From The Back Cover Of 'Marriage Practices Of The Sikhs' By Dr. Surinder K Jyoti

The Sikh religion as such has its own identity. Nevertheless, the followers of Sikhism are more near to Hindus in comparison to members of other faiths because of a common religio-cultural tradition. It is for this reason that their customs and practices are found to be in close proximity to each other. In spite of this affinity the Sikh Religious dictates clearly repudiate certain Hindu practices. They are quite explicit with regard to marriage practices which have been dealt in this book. The present study was undertaken with three-fold objec-tives:-

(i) To find out the practices prevalent among Sikhs regar­ding the field, criteria and procedure of mate selection.

(ii) To what extent there is deviation from or conformity to Sikh normative pattern of marriage.

(iii) What is the direction of change during the course of one generation.

I wish to place on record my sincere gratitudes to Dr. I. M.

Lal and Prof. B. L. Abhi of the Department of Sociology, Punjabi University, Patiala for their guidance, help and encouragement.

Dr. A. Mahajan, Reader, Department of Sociology, Punjab University, Chandigarh, deserves a special mention. His constant guidance, constructive suggestions and criticism during the course of this study were very helpful in the completion of this study. I feel highly obliged for his co-operation and moral support.

My parents, brothers and sisters helped me in number of ways and I owe my sincere gratitude to them. It is with their blessings and affections that I have succeeded 'in this venture.