Hindu Families

For my class reading today I read an article titled "The Hindu Family" by Biren Bonnerjea. This article looked at the Hindu family unit, and the motives behind the way family's are structured.

In Hindu culture and religion, marriage is extremely important, because it is through marriage that a man is able to have a male heir; the only person who, at the father's death, can perform his funeral obsequies in order to save him from eternal punishment. Having a male offspring is a father's greatest accomplishment.

In Hindu culture it is not necessarily illegal for a man to marry more than one wife, but it is usually looked down upon. The only time it is seen as ok is if the first wife cannot bare a male son, but even then the more common thing to do is to adopt.

It's was very interesting me to discover this about the Hindu culture. I had no idea previous to reading this that having a male offspring was so essential to these people. It really is a determining factor in their salvation. This is one of those things that is so important to this culture, but so different from my own, that without studying it beforehand, I would probably be confused and unable to understand if I were to simply go to India and see the way Hindu families functioned, or their great desire or love for their sons.

Learning these things has helped me to realize that there are probably many more things I should study and learn about the people before going to India.