WhatsApp Joint Families in India

Traditionally a family is defined as a group of individuals connected by blood or marriage. They live under a roof and share a hearth for making food. They are governed by a patriarch/matriarch.

In modern times, however, family may be spatially spread up to any extent. So, the traditional connector, the roof and the hearth may be different and many in one family. But, still, the family in some form can exist provided there exists at least an emotional sovereign of the family albeit, informally. This last criterion is the crucial defining parameter for a "family" to exist in much the same way that the most crucial criterion for being a nation state. It has been noticed that even people in their 70s and 80s are using android phones and are well connected to their children via whatsapp!

Spatially dispersed "family members" are free to express and desire anything but within the restrictions of local environment and exigencies. Actions and events of significant social impact undertaken by the family members should comply with the opinion and directions of the family sovereign and his/her informal command structures. 

Traditional joint families are now a rarity in India. Some people say that the traditional joint family was a hurdle to the vertical economic mobility of the members as a pseudo economic security would always be perceived by the members. But the joint family always scores higher on the happiness scale. As eventually, success is all about being happy, joint family was really great! Now in India joint family is a rarity. Even a small joint family with fist cousins or siblings is under big threat. Only nuclear families consisting of husband, wife and children upto teenagers can coexist now. 

Freedom of expression, both oral and physical is good but complete freedom to be governed by one's freudian id ( ref: id, ego & super ego of Sigmund Freud) is a real threat to not only the existence of family but the whole society! 

The weakening command and control of the state and its divisive policies are responsible for the decline of family system. Educational content must be revised and restructured to infuse family value among our children. The over hyped individual freedom must be re-assessed from all angles!!

So the idea of a spatially dispersed but emotionally connected family members via whatsapp is a good one! Many of us must be having whatsaap groups of their paternal family, maternal family and wife's (sasural) family! Instead of taking such whaatsapp Groups casually we should try to formalize it and handle it in a nicely regulated manner!