Value attached to the Seed
Hindu value system placed very high degree of importance to morality where a woman does not accept the seed form anyone other than her husband1.
1 We are talking of normal circumstances of life. We speak of rules not of exceptions!
Family structure, allocation of powers and responsibilities
Each family would have a head known as Karta whose decision would be final in case of family disputes and disagreements.
Just and fair to all
This authority would be vested in the Karta with the responsibility to be just and fair to all in the family, and not to base crucial decisions on personal preferences. In all his visible judgments and decisions, he would be expected to demonstrate justice and fairness.
Children learning to value those qualities
Children of the family would grow up ‘learning to value’ these qualities of justice and fairness. This process of living through just and fair dealings, would inculcate those qualities in them, through the course of their growing up process.
Exemplary conduct became their training ground
The exemplary conduct of the Karta of the family would be the foundation which would be the functional training ground for the next generation. This is how the love for truth and justice survived in Hindu society through ages.
Character building demands character display
But six generation of ChristianizedEnglish education has robbed it all and brought us down to their level. In Christian World you don’t find any such exemplary conduct. Poor them have been trying in vain using books as the vehicle to teach their children. They don’t realize the basic truth that character building demands character display!
This was a living reality of Hindu social life
This was a living reality of Hindu social life or else, different visitors from different nations over different centuries would not have mentioned so consistently of this quality among Hindus.
Now, it is quite true that during the two thousand years which precede the time of Mahmoud of Ghazni, India has had but few foreign visitors, and few foreign critics; still it is extremely strange that whenever, either in Greek, or in Chinese, or in Persian, or in Arab writings, we meet any attempts at describing the distinguishing features in the national character of the Indians (*Hindus), regard for truth and justice should always be mentioned first.
INDIA what can it teach us? F Max Muller ISBN 0-14-100437-1 p 50
Hindu Joint Family structure and its Strengths
Returning to the Hindu family structure of earlier days, Karta would normally be the able-bodied able-minded eldest male member of the family. Position of authority and responsibility would be distributed in a hierarchical manner in the sense that elder the member greater the authority coupled with greater responsibility. Younger members would be groomed on the same pattern to learn to assume the authority as well as discharge corresponding responsibility, as they would grow up in the hierarchy.
Respect and responsibility went hand in hand
The respect for the elders would be an unwritten law, and it would be expected of all to observe it without any reservation. With that elders would have the equal amount of responsibility to stay worthy of such respect by their thoughts and actions. This would be the balancing factor for maintaining necessary equilibrium in the family.
Responsibility of adult male members
Adult male members of the family would have the responsibility of earning for the family to meet its needs, and to provide shelter and protection to the female members and children of the family.
Responsibility of adult female members
Female members would have the responsibility of taking care of the in-house needs of male members of family, and raising the kids in line with the culture and traditions of the family.
Responsibility of elder female members
Elder female members of the family would have the responsibility of grooming up the younger female members of the family in the desired direction.
Female members played crucial role through formative years of growing children
Each new generation would learn the family values from their mothers and grandmothers, and in this manner the female members of the family would play the crucial role through the formative years of growing children.
Religion would be essential part of family values
Spirituality would be an essential part of the family values, and women folk would be the custodian and deliverer of these values to each next generation through their growing up process.
Fidelity would be the norm
Single spouse system and fidelity would be the norm. Exceptions would be found in the context of political marriages where a king would offer his daughter to another king and thus, the two ruling families would unite and not be threat to each other. Such marriages would primarily be conducted for maintaining power-balance and political equilibrium. These would be exceptions not rule, and we have references to many kings having only one wife.
How Hindu family structure changed so drastically that now we hardly see much evidence of our earlier system
The whole system, however, changed after brutal onslaught of Islam and its direct interference in Hindu way of family life through forced conversions and forced marriages of Hindu girls and Hindu women into Muslim powerful families. This is when family values started deteriorating substantially though it did preserve a lot of it, as we can see from the testimonies of Sir Thomas Munro as presented below, even after thousand years of inhumane oppression that Max Muller called an inferno and wondered “how any nation could have survived such an inferno without being turned into devils themselves.”
If a good system of agriculture, unrivalled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to either convenience or luxury, schools established in every village for teaching, reading, writing, and arithmetic, the general practice of hospitality and charity amongst each other, and above all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect, and delicacy, are among the signs which denote a civilized people – then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe, and if civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo.
Sir Thomas Munro, quoted in Mill’s History, vol. i. p. 371, re-quoted in INDIA what can it teach us? Max Muller ISBN 0-14-100437-1 p57 p231
The True Culprits have remained unidentified all along
There was so much of beauty left even until early 19th century that the eminent Governor
of the then Madras Presidency wrote:
If civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, I am convinced that
England will gain by the import cargo.
Real downfall occurred during past 170 years
This would mean that real downfall has occurred during past 170 years. All factors remaining constant the only variable has been ChristianEnglish education system forcibly imposed on the Hindus by systematic elimination of ancient Hindu education system1.
2 Recommended further reading “That Unknown Face of Christianity”
Hindu Family Values were altered irreversibly only to fulfill the documented wishes of Jesus Christ - evidence follows
Hindu Family Values were totally transformed by the ChristianEnglish Education system, which was predominantly guided by the values propagated by Jesus Christ in the Christian Bible.
Oxford Dictionary describes
“New Testament” is the second part of the Christian Bible p 1249; “Gospel” is the record of Christ’s life and teachings in the first four books of the New Testament p 792; “St Matthew” was an Apostle, and the author of the first Gospel p 1143; “St Luke” was an evangelist, and the author of the third Gospel p 1099; “St Thomas” was an Apostle p 1928; “Apostle” Each of the twelve chief disciples of Jesus Christ is an Apostle p 77
Christian Bible New Testament Matthew
10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against the mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 10:36 And a man’s foe shall be they of his own household. 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. 12: 30 He that is not with me is against me
Christian Bible New Testament Luke
12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 12:52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 12:53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
[Nay a negative answer Oxford Dictionary p 1237]
Gospel of Thomas
16 Jesus said: Perhaps men think that I came to cast peace on the world; and they do not know that I came to cast division upon earth, fire, sword, war. For five will be in a house; there will be three against two and two against three, the father against the son and the son against the father. And they will stand because they are single ones. 56 Jesus said: He who will not hate his father and his mother cannot be my disciple. And he who will not hate his brothers and sisters, and carry his cross as I have, will not become worthy of me.
[Gospel of Thomas as quoted in The Myth of Saint Thomas and Mylapore Shiva Temple, p 76 n]
Understanding Jesus Christ’s hidden agenda
To understand Jesus’s agenda2, as documented in the pages of Christian Bible, you may want to study Christianity in a different Light.
2 Recommended further reading “That Unknown Face of Christianity”
They made you believe your social system was evil
Christian missionary educators taught the Hindus for past six generations and media experts created the image in the minds of the Hindus that ancient Hindu Joint Family structure was essentially an evil social structure.
Single-Parent Family becoming the norm in Christian World duly fulfilling documented wishes of their Messiah Jesus Christ
This paved the way for promoting Split Family structure which has now been refined to such levels that gradually Single Parent system is becoming the norm in the ChristianWorld that we mistakenly identify as Western world, and aping them faithfully we too are rapidly following their footsteps.