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THE POPULATION of India is made up of an infinite variety of castes, religions, and language groups, which have lived side by side, in an intricate division of labour, for thousands of years. Many customs, and much of the social structure, historically isolated from modern technological and industrial developments, have remained essentially the same. Such deeply laid patterns of behaviour do not respond easily to change.

This study analyses one of the Hindu structures-the family-which is considered by sociologists to be very resistant to change. Its purpose is to show the effect of industrial and technological change on the traditional middle- and upper-class urban Hindu family. In doing so, it will attempt to develop a sounder theoretical framework within which the many dimensions of family change can be studied.

Up to the present, apart from a few novels and sociological studies of urban life, it has been the traditional rural joint family which has occupied the attention of students and writers. However, it is the middle- and upper-class urban families which are facing the full impact of the rapidly changing conditions which have accompanied India's growing industrialization.