Bangalore ideal site for studying social change

“Admit that you are the mother of three in China, and they’ll look at you like you are a monster,” said Delhi-based sociologist Patricia Uberoi, as she fielded questions after delivering the S Radhakrishnan public lecture 2010, Understanding the Family in India and China, at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in the city. It did not matter that to the sociologist, being the mother of three was quite an achievement.

Uberoi spoke of how it was significant that in research about modernity and tradition in India, Bangalore was often cited as a case that could be seen as the crucible of change. In fact, the 1961 book by Canadian researcher Aileen Ross, The Hindu Family in its Urban Setting, one of the early studies of change in the traditional structure of the family system in India, was written after research conducted in Bangalore.

The city still has much to offer for those wishing to study the impact of migration, education and employment on traditional social arrangements.

Right at the onset, Uberoi laid the ground by talking of how family and kinship have become rather unfashionable areas of research in the social sciences; comparison across China and India on this aspect is even rarer, though differences in governance and economic achievements are often written about.

Uberoi noted that an examination of the formal structure of the family would reveal great similarities in India and China — they are both patriarchal, traditionally joint families with similar patterns of residence and authority; marriages too are traditionally arranged in both societies.

Yet, if the family is seen as the primary influence in shaping culture and civilisation, there are vast differences.

The sociologist whom Uberoi quoted as the authority on Chinese family, Francis LK Hsu, (someone admittedly rather obscure and unheard of even in China) held that the difference lay in different orientations — while the father-son relationship was paramount in China, the mother-son relationship held sway in India.

These are broad strokes, and there is much reduction at work in these arguments, Uberoi admitted during the post-lecture discussion.

A philosopher— no, not a man, but a lady — questioned the usage of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Indian’ interchangeably.

Uberoi responded that this was not uncommon, and that though it might be disturbing, it is in fact the academic practice, as one considers ideal types in the social sciences.

Uberoi is married to professor JPS Uberoi, who retired after a long teaching career from the sociology department of Delhi School of Economics; theirs is a family unit that has produced much sociological literature.