Unity in Diversity

Family Roles and Organization. Indian families are considered to be a close knit family unit. The man (the father and/or husband) is always considered the head of household. There is also a significant value placed on higher education and success for their children.

Family used to be a single unit, consisting of a husband, wife and children. This unit was widely thought as a group based on marriage and biological parenthood as sharing a common residence and

Family, kin, and marriage lies are established by the type of descent system the society uses. Descent is traced kinship relationships through parents. The concept of family, kin, and marriage strive to and support

Yet in America, it is quite different. As stated by Paul Hockings, the Indian culture believes that a woman must obey the men in their lives in a certain order. For instance, a woman should obey her father first, next her husband, and finally her son. The head male of the family, whether it is the father, husband, or son is in charge of the entire family. The head male is also important in arranging marriages. The head male of the family, has to compensate or receive compensation at the time of a child’s marriage. In the Indian culture, the primary purpose of a marriage is to bring families together. It is usually not done out of love or romance. If a marriage is not approved or arranged by the parents involved, then the act is frowned upon. In America, marriages are not typically arranged and people do not receive compensation during a

“The multicultural training movement has indeed contributed to a greater and much needed understanding of the differences among various racial, ethnic, and cultural groups (Speight, Myers, Cox and Highlen, 1991).” In looking at this statement counselors will need to expand their thinking outside of the Western European contexts. There is a difference between Western culture and other cultures. Sue & Sue, 2012 states “ each cultural/racial group may have its own distinct interpretation of reality and offer a different perspective on the nature of people, the origin of disorders, standards for judging normality and abnormality, and therapeutic approaches. (p. 45).” As we are brought together with more cultures it is imperative to understand the differences, which will enable counselors to become culturally competent.

In the typical Indian family, gender construction manifests itself especially in the roles of men and women in the household. As Judith Lorber so aptly put, “gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” which in turn, creates the social differences that define a “man” and “woman” (Lorber). It is these differences that are used to construct and maintain an established gender order within the family. In the conventional Indian family, the order is such that the roles of the women in the household revolve around the roles of the men. This structure was something that I saw from an early age in my parents’ marriage. Though my parents defied the Indian norm of the arranged marriage, they still represented the quintessential model of an Indian couple in many other ways. My mother left her job to become a stay-at-home mom when I was about six years old. However, even before she left her job, she was implicitly expected by my father to shoulder most of the housework including cooking, cleaning, and caring for my older brother

but, It is not the most preferred: Monogamy is the ideal and preferred form of marriage in only 81 cultures out of a sample 400cultures.

Most of South Indian families have a nuclear family structure and believe in arrange marriages for their children.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, "A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships-including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership.

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

Couples who dare cross the social conventions have to cope with a lot of social pressure within their families and outside. These problems are more acute in the rural areas compared to the urban areas and metropolitan cities. Much depends upon the family background. If parents are educated and enlightened on both sides, things would be easier for the children, who get involved in unconventional relationships. One of the evils of Hindu marriages is the ubiquitous dowry system.

Family traditions and religion greatly impact the lives of many people in India. These elements of culture are reasons that form the way that Indians lead their lives. Both factors make up what type of person that individual will become. That is the reason why religion and family traditions are so valued in Indian society.

As there are many aspects of cultures that can be studied and described about the two cultures, only few major aspects of cultural values will be discussed in this paper. One of the major cultural values that can be compared between the two cultures is the Malays rank honesty as first on their list of cultural values whereas the Indians find family as the important aspect in their cultural values.

We live in a society where people come from different countries, they belong to different cultural, religion, ethnic groups, and races. All these factors come together and contributes to differences that make us unique from each other. Hence, a multicultural country with huge diversity. This reflection journal will cover what “human race” is and what role it plays in ones’ personal life and in a nursing profession. Moreover, what bias, assumptions and judgements are, and how to avoid them. Lastly, what caring is and what role does it play in nursing.

India is described as a country which is “a Unity is Diversity” because it is comprised of a wide variety of individuals who belong to different religions, speak different languages, practice different traditions, have different castes, worship different gods, wear different clothing, and eat different foods. Although India is comprised of all these different individuals and their diverse traits and practices, these individuals live together in peace and harmony in India.