Why the ‘Valentine Day’ is Becoming Popular in India?
A Sociological Perspective
Coinciding with the emergence of a liberalised economy since the 1980s, Valentine’s Day has become a popular festival in India among urban youth, provoking hostile reactions from some. Instead of passing moral judgment over this festival, it needs to be objectively assessed within larger changes taking place in traditional Indian social life, more particularly the shaky arranged-marriage system.
Evidently, the celebration of the St Valentine’s Day (popularly known as Valentine Day) has almost become a predictable routine in India; cards and gifts are exchanged and the entire atmosphere becomes radiant with red colour, love, romance and festivities. However, it is a different matter that most young persons who participate in this gaiety may not be aware of the history and various connotations of this Western festival.1 Nevertheless, the loud celebration of Valentine Day among the urban Indian youth, stubbornly defying antagonism of the opponents, requires an explanation. It cannot just be dismissed as an undesirable effect of market economy and capitalistic culture of the West or moral corruption caused by westernisation and globalisation. It is rather symptomatic of changing youth culture all over the world. However, particularly in India, apart from this kind of universalistic trend, it is also indicative of the wide-ranging changes taking place in traditional Indian social life, reflected by growing individualism among youngsters and the shaky arranged marriage system of India.
Not Only in India
Conspicuously, with escalating globalisation, the practice of celebrating the Valentine Day spread to Asian countries such as Japan, China, Singapore, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and west Asia. In India also, coinciding with the emergence of liberal economy since the 1980s, Valentine Day has become a popular festival. It has become an occasion mostly for youngsters of urban India to exhibit their feelings of love and affection. The traditional Indian notion that love need not be vulagarised by expressing it overtly is now gradually displaced. Apparently, the youngsters of urban India enthusiastically articulate their feelings of love particularly painting Indian academic campuses red with fresh roses and sparkling cards. Various promotional programmes supported by market-oriented electronic media, the flourishing card business, and growing hospitality industry have not only legitimised it, but have also given an impetus to it.
Predictably, this sudden public outburst of personal sentiments of love gave a jolt to certain sections of Indian society. Particularly, two extremist camps, the leftist radicals on the one hand and the orthodox fanatics on the other condemn this new phenomenon as an undesirable effect of westernisation and globalisaion. The leftists suspect a hidden agenda behind this new “festival of love”, blaming neo-imperialism of the West for sponsoring blatant commercialisation aimed at the emerging Indian middle class. The conservatives, on the other hand, though concur with the radicals regarding the “conspiracy theory” of the West behind this love carnival, differ in their indictment. They despise the cultural pollution being fuelled by alien forces allegedly destroying traditional Indian culture and morally corrupting the Indian youth. Orthodox forces spearheaded by the Hindu and Islamic fanatics, being more aggressive and violent in their protest, often raid card shops and attack the love-intoxicated young people.2
However, such hasty value judgments, particularly in India, need to be objectively scrutinised in the specific context of changing Indian society. For, of late, in addition to the Valentine Day, other cultural innovations such as New Year Eve festivity on 31 December, or jubilation on Friendship Day or euphoria on Rose Day are also in vogue mostly among the urban youth.3 Even the increasingly noisy celebrations of traditional Indian festivals like Navratri, Ganeshotsav, or Gokulashtami are often contrary to the sentiments traditionally associated with these religious events. Nonetheless, for the younger generation all these occasions have acquired a new meaning, providing an opportunity to hang out and mingle with their peers, often signifying their urge to be noticed and to be connected.
Traditional Indian society, based on agricultural economy and primordial institutions like joint family, kinship, caste, and village community has been radically changing with the exposure to modernising forces. The emergent modern values of individualism, freedom, liberty, equality, and secularism and the accompanying processes of competition, consumerism, industrial capitalism, large-scale migration, and urbanisation have diminished the importance of those traditional institutions. Due to enhanced industrialisation and concomitant rural- urban migration there has been a steady rise in the urban population of India. The urban population in India has gone up gradually from about 11% in 1901 to 17% in 1951 and then to 28% in 2001 (Kundu 2011: 8). In 2011 it has grown to 31% (Census 2011).
As a result, an urban society privileging privacy and anonymity is growing, which has weakened traditional social bonds and authority structures based on village, caste and kinship. The scarcity of housing facilities in urban areas not only increases the cost of housing, but also constricts the size of dwellings, compelling the urban middle class to live in nuclear families.
Further, the high cost of basic urban amenities such as transport, education, and health services, oblige both the husband and wife to earn. Enhanced employment opportunities for women in cities augment this process. Obviously, the traditional institutions of family and kinship have crumbled, weakening conventional mechanisms of social control and making the long-established custom of arranged marriages unsustainable. Not surprisingly, the Valentine Day is relatively much more popular in urban centres than in rural India.
Traditionally, when village life was throbbing, kinship was vibrant, caste was influential, and customary match- makers were helpful, the arranged marriage was the time-honoured practice. The village elders, schoolteachers, senior relatives, Nais, and the Brahmins used to locate a suitable match for the grown-up children of the village. Such marriages were mostly held within the limits prescribed by caste norms regarding endogamy and exogamy (Uberoi 1993). Besides, they were considered desirable too in view of the social solidarity of the traditional communities (Gupta 1976). Now, however, the dispersal of families, due to migration, has not only weakened family and kinship ties but has also made the role of traditional matchmakers redundant and the custom of arranged marriage unsuitable.
Times They Are Changing …
The alternative social innovations such as brief and awkward “interviews” of prospective marital candidates, matrimonial advertisements in print media, directories of eligible bachelors published by caste associations, so-called marriage melas, ironically also known as swayamvaram, and marriage-related websites have emerged as functional substitutes to traditional matchmakers. However, the young generation, born and brought up in modernising India, craves for personal space in these highly personal matters like the choice of spouse, find such mechanisms not very satisfying. And, the institution of dating, functioning effectively in the highly individualistic societies of the West, has not been institutionalised in India.
Yet, marriage is an inevitable stage in the normal lives of most grown-up young men and women. Hence, youngsters find the Valentine Day, New Year Eve, Friendship Day, Rose Day, as appropriate occasions to look for friends and life partners. Admittedly, in every society, festivities have a tension-releasing function allowing the participants to transgress the limits of routine life. However, in the absence of institutionalisation of norms regarding “proper” behaviour on such junctures young boys and girls, at times, go haywire and often wreak havoc with their own lives. Their deviant behaviour thus provides a lever in the hands of self-appointed moral police to hit them hard, accusing them of blindly imitating alien cultures when it comes to Valentine Day celebration or some such western practices. Nevertheless, the same people ignore the uproarious conduct of the youth on the tradi- tional Indian festivals, like Navratri or Ganesh Chaturthi or Gokulashtami, which also have almost the same function of sociability for the urban youth.
Apparently, it is now impossible to revert to the safety net of traditional institutions. Gupta (1976: 83), who found strong empirical evidence in support of arranged marriage in his study, also noted that in the long-run romantic ideal will prevail. Therefore, the only option left to contemporary Indian society is to allow the young some space in their private life, if necessary, guiding and counseling them regarding proper con- duct on such occasions and evolving proper ways of chaperoning them so that they can be protecting them from devastatingly self-destructive actions
Thus, celebration of the Valentine Day and all such festivals has a communicative function. Message communicated by the urban Indian youth is: such innovative festivities need not be perceived as a problem, but as a solution to the problem of vanishing institutions of arranged marriage in India, along with other traditional practices.
Notes
1 Although there is no single authentic version of its origin, the Valentine Day in the current form has become popular in the west only in the modern times. And there are significant regional variations including the date and manner of its celebration. See (i) DeSousa, Katie (2013), “Where Did Saint Valentine’s Day Come from Anyway?”, viewed on 19 December 201302/where-did-saint-valentines-day-come-from- anyway/), (ii) Dyk, Natalie Van (2013), “The Reconceptualisation of Valentine’s Day in the United States: Valentine’s Day as a Phenomenon of Popular Culture”, Bridges: An Under- graduate Journal of Contemporary Connections,1(1), viewed on 19 December 2013 (http://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=bridges_contempoy _connections), (iii) Haag, Pamela (2013), “Valentine Day: Its Gory, Unromantic Secret History”, viewed on 19 December 2013 (http://bigthink.com/ harpys-review/valentines-day-its-gory-unromantic-secret-history), and (iv) “Valentine’s Day”, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, visited on 19 December 2013 (http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/ Valentine’s_Day).
2 Of course, such sentiments are expressed elsewhere also. See (i) Glazov, Jamie (2010), “Hating Valentine’s”, viewed on 23 December 2013 (http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jamie- glazov/hating-valentine% E2% 80%99s/), (ii) “Valentine’s Day for All: A Marxist Defense of the Romantic Day”, viewed on 23 December 2013 (http://thevarsity.ca/2012/02/13/valen- tines-day-for-all/), and (iii) (a) “Fatwas of Muslim Scholars Concerning Valentine’s Day”, viewed on 26 December 2013 (http://www.is- lamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page = articles &id=156435); also see (b) (http://jami- abinoria.org/months/valentine&islam.htm).
3 Lately, the Indian youth also have adopted the “Friendship Day” as a festival. See (i) http:// www.friendshipday.org/when-is-friendship-day html, and (2) http://www.timeanddate.com/ holidays/india/friendship-day, viewed on 30 December 2013. According to some reports an elaborate tradition of celebration of Valentine Week has been built up beginning with 7 February, which is celebrated as the Rose Day and marks the commencement of the Valentine Week followed by 8 February: Propose Day, 9 February: Chocolate Day, 10 February: Teddy Day, 11 February: Promise Day, 12 February: Hug Day, 13 February: Kiss Day, and 14 February: the grand finale; Valentine Day. See: http://news.oneindia.in/2011/02/07/rose-day- marks-the-start-of-valentine-week-2011- aid0116.html (viewed on 30 December 2013).
References
Census (2011): Rural Urban Distribution of Popula- tion, Census of India (New Delhi: Ministry Home Affairs), viewed on 12 January 2014, http://censusindia. gov.in/2011-prov results/ paper2/data_files/india/Rural_Urban_2011.pdf
Gupta, Giri Raj (1976): “Love, Arranged Marriage and the Indian Social Structure”, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 7(1), 75-85.
Kundu, Amitabh (2011): Trends and Processes of Urbanisation in India (London: Human Settlements Group International Institute for Environment and Development and New York: Population and Development Branch United Nations Population Fund).
Uberoi, Patricia, ed. (1993): Family, Kinship and Marriage in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press).
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Pravin J Patel (pravin1943@gmail.com) is a sociologist, formerly with M S University, Baroda and vice chancellor of Sardar Patel University, Gujarat. The article was originally published in Economic and Political Weekly, May 10, 2014, Vol.XLIX No 19, PP.19-21.
