Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 415

UNDIVIDED FAMILY PROPERTY
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while the others, leading a debauched and idle life, become
seriously involved in debt.
These, after a life of dissipa-
tion and wandering from place to place, learn at last that
their brother, by his industry and good conduct, has
amassed a brilliant fortune. They at once hasten to him
and call upon him to share with them the property he has
acquired by the sweat of his brow, and moreover render
jointly responsible for the debts resulting from their
disorderly habits \
The creditors themselves, too, have
the right to recover from him by law what is due to them
from his brothers. More than this, should brothers, who
neglect to divide their family property, die before such
partition has been actually effected, the same community
of property and of debts holds good among their children,
and it descends from generation to generation so long as
the property remains undivided. It is by no means rare
to see cousins of the third and fourth degree engaged in
lawsuits concerning rights of succession dating back from
time immemorial. Neither is it an uncommon thing to
see the richer members of a family coerced by the poorer
ones to admit the latter to a share of their hard-earned
fortune, while these burden them with their poverty and
him
their debts.
In a country where nearly everything is regulated by
custom, and where the usages are as many and as various
as the different provinces, these lawsuits in connexion with
the partition of properties are an endless source of chicanery.
There is one advantage, however, from a social point of
view, arising from this singular system, namely, that it
gives such relatives as are liable to be affected by the law
of partition the right to watch over each other's conduct,
1
In Madras a proposal was recently
made by
member of the
every individual of
a Hindu
local Legislature to introduce a Bill to secure for
an undivided Hindu family the gains of his learning.' The Bill
was passed by the Legislative Council, but in deference to very strong
feeling subsequently expressed by the Hindu community at large the
Governor of Madras (Sir Arthur Havelock) vetoed the measure. At
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when
a claim is made to the gains of learning of one of the
an undivided family, those who prefer the claim invari-
ably attempt to prove that the member to whose gains they lay claim
was educated out of the undivided family property, and that therefore
the undivided members have a right to share his gains.
Ed.
present,
members
of
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