear relatively more important. Family unity is increasingly

174

a matter of emotional bonds and mutual obligations rather
than commensal, residential, or coparcenary jointness.

Like the gradual redefinition of the essence of family
jointness, the granting of additional individual prerogatives
within the family decreases the contradistinctiveness of
the two family types. The joint family is increasingly
maintained through mutual accommodation rather than through
the exercise of patriarchal authority. Liberal legislation
has gradually increased the rights of the individual in com-
parison to those of the joint family.

Women, who had been largely excluded from property own—
ership, have gained rights of inheritance almost equal to
those of men. Current Indian law has increased the oppor-
tunities for women to become property owners by providing
that a man's widow, mother and daughters as well as his sons
will inherit equally. (Kapadia 1966: 359, Karve 1965:
371-372). The Dayabhaga system formerly used in Bengal
gave a man's wife rights of inheritance only if he died
without male descendents.

In addition, the Hindu Succession Act gives a person
the right to absolute possession of whatever he has inher—
ited. This is like the Dayabhaga system, but is very dif-
ferent from the Mitakshara system formerly in effect in
most of India outside Bengal and Bihar in which members had
a share in inheritable property from conception. Under
present laws sons or others may be disinherited and only

gain the right to land and other property after the father°s

175

death. Potential heirs are thus subject to the control of
their father or other benefactor, a factor which can be con-
ducive to authoritarianism. However, if a man dies intestate,
his heirs are put on an equal basis regardless of their pre-
vious residence, commensality, relative wealth, marital
status, or other conditions. With urban workers less depen-
dent on land or other inherited property to earn a living,
the scope of the patriarch's authority is thereby somewhat
diminished. The Gains of Learning Act, 1930, extended the
principle of an individual's right to retain his own earn—
ings without pooling them in a common fund even when his
education has been provided from joint family funds

(Kapadia 1966: 309).

Another limiting factor posed by urban salaried occu—
pations is the problem of providing support for older per-
sons after retirement. In the absence of extensive govern—
ment social security, membership in a joint family is
valued as insurance against poverty in periods of illness,
unemployment, and old age. The possibility of dependency
in illness, unemployment,and old age tempers the exercise
of power by all but the wealthiest patriarchs. As a re-
sult of these and other legal and economic factors, the
focus of power has shifted away from the patriarch towards
a more equal distribution among all family members, and as
Karve concludes ". . . the joint family becomes a corpora-
tion in which peOple live together for convenience" (1966:

318).

176

One of the principal family processes in which in—
creased individual prerogatives have been granted 18 mate
selection. The opportunities for individual ch0ice in the
selection of a spouse have increased both legally and in
common practice. The legal provision for registered mar-
riages provides an alternative for a couple who have chosen
to marry but do not have their parents' blessing (éélrbég).
Legal provisions for divorce and for the remarriage of
both divorced and widowed women also exist, but their at-
ilization results in varying degrees of social opprobrium
depending on the Specific circumstances. Nevertheless, the
availability of marital alternatives gives additional bar-
gaining power to young people in the customary arrangement
of their marriages. The relative extent and manner of par—
ticipation by youth and their elders in mate selection will
be emphasized in the following section on the allocation

of legitimate sexual maturity.

The Allocation of Legitimate Sexual Maturity
Types of Marriage

Two ideal constructs were contrasted in the preceding
analysis of family structure in Calcutta. Even more ex—
plicitly than with family structure, there are in Calcutta
two conscious models for mate selection and marriage. The
Hindu marriage or bibahé is contrasted with the romantic
"love marriage." The bibaho, colloquially called hiya, is

associated with the ideal construct of the family and with

177

the "Hindu tradition." It is, in American terminology, an
"arranged marriage." (In common English usage an adjective
modifies the generic term "marriage" in the case of the less
familiar "arranged marriage," whereas in Bengali a modifier
is used with the less familiar "love marriage." "Love
marriage," as a term, has been incorporated into Bengali
in English.lexical items, thereby probably retaining aSpects
of its Western referent and ideal qualities and avoiding
confusion with other less reputable types of love-based
unions.

The love marriage is a romantic union based on the
mutual attraction of the two partners. The initiative in
a love marriage is taken by the couple rather than their
elders. Love is thought to have a compulsive, almost ir—
resistable quality and thus ideally may strike any couple
regardless of caste, family background,or relative wealth.
The relationships of couples before marriage vary in the
degree of personal intimacy and the duration of their
acquaintance. Standards of "true love" have develOped
based primarily on the fidelity of both partners, and
secondarily on their suitability for each other (i.e., the
homogeneity of social status).

By contrast the Hindu marriage is formally arranged
by the family elders. In the ideal form the bride and
groom do not see one another until the moment of the §2§’
hadristi or "auspicious glance" in the marriage ceremony.

Marriages are endogamous within the jati and sometimes

178
within subsections of some larger 135;. Marriages of Brah-
mins, Kayasthas, and Baidyas may be further limited by the
52; or "purity of descent" of the family. Ideally marriage
outside the g§§£§ ("clan") is required in the higher castes.
However, the exact degree of relationship permitted by dif—
ferent castes has varied at different times and in differ-
ent regions. In some cases the qualifications of the pros-
pective bride and groom may be less important than the
characteristics of the negotiating families and the pros-
pects for family alliance. When the attributes of the bride
are considered, her ability to adapt to and serve the family
is relatively important.

The two ideal types of marriage thus differ on three
basic dimensions: the field of selection, the party to se—
lection, and the criteria of selection (see Kapadia 1966:
117). While the two ideal constructs stand at opposite ends
of a continuum, the criteria and processes of mate selection
which are preferred or accepted as operational ideals and
the observable patterns of mate selection varyaflong the con-
tinuum and often manifest characteristics of both types of
marriage.

The entwinement of the two concepts may be seen in sev-
eral cases in which marriages which were predominantly of

one type were initially presented to me as being of the op-
posite type. In one case the bride and groom, who had known
one another for several years and who were determined t3
marry, arranged to have the proper inquiries sent and ar—

rangements made so that even the bride's parents were unaware

179
of their prior acquaintance until the bride and groom an-

nounced it after the hon bhat. It is not uncommon for

 

families in which love marriages have occurred to attempt
to conceal what has happened. Frequently, a registered
marriage, once accomplished and an irreversible fact, is
followed by a Hindu marriage and the acceptance of the
bride into her husband's father's bane. In the opposite sit—
uation, one young engineer who admired many Western cus—
toms told me that his was a love marriage, even though

he had no prior acquaintance with his bride, because, in-
deed, he loved her.

In the course of the field work in Mallik Para, four
patterns of marital selection were observed varying in
the extent to which the prOSpective bride and groom par-
ticipated in the selection of their mates. These patterns
are described in the following question which was asked of
all adolescent respondents.

We have seen several types of marriage arrangements.

a. In one type the elders make all the arrange-
ments and the boy and girl see each other for the
first time at the marriage.

b. In another type the elders make all the ar-
rangements, but the boy and girl see each other be—
fore the marriage and if he or she is not pleased
the marriage will not take place.

c. In a third type the boy and girl know eaCh
other and make the decision to get married, and then
their elders make the formal arrangements for the
marriage ceremony.

d. In a fourth type the boy and girl know each

other, make the decision to get married and have a
registered marriage without their parents°consent.

Which type of marriage do you prefer? Why?

180

Although these are the most frequently occurring pat-
terns of mate selection, they are not exhaustive of the
possibilities. For example, I came across a case in which
the parents of the prOSpective bride and groom had reached
an informal understanding on the marriage of their reSpec—
tive children. The decision was somehow communicated to
the boy and girl and a romantic relationship was allowed
to develOp between them.

An alternative to the registered marriage is a Hindu
marriage at the temple at Kalighat. Because it retains
something of the religious ritual, a Kalighat wedding is
preferred especially by some lower class reSpondents to
the secular registered marriage if a marriage at the
bride's house is ruled out because of parental disapproval.

DeSpite the length of the question, the respondents
were able to answer thoughtfully and generally able to
give reasons for their preference. The distribution of
choices is shown in Table 5.12.

The reasons for choosing alternatives (a) or (b) often
included the declaration that this is the Bengali or Hindu
way, a reSponse sometimes set in contradistinction to the
American or Western way. Alternatives (a) and (b) are also
presented as the "proper" or figgit" form of marriage which
demonstrates respect for the wishes of one's elders. Al-
ternatives (b) and (c) are preferred because they combine
aspects of the Bengali biyg and the love marriage. Those

liberal enough to choose alternative (c), see it as

181

TABLE 5.12

TYPE OF MARRIAGE PREFERRED BY YOUTH

 

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan

Female Male Female Male Female Male
Marriage Type N % N % N % N % N % N %
— a — 9 36% 22 56% 20 42% 16 38% 9 14% 7 18%
- b - ll 44% 8 20% 14 29% 9 21% 22 35% 13 32%
— c - 5 20% 8 20% 12 25% 16 38% 32 51% 19 48%
‘ d ‘ z: :2. _l .25' .3 _fl%._l._3% .2: ::_ _l _Z§
Totals 25 100% 39 99% 48 100% 42 99% 63 100% 40 100%

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPE OF MARRIAGE PREFERRED

AND NEIGHBORHOOD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan Totals
- a - 31‘ 36 16 83
— b — 29 23 35 87
— c or d - 14 31 52 97
Totals 74 90 103 267
Chi square = 27.45, df = 4, p<.001
aThese types refer to the alternatives listed above and in

Appendix B, Question 47.

 

182
incorporating the best of both systems, parental authori—
zation and individual choice.

In contrast to the concentration of responses in favor
of the joint as opposed to the conjugal family types shown
in Tables 5.1 and 5.2, the reSponses to this question on
preferred type of marriage are broadly distributed among
the first three alternatives. None of the alternatives re-
ceived a majority of the total responses. In part this
probably reflects the contiguity of the categories present—
ed in the question, but it also reflects a lack of consen—
sus on how much youth should participate in the selection
of their future Spouses.

There is no pattern of consistent differences between
the responses of male and female youth within each of the
neighborhoods. However, there is a significant difference
in the pattern of responses among the three neighborhoods
showing a positive relationship between the social class
of the neighborhood and the proportion of liberal (c or
d) responses. Accordingly, half of the youth in Badur
Bagan, but less than one-fifth of the youth in Panchanan-
tala, state a preference for choosing their own Spouses.
Conversely, about two—fifths of the youth in Panchanan—
tala and Mallik Para, but less than one-fifth of the youth
in Badur Bagan, prefer alternative (a) in which their eld-
ers select a mate and the couple do not see each other
until the marriage.

A brief survey was made of twenty-one marriages

183

occurring in the four preceding years (1964—1967) in which
the bride or groom resided in Mallik Para. In five of the
twenty-one marriages the bride and groom were reported to
have taken the initiative in making the selection. Four of
these five were intercaste marriages in which the bride
and groom had known each other for up to ten years. In
each case there was initial opposition from their parents,
followed by some degree of acceptance, including eventual
residence with the husband's family (followed by separau
tion in one case). The sixteen arranged marriages were
almost evenly divided between those in which the bride and
groom saw each other for the first time at the wedding (al-
ternative a - nine cases) and those in which the bride and
groom had seen each other once before the wedding (alterna-
tive b - seven cases). In only one marriage was a formal
intermediary (qhatak or "genealogist") employed. In the
remaining fifteen marriages contact between the bride°s and
groom's parents was arranged by relatives.

For example, in one marriage the bride's pistoto dada
(Fa Si So elder to Ego) worked with the groom. .After talk-
ing with the groom, the bride's cousin came to the house and
talked with the groom's father. The groom's father, a wid—
ower, and the groom's two kékég (Fa Y Br) and their wives
went to see the bride. After that the bride's father and
mother came to see the groom. The groom also went to see
the bride once before themarriage.

In another family the bride's kaka has a shop which

184
the groom's father frequented. After learning that he was
looking for a bride for his son, the girl's 5333 arranged
to have the groom's father see the prOSpective bride.
These two families live within a mile of each other.

In ten of the fifteen marriages arranged by relatives
contact was initiated by someone in the bride's and groom's
generation, and in the remaining five by someone in the
parents° generation. It is my impression that there is a
trend towards greater participation in marriage arrange—
ments by those of the same generation as the bride and
groom, though I have no data from previous periods and
only these few cases which can be systematically tabulated
from the present. The participation of relatives of the
same generation increases the possibilities for collusion
with the bride and groom in prOperly arranging what are
essentially love marriages, i.e., in setting up alternative
(c).

There is a tendency to equate love marriages with
intercaste marriages. Intercaste marriages are invariably
initiated by the couple themselves and not by family eld-
ers. If a relationship develops between a boy and girl
of the same caste, it is possible to arrange for a marri-
age between them so that few persons outside the immedi-
ate family are aware of what has happened. Gossip suggests,
however, that a father discovering that his daughter has a
boy friend is as likely to arrange for her immediate marri-

age to another groom. Nevertheless, many parents,

185
eSpecially those in the upper—middle and upper classes,are
willing to consider even an intercaste marriage after the
relationship has been initiated by a son or daughter so
long as the prOSpective bride and groom have relatively
similar educational qualifications and socio-economic
status.

The head of each household which includes one or more
unmarried youth between the ages of thirteen and twenty-
five was asked if he would formally "assent" (anumEdan
kagé) to an intercaste marriage for his son or daughter.
The prOportion of household heads who said that they would
accept an intercaste marriage is shown in Table 5.13. More
than a third of the household heads said they would accept
an intercaste marriage. The proportion of household heads
who would accept an intercaste marriage is lowest in Mallik
Para and highest in Badur Bagan, but the differences are
not statistically significant.

In many cases qualifications were added by those who
would accept an intercaste marriage. For example, a mixed
marriage within the top three castes is more acceptable to
parents in Badur Bagan than one with a member of a lower
caste. A marriage in which the caste of the groom's fami-
ly is ranked higher than the caste of the bride°s family
is considered to be anulEma or "with the grain" and is more
acceptable than the reverse circumstance. As previously
mentioned homogeneity in social class can be an important

factor in reconciling differences in caste. But even as

186
TABLE 5. 13
DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD HEADS WHO WILL ACCEPT

AN INTERCASTE MARRIAGE

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan Total

 

 

N % N % N % N

Will accept
intercaste marriage
for son or daughter 16 46% 15 33% 23 56% 54
Will not accept
intercaste marriage
for son or daughter 12 54% 32 67% 18 44% 67

Totals 35 100% 45 100% 41 100% 121

Chi square = 4.52, df = 2, .lO>p<;20

 

many fathers who said they would accept an intercaste mar-
riage added reservations, others who said they would not
give their formal approval, added that if an intercaste
marriage happened, they would have to accept it. In other
words, in the current changing conditions most fathers would
not go so far as to disinherit a son because of his inter—
caste marriage, but relations would certainly be strained.
More intercaste marriages were reported in the house-
hold interviews in Badur Bagan than in the other neighbor-
hoods. In Badur Bagan five of the reported intercaste mar-
riages had occurred more than twenty years earlier, whereas
the reported intercaste marriages in Mallik Para and Pan-
chanantala have all occurred more recently. But, the re—

ported intercaste marriages in Badur Bagan are all among

187
members of the three upper castes, whereas in Mallik Para
and Panchanantala the variation in the caste rank of
spouses in intercaste marriages is occasionally consid—
erable as in the marriage of a Dhopa and a Kayastha, or a
Napit and a Goala. In Badur Bagan intercaste marriages are
rationalized in terms of the ideal of a casteless society,
and the influence of the Brahmo Samaj has created an at—
mosphere at least moderately tolerant of intercaste mar-

riages if only within the narrow limits of the bhadralok.

 

In Mallik Para and Panchanantala intercaste marriages are
more often eXplained in terms of Specific family circum-

stances or characteristics of the couple.

Courtship

The.American term "dating" has no equivalent in Ben-
gali. Nevertheless, the custom or something Similar to it
is becomming commonplace in Calcutta. To the extent that
mate selection emphasizes mutual attraction and is initia-
ted by the contracting partners, opportunities for mixing
and for developing close associations are necessary. A
period of courtship appears to function to increase the
intensity of a couple's affinity. The formation of Strong
bonds between the prospective Spouses appears to be condu—
cive to the development of the conjugal relationship into
the primary link in the structure of the family, undermin-
ing the filial bond which is primary in the patrilineal

joint family. Thus the increased prerogatives of youth in

188

mate selection, the need for a period of courtship, and the
Spread of the conjugal family are apparently interrelated.

Early in the research in Mallik Para it became apparent
that there were covert social relationships between partic-
ular boys and girls. However, asking about these romantic
relationships in a systematic manner was a problem because
of the embarrassment this type of question generates in a
culture which doesn't openly acknowledge dating or court-
Ship as a proper activity for youth. Asking youth about
social or romantic relationships with a person of the other
sex is also a problem because there is no consistently used
Bengali terminology for referring to the process of court-
ship or to the person to whom one is romantically attacned.
We finally settled on a direct translation of the words
"girl" and "friend" (meye bandhu) and "boy" and "friend"

(chele bandhu) into Bengali.

 

After questions on the ordinary attitude of people

towards boys and girls who fall in love (preme pare) and

on the respondent's reaction toward a friend who might fall

 

in love, each adolescent respondent was asked if he or she
had a girl friend or boy friend. Those relationships whicn
appeal to be basically romantic are included in Table 5,14
below. A few responses from younger respondents who re-
ported having several friendships with persons of the other
sex, none of which appeared to be romantic and a few reSpon-
ses describing relationships as bhaier mato or "like a bro-

ther" or otherwise platonic were screened out. Persons who

189
TABLE 5.14
DISTRIBUTION OF YOUTH WHO REPORT ROMANTIC

HETEROSEXUAL FRIENDSHIPS

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Female Male Female Male Female Male
N ‘ % N % N % N % N % N %

 

Boy friend or
girl friend 5 19% 17 42% 14 29% 17 39% 21 33% 14 35%

No boy friend
or girl friend 21 81% 23 58% 34 71% 27 61% 43 67% 26 65%

___—___fimm-m

Totals 26 100% 40 100% 48 100% 44 100% 64 100% 40 100%

 

had a romantic relationship which ended prior to the inter-
view were included with those who had current relationships.
Altogether about one third of the youth report having
or having had girl friends or boy friends. Considering the
cultural norms, the relative conservatism of the neighbor-
hoods studied, and the absence of previous reports of dating
in lower-middle and lower class neighborhoods, this propor-
tion seems very high. The proportion of female youth who
report having boy friends increases with the social class
of the neighborhood, whereas the prOportion of male youth
who report having girl friends decreases slightly with the
social class of the neighborhood. In view of the greater
risk to the girls° reputations, it is remarkable that so
many girls did report having boy friends. Because the West—
ern pattern of courtship is less well known and accepted,

because having a friendship with a boy is more often

190
supposed to be immoral, and because the marriage age for
girls is lower, fewer girls in the lower classes are likely
to have or to report heterosexual relationships. Tne
slight decrease in the proportion of boys in the middle
classes who report having girl friends, if it is not inci-
dental, probably reflects the boys' greater preoccupation
with education and competitive Sports. On the whole, there
is no significant difference among the neighborhoods in the
proportions of youth reporting heterosexual relationships.

Activities commonly shared by a dating couple include
meeting at the cinema, "going out" (beranS‘yabya) to places
like the Botanical Gardens, the Lakes in South Calcutta,
Eden Garden, and coffee houses in North Calcutta, as well
as studying together at colleges, universities,or libraries.
Places like these offer the couple some privacy from the
scrutiny of disapproving elders and an opportunity to talk.
Talking is an activity which might be overlooked by West-
ern teenagers, but was the most frequently mentioned ac-
tivity shared by courting youth in these three Calcutta
neighborhoods. A few of the youth reported having sexual
relations, others eXplicitly stated that the relationship
did not involve physical intimacy.

There is a tendency for two couples to go places to-
gether, because girls usually must be accompanied by
another girl to obtain parental permission to go to the
movies or elsewhere. Only an occasional youth, typically

in Badur Bagan, reported that he could tell his mother

191
about his girl friend and almost no one reported talking with

his father about heterosexual relationships. The discussion
of personal matters is generally proscribed between members

of adjacent generations and even to a considerable extent be—
tween older and younger members of the same generation except
between occupants of a few specified statuses, as between
‘bgggi and ggér. The majority of youth tell only a few close
friends, whose assistance may be needed, about their relation—

ships. A few also confide in a boudi (ElBrWi) or an older

sibling.
Although about a third of the youth have girl friends or

boy friends, which is a very sizeable proportion for a city
where arranged marriages have long been the norm, there remain
two-thirds of the youth who do not have romantic attachments.
When asked why he or she didn't have a girl friend or boy

friend, the most frequent reSponse, given by the majority, was

 

"Amar pachanda kare hi,” or "I prefer not to," but with the con-
notation of disapproval as well as personal choice. Girls in
Badur Bagan and Nallik Para often added that their parents
($59.§§2§) or people "at home" (barite) disapprove. Boys less
frequently eXpress concern about parental approval. Lack of
“scope" or opportunity is the third most frequently given reason
for not having a girl friend or boy friend. The frequency with
which ”scope" or other circumstantial reasons are cited is
directly related to the social class of the neighborhood. As
shown above, the prOportion of youth who would prefer or
approve of individual participation in.mate selection is
directly related to the social class of the neighborhood.

Not all of those youth who advocate personal mate

192
selection have yet had the opportunity to mix with or date
girls or boys. Thus, the relative frequency of situational
as Opposed to moral reasons for not having a girl friend or
boy friend increases with the acceptance of the principle
of individual participation in mate selection and both are
related to social class.

In all three neighborhoods the attitudes of youth to-
ward those who have girl friends or boy friends was report-
ed to depend on the intentions and character of the youth
involved. In response to the question, "If a friend of
yours were to fall in love, what would you do?" most youth
said it would depend on whether or not the girl or boy were
.bhfilg or "good." The respondents indicated that if the
boy and girl were good and suited to each other, the friend
should eXpress approval and possibly assist in passing mes-
sages, setting up meetings or the like: However, if the
boy or girl were kharap or "bad," the friend should express
disapproval, try to convince his friend, and failing that
stOp speaking to him or break connections. More conserva-
tive youth stated that they would apply such negative sanc-
tions regardless of the character of the girl friend or
boy friend.

The developing pattern of courtship is closely rela-
ted to the acceptance of greater individual participation
in mate selection. As shown in Table 5.15, boys and girls
who advocate individual mate selection rather than parental

selection are more likely to have or have had a girl friend

193
TABLE 5.15

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PREFERRED TYPE OF MARRIAGE AND DATING

L

 

No boy friend Has boy friend Totals
or girl friend or girl friend

 

f
Prefer*elders.to;

 

 

 

 

 

select Spousea 130 30 160

Prefer to select

own Spouseb 4O 57 97
Totals 170 87 257

Chi square = 41.41, df = l, p<.001

aCombines alternatives a and b from Table 5.12 and Appendix
B, Question 47.

bCombines alternatives c and d from Table 5.12 and Appendix
B, Question 47. '

 

or boy friend. The field from which a youth can select a
girl friend or boy friend is limited by the need for secrecy
and the strong emphasis on marital intention. Accordingly,
the typicalyouth can have a dating relationship with very
few persons. The system of courtship, as it is unfolding,
allows a couple to develop strong personal bonds. However,
the Opposition of the filial bond and the conjugal bond,
developed in courtship, is intensified because of parental
and community disapproval and by norms restricting commun-

ication between members of adjacent generations.

194
Criteria for Mate Selection

The head of each household including unmarried youth
between the ages of thirteen and twenty—five was asked what
‘ggg or qualities he thought desirable in a bride and in a
groom. Likewise, each of the adolescent reSpondents was
asked what type of bride or groom he or she preferred. The
question was open-ended and there was considerable varia-
tion in the number of qualities mentioned within as well
as among the three neighborhoods. Generally, the respon—
dents from Mallik Para and eSpecially those from Badur Ba-
gan listed more attributes than reSpondents in Panchanan-
tala. The frequencies and ranking of the categorized res—
ponses are shown in Tables 5.16 and 5.17.

In evaluating a prOSpective groom, the typical house-
hold head first considers several variables which consti-
tute a measure of the groom's economic independence. It
is essential that the groom have a job. In Panchanantala
a father may be satisfied if the prospective groom is work-
ing regularly and earning enough to feed his daughter. It
is expected or at least hoped that the bride will not have
to work outside the home to feed herself or her children.
In Mallik Para most household heads hope that the prOSpec-
tive groom will not only earn a living wage, but preferably
have the security of a salaried position (gakgi). With in-
creasing social status an assessment of a man's economic .
independence requires a judgment of his potential for ad-

vancement as well as of his present position. Educational

195
TABLE 5.16
CRITERIA FOR MATE SELECTION REPORTED BY HOUSEHOLD HEAD
’ .

 

Attributes listed» Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
as desirable Groom Bride Groom Bride Groom Bride

 

N RankgiN Rank N Rank N Rank N Rank N Rank

Education ‘ 8 (3), 10 (2)35 (2) 32 (1) 26 (1) ’24 (1)
Job or earnings 22 (1) -- 39 (1) 2 23 (2) 1
Own house or land 12 (2) -- l4 (3) -- 12 (4) --
Home making skills -1 27 (1) -- .25 (2) -- 12 (2)
Appearance —- l 4 14(3g) l. 9 (4)
Character 7 (4) 4 13 (4) 14(3%) 18 (3) 11 (3)
Family or baééa 3 2 12 (5) 13 (5) '7(53) ‘4
Health 1 -- 8 (6) 4 '7(5%) ‘4

. o
d‘Rankings are given for attributes listed by five or more
respondents. '

 

qualifications are thus increasingly important in the middle
and upper strata of the society. The young professional or
the beginning businessman often earns little more than the
skilled worker, but he has greater opportunities for increas-
ing his income.

For both household heads and youth the relative fre—
quency with which education is mentioned varies directly with
the social class of the neighborhood. Furthermore, although
I have classified them together, the lower class reSpondents

more often mention lekhaepara or the ability to read and

write as the desired attribute, whereas middle and

196
TABLE 5.17

CRITERIA FOR MATE SELECTION REPORTED BY YOUTH

 

 

Attributes listed Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
as desirable Groom Bride Groom Bride Groom Bride
N Rank N Rank N Rank N Rank N Rank N Rank

 

Education 2 6 (4) 28 (2) 20 (2) 47 (l) 25 (1)

Job or earnings 17 (l) -- 19 (3) -- 29 (3) 2
Own house or land —- -- 2 v -- 3 --
Home making skills -- 9 (2) -- 10 (4) -- 2
Appearance 15 (2) 13 (l) 31 (1) 22 (1) l8 (4) 20 (2)
Character 8 (3) 8 (3) l7 (4) l7 (3) 37 (2) l9 (3)
Family or banga 2 -- 1 3 3 2
Health -- —- -- 1 3 --

 

upper-middle class respondents more often desire a person
who is siksito or "educated." Among the Bengali bhadralok
who value learning and scholarship, educational achievement
is considered indicative of an intellectual and refined life
style. Thus, in Badur Bagan education is the most frequent-
ly mentioned attribute not only for the groom, for whom
education may have economic implications, but also for the
prospective bride who is not ordinarily expected to earn.
Moreover, in Badur Bagan learning or education is the first
ranking attribute, most frequently mentioned by both the‘
household heads and the youth. The importance of educa-

tion to lower class Bengalis should not be minimized, how-

ever. Even in Panchanantala among household heads, some

197
of whom are illiterate, education is the third most frequent-
ly mentioned attribute, being mentioned only less frequently
than directly economic attributes.

In the lower class and especially among those who are
oriented to the village, land ownership is a productive as-
set and frequently mentioned as a desirable attribute of the
groom's family. The ownership of an urban house also pro-
vides economic security as well as prestige. The relative
importance of property ownership as a marital asset is
negatively related to the social class of the neighborhood.
Lacking the Options provided by education and with only
precarious employment, property is a relatively more im-
portant form of security for lower and lower-middle class
families. The residents of Panchanantala and Mallik Para,
particularly those with a village base, are inclined to
invest any extra income in industrial, agricultura1,or
residential property, whereas upper caste families living
in Calcutta where costs are higher are often committed to
a life style which emphasizes educational achievement, cul-
tural pursuits, and social amenities (see Owens 1971: 107—
109 for a similar observation).

It is noteworthy that the three types of attributes
most frequently mentioned by household heads: job or earn-
ings, education, and property--are the same attributes which
are most often used by American sociologists in constructing
measures of sociO-economic status. Another less frequently

mentioned attribute, bansa or family respectability, also

198

contributes to sociO-economic status as it is evaluated in
the United States. Bang; is ordinarily used in a broad
sense to refer to the moral reputation and social status
of one's ancestors, but it may also be used in a narrow sense
to refer to the purity of one's pedigree gauged by the
strictness with which one's ancestors adhered to the caste
rules for forming marriages. Thus, bansa, meaning inherited
family prestige or respectability, is analogous to the fac-
tor used by Warner (1942) in differentiating the upper-upper
and lower-upper classes in Yankee City. The assumption that
an arranged marriage will be made within the caste limits
the field of selection. Within that field the statements
of these household heads indicate that in arranging a
daughter's marriage, primary consideration is given to
the sociO-economic status of the groom and his family.

Secondarily, household heads typically mention the
prospective groom's "character" (caritro) or "temperament"
(Bvabhab). A.few respondents specified "intelligence,"
“smartness” (in the British sense), "industriousness,"
"gentleness" or "politeness" (namraté), "honesty" and "sob-
riety" as desirable attributes, but most did not go beyond

saying that the groom's "behavior" (byfibahar) or "charac-

 

ter" (caritro) should be "good" (bhalg). In describing
the desirable groom, female adolescents sometimes added
that he Should be "loving" (bhalobasbe). Otherwise,?the
aSpects of character mentioned by the girls correSpond

closely to those mentioned by their fathers.

199

However, for another major category of attributes, ap-
pearance, there is a sharp difference in the relative fre-
quency of mention by household heads and by female youth.
Appearance is mentioned more frequently by girls in Panchan-
antala and Mallik Para than even the economic attributes of
the prOSpective groom and is the fourth ranking attribute
listed by girls in Badur Bagan. Yet the appearance of the
groom is almost never mentioned as an important attribute
by the household heads. Most youth used the phrase dekte
‘bhalg or "good looking" and many qualified their statements
by saying that the grOom need not be handsome, but he should
not be ugly. The adoleScents' emphasis on appearance ap-
pears to be part of a more general romantic emphasis on
appeal or attraction. In so far as marriages are arranged
by family elders who ensure economic compatibility, girls
are relatively free to dream about the appearance and char-
acter of their future husbands. But in Badur Bagan where
girls may have a somewhat larger role in selecting their
mates, three other attributes: education, character, and
job or earnings are mentioned more frequently than appear-
ance.

In selecting a bride, her economic independence is of
”little concern. Only five reSpondents mentioned an occu-
pational role as being a desirable attribute for a bride.
Likewise, because patrilocal residence is expected, it is
of little concern whether the bride's family owns a house

or land. On the other hand, education is a frequently

200

mentioned attribute of the ideal bride as well as of the
ideal groom. Education is said to be important because
the bride is eXpected to transmit cultural tradition and
family customs and to be able to give her children a has-
ic education. Education is also understood to be an in-
dicator of both social status and cultural refinement.
Nevertheless, although education is valued, the bride
should not have more schooling than the groom. The goal
is to match the relative educational achievement of the
bride and groom so that her education approaches, but
does not exceed his. I

It is considered very important for a bride to "know
her family duties" or “have the necessary home making
skills” (sansirer kEj janbe). In Panchanantala household
heads mention home making skills most frequently, and in
Badur Bagan and Mallik Para household heads mention home
making skills less frequently than only education. Thus,
in Panchanantala a bride's knowledge of the concrete skills
needed to maintain a household is relatively more important
than her ability to read or write, but in Badur Bagan, where
many household tasks are performed by servants, the wife's
presentation of herself as intelligent, gracious, and
understanding is relatively more important.

In addition, the prospective bride, like the prOSpece
tive groom, should be ”well behaved" and of "good charac-
ter." There is repeated emphasis on the bride's ability

to please and comply with her husband's parents and other

201
family members as well as her husband. The ideal bride, as
*iiscribed by these reSpondents, should be "gentle," "polite,"
"patient," "loving," "good nature," "intelligent," and
"gracious."
The ideal bride should also be "beautiful" (sundar),

or at least "good looking" (dekte bhalo), and she should

 

be "fair" (pharsé). In Bengal skin color is considered to
be an important component of beauty, and also has impli-
cations for inherited family prestige (Bertocci 1970:
189-190). Male adolescents in Panchanantala and Mallik
Para mentioned the prOSpective bride's appearance more fre-
quently than any other attribute, and male adolescents in
Badur Bagan mention only education more frequently. On
the other hand, household heads mention the bride's appear-
ance less frequently than education, home making skills,
and character.

The differences between the attributes desired in a
groom and those desired in a bride may be summarized as
follows. The groom's job or earning power is one of his
most important attributes, but a bride's earning power is
of little consequence. Similarly, the property owned by
the groom or his family is an important asset in marriage
negotiations, but property owned by the bride's family is
infrequently mentioned although it occasionally may be part
of her dowry. Conversely, the bride's awareness of family
duties and her knowledge of home making skills are para-

mount, but the groom's knowledge of household duties is

202

inconsequential. The bride's appearance is mentioned some-
what moreifrequently than the groom's. Education, character,
and inherited family prestige are given about equal mention
for both bride and groom, though as noted earlier the type
of education (scientific, technical,and commercial) desired
for men differs from that (liberal arts) desired for women.
Similarly the personality of the ideal groom should be more
assertive, and that of the ideal bride should be more adap-
tive.

The differences in the ideal attributes of bride and
groom according to the social class of the reSpondents are
summarized below. The relative frequency with which edu—
cation is mentioned is directly related to social class.

By contrast the relative frequency with which concretely
economic and productive skills are mentioned is inversely
related to social class. Thus, the groom's job and wages’
and the bride's home making skills are relatively more im-
portant in Panchanantala than in Badur Bagan and Mallik
Para. The relative frequency with which property owner-
ship is mentioned is also inversely related to social class.
The characterggfi:5h£sopalitytof the prOSpective bride and
groom is mentioned somewhat more frequently in Badur Bagan
than in Mallik Para or Panchanantala, whereas appearance

is relatively more frequently mentioned by youth in Panchan-
antala than by youth in Badur Bagan.

The following statements summarize the differences in

the attributes desired by the household heads and those

203
desired by youth. Appearance is mentioned much more fre-
quently by youth than by household heads. The emphasis
on appearance by youth is especially great in Panchanan-
tala and Mallik Para where appearance is the attribute most
frequently mentioned by youth, but is rarely mentioned by
household heads. .As a result of the emphasis on appear-
ance, the rank order of most other attributes is somewhat
lower for youth than for household heads. Thus, home mak-
ing skills are mentioned relatively less frequently by male
youth than by household heads in each neighborhood. Job
or earnings is mentioned relatively less frequently by
youth than by household heads in Mallik Para and Badur Ba-
gan. Education is mentioned relatively less frequently by
youth than by household heads in Panchanantala and Mallik
Para, but in Badur Bagan education is the attribute most
frequently mentioned by both male and female youth and by
household heads. Property ownership is an attribute fre-
quently mentioned by household heads, but rarely mentioned

by youth.

Age at Marriage
The age of marriage reflects the length of time neces-
sary to acquire the attributes considered desirable or nec-
essary prior to the allocation of legitimate sexual maturity.
In particular, the marriage age of males in Calcutta is
closely related to the length of time necessary for the

prOSpective groom to establish an earning capacity. He

204
should have completed his education and have been placed
in an occupation apprOpriate for his social class and edu-
cational attainment. A girl should have completed her ed-
ucation, have learned the essential home making skills,
and be ready to assume the roles of wife and mother before
she is considered old enough to marry.

Each household head was asked to indicate at what age
boys should be married and at what age girls should be mar-
ried. The median age and the range of ages reported by
the household heads in each neighborhood are shown in Table
5.18. On the average boys are not expected to be ready for
marriage until their middle or late twenties, but it is
generally considered desirable for girls to be married in
their late teens or early twenties.

As is shown in Tables 5.19 and 5.20 the actual ages
of marriage of the age cohort most recently married (30-39

for males, 20—29 for females) correSpond very closely with

TABLE 5.18 ‘
PREFERRED AGE FOR MARRIAGE REPORTED BY HOUSEHOLD HEADS

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Bride Groom Bride Groom Bride Groom

 

Median Age 16 24 19 26 20 27

Range of
reported ages 10-25 16—35 14-25 18-33 15-30 25-35

 

2055'
TABLE 5.19

MEDIAN AGE AT MARRIAGE FOR MEN

 

 

 

 

Present Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
age Median age ’Numse: Median age Number Median age' Number
at marriage at marriage at marriage
30-39 23 30 25 32 28 15
40-49 21 43 26 13 28 18
50-59 20 11 25 15 27 20
60 + 39. _9 .aé 19 .252 22
21 93 25 76 27 76

TABLE 5.20

MEDIAN AGE AT MARRIAGE FOR WOMEN

 

1—

 

Present Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan

 

age Median age Number Median age Number Median age Number
at marriage ‘ at marriage at marriage

20—29 . 16 24 17 33 20 15

30-39 14 51 16 23 18 25

40—49 10' 22 14 18 17 15

50-59 9 17 12.5 10 14.5 14

60 + _g _g 10 12 12 16

13 122 15 96 16 - 85

 

206
the preferred ages. If anything the preferred age at mar—
riage is higher than the median age of those already mar-
ried, reflecting a continuation of the long trend towards.
higher marriage ages in Calcutta and in India generally
(Kapadia 1966: 156—159).

As shown in Table 5.19 the median age at marriage has
risen by three years for men in Panchanantala and in Badur
Bagan over the past forty years. The fact that the average
marriage age has not risen perceptibly in Mallik Para prob—
ably reflects the changing composition of the neighborhood
with more lower class tenants moving into a neighborhood
that was reportedly occupied previously mainly by the land
owners, who then had larger holdings and fewer tenants.
Among men presently of marriageable age a further sharp
rise in the median age at marriage is indicated by the
proportion of males whoremain single beyond the ages at
which their immediate elders had already married, as shown
in Table 5.21. The rise in marriage age for men parallels
the gradually increasing educational attainment of men in
each social class as was discussed in Chapter II. It also
reflects the scarcity of jobs and the correSpondingly high
unemployment rates for the educated as well as the less ed-
ucated in Calcutta. It may take a young man several years
to find a suitable job, or he may take a job which requires
less education and wait several years until he finds or

moves up to a position considered appropriate to his socio-

economic status, and his marridbe is postponed accordingly.

207
TABLE 5.21

PROPORTION OF YOUNG MEN EVER MARRIED, BY AGE

 

 

 

Panchanantala Mallik Para Badur Bagan
Age Married All Percent Married A11 Percent Married A11 Percent
men men married men men married men men married
20-24 7 25 28% 3 23 13% 0 24 0%
25-29 13 20 65% 8 22 36% 4 21 19%
30-34 13 15 81% 16 25 64% 7 13 54%
35-39 27 27 100% 16 17 94% 15 20 75%

 

TABLE 5.22

PROPORTION OF YOUNG WOMEN EVER MARRIED, BY AGE

 

 

_‘rfi

Panchanantala Mallik Para L Badur Bagan
Age Married All Percent Married All Percent Married All Percent
women women married women women married . women women married

’4‘ 41

10-14 1 34 3% 0 35 0% 0 22 0%
15-19 11""55""§692 5 28 18% 0 31 0%
20-24 15 15 100% 1;----2;----63; 9 29 31%
25-29 15 15 100%» 15 15 100% 8_—_-I3----62;
30-34 32 32 100%. 13 14 93% 16 20 80%

35-39 26 26 100% 12 12 100% l6 17 94%

 

4‘85?

The median age at marriage has risen even more sharply
for women than for men. Over the past fifty years there
has been an average increase of seven or eight years in the
marriage age for women in each neighborhood, as shown in
Table 5.20. The custom of gauridan or "giving a Hindu girl
of eight" in marriage was formerly held as an ideal at least
among the higher castes in Bengal, as in other parts of
northern India. Although parents continue to worry about
their daughters' virginity and to restrict them in many ways,
marrying a girl before puberty is no longer legal nor is it
favored by the vast majority of reSpondents. The marriage
age for women may have been raised in reSponse to reform
movements which, for example, were intended to reduce the
number of women widowed as children. But, perhaps the
greatest change has occurred as formal education has become
an increasingly important attribute of a woman's social
status. Just as the average number of years of schooling
has risen more sharply for females than for males, so has
the age Of marriage risen more sharply for females than for
males.

One result is to narrow somewhat the gap between the
sexes. The difference between the ages of husband and wife
is ordinarily quite large in Bengal. Nevertheless, the
median number of years difference is less for younger couples
than for older couples as shown in Table 5.23. The differ-
ence has decreased from an average of between ten and twelve

years in couples in which the husband is over sixty to

209

TABLE 5.23

MEDIAN AGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE,

BY PRESENT AGE OF HUSBAND AND NEIGHBORHOOD

 

 

Present age Panchanantala

Mallik Para

Badur Bagan

 

of husband Median years Median years Median years

difference N difference N difference N
30-39 8 36 8 26 8 19
40-49 10 54 10 15 8 21
50-59 10 15 ll 18 10 21
60 + 11 18. 12 17 10 25

 

eight years in couples in which the husband is under forty.

The difference in the median ages preferred by household

heads for the marriage of boys and girls, as was shown in

Table 5.18, are even smaller, only seven years in each of

the three neighborhoods.

Even though the age at marriage has risen in each of

the neighborhoods studied, there remain consistent differ-

ences between the age of marriage in the lower class neigh-

borhood and the lower-middle class neighborhood and between

it and the upper-middle class neighborhood.

In each age

cohort there is a difference of from five to seven years

between the age at marriage of men living in Panchanantala

and men living in Badur Bagan and a difference of from three

to seven years between the age at marriage of women living

in Panchanantala and women living in Badur Bagan.

For at

least the last fifty years, then, both men and women in the

210
higher classes have been marrying later than men and women
in the lower classes. The differences in age at marriage
among neighborhoods differing in social class, like those
between different age cohorts and even those between males
and females are directly related to the average number of

years of formal education.

Freedom of Marital Choice
Goode listed some of the major world changes he predict-
ed would occur in family systems as "earlier patterns begin
to move toward some conjugal family variant." First among
these is:

Freedom of marital choice, with the following
concomitant changes:

a) Marital bargaining is taken from the hands of
elders -;

b) The young couple must be economically indepen-
dent;

c) The age of females at marriage is likely to
drop in Japan, but to rise slightly in China
and substantially in Arab countries and India;
the age of males depends on several additional
variables; at a minimum, there develops the
notion of a "proper maturity at marriage" for
both;

d) The pattern of class homogamy does not change
greatly;

e) In cultures where there was nearly universal
marriage (India, Japan, China), there may be
a slight diminution in the percentage ever
married; and

f) Age-discrepant marriages, i.e., between Spouses
of very different ages, diminish (Goode 1963a:
249-250). i

From the data Obtained in these three neighborhoods in Cal-
cutta, it appears that each of these changes has occurred

- ) O

to some degree. The "love marriage” preceded by a period

of courtship is gaining in acceptance as an alternative to

211
the arrangement of a marriage by family elders. Between
one-fifth and one-half of the youth in each neighborhood
would prefer a marriage in which the couple know each other
and decide to marry, but in which the wedding ceremony is
formally arranged by family elders who give their blessing
to the marriage. In these neighborhoods approximately one—
third of the unmarried youth between the ages of thirteen
and twenty-five reported having or having had a boy friend
or girl friend. About half of the "dating" youth think
the relationship will lead to marriage. With the small
number of marriages in any one neighborhood in a given year,
too few households were surveyed to ascertain accurately
the proportion of love marriages, but it appears to be in-
creasing. In addition to marriages in which a friendship
is initiated by the couple, there are indications that
youth are gaining a more important role in the customary
arrangement of marriages. It appears that members of the
same generation as the bride and groom are playing an in-
creasingly important part in suggesting potential mates and
in acting as intermediaries. In many families the person
whose marriage is being arranged is given a chance to see
his prOSpective spouse, and to eXpress his Opinion in making
the final decision. Nevertheless, any statement that love
marriages are gaining in acceptance or that youth have
more prerogatives in the decision making process, must be
tempered by the fact that the vast majority of marriages

in Calcutta are arranged entirely by family elders and

212
that almost as many youth prefer it that way.

The earning capacity of the prOSpective groom is of
paramount importance whether the marriage is arranged by
elders or by the couple. Household heads listed job or
earnings, education, and property ownership most frequently
among the qualities sought in a prOSpective groom. The
economic independence of the bride is of less importance
although education, which is highly valued as an attribute
of social status, is also understood to provide a woman
with a means of support through teaching in the event of
widowhood or divorcexu

The age at marriage has risen sharply among females in
each neighborhood over the past fifty years, from before
puberty to the late teens or early twenties. The age at
marriage among males has also risen gradually in response
to the increasing demands for higher education and the scar-
city Of jobs in Calcutta.

Homogeneity of socio-economic status is typical in
both arranged and love marriages. Within the boundaries
imposed by caste, careful consideration is given to balanc-
ing the socio-economic characteristics of both families.
Hypergamy is acceptable and sometimes advocated, but the
interest of the groom's family in having an educated and
culturally refined daughter-in-law Operates against any
great discrepancy in sociO-economic status. Nor do there
appear to be any distinct discrepancies in social class

in the few occurring love marriages. Such couples have

213
typically been students together, been members of the same
club, have lived in adjoining neighborhoods, or in a few
cases the groom has worked for someone in the bride's
family.

Marriage is still universal for women in Panchanan-
tala and Mallik Para. (One woman over twenty-five is un-
married because she is physically handicapped.) However,
in Badur Bagan there are a few unmarried women above the
age of thirty and even a couple over forty. The numbers,
however, are too small to make any meaningful statement
about rates or trends.

The average size of the discrepancy between the ages
of husband and wife has diminished. In the neighborhoods
studied the median number of years difference between the
ages of the husband and wife have decreased from ten or
more years to eight years in the past forty years.

In summary, freedom of marital choice is gradually
being realized with the predicted concomitant changes and
observable family structure does appear to be moving to-
ward some variant of the conjugal family. But the ideals
of the patrilineal joint family and the Hindu bibaho con-
tinue to be advocated by the majority of the reSpondents
from these three neighborhoods. By gradually redefining
the essence of family jointness and by slowly establishing
norms about what kind of mate will be approved by family
elders, the apparent contradictions between observable

behavior and reported ideals are being reconciled.

CHAPTER VI
SUMMARY

In this thesis I have tried to analyze variations in
the application of the principles of ascription and achieve-
ment to determine not whigh statuses are chosen and achieved
or ascribed and affirmed, but rather hey these principles,
'cOexist and interact in the allocation of adult occupational
and familial statuses.

The overall status or rank of a neighborhood reflects
the rankings of its residents on a series of evaluated char-
acteristics. Income, occupation, education, casEE, recency
of migration to the Calcutta MetrOpolitan District,and

.

household type are among the evaluated characteristics or
rankable attributes on which the distributions or average
rankings of the residents of Panchanantala, Mallik Para, and
Badur Bagan vary in a linear fashion. The median reported
monthly household income varies from Rs. 130 in Panchanan—
tala, to Rs. 255 in Mallik Para, to Rs. 600 in Badur Bagan.
In the distribution of occupations the proportion of adult
men who are employed in the professions varies from none in
Panchanantala, to eight per cent in Mallik Para, to twenty-
five per cent in Badur Bagan. Conversely, the prOportion
of adult men who are employed in small scale trade, person-
al services, construction, and day labor varies from eighty
per cent in Panchanantala, to thirteen per cent in Mallik
Para, to one per cent in Badur Bagan. The median level of

education attained by the fathers of male youth is a primary

214

215

education in Panchanantala, a secondary education in Mallik
Para, and a college education in Badur Bagan. The distri—
bution of reported caste membership shows that the three
upper castes, Brahman, Baidya, and Kayastha, account for
eighteen per cent of the households in Panchanantala, forty-
seven per cent of the households in Mallik Para, and eighty-
seven per cent of the households in Badur Bagan. The house—
hold head was born in the cities of Calcutta or Howrah in
ten per cent of the households in Panchanantala, in forty
per cent of the households in Mallik Para, and in fifty-one
per cent of the households in Badur Bagan. The total pro—
portion of joint family households varies from five per
cent in Panchanantala, to eleven per cent in Mallik Para,
to twenty-six per cent in Badur Bagan, including nine per
cent, twenty—two per cent, and thirty-nine per cent of the
populations of the three neighborhoods reSpectively. The
higher proportions result from both a greater proportion
of households in which lineal and/or collateral juncture
is possible and higher ratios of actual to possible junCture.

The differences in these and other evaluated character-
istics are generally perceived by the residents of each
neighborhood and reflected in their descriptions of the
social class of the neighborhood. Households in Panchan—
antala typically report that the residents of their neigh-
borhood are poor or belong to the working class (sramik
ggggi), while those in Mallik Para and Badur Bagan report

that the residents of their neighborhoods belong to the

2&6

middle class (madhya bitto). Of those who don't describe

 

the neighborhood as simply middle class, the majority in
Badur Bagan describe it as upper-middle class, while the
majority in Mallik Para describe it as mixed or lower-
middle class. 1

Clearly, the youth in each neighborhood have grown up
in markedly different environments, and their eventual
adult placement differs accordingly. The proportion of
youth who have completed Class IV, considered to be the
minimum for permanent literacy, varies from thirteen per
cent for girls and thirty-nine per cent for boys in Panchan—
antala, to eighty-eight per cent for girls and ninety-five
per cent for boys in Mallik Para, to ninety-eight per cent
for girls and one hundred per cent for boys in Badur Bagan.
The percentage of boys in Badur Bagan who have entered col-
lege is twice as high as the percentage of boys in the same
age cohort in Panchanantala who have remained in school be-
yond the primary level. The percentage of girls in Badur
Bagan who have gone to college is higher than the percent—
age of girls in Panchanantala who have learned to read.

In India as a whole the proportionate increases in
sec0ndary and college level enrollments have risen faster
than primary enrollment and the Calcutta Metropolitan Dis—
trict had in 1965 fallen behind other urban areas in India
in the proportion of children between the ages of six and
ten who are in school primarily because of a failure to

provide free public education for children whose families

217
cannot provide the tuition fees at private schools. The
discrepancy among the average levels of education attained
by male youth in the three neighborhoods is no less than
that among their fathers, and with the relatively sharp
increase in education for middle class girls with no cor-
responding change in the rate of literacy among lower class
girls, the discrepancy in the average level of education
attained by female youth in the three neighborhoods is
considerably greater than that among their mothers.

The types of occupations which are Open to youth and
the salaries earned are tied to their educational attain-
ment. Both educational and occupational aspirations of
students vary by neighborhood and in each neighborhood
exceed the levels which students are apt to attain. Occu-
pational aspirations are typically phrased in terms of a
profession which represents the end-point of one of the
four main educational curricula: the science, commercial,
technical, and arts lines. Despite the fact that even in
Badur Bagan no more than twenty-five per cent of the adult
men and eleven per cent of the women are in the professions,
ninety per cent of the male students in Badur Bagan, and
the majority of the male students in Panchanantala and
Mallik Para, as well as the majority of middle class female
students all aspire to professional careers. The profess
sion is seen as the goal, the line as the means, and the
student proceeds as far as possible. When he has completed

his education, the male youth accepts the best available

218
position in his line. The distribution of occupations of
young men up to age twenty-five who have entered the labor
market closely parallels that of the older men in their
neighborhoods, but with slightly higher prOportions of
industrial workers. Although much has been said about the
unemployment rate among educated males, the proportion of
nonstudents up to age twenty-five who do not have jobs is
highest in Panchanantala and lowest in Badur Bagan, varying
inversely with the education level of the youth.

While males compromise on the best available job be-
cause of the strong expectation that they should contribute
economically, middle Class females who do not attain their
professional goals generally remain out of the labor force.
A major factor is the lack of culturally acceptable, non—
manual jobs for women with less than a college education.
Although a fairly large proportion of fathers in Mallik Para
stated that clerical jobs were suitable for girls, no women
or girls in Mallik Para, and only three women over twenty-
five and one younger girl in Badur Bagan have taken cleri-
cal jobs. Uneducated girls do not ordinarily aSpire to any
occupation. Nevertheless, they are more likely than middle
class girls to enter the labor force, generally as domeStic
or institutional servants. Girls are further handicapped
by the fact that in each neighborhood boys receive more
formal education than girls, although the increase in the
amount of schooling has been more rapid for middle class

girls than for middle class boys. The education of males

219
and females differs in the curricula pursued as well as in
the amount of schooling. Eighty—two per cent of the female
college students, but only thirty-one per cent of tne male
college students in the three neighborhoods are enrolled
in programs leading to a Bachelor or Master of Arts degree.
Males outnumber females in the science curriculum, and with
one exception there are no females from these three neigh-
borhoods studying commerce, engineering, or law. In these
neighborhoods, as elsewhere, women's access to many occupa-
tions is limited by norms governing the appropriateness of
certain kinds of work for women, by fewer years of formal
education than males of the same socio-economic status, and
by educational channeling into the arts, and away from sci-
ence, engineering, commerce, and law. In short, sex is an
seven more basic reference point than birth into an estab—
lished social group in determining the probability that one
will enter the labor force at all and, if in the labor
force, in determining the type of work one will do.

The primary economic role of the typical middle class
woman consists of domestic labor in the household she en—
tered through a marriage arranged by her family. Marriage
is a crucial event in a girl's life, because it fixes her
adult status in both the economic and family systems. Tra—
ditionally marriage is the only necessary samskara, or
Hindu rite of pasSage,after infancy, for upper caste fe-
males, whereas upper caste males are eXpected to perform

a series of samskaras to purify the body and enlighten the

 

220
mind (Kapadia 1966: 141). A man ideally and often actually
resides continuously with his family of orientation. (If
his job requires him to locate elsewhere, it is not likely
to happen at the same time as his marriage.) Because the
age at marriage of men is an average of eight years more
than the age at marriage of women in the same neighborhood,
a man has about eight additional years to complete his ed-
ucation and establish himself in an occupation. A middle
class woman is often married shortly after she finishes her
education and usually before she has had any occupational
experience. Furthermore, a male's prestige within the
family is enhanced by his earning capacity and by achieve-
ments in his occupation, but a woman's occupation, if any,
is often seen as conflicting with her sansar or family
duties. Marriage is, thus, a decisive event for a middle
class girl, representing a major point of discontinuity in
her life cycle.

Similarly, discordance between the professional as-
pirations of middle class girls and the occupational role
models provided by female members of their families is ex-
pressed in their choice of role models. Both boys and girls
usually named someone in the occupational line to which they
aspired, but while one fourth of the boys selected a mem—
ber of their household (father, father's brother, or an
older brother), only one girl (in Panchanantala) named any
.female member of her household as a role model. Where

the role characteristics emulated by a girl were held by

221
males, a man was often named as the person a girl emulated.
No boy designated a woman as his role model, but seven
girls in Mallik Para and twelve in Badur Bagan named men
as their role models. The social distance between girls
and the role models they name is thus greater than between
boys and the role models they name, and the opportunities
for anticipatory socialization are correspondingly fewer
for girls.

In certain circumstances institutionalized patterns of
behavior arise in response to common role strains. An
excellent example of this is the emergence and prolifer-
ation of age groups in the form of neighborhood Sports and
puja clubs in Calcutta. According to Eisenstadt age groups
arise when the allocation of occupational statuses is not
controlled by the family, but by institutions in an eco-
nomic system under which the individual is ideally given a
job on the basis of his ability to fulfill its Specific
demands, and in which his performance is evaluated uni-
versalistically. Age groups provide diffuse affective
support for youth as they learn various general role dis—
positions which cannot be learned in the family.

“In the neighborhoods studied age groups are an impor-
tant socializing force for most adolescent boys, but not
for most adolescent girls. The relative importance of
friendships and of clubs in the socialization of female
and male youth were found to differ significantly. The

peer relationships of boys are centered around neighborhood

222
clubs. Each of the neighborhoods has an active Sports and
puja club formed by local boys. Many boys are also members
of clubs outside the neighborhood. The peer relationships
of girls, however, are primarily diadic, consisting of
friendships with Specific others. Of the few girls who
belong to clubs for a short period, almost all belong to
clubs which are directed and supervised by adults. Girls
have few opportunities to establish informal neighborhood
clubs, and thus less chance than boys of the same socio-
economic status to make or implement group decisions or to
deve10p leadership skills.

Whereas boys organize Sarvajanin Pujas as a group for
the entire neighborhood, girls attempt to improve a future
over which they have little control by making and keeping
“25333 or "devotional vows." Girls may develop patience
and fortitude through fasting and careful adherence to
prescribed patterns of behavior, but they have relatively

.asmall roles in the organization of religious ceremonies
which have eXpressive and integrative significance for the
community.

While boys are developing teamwork through group
sports, the physical activity of girls is Sharply cur—
tailed. .Even during the preadolescent period when greater
physical activity is allowed, the types of activities
which are planned for girls are primarily noninterac-
tional. In drill and exercises girls repeat the actions

of a leader, rather than playing from complimentary

223

pUSitions toward a common goal as in team Sports. The role
diSpositions develOped through intense diadic friendships
appear to be particularistic and diffuse like those of

the family.

The widespread proliferation of Sarvajanin Pujas and
athletic clubs in Calcutta and_Howrah is relatively recent.
The emergence of local sports and puja clubs for male youth
has paralleled the transfer of the allocation of male econ—
omic roles from the family and caste to government bureau—
cracies, and commercial and industrial corporations. Age
groups have not, however, arisen in those segments of the
pOpulation in which the family still constitutes the main
unit in the social and economic division of labor. Age
groups have not arisen to any comparable extent among fe-
male youth in these neighborhoods. For females the ar-
ranged marriage is still the primary allocative mechanism
and their main economic role is played in the family house—
hold.

The coexistence and interaction of ascription and
achievement is perhaps best illustrated by the analysis
of the allocation of familial statuses. The ready accept-
ance by youth of the principles of family planning exists
side by side with stated aSpirations to maintain family
jointness even beyond the stage when Bengali families or-
dinarily are partitioned. Nuclear households predominate
in each of the neighborhoods studied, with well under half

of the pOpulation and fewer than one—fourth of the

224

households being commensally joint. Simultaneously, the
joint family is demonstrably strong as an ideal family
type which almost all reSpondents advocate. Two proces—
ses appear to minimize the impact of this apparent con-
tradiction. The first is a redefinition of the essential
qualities of family jointness to allow for the geographic
separation required by occupational mobility. The second
is the granting of more individual prerogatives within the
family.

Youth increasingly participate in the process of mate
selection, but almost all want their elders to make the
formal arrangements for the marriage. The love marriage,
modeled on the Western pattern of marriage, is recognized
as an alternative to the customary Hindu bibaho as a pat—
tern for mate selection. Although youth generally discuss
types of marriage using the constructs of the "love mar-
riage" and the bibaho, when a youth describes the kind of
marriage he or She prefers it typically contains elements
of both patterns. The acceptance of greater indiVidual
participation in mate selection is closely related to a
developing pattern of courtship. Altogether about one-
third of the youth report having or having had a girl friend
or boy friend. Although theoretically love can happen to
any two persons, the actual field from which a youth can.
select a girl friend or boy friend is limited by the need
for secrecy and the strong emphasis on marital intention.

The pattern of interrelationship between ascription and

225
achievement in the allocation of adult statuses in these
three neighborhoods is similar in many reSpects to that
in other nations. Caste, the ascriptive criterion which
has been used most frequently to categorize India as a
"traditional" nation, is relatively unimportant as a di—
rect criterion for urban occupational placement. The
division of labor is at least ostensibly universalistic
and based on specified performance criteria. Even in the
allocation of familial statuses the acquired education of
both prOSpective spouses and the occupation and earning
capacity of the prospective husband are given primary
consideration. Nevertheless, as Linton said, ascriptive
criteria play a dominant role in the assignment of most
statuses in all societies. Two ascriptive factors: the
socio-economic status of the neighborhood and the sex of
the prospective incumbent have been Shown to be pervasively
related to the allocation of adult statuses in the occupa-
tional and family Systems. I have also tried to show
that the way in which ascription and achievement inter-
act and coexist, complementing as well as conflicting with
one another, is as important as the relative emphasis given
to ascription or achievement in the assignment of.a partic-

ular Status 0

Footnotes

lThe transliteration of Bengali words follows the system

prOposed by Inden and Dimock (1970). The Bengali spell-
ing is that found in Dev (1964). Diacritical marks are
used only on the first appearance of a word in the text,
except where a word is repeated in a phrase or sentence
containing words not previously used.

2A "mess" (from the English military usage) is typically
a group of men who live and eat together separated from
their families. Workers and students from outlying
towns and villages often form "messes" during their
residence in Calcutta. Many return to their family
homes on weekends and for holidays.

3Broomfield (1968) describes the general social character-
istics of the Bengali bhadralok at the beginning of the
twentieth century:

 

a socially privileged and consciously superior
group, economically dependent upon landed rents
and professional and clerical employment; keep-
ing its distance from the masses by its accept-
ance of high-caste proscriptions and its command
of education; sharing a pride in its language,
its literate culture, and its history; and main-
taining its communal integration through a fairly
complex institutional Structure that it had
proved remarkably ready to adapt and augment

to extend its social power.

0 O O 9 O I I O O O O O O O O O O O

The advantage in the use 0 the Bengali word
'bhadralok' is that it emphasizes the attribute
which was most important to the members of the
group themselvesg'their social honour. The use

of the word underlines the cardinal fact that this
was a status group (in Max Weber's sense of the
term), not an economic or occupational class. A
man did not become a.bhadralok simply by achieving
a given level of wealth or securing certain employ-
ment. Nor did impoverishment or unemployment auto-
matically deprive one of bhadralok status, provided
certain values were maintained and certain social
proprieties observed (1968: 12—14).

Membership in the bhadralok was not entirely ascriptive,
although there were serious obstacles in the path of
aspiring entrants.

What we observe here is a point of critical sig-
nificance: profound bhadralok uncertainty on the

 

226

227

crucial issue of whether their society should
be Open or closed. If we look carefully at the
subjects of social and political discussion at
the turn of the century we find that this was
the fundamental issue underlying bhadralok de-
bates. Should Bengali society be dominated by
a caste elite, drawing its authority and its
strength from the great tradition and organic
unity of Hinduism, or should free access to the
elite be provided for the able individuals of
all classes through an expansion of the utili—
tarian institutions that had been developed in
the nineteenth century in contact with Europeans?
(1968: 15).

4"Bustee" (basti) is a Bengali word adopted from Hindi,

where it means a "settled" or "inhabited place" (from
basa, "dwell"). In Bengali the term is used to refer
to a very densely inhabited urban area, a slum or
”shantytown," a kind of area commonly inhabited by
Hindustani Speaking poor immigrants.

A bustee is defined in the Calcutta Municipal
Act, 1951, as an "area of land occupied by, or
for the purpose of, any collection of huts Stand-
ing on a plot of land not less than 10 cottahs

in area." (Ten cottahs are approximately equiv-
alent to one-Sixth of an acre.) A hut means ”any
building, no substantial part of which, excluding
the walls up to a height of 18 inches up to the
floor or floor-level, is constructed of masonry,
reinforced concrete, steel, iron or other metal."
The tenure characteristics of bustees are distinc-
tive. The land is owned by a landlord, who rents
it to a person or persons called thika tenants,
who build huts on the land and rent them to the
families who live in the bustees. The thi a ten-
ants themselves often are bustee dwellers CMPO
1966: 91).

5Moorhouse (1972) has written a very readable description
of Calcutta based on many earlier studies of Calcutta.
See also works by Bose (1965, 1968); C.M.P.O. (1966);
Sen (1960); Siddiqui (1969); Chatterjee (1965), and
Bagchi (1966).

6Sanyal (1971) discusses the forms of caste mobility in
Bengal including in addition to the rise of a particu-
lar caste in popular estimation, the deviation of a
section of a particular caste from the traditional oc-
cupation of the caste and the subsequent formation of
a new sreni, and movements organized by a particular
sreni for recognition as a separate caste and

228

achievement of a status higher than that of the parent
body in the caste hierarchy. He describes in detail the
emergence of two new castes, the Sadgops and the Tilis.
Risley (1891) and Gait (1901) describe the rise of the
Kayasthas in Bengal and the emergence of the term Mahisya
to designate Halik Kaibartas. By 1931 the Mahisyas had
become the most pOpulouS Hindu caste in Bengal.

In Table 1.2 I have included Kaibartas with Mahisyas
because of several instances in which different members
of the same family, but different households, replied
Mahisya and Kaibarta, and because of replies like that
of one reSpondent who reported: Caste--Mahisya, Sreni-—
Kaibarta. Whereas Kaibarta is historically the generic
term with the Halik Kaibartas or Mahisyas being one sec—
tion thereof, it was her understanding and that of some
others, that Mahisya is the generic term and farmers,
boatmen, and fishermen may be considered to belong to
different sections. AS they move to the city and adept
urban occupations, even the Jalik Kaibarta appear to
adopt the designation Mahisya and merge with the larger
body. .

7Elder (1968) discusses the applicability of survey re-

search in India, noting the advantages accruing from a
survey of a sample of village residents in counteracting
the "self selection" of respondents, in legitimatizing
questioning, and in permitting comparisons of replies
according to caste, age, income, religious belief, and
other broad categories.

8For a comparison with the.family and economic roles of

urban women in Mysore state, see Ross (1961: 54-58,

9The tendency to cite economic need to demonstrate "proper
motivation" for working is discussed by Epstein (1971:
43). Household heads, even in Badur Bagan, frequently
qualified their reSponseS to the question on the desir-
ability of daughters having an occupation by the phrase,
"should it become necessary" or described preparation
for a job as protection against necessity. While the
economic gains of a woman's career are considerable and
should not be underestimated (Rapoport and Rapoport 19713
296), it would stretch the definition of necessity to
say that the majority of professional women in Badur
Bagan are working out of necessity.

10The wish to remain single is apparently not uncommon
among middle and upper class women in India. Twenty—
eight per cent of a sample of 202 college women in
North India reported that, ideally, they would not

229

marry if it were up to them (Theodorson 1965: 17-26).
Some of these girls may have stated a preference for
remaining single out of modesty, but others would un-
doubtedly prefer the opportunity to have a career,
which appears to be more readily available to the
single woman. '

11As indicated in the test, cakri is typically trans-

lated as service, but may be better understood as any
salaried employment or appointed position. As such
cakri does not include business or trade, agriculture
or any labor for which daily wages are paid. Under
British rule and before large scale industrialization,
most salaried positions were government office jobs

and many peOple use the word cakri to refer primarily
to office work, especially clerical jobs. However,
many large industrial firms now appoint even unskilled
and semi-skilled laborers to Specific positions and pay
monthly salaries. In Panchanantala factory workers who
have such salaried positions refer to them as cakri.

As the process of appointing workers to salaried posi-
tions has spread through the economy, the prestige of
having cakri, like the prestige associated with matric-
ulation or any other academic qualification, has been
dilutedo The main advantage of cakri over business,

or for that matter, over wage labor, is said to be in
greater job security as well as in employee benefits
and pensions.

12"Primitive age sets, age groups and age regiments, the

youth dormitories of many Indian tribes, modern youth
movements, peer groups, juvenile gangs . . ." are ex-
amples of age groups described by Eisenstadt (1956:
35). ". . .the nucleus of an age group organization
is a small, usually face—to-face primary group of
peers with a strong sense of solidarity and mutual
identification . 3'. . oits membership is, in prin—
ciple, based on general age criteria, i.e., a member
may be anyone within the age category (age grade)"
(Eisenstadt 19562 184).

13Curtis (19712 872-880) compares the rates of membership

in voluntary associations for national samples of the
population over age eighteen in six Western democratic
nations. In each country more men than women join vole
untary associations, although the difference is rela-
tively small in the U.S. and Canada. Higher rates of
membership in voluntary associations for males, as well
as for those of higher socio-economic status and educa—
tion, have also been found by others. For a summary of
the literature on voluntary associations, see Sills
(1968). Booth (1972) differentiates friendships dyads,

230

membership in voluntary associations, and kin relations

in his study of interpersonal relationships among men

and women over forty in Omaha and Lincoln. He finds

that working men report more friends and membership in
more organizations (including work—related organiza—

tions) than women, but non-working men have fewer friends
and memberships than working or non-working women. Women's
friendships were found to be "affectively richer" with
more frequent interaction.

14The first section of Chapter V on family structure is

taken largely from my paper for the Bengal Studies Con—
ference in 1969 (Beech 1971).

15Households not fitting the defined categories have been

divided into:

Other less-than:nuclear: a commensal group not in-
cluding any married couple; typically a widowed woman
with a grandson or adOpted child or a small number of
related men rooming and eating together, and

Other joint: including two or more related couples,
as two or more married brothers and the married son(s) of
one or more of the brothers and their wives and children
(collateral-lineal joint) or a man and his brother's son
and their wives and children.

 

There may also be unmarried, separated, or widowed rela-
tives living in an other joint household. No distinction
has been made among Hindu and registered marriages and
other unions between persons in a household.

16Nicholas (1961) gives the number of instances in which

father and son have separated. He also compares the
amount of land owned by families with collateral juncture
and families with possible collateral juncture who have
partitioned their agricultural land but live under the
same roof. Nicholas does not indicate the total number
of families with possible collateral juncture.

17If. a man has no sons, it is culturally acceptable for

him to take his daughter's husband into his household
as a ghar jamai, but taking a ghar jamai is not ordin—
arily done where lineal juncture is possible. Kolenda
classifies such joint household between a couple and
their married daughter as lineal joint, although they
would not be included as having lineal juncture under
the present definition. Because there are no g har
jamai joint households in Panchanantala, Mallik Para,
or Badur Bagan (although there are several supplmented
nuclear households in which a daughter and her husband
live with one of her parents and the husband is referred

 

18

231

to as a ghar jamai), all of the households classified as
lineal joint, supplemented lineal joint, lineal—collater-
al joint and supplemented lineal—collateral joint in
Table 5.3 have lineal juncture.

 

The Bengali Hindu household undergoes cyclical eXpansion
and nuclearization in almost every generation. The ideal
family cycle beginning with the nuclear household may be
divided into the following stages: (1) the nuclear house-
hold from its formation to the marriage of the oldest son,
(2) the lineal joint household from the marriage of the
first son to the marriage of the second son, (3) the
lineal-collateral joint household from the marriage

the second son to the death of his father, and (4) the
collateral joint household from the death of the father
to the separation of the married brothers. These stages
are similar to the cyclical family types used by Nicho-
las (1961) except that the lineal joint and lineal—
collateral joint households are both subsumed in the
joint family between a father and his married sons.

For a discussion of the definition of family cycle

stages for cross cultural comparison, see Morioka (1967)
and also Glick (1947) and Goody (1958: 1-14).

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Bailey, F. G.
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Basu, T. K. ££.§$-
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Beech, Mary Jane
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Bertocci, Peter
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Blood, Robert 0., Jr.
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Booth, Alan
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Bose, Nirmal Kumar
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232

233

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Boserup, Esther
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Calkins, Philip
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234

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A
HOUSEHOLD 8U KVEY

 

 

 

 

 

hat-n
Household Head Time
Household Number ' Interviewer
or Address
INTRODUCTION

As you know, I how: come to this neighborhood to learn about the Bengali family,
and to gather iul'oromtion about the family from which I will writs my Ph. D. thesis.
This thesis will he submitted to Michigan State Uniwraity in the 11.8 A. I have been
especially interested in the. place of the :ulolosvent in the family and how talked with
each of the adolescents in the. neighborhood. Finally. I. wont to lalk with you and your
neighbors. I hope you won’t mind if a fox: ot' thezquestions arc of a personal nature.
What you say will be kept strictly confidential. When I write: the thesis, no names will
be included. I will construct perccntagcs and averages from the information you give.

If you have any objection or if you want to know more about this. please tell me.

wwfi fi-st mm (film ) a sofa «mm «mm «Fm: am swam mm min
oi m w W am? P. H. D. W510] fma ; Ina arm mfima @5911: 038
?W cm cm I wrfi «with ’lfiflti fim lit! ammo-n m arms (.mfiz wt:
a? fun man at! Ema «of: I ma wrfil amour; at: fll’liii shears-a fag fem
me 513 l snafu: nit: fit; an in mm mm wt’ic‘llfl Irawati oifwsi': as an : smfi
11 mm, :61 w was was mean (a an I mm tuft filf’l’l Fm: 'D'H ma 4m fom a; l
minim M «an. en can «mm w 613 fin?! av. : nfv mot-u: mo: limit «on 4'. u
ms was fig mama «to “emu w w: w l

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ 1 2 3 i 4 5
Relationship Name Age Residence "Education
to the (Household Head

B0. Sex 1 i :
I l
I 2 i;
__ i r 2. +1-.-. _ i _._._ 1
l .
*i""“”"“ - “f i“ - ~ -;
i ? j
’ t 4; -— e
i ' i
L 5 r ,
i... ___." “““JF ,. i i _ i __ ,__ ___ _W i
a ; i
'_._._..-f-_ ,__ - ._ i. __ __. - +1 l l
l l i
_ l i _ _. i l i

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5
Education

6
Occupation

7

Marital
Status

8

Age at
Marriage

 

9

.‘ Children

I( l
(Taste

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i “__i,.1-4._._#_ll_. . ..fl.....--.

 

 

.5
111-11-- 4 . _ ___ -__-
l
___—_l _ L. -1-...__-i
l l
‘ 1
”___“ 5 l i
‘z i
.i ---..-_._-. .l.. - . __
i
ii, - ;.
l .
- __i- l 1 i__-___- _._ _i
‘ l
w " a
l l
l _____ __ __ ._ _.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESIDENTIAL HISTORY

l2.

Where is your native land :
was": (.H'l mm ?

a. Whom were you born 7‘
Nl’lfoi mom: Giannini j/

b. How many years did you stay thore f

(3.

d.

l3.

l4.

Iii.

l7.

l8.

l9.

c’l’lIC-l angina {'30le :1
What phwon havo you lived since then ?
“PM (9105 WW (Mel (.3151? WWW (WISH 3*

How long havv you lived in this house ’(
.33 who: amid 2:98:31 “41023 :2

a. Hm: ol'n-n do you visit your nativv plume um:~ _’
«Jam «raft-I Wise! (kc-i Iii-i :2
Once a month Sovoral About

Loss than Novor
or more often timcs a your onm‘. a you

"II“? II yllibf
li. \Vhich ol’ your rolativoa am: living thon- "my {
tail-i \‘Mltél aim-ii: (.45 r.¢ 2mm; .1

(2. Do you own or have a sham in any land, how-«is or other property l-lmu- fl’
CHM fir elm-n11 4m. «in 4‘: we: ’I'file am: -,

No Yos_ - -

d. Do you prosontly bring any inoomo or prodnvo l'roni thori- '(
amid it can (Jams 951W! (film 2:01:71. ail-us 41 BM, «our ‘42; mo: ~.

No. Yes i _

[a this house your own or rontcd ?
a nié‘l ‘Nl’l-llsl idCMl an anal:

Own [touted i- - Other (sin-ed} )

Who owns thi- land on which the homo» stands "
a? who: ( CHM-l was: «was ) ti: :r
Soil- .

.... Honor-owners-___.-.M_ Anothvr landounor- .

0| lwr (smoil'y)...

Composition of walla-i.

Brick... - Mml . Bamboo ()llml’
Construction of roof.
l’ukui- _ 'l‘ilo Khola .. 'I‘in . .1. Khar

Other- _

How many rooms do you haw. f
«Man: «this an w :«

___—- You

 

Do you have oloctrioity { No

. ~
_-b - m 1 .- .a- . - t ‘ . ‘
ULIHII'AIA ‘I\h17\- "I 1‘“. A arr: ”Um ‘I

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

20.

Here is a ladder Suppose that. the top stop on tho ladder is a man a he has the best
possible conditions of life. The bottom step is a man with the worst conditions
of life.

.Q'llc-l swirl Hf“; NW:- | ance «is 51'.“ 2:101 can slew MM 0110:. Ill? W131 {S We WM
Alisa mm meal mm are» all: warm: ”Hal”! i

 

 

 

 

 

“#034

 

 

_‘N

 

 

 

a. Where are you on this ladder in regard to your renditions of lih- now !

2|.

22.

£15 ffi'iBt’é sus-Hal ma mom: :2

. Where were you on the ladder Ii\'l' years ago .’

vilb 49:1 ems .‘vr-slm from 7

Where will you be on the ladder live years in the future ?

“MS as: 'ltil fa elm enact: ?

To which snide-economic class would you say most of the people of this neighborhood

belong !

tern: fin fm 4:10: (.6101 was: men may: cw Leena: um ’ltiE-l 7

Lower-class fiifi‘é —-——
Lower-middle class fill Illnfie _—
M iddle-class WIFQB —---
Upper-iniddle class 355 WUIQQ -—-——
Upper class Ebb fit ___.—

 

In order that 1 may make comparisons of life styles and family organization aorording
to the wealth of the family, I am asking about income. As I said before, in writing the
thesis all inlbrmation will be reported as luarcentagcs and averages. No names will he
used. If you have no objection, then, what is your monthly income '2
e18: anemia 'nfimfw wit um: kinsmen ma was pastime mead: «ac: to .
“In: 016%? will?! Wi’fllf‘ifi 'ssm mac‘s M? 1 slot 0m strife. Wilma um tea. .m:
roam on so: Nl’ldlfil In ‘MC‘H at: cum suit: swan am: as Fran w: I
ems. ‘Nl’l-‘lTi ni’w mafia a: acre, win we «a; mom: miss an ass I

FOR PARENTS OF ADOLESCENTS.

I.

How mueh i-duoation do you think boys should hau- ?

02mm! “‘23 9mm wit-nan em Bf's 9 am m n swam I

How much education do you think girls should haVe ?

cumwa My} Wire ”Witt-[HI 911451 3553 WI uC-‘i 5!! ‘Sll’l-lli 7

What oeeupation do you desire for your sons ?

05mm ~99: in: «am 451! In’ma 91w :2

Do you think girls should have an oeeupation ?

(mom mm 2m fir WMEI was «as ?
No -._ -. .— ~ Yes

 

__ What oeoupation ?

At what age should girls be married {

mama use 2:54 W01 fiat 5'91" 38:5 (a

What qualities are desirable in a bridegroom f

cum {am was: Mani-m f4! 55 ea aim ?3f53 :2

At what age should boys be married ?

mama an we: am fin s-ezn @fiss ,7

What qualities are desirable in a bride ?

(we: Was an! 91am; f? fit so: am Efb s‘ i

If your son or daughter wanted to marry a girl or boy of his own

give your approval ?

choice, would you

«Wm me can! at»: Face? 91% «a fin: MC: bl?! mm is we‘d m. «JICoi (4644 y

10. Would you aceept an intercaste marriage for your son or daughter '!

Iimfa Ta.- czm 4‘: cam News Em macaw-I “MM I

APPENDIX Bl

ADOLESCENT SURVEY
ENGLISH FORM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Household Number Date

Name ‘ Time

Sex Age Interviewer
INTRODUCTION

As you know, we are studying Bengali family life. We
have asked you to come here now so that we may learn
about you and your family. What you say will be kept
strictly confidential. Other peOple will not be
allowed to see your answers. The best answers are
those which tell us what you yourself do or believe,
not what others say one should do or believe.

KINSHIP AND FAMILY

1.

(Before the interview draw the kinship chart for R's
household using the information from the household
census. Check the accuracy of the previous informa-
tion with R. Then check for omissions such as sib-
lings living outside the household, siblings who have
died, relatives staying with the family or non-related
boarders or servants living in the household. Check
also for partially concealed relationships, such as
step-mother, halfssiblings or adopted siblings.)

Household

Coding Space

 

(AS-2)

2. (Construct a kinship chart showing all paternal kin
descending from R's father's father. If a person is
no longer living, indicate RL§ approximate age at the
time of the death. Designate which persons reside
together and the location of the residence. Ask when,
and where R last saw his grandparents and each of his'
father's siblings, and if different, when R last vis-
ited the residence of each. Also request an estimate
of the number of times R ordinarily sees each of his
father's siblings during a year. '

Father's Kin

Residence

Last
Meeting

Last
Visit
to'Home
Meetings
per Year

Coding Space

 

(AS—3)

3. (Construct a kinship chart showing all maternal kin
descending from R's mother's father. If a person is
no longer living, indicate BLE approximate age at the
time of the death. Designate which persons reside
together and the location of each residence. Ask when
and where R last saw his grandparents and each of his
mother's siblings, and if different, when R last vis-
ited the residence of each. Also request an estimate
of the number of times R ordinarily sees each of his
mother's siblings during a year.

Mother's Kin

Residence

Last
Meeting

Last
Visit
to Home

Meetings
per Year

 

(AS-4)

Whom among your mother's and father's brothers and
sisters do you like best? Why?

Have you ever lived away from your mother and father
for a long time with relatives or in a hostel or any
other place?

(If yes) a. With whom did you live?

b. Where is his house?

c. Why did you live there?

d. How long did you stay there?

e. Did you like living there? Why?

When you do something that your family doesn't like,
who disciplines you? What do they do?

Who in your household keeps things running smoothly?

b.
c.

a.
b.

If something has to be done, who will do it?
Can you say anything about what is to be done?
Will they listen to what you say?

(If yes) When do they listen?“0n what subjects?

Who keeps the money for expenses in your household?
Who keeps the accounts (budgets the funds)?

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

(AS-5)

What household work do you do?

a. In your household who sleeps in which room?
b. Who else shares the same bed (bedding) with you?

a. Among your brothers and sisters whom do you like
best? Why?
b. Whom do you like least? Why?

Among the members of your household whom do you
reSpect most? Why?

Among the members of your household whom do you like
best? Why?

What event in your life do you consider most signif-
icant or unforgettable? Why is this event most
significant?

(AS-6)
RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

16. Do you wear any amulet?
(If yes) a. What kind of amulet is it?
b. Why are you wearing it?

17. (For girls only)
What bratas do you observe?
(For each a. What do you have to do for this brata?
b. Why do you do this brata?
c. How long have you been doing it?

18. Do you fast in connection with any brata or puja?
(If yes) a. For which bratas and pujas?

What kind of fast do you keep?

(If neCessary) Do you fast without water

or may you eat some types of food?

19. Do you help with the preparations for any household
or neighborhood puja?
(If yes) a. For what pujas?
b. What did you do for each?

 

(AS-7)

OUTSIDE INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCES

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

What is your favorite way of spending your leisure
time?

What hobbies do you have? Why do you find these
hobbies interesting?'-

a. What is the last movie you have seen?

b. When did you see it?

c. Before that what was the last movie you saw?
d. When did you see it?

Ordinarily, how many movies do you see each month?
Do you prefer Bengali, Hindi or English movies? Why?

a. Other than school books what is the last story
book, journal or other book you have read?

b. When did you read it?

c. Before that what was the last book or journal you
read?

d. When did you read it?

a. What kinds of radio programs do you enjoy?

b. About how many hours do you listen to the radio
each day?

c. Do you have a radio in your home or do you listen
some other place?

a. When was the last time you went to the village?

b. Which village did you go to?

c. Why did you go?

d. How many times have you gone to the village in the
past year?

etiSTAe of Howrah district and Calcutta what places
have you visited?
(For each) a. When did you go?

b. Why did you go?

c. With whom did you go?

 

 

 

 

 

(AS-8)

EDUCATION

29.

(Take a complete year by year educational history
beginning with R's first school eXperience. For each
year ascertain whether or not the child actually went
to school, the name and address of the school, his
class and the outcome of the final examination.
Elicit explanations for absences from school, class
failures, school transfers and if schooling has been
discontinued, the reason for this. If R never went
to school, probe for full reason.) ‘

School Address Class Pass/Fail Rank

 

30.

31.

(AS-9)

(If in school)

a.

b.

Do you have a private tutor?

(If yes, ask tutor's name, subjects tutored, time
spent and salary.)

Does anyone in your family look at your homework?

How much education does your mother think you should
have and in what subjects?

How much education does your father think you should
have had in what subjects?

Does anyone else say anything about your education
or help your parents in providing for your education?
How much education would you yourself like to have
and in what subjects?

(If necessary) We see that there are some differences
in opinion about your education. What do you think
will actually happen?

OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE

32.

a.

b.
c.

When you are grown ufir‘what work does your mother
want you to do? *

What work does your father want you to do?

Is there anyone else who has an opinion about what
you should do?

(If yes) Who? What does he want you to do?

If you had your own wish, what would you most like
to do?

(If difference exists) We see that there are some
differences in opinion. What do you think will
actually happen?

(AS-10)

FINANCIAL EXPERIENCE

33.

34.

35.

36.

Do you do any full- or part-time work, any tuitions,
apprenticeship, or anything else for which you are

paid?

(If yes) a.
c.
d.
e.
f.

What kind of work is it?

Where do you work?

How long have you had this job?
What hours do you work?

How much is your salary?

Do you like this job? Why?

Have you done any (other)’work previously? (If yes, a-f)

Besides work, where do you get your Spending money?
a. About how much money does your mother usually
give you during a week? When does she give it

to you?

b. About how much mother does your father usually
give you during a week? When does he give it

to you?

c. Who else regularly gives you Spending money?
d. What purchases do you make for the family?
Do you keep any of the change for yourself?

What do you buy with your own money?

How is your clothing purchased?

CLUBS

37.

(AS-11)

To which clubs do you belong?

(For each) a.
b.
c.

H-D'LQ rhino.

What is the name of the club?

Where does it meet?

Is there a club house or not?

Are adults also members of this club?
Are girls/boys also members of this club?
What are the dues?

How much time do you Spend at the club?
What do you do there?

What things can you do at the club that
you can't do other places?

(AS—12)

FRIENDSHIP
38. Among your friends who is your best friend?
a. What is his name?
b. Where does he live?
c. How did you first meet him?
d. Is he studying (in school or college) now?
(If yes) What school? What class?
e. Is he also a member of any of the clubs to which
you belong? *
f. What is his caste?
g. (If caste is same) Is he related to you?
h. Where do you usually see him?
i. What do you do together?

38.

38.

Who are your other friends? (For each repeat a-i)

(Repeat)

(Repeat)

38.

38.

39.

(AS-l3)
(Repeat)

(Repeat)

Among you and your friends who is the oldest?
Who is the next oldest?

(Continue ranking R and friends by age; )

How old are you?

When is your birthday?

40.

41.

42.

(AS-14)

(For girls only)

Do you have any patano friends?

(If yes, record each friend's name, the type of
friendship and R's age when the friendship was

initiated. If the atano friend was not listed
previously, repeat 38 a-L)

(For girls only)

Have you ever married one of your dolls with another
friend's doll?

(If yes, obtain a description of the wedding(s)
including the friend's name, dollS' names, gifts
exchanged and food served.)

Have you at any time participated in a feast with your

friends?

(If yes, obtain a description of the feast(s) including

participants, location and food eaten.)

HETEROSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS

43.

44.

In general, if a boy and girl fall in love, what do
other people think?

If a friend of yours were to fall in love, what would

you do?
Has any friend of yours ever fallen in love?

(If yes) What did you do?

45.

46.

(AS-15)

Do you have a girl/boy friend?
(If no) Have you ever had a girl/boy friend or any
girl/boy whom you liked or who liked you?

(If yes) a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.

What is her name?

Where does she live?

About how old is She?

How did you meet her?

How long ago was that?

What do you do together?

How often do you see her now?

Who else knows that you have a girl/boy
friend?

What do they think about your girl/boy
friend?

After five years how do you think your
relationship with this girl/boy will
stand? Do you think you will marry her?

(If n2 girl/boy friend)
We are finding that many boys and girls have girl
friends and boy friends. Why don't you?

(AS-l6)

MARRIAGE

47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

We have seen several types of marriage arrangements.

a. In one type the elders make all the arrangements
and the boy and girl see each other for the first
time at the wedding.

b. In another type the elders make all the arrange-
ments, but the boy and girl see eaCh other before
the wedding and if he or she is not pleased the
wedding will not take place.

c. In a third type the boy and girl know each other
and make the decision to get married, and then
their elders make the formal arrangements for the
wedding ceremony.

d. In a fourth type the boy and girl know each other,
make the decision to get married and have a reg-
istered marriage without their parents' consent.

Which type of marriage do you prefer? Why?

What type of wife/husband would you prefer? Why?

After your marriage if you have your choice, would
you prefer to live with your mother and father/
father-in-law and mother-in-law or alone with your
wife/husband? Why?

After many years after your father/father-in-law has
died, would you prefer to live with your brothers/
brothers-in—law and their wives and children in a joint
family or separately with only your own wife/husband
and children? Why?

After you are grown up and married, how many children
would you eventually like to have? Why?

(AS—17)

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

59.

a. Who are the respected people in this neighborhood?
Why?

There is a clerk whose salary is not very high, but
who is well educated. There is also a gentleman who
is a factory owner. He is not very educated but has
lots of money. Of these two whom do you reSpect more?
Why?

There is a Brahmin factory worker and a Mahisya factory
owner. Of these two whom do you reSpect more? Why?

There is a Washerman who owns his home and a Mahisya
who rents two rooms from another man. Of these two
whom do you respect.qpre? Why?

*Among the adults you know, people in your household,

relatives, neighbors, teachers and others, whom would
you most like to be like?
What do you eSpecially like about him?

In this neighborhood which boy do the other boys try
to be like? Why?

In this neighborhood which girl do the other girls
try to be like? Why?

In your opinion what question haven't we asked that
we should have asked?

APPENDIX b2

ADOLESCENT SURVEY
BENGALI was

 

 

 

 

Name ‘_ _ "_- ._.-- .- __________ -- Date

Address or

Household Number Time __
Sex Age Interviewer

 

 

 

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(WWW sign was stasis we! Wi‘lil termites «was smite dcrllbl sin '41 ”MM, UM“!
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email 111 «m filfi'fim am 33ft: tics 35C? 0151 as, :38: Has =1: 4541 HI fists «is muse" I‘M
Sea ! bi? "41in stars 51?. steal fir mi 11 fans am :‘I stoic» M341 I

KINSHIP AND FAMILY

1. (Before the interview draw the kinship «short of R's household using the
information from the household census. First, check the aocuraey ol' the previous
information. Then, eheek for emissions sin-h as siblings living outside the household,
siblings whohavedied. relative: staying \iith Iho family or iioii--ri-.|.-iti-.il boarders or
servants living in the household. Cheek also for partirilly eoneeah-d i'i'l;iliulisliips, such

as step-mother, hall' siblings or adopted children. )

HOUSEHOLD

__ Coding Spaeo

( A8-2 )

2. (Construct a kinship chart showing all paternal kin descending from It's
father’s father. If a person is no longer. living, indicate R’s approximate age as the
time of the death. Designate which persons reside together and the location of the
residence. Ask when and where R last saw his grandparents and each of his father‘s
siblings, and if dill'erent. whenR last visited the residence of each. Also request an

estimate of the number of times It ordinarily sees eaeh of his father's sibling during

a year. )

.li‘ather’s Kin

Residence
Last
Meeting

lanai;
Visit
to Home

Meetings

per Year

._ Coding Space

 

( AS-3 )

2. (C¢)IIHtI'.l"t a kinship chart showing all maternal kin descending from It‘s
mother’s fathei. If a person is no longer living, indicate R’s approximate age at the
time of the death. Designate which persons reside together and the location of each
residence. Ask when and where R last saw his grandparents and each of his motlu-r's
siblings, and ifdill'erent. whenR last visited the residence of each. Also request an
estimate of the number of times R ordinarily sees each of his mother's siblingsduring

a year. )

Mother’s Kin

Residence

Last
Meeting

[11181:
Visit

to Home

Meetings

per Year

Cod ing Space

( AS-4 )

4. (ems also, 311113, 0531. 15m. fail-mm?! mm arm will menial r cw r

5. 23ft: far «.4431qu awn am CECE cadmium me: «u :acfim 211 we: («mus ‘.qililh.:

(WV? 7'
If Yes
a. 45W ’ICH $101555 ?

h. an 1161 (mom?

«3M \fgfii 012nm MUSEUM

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d. eefaa lMEl?

0- C’Nlfi 9W”: Cel‘ll‘d M51 WERE]? Mel 7

Q
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afw‘ gin his? #51?” CGWTC‘M sl‘i‘lce vie-v 40: ~11. 01301 645 (blame cum; «(,4 5-
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Na «a gamma 3101M bta?

8. a. m—M Hz; «to em, Ye «42.1w QM m {24. 4.014 ‘f
b. m we ‘31:: la: came: :4 s we tr

0. Lidia's-114M «M: «new

(If yes)
«I. 't-fl-l 3m £1th «we (was: :2 o» Hm ‘(

9. mm 7:4qu E47». mm m: 25105 9mm. 3' >: NH! {2014 w- anton '_/

, _ 4_ Coding Space ______

( A845 )

10. mil! fr: fa me $2131 «I :2

ll. manner «We as am an am y came: fatal-on 2m («s cm 3'

12. 613mm“ mm was (em! Wm (ail! @101 are! :2 ma 7
«mas mum as: GM mm 2 cw ?

13. (man was: (FUNNY? am WW gfa muse: (.1 in em as: :2

14. Minn-1115c“ we aim coma Wee: (Ii-7’1 we are: :z («M r

I5. uni-it's («5mm 957401 warm as; slam ? (3M a? neon comm am: (90 4e <11 («M \91

was 951:1 a: ?

_. Coding Space

( Ase )

RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

16. gift: foe ma 9!: :2
If Yes
«2131 fds WI 3119??! ?

b. (3»! “ms {2

l7. ( For girls only )
igfiz fir f? as an

( For each ) a. a? great ear 65th F45 F3 was 51 j/
b. 22h: c4»: 64? are ‘45? ?

e. 439in '48! xii?! «243 315 «NE?

18. gfii fit an 1mm 13mm w ‘6
( If Yes )8. F49 {35 '10:?” f
b. {45 Mai 33mm 3M j?

( If neeessary ) e. 3?“ “$31 30"”)1 35? oil {Mg 211% j/

19. rift: f4: «lei in ”new 1m 5m cw mg, «:2; 3;
( If Yes ) a. Rs qu ‘JCW‘J ?
b- fab fie new :2

Coding Space

d.

23.

24.

25

b.

26.

27.

b.

0.

d.

28.

( As.7 )

OUTSIDE INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCES

we 2m 911M?! Fa: ml emits 6151‘”! ?

(ems f3: f5: «a: was :2 (254 csmia aster-=1 ‘l”! 29161 am “,2

. a. \gle («*1 f4 5101‘” «'1 mm CWNQ’ :2

«a more 2
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«a (we: :2

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Win, 31"? to? 311m 515ml! Sim ce‘mn fe 915*? CW ?

a. stem a? 91:51 on: fis 61cm! is, elm! 41 '49: 4‘5 {gin 91w; :2
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exam- i“ so ’1“ an :3?» cafiys ma :2

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a. QR awn «a 21m: 81me :2

C’N-i 121m fimfsm :2

(«a ffimfz'cai :2

m cm :gfa 71531!” 11TH Fame -_2

were: we: em mm mama fume :2

( For each ) a. 45C?! $181503 ?

b.

C

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2.2M fslcafe'cfi 13

em r101 Mariam :2

___Ceding Space

 

( AS-B )

EDUCATION

29. (Take a complete year by year educational history beginning with R’S first
school experience. For each year ascertain whether or not the child actually went to
school, the name and address of the school, his class and the outcome of the final
examination. Flieit explanations for absences from school, class failures, school

transfers and if schooling has been discontiued, the reason for this. If R never went

to school, probe for full reason. )

School Class Pass [Fail Rank

Coding Space _

 

( AS-9 )

30. a. come: f4: ”@705 news! as: arms-n? 1H fwfimfs Wm: y

( If yes ask tutor’s name. snhjccts tutored, time spent and salary )

b. 111$le H @213 mm sermon cwfilw cm 12

3|. a. lugs riteIC'll-II 2tin crew's! MRI 91%? We: (Molt/13H 1713!! ‘El?! 9153??

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e. um («:14 we fe tal-flaw fig «ca-1 an as: w: czar-m am mm mm «as :2

d. wig? sett'm‘l «11 CENT?! fices WW :2

e. ( If necessary )—C©WT§T (fifll’lfifili JUNK! Chile was ecu W318 We filfiCE i1 I (.‘N
«is fis m «M man an n z

OCCUPATION CHOICE

32. a. we etc-1 Kgfa fie 5C?! «afi‘m car-Ha me: its: F45 :2

b. (shit?! was 36:51 Fe :2

e. elem For we (455 was, Ms «cw calm M Ml ‘iafbs :2

( If yes ) Fzfi m :2 (emf? cm era has Me 91% I

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f3: (ca vice am 524 :2

Coding Space _ _m

._ ._.- .--.7--.—____-_--.—_-- -

( As.10 )

FINANCIAL EXPERIENCE

33. 221:1 R we 011.1 ms, £51811?! «aura 3m. 91mm 11 @1131 fig $11. 111w feg
(115161111 311 :2

( If Yes ) a. $15 ’61s y

b. 1.45191111 4516 Mrs 1116 :2

1:. 21:9st 11:11 «a? was $2.15 ?

d. 2mm 111111 321R 1'

o. «a? «1m ’56?! as Etc-1 911‘s :2

f. e1? 31:1 (@1311! 15101 mm ,1 can 1 «111 mm efi 11a (111:1 215161 was 1
( If yes, a—f )

34. 215181 115211 51151, @1011 cm 311% mm 21116 2152111121 BN1 91m :2

8. ynine-re: :11 (61:11:35 new: 756 BN1 5T6 'RIS (11.1 :2 ‘11s «a cwa ?
b. swims: W11 (amaze 1mm: ass 31:51 {1‘3 ems cm :2 3114 mm 01-1 :1
c. 61111 c115 tame: 14:11:15 BN1 c1131 1

35. Fatwa 9111,11 fun refs F45 (.1131 ?

36. came 1.1054 mamas fees? CW1 1511?

C1 id in g Space“ _--

fl _ _. 7 ._ _ ,——_——-._.——— _.

___. A.._- .d._--._._-.__.- _m

( AS-ll )

CLUBS

' 37. 2:351 (751:1 elm firm 1

( For each ) a. CENT? W11?! 31W l3 ?
b. 3min (315101111 1

c. 01mm 145 mm 1111,31 was a1 a? :2
d. e13 3m fix wane arm (13 911:1 :2
o. «213 311?: 1‘45 cancers were! @913 ?
f. mm $1111 3115 :2

g. em (2&1 WM 91W :2

h. 0121161 Rs “4511 :2

i. 331:1 am! am f2: «1. 111 31111 caress $3105 9112.1 .11 t2

Codin g Space

 

( AS-l2 )

FRIENDSHIP

38, 59121111 1111111 311111 (21 63111111 1111:5111 121m :2

a. 15111 11:1 1% ‘1

b. 01 (15111111 911C115 1

c. 011131 1:21 (61‘1th @1211 01111111361 :2

d. 01113 1.112161 are 1111161181 11111 1

( If yes ) «5161 am 1 @161 35101 :2

e. 01 f1: car-111 :mqae 011-2111 :2

f. @111 8116 F45 1

g. ( If caste is same ) (’1 121 (3111121 c1131 1111:7111 1
h. 31111111613: 01191131 (315110111 (11111 {I ‘1

i. came macs 1115 71511 ‘1

(@1511! NT! '1’131'31 ‘W NICE :2 ( For each repeat a-i )

33. (9111111 1111111 $11211 c1 (15111111 mm 12111111 1
a. (9111 6111 1‘4: 1
01 81121111 #1161
a. (1:111 «21 ("STVlCWi «211111 (11211 «We? 1
21. 01 111 «11211 are 211 «scam m 1
( If yes ) (AH ’{Cfi ? (115M N01 '{
e. 01 11 (9111111 meme 0111M '1
f. 5121 5121 RS :2
g. 1 If caste is same 1 01 11 @1311! 015131 $111311 1
11. 111121111119: (11111 (9131107111 (11111511 :2
i. mam «awn Rs 711 1
1.91:1111'51111 11131.1 «a 0110:? 1 For much repent n-i )

38. corona 111.44 315111 1.21 1.31111 111cm 121111111 1
a. 5111 61131 f1 :2
01 (215191111 11101 1
c. (131-1 2150.1 1; 3111:6111 @1211 (11211 50113.11 :2
d. 01 F45 c.1211 1161 111 were 91111; 1
( [1' yes) (451-1 3561? (315131 M01?
c 01111 “111111 21111119 (1112111 :2
f. 311.1 31:19qu 1
g. ( If caste is same ) ("I is (51311?! 1.45161 will] :2
11. 11111111113: (15191111 091311011 (.1111 511 :2
(75131111 «51711101 1315 11521 1
“11111.1 3112.1 a15111314 w “NW 1 ( For czwh wlmt 11.1 )

( A8-l3 1

FRIENDSHIP

38, (911111 11:11:11 am 01 03111111 111115111 53111415 '1
a. @111 am 1‘41 ‘1

l). 1.31 WNW ”llC’F “f

.1. was 412.1 (91111111 «219111 (11211 51111961 :2

d. 1.11 14: 19121-1 111:1 211 111505 9119 1‘

( If yes ) 1.1M W31? C'M'l $401 1'

e. 1.11 11: 1.9131111 sauce (31111111 :2

f. 9111 8116 Fe :2

g. 1 If caste is same) ca 11 2511121 2.11.1 01113111 1
11. 31111111119: (11191111 (3111111171 (11211311 :2

i. 1151:1111 «971nm 1115 11511 .7

(can: 31111 1161-1 41111 @1115 :2 ( For one“ Newt M ‘1

38. (751311?! «11111411 111111 (111 (5131” more 12111411 '1
a. 3111 1111 F1 1

b. ca (411191111 11111: 1

e. 01:14 1111 (611110111 ems (W211 {curse-1 1

d. 01 f?» 1211.1 21151 ‘41 31mm W :2

( If yes ) (RM-l 111.91 '{ MR {12101 if

e. 01 fe (9131111 21121119 1.111111

1'. 912.1 91:9 F15 :2

g. 1 ll' caste is same ) (’1 l‘? ("91:1111 015M fillifil‘l f2
11. 11111111119: (1191111cslz111114 2.1111 2'11 :2

1.9131111 @3910»! 1&6 21:1 :2

.,g[‘.1[q '4” ’l-‘Jfivl 41h 5H0; '_/ ( Fur «mull relmnt 31.-l 1

39. 121:1 5:111 (2111111 4154 was (.«1. 4111-21 2115 1

911191?! GS 3N; '2 (Continue ranking It and friends by age )
(o‘er-ll?! WM '19?

2.51:1111 111-11114 M41

Coding Space

1 AS-l4 )

40. i For girls only )

13131111 f4: 1,411.1 9116K?” a3. 51115 g
(If you, record ouch friends name, the types of friendship and R's age when tin.

friendship was initiated. If the patano friend was not listed previously, repeat 39 n-i 1

41. 1 For girls only 1

<ng 1151:1111 WM 1111 2mm 211! (15111121 1161.611 fan 1711115 :1
(If you, obtain “description of the wedding (H) including the friends namo, doll'u

names, gifts cxolmnged and food served. )

42- Vii“ 1“? “‘46 firm >16" WEE-1% MC» 510.19 :2
(Ifyca,0htuina. domription of tho feast (3) including participants, Immtion and

food eaten ).

HETEROSEXUAI. RELATIONSHIPS
43- >11211a°13: in @161 r.1:c«~.c=:m (1201 9111.5, 1211121 21910111 (611121 f¢ 1:114 :1

44, 21ft, (51:11; 1:21.14 4% 1,2101 91w, 9ft: f2: 1101 '2 1.: .3114 (.1515! 41h h1- C'flUI 91C $0.» :2

( If yes ) 3ft: fir- 710.1?!"sz 9214 :2

“ding Space _ __:

( AS-15 1

45. «1111111 @5131 01111 mlcsm 1111 911w 1

( If no ) 1.5151121 F's c4514 c3111 Zia/03:71 1111 Fifi 61111 1921.1 F11 «211131 (1113; 151115 111:215 {Fa ’15:!
an ,7

( If yet-1 1 a. r9111 am 1311 :2

b. (.21 1215191111 91101 :2

0. en 111151 «'9 «(a c9131” WI El ?

d. (@1111? 211! 19111 @613 m1 mfw ?

0. (1311111 12121911! face 1% 21511 :1

f. 211me 1511161 (16131111 0121 21151 cm mien :2

3. ma win 1111 1111: (151111111111 01211 511 :2

h. 21111 (as as 05111111 can 11%/cam 216111 21911 911M :2
1. cm exam” mm {as @101 :2

j. ~11b «192.1 211111 (91311114 and-BI 13312131 1113111 «a mu 51:2

46. ( If no girl/boy friend )
wait: 01 vac-1171511 cm ugh/cm qifi qfia‘ 1.311121 (.13 CM ‘5

_ __Coding Sp1i.c0___

( AS-l6 1

MARRIAGE

47. 1511:1211 12121114 ’tC‘iWSKI F111 {(6 111121175 1

11. @6119 1321614111 11111 fie mm WW Fara-q 3111111 «1 111411 1219131 11111511 1

11. WW!» 196611111141 («12111 1111 11131111 21511171, FM cewcaicncwa new mi F1111 v.1 a1 1

1:. 931116113 (91:11am 9.91.1 1991.11.14 cm 11111 51191415 14111 1211» 11512.1, 191121 91219111 warm

fan! 5131 71111211 21111.1 1
11. 51312111119 1515113111 111de 1.1m. 51211 14111 «151114 12.1 3112.1. 91m a11111111111 911111-141

fan cafwfi «1111 facu 15111 1
1513 61?: 21W WM 31011 1.9131315“! 051711?! 91%“? :1 1161 :1

48. 1% 11116111 117312111 13111111 91% :2

49. 141111 912.1 321:1 11111111111911 £13911 11:91 91111.15 1519 ~11 ”2151/5111! 61111111 121121-1ng an .1

511. 1511.121 111:1 :11 41111111111211 $112412: 113-(171 1111 33131 f4— :915/61911 (New 51101 91111-11: 511.1,
:11,.2131’11131‘11151211011211114 131111 211711111 1113119 15119 :1 («m :1

51. .13 :01 1121.1 fizzy Ma, 11125 9.1 19010181 1.911114 em «151121 211.1 51.1 11

Coding Spam

" - ---—--——._-_‘«A.—.~_.¢-_—-

( 113.17 1

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
52. 121 ‘WM W151! (311?: (as :1 CW?

53. 1111 we; 01111111 (3‘11 3113131 '1131 :11, f6! {:1 13113113, 11111117119111 123101111: 21511111131111 111F111,
611151 We :14 1115111311 91611-11311 araafi 1 121? 295121 111111 211111 tgfi 11111131 2151111 :2 casa 1

54. 1211111an 311111111 711$ a1.11.1, 'tncwea 16111111.: 112121131121 1111M, 2191;111:1011 gin
1111115 «‘11 11111371511211 c4531?

55. mm; (11191111 $111111 2119‘1 Q$1115, 1111111 «171-w 1111111611 c151 11111 151111 11111 911111. 1 a? 1811-11
11011 3151 1111141: 131511 11111131 32.1131 :2 can :2

56. 111131121141, 1111;7111 flea, WI‘EI‘ZIf‘s‘N‘h, 11121111111? @111: 11121112: 111111 21111 1.1-. 111-,
(5111111 31151 911 :1

57. 111 9113111 1115131 (were: new 21131 =11; :2 171-a :1
58. 111 9111,111 1415131 19.111114- 111151 91241 21111 :2 1.21.1 :2

59. 131 111.31 511. (11 1511:1211 11m 1,711.1 11:1 21.1%1-1 111 161111111111 «>111 "igfis'e ii? :2

Coding S} 1800

 

TAT UNI

"'111111‘13‘1111’1111131111111111111111111’1‘"