ISSN 0970-0242 Guru Nanak Journal of SOCIOLOGY Vol. 38, No. 1 & 2 2017 J. P. Singh Emerging Challenges of Family in India Birinder Pal Singh Mapping Identities: Tradition and Change in North West India Kirtpreet Kaur Social Construction of Femininity in Punjabi Literature Kiranjit Kaur Honour Killings in the Context of Class, Caste and Gender Inequality: A Case Study of Punjab Sakshi Verma and Constitutional Provisions: Examining Gender Discrimination in Gurpreet Bal the Case of Jammu and Kashmir Jagroop Singh Sekhon Secularism and the Sikh Community COMMUNICATIONS K. S. Sangwan Identity Formation and its role in Modern India Presidential Address, 19th Conference of North West Indian Sociological Association (NNWISA) Jesna Jayachandran Report of NWISA Conference 2017. Himatbir Singh, Research Findings of Degree awarded Ph.D. theses of the Amritpreet Kaur, Department of Sociology 2016-17. Shefali Bedi, Isha BOOKS REVIEWS Gurpreet Bal Gender Discrimination and Development Paradox. Dinesh Sharma Sociology of Sanitation Ranjay Vardhan Urban Development in North-Western India Jesna Jayachandran Digital Method in the Sociology of Religion Department of Sociology Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 1 Refereed Journal (Blind Referring) Subscription Rates India Life Membership Individual Rs. 150.00 per copy Rs. 2500/- Institution Rs. 300.00 per copy Rs. 6000/- Subscriptions are to be sent to the Professor-in-charge, Publication Bureau, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar through crossed Cheque/Bank Draft drawn in the favour of Registrar, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. 2 ISSN 0970-0242 GURU NANAK JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Vol. 38, No. 1&2 2017 Editor Gurpreet Bal Department of Sociology Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar AMRITSAR – 143005 (INDIA) 3 Refereed Journal (Blind Referring) GURU NANAK JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Research Journal of the Department of Sociology Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (INDIA) UGC Approved Journal No.62514 (Serial No.1015) BOARD OF EDITORS Editor Gurpreet Bal Associate Editors Neena Rosey Kahlon Rachana Sharma Jesna Jayachandran Editorial Advisory Committee B. K. Nagla (Rohtak) Maitrayee Chaudhuri (New Delhi) N. Jayaram (Bengaluru) Satish Sharma (Mohali) 4 OUR CONTRIBUTORS Amritpreet Kaur, Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Birinder Pal Singh, Professor of Eminence, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Punjabi University, Patiala-147002 Dinesh Sharma, Professor, D.E.G.S.N., NCERT, New Delhi Gurpreet Bal, Professor, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Himatbir Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Isha, Assistant Professor, Trinity College, Jalandhar Jagrup Singh Sekhon, Professor, Department of Political Science, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Jesna Jayachandran, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar J.P.Singh, Formerly Professor of Sociology & Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Patna University, Patna- 800005, Bihar. E-mail: [email protected] Kiranjit Kaur, Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar K.S. Sangwan, Former Professor of Sociology, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak Kiratpreet Kaur, Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Ranjay Vardhan, Associate Professor in Sociology, P.G. Government College for Girls, Sector 42, Chandigarh, [email protected] Sakshi Verma, Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar Shefali Bedi, Assistant Professor, Department of Distance Education, Punjabi University, Patiala 5 CONTENTS J. P. Singh Emerging Challenges of Family in India 1 Birinder Pal Singh Mapping Identities: Tradition and Change in North 20 West India Kirtpreet Kaur Social Construction of Femininity in Punjabi Literature27 Kiranjit Kaur Honour Killings in the Context of Class, Caste and 48 Gender Inequality: A Case Study of Punjab Sakshi Verma and Constitutional Provisions: Examining Gender 64 Gurpreet Bal Discrimination in the Case of Jammu and Kashmir Jagroop Singh Sekhon Secularism and the Sikh Community 80 COMMUNICATIONS K. S. Sangwan Identity Formation and its role in Modern India 104 Jesna Jayachandran Report of NWISA Conference 2017. Himatbir Singh, Research Findings of Degree awarded Ph.D. theses of the Amritpreet Kaur, Department of Sociology 2016-17. Shefali Bedi, Isha BOOKS REVIEWS Gurpreet Bal Gender Discrimination and Development Paradox. 131 Dinesh Sharma Sociology of Sanitation Ranjay Vardhan Urban Development in North-Western India Jesna Jayachandran Digital Method in the Sociology of Religion 6 EMERGING CHALLENGES OF FAMILY IN INDIA J. P. Singh ABSTRACT There has been significant rise in the level of education, degree of urbanization, per capita income, expectancy of life at birth, diversification in occupation and profession, opening of new means of livelihood, and modernization during the period following India’s Independence. At the same time there has also been marked increase in the incidence of separation and divorce, conflict between parents and sons and also between siblings, dowry, freedom of marital choice, dissolution of joint or extended family, child labour and prostitution in cities and decline in intergenerational solidarity within the family in this country. With further industrial development and rural to urban migration, nuclearization of families and rise in the divorce rate and the proportion of single member household are likely to enlarge steadily on the line of the industrial West. All these problems have been bought to a focus here using the secondary data from various sources, as they need to be addressed both by people themselves and the state as well. Introduction The Indian society is characterized by considerable cultural contrasts at regional or sub- regional level and also at the caste and community levels within the same region. Since India is a vast country with long chequered history, there has always been plurality of family types with varied local problems. However, it should not deter us from considering the subject at the macro level recognizing the fact full well that— it is hazardous to offer a generalized view of the nature and problems of the Indian family. Evidence abounds that there has been substantial rise in the level of both male and female education, degree of urbanization, per capita income, expectancy of life at birth, diversification in occupation and profession, opening of new means of livelihood, modernization and population redistribution during the last five-six decades. At the same time there has also been simultaneously marked rise in the incidence of separation and divorce, conflict between parents and sons and also between siblings, dowry, freedom of marital choice, dissolution of joint or extended family, child labour and prostitution in cities and decline in intergenerational solidarity within the family. Continuing massive poverty, illiteracy, bad governance of state and rapid rise in the total 7 population are possibly the most potential contributors to persistence and intensification of problems of family in varying forms and degrees. For long the Indian society was characterized by preponderance of joint and extended family, but the nuclear family, same as elsewhere, is now the predominant feature of the Indian society. According to the Census of India (2001) reports, of all the households nuclear family constitutes 70 percent and single member or more than one member households without spouse (or eroded families) 11 percent. The extended and joint family or households together claim merely 20 percent of all households. This is the overall picture about the entire country, whereas in the case of urban areas the proportion of nuclear family is somewhat higher still. The available data from the National Family and Health Survey-1 of 1992-93 (henceforth NFHS) suggest that joint family does not make up more than five percent of all families in urban areas (Singh, 2004:137). With further industrial development and rural to urban migration, nuclearisation of families and rise in the divorce rate and the proportion of single member household are likely to increase steadily on the line of the industrial West. The transition of family from joint or extended type to nuclear type has led to waning of some old problems and emergence of new ones. Now let us briefly dwell on the major problems that the contemporary Indian family is confronting. For obvious reasons, the problems of modern family are largely different from the traditional family system of joint or extended type. Child Marriage and Polygamy Marriage, especially among Hindus, has been a universal institution propped by the system of religious belief. It is viewed as a sacrament, and not as a contract. Besides being universal it is also an inevitable institution. Hindu marriage is a life-long commitment of one wife and one husband, and is the strongest social bond that takes place between a man and a woman. The matter of concern is not that the universality or inevitability of the intuition has got religious overtone, but the practice of pre-puberty marriage has been coming through the ages. It is indeed an archetypal institution of India. The young girls lived with their parents only till they reached puberty. Early marriage led to the problem of high fertility and also early widowhood because of high incidence of death rate. True, child marriages have been prevalent in many cultures