Publish Date
12 Sep, 2025
About This Book
Identity formation in non-western societies involves paradox, as doctrines are frequently overridden by actual practices. The essays in this volume discuss different ways in which identities are constructed in unique ‘Indian’contexts. The emergence of deras in Punjab reflects how continuing caste inequality and divergence over spiritual leadership has affected the egalitarian spirit of Sikhism, contradicting a basic feature of the faith—the tradition of common worship. In the matrilineal Khasi community, men—looking to gain equal inheritance rights—use arguments of ethnic purity and indigenous rights to downsize women’s autonomy and undermine the commanding socio-economic position that their own tradition gives them. For male sex-workers, their profession, paradoxically, becomes a means of sexual autonomy in the otherwise heteronormative world that they inhabit. A different kind of paradox marks the social lives of many Indian women: in Assam for instance, celebration of menstruation..
About The Author
Manoj Kumar Jena is professor and Chairperson at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi. His areas of research include sociology of science and technology, digital technology studies, media and cultural studies, social theory, ritual and marginal studies. Prof Jena has multiple publications in the form of books, chapters, and research articles in Scopus, Web Science and multiple UGC approved peer-reviewed journals. Recently, he has edited a volume titled Sociology of Covid 19 Pandemic in India: Education, Digital Divide, Work and Wellbeing.
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