Hindu families and Covid-19

 India is developing, struggling and emerging but even the greatness of India is the Hindu family system. The system that moves according to the tradition and it is joint family fabric of life, the first institution of society. Though changes are seen with emerging nuclear families in metro cities but still majority is a joint family and therefore during joblessness or inflation or depression, every family member stood up to hand each other during Covid-19.

Hindu family pattern and relations is the interesting topic I encountered during studying Hindu Philosophy. Certainly, Hindu family system in one of the unique and important institution that make the fabric of society.  For Hindus families, relations and relatives of relatives are the major part of everyone.

Despite reading and understanding Hindu families I encountered these families during the time of Covid-19.  Just because of Hindu pattern of family people had not came out on roads at the time of lock down as it was witnessed in many western countries.

Brothers, uncles, cousins and relatives came out helping each other and therefore there was no shortage of food seen during a long odd two months complete lockdown. And even at the time of unlock process, people without jobs and employment were not so much desperate or depressed as it was noticed in many western countries.

The main nucleus of the joint family in Hindus is respect to every relation, even there are examples when a paternal uncle is just some years elder but he was respected not by age but by relation.  The Hindu family system is so beautiful that during marriages, every relative know what place, his rights and duties are in different rituals.

No doubt, people in India are not facing depression, loneliness and aloofness because everyone has relatives in large number. How important it is that when a father in a village die then villagers from 12 to 20 villages came for feast (Mausar) showing that family members   of deceased are not alone at the time of mourning. 

And if one get chance to attend a marriage in village then he or she will notice that hundreds of people sitting for mahila Sangeet (women dance) are not guests but relatives, paternal uncles, paternal aunties, maternal uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, cousins and cousins of cousins and their children and grand children.

 The father is the leader of Hindu family, as per tradition and the mother is the work force that work day and night to run the family, every brother and sister have their specific role in running the house and children are not bounded to single parents but everyone in the family whether they are grandparents, uncles or aunties.

During lockdown, people were inside their houses but not turned depressed or panic just because in every family, mobiles and calls were linked with family members and relatives and it was noticed that relatives were advising home remedies of boosting immunity and the relatives were spreading such remedies to their relatives and their relatives sending to their relatives.   

While some of my friends in different family setup of different countries reported that they went depressed just because they had no one to talk with them. They were alone and have no one to share their feelings when there were lockdown in their cities.

In Hindus, there was no specific code of conduct given in any book in which how the family will run. No doubt the Manu Smiriti explained complete role of every family member, duties and rights and also what to do and what not to do. But Ramayana is the main epic in which the relation of father and son, The Dashratha- King and his son- Rama where the king died when his son went to jungle. The love of father to son is described so explicitly that without son the king even cannot live peacefully.

The epic Ramayana is the mile stone of Hindus families. But there is one more example of the relation between father and son in Katha Upnisad in which Nachiketa was sent to Yamraj (god of death) by his father without any remorse.