Main Feature of Our Social Life

Nepalese society is patriarchal rather than matriarchal. The head of the family is a male member, father or grandfather or the eldest brother. The advanced and educated people prefer the single family to the joint family system. Another important feature of the Nepalese social life is the water-tight caste system. The cast system still prevails in the Nepalese society in one form or another. Main feature of our social life are given below with short describe.

a)      Patriarchal Society

b)      Joint Family System

c)      Elements of Exploitation

d)      Cast system

e)      Religious Influence

f)       Political Influence

g)      Linguistic Influence

h)      Influence of Education

i)        Influence of poverty

j)        miscellaneous

 Nepalese society is patriarchal rather than matriarchal. The head of the family is a male member, father or grandfather or the eldest brother. There is a division of word and responsibility between the father and the mother. Mother is responsible for domestic matters and care of the children while father is responsible for earning the means of living. All the members of the family solely depend upon the income of the father because he is the guardian and head of the family. However, equal distribution of parental property to daughters has been felt in modern times. Thus, patriarchy is one of the important features of the Nepalese social life.  All the members live jointly in a family. The properties and possessions of the family are jointly shared by all the members. Changes have taken places in our society during the recent years.

The advanced and educated people prefer the single family to the joint family system. Those who are employees have to stay away from home and live separately from their parents. Thus, the single family system has developed in town areas. However, they are together again as a family during festivals and marriages of their family members. They visit their parents occasionally and look after them when they are sick and incapable of earning their living. Thus, it still not completely like the single family system as found in European countries. The Nepalese people have been suffering from social, economic, religious and moral exploitation for a long time. There are many customary social institutions, like polygamy, child marriage, forced marriage, inequal age marriage, etc. During the recent years, there has been a great development in this regard since ‘Muluki Ain’ (the civil code) was introduced in 1963 A.D. The Muluki Ain is the fundamental social law of the country. It has ended the legal and social inequality between men and women.

Another important feature of the Nepalese social life is the water-tight caste system. The cast system still prevails in the Nepalese society in one form or another. The deep influence of religion, devotion and superstitious belief is another feature of the Nepalese social life. Since the restoration of democracy in Nepal, several political parties have been formed. People in the same locality, and very often, in the same family, belong to different political parties. At least 18 major languages in Nepal according to Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal, as the ‘national language’, is widely spoken in all parts of the kingdom. The mass of the Nepalese people are illiterate. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 2001, only 53.75% of the Nepalese people are literate. About 66% of the Nepalese people are farmers and workers. Mountainous, location, deforestation, lack of big industries, lack of proper care of health and inadequate availability of hospitals and health centre’s are other factors that affect the social life of the Nepalese people.