Social Movement in India

SOCIAL MOVEMENT IN INDIA

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PROJECT ON:


Subject: Political Science

Submitted To: Dr. Anita Samal

Submitted by: Naveen Nirala

Semester - V

Roll No 72

Submitted on: 24/11/2014

HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

RAIPUR (C.G.)


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is a matter of grace to be pre-occupied with a topic which inspires me in order to look over

all perspectives of social movement in India. I forward my vote of thanks to our Faculty

D.rAnita Samaal Panda to feel me a part to contribute my research in the theme. I also

acknowledge support of my friends as well as Non teaching staffs.

Naveen Nirala

Roll no 72


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Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Research methodology 5

Sources of Data Collection 5

Objectives 5

Chapter 1- Types of Social Movement 6

Chapter 2- Social Movement in India 12

Chapter 3 - national movement for independence in India 14

Conclusion 24

References 25


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Introduction

The term new social movement refers to those movements which have come up since mid-

1960s. The new social movements look into various collective actions, their identity and on

their relations for culture ideology and politics. These differ in from the old that,

(a) they are concerned with non-material phenomena;

(b) they work for quality of life, rather for merely life;

(c) they are cooperative and non-conflictive;

(d) they are followers-oriented rather than leader oriented;

(e) they are decentralized, rather than centralized ones.

The new social movements include the womens movement, the ecology movement, gay

rights movements and various peace movements among others. Thinkers have related these

movements with post materialism hypothesis as put forth by Ronald Inglehart. Important

contributors in the field include sociologists such as Alian Touraine, Claus Offe and

Habermas.

Many of the movements tend to emphasize social change in lifestyle and culture, rather than

pushing specific changes in public policy or for economy change. Some theorists argue that

the key actors in these movements are the members of new middle class or service sector

professionals, such as academics. They are informal loosely organize network of

supporters rather than members.

Paul Byrne described new social movements as relatively disorganized.


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Research Methedology

The methodology adopted in this research work is based on Doctrinal Secondary Electronic

research. The present research work contains a detail study of Social Movement in India.

This research work consists of elaborated theoretical research, an overall study of the topic

and in depth web browsing.

Sources of Data Collection

Secondary sources have been largely used to gather information and data about topic. This

topic is quite extensive and requires detailed research since the area of research is very

comprehensive. For the purpose of research work for the given topic books in the library have

been consulted. At the same time various sources on the internet have also been referred to.

Objectives

1. To study the different types of social movements.

2. To understand about the social movements in India.

3. To discuss about the national movement for independence in India.


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Chapter 1- Types of Social Movements

Reform Movements:

Reform movements are organized to carry out reforms in some specific areas. The reformers

endeavor to change elements of the system for better. For example: Civil Rights Movement,

Women's Liberation Movement, Arya Samaj Movement, Brahmo Samaj Movement etc.

Revolutionary Movements:

The revolutionary movements deny that the system will even work. These movements are

deeply dissatisfied with the social order and work for radical change. They advocate

replacing the entire existing structure. Their objective is the reorganization of society in

accordance with their own ideological blueprint. Revolutionary movements generally become

violent as they progress. Example: The Protestant Reformation Movement, the Socialist

Movement, the Communist Revolution of China.

Reactionary or Revivalist Movement: Some movements are known as reactionary or

regressive movements. These aims to reverse the social change .They highlight the

importance and greatness of traditional values, ideologies and institutional arrangements.

They strongly criticize the fast moving changes of the present.

Resistance Movement:

These movements are formed to resist a change that is already taking place in society. These

can be directed against social and cultural changes which are already happening in the

country.

Utopian Movement:

These are attempts to take the society or a section of it towards a state of perfection. These

are loosely structured collectivities that envision a radically changed and blissful state, either

on a large scale at some time in the future or on a smaller scale in the present. The Utopian

ideal and the means of it are often vague, but many utopian movements have quite specific

programmes for social change. The Hare Krishna Movement of the seventies, the movement

towards the establishment of Ram Rajya and the Sangh Parivar, the Communists and


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Socialists pronouncement of a movement towards the classless, casteless society free from all

kinds of exploitation etc.

Peasant Movement:

Peasant movement is defined by Kathleen Gough as an attempt of a group to effect change in

the face of resistance and the peasant are people who are engaged in an agricultural or related

production with primitive means who surrender part of their or its equivalent to landlords or

to agents of change. The history of peasant movements can be traced to colonial period when

repressive economic policies, the new land revenue system, the colonial administrative and

judicial system and the ruin of handicrafts leading to the overcrowding of land transformed

the agrarian structure and impoverished the peasantry. In the zamindari system peasants were

left to the mercies of the Zamindars who exploited them in form of illegal dues. The British

government levied heavy land revenue in the Ryotwari areas. Peasants were forced to borrow

money from the moneylenders and they were reduced to the status of tenants at will, share

croppers and landless laborers while their lands, crops and cattle passed into the hands to

landlords, trader moneylenders and such peasants. When the peasants could take it no longer

they resisted against the oppression and exploitation through uprisings. Peasant Movements

occupy an important place in the history of social unrest in India though the aims and

objectives of these movements differ in nature and degree from region to region. It is in this

sense that these movements also aimed at the unification of the peasants of a region,

development of leadership, ideology and a peasant elite. Through these movements emerged

a new power structure and peasant alliance. The genesis of peasant movements rest in the

relationship patterns of different social categories existing within the framework of feudal

and semi feudal structure of our society. In the post Independence period the nature and

objectives of the peasant movement have changed to getting remunerative prices for

agricultural produce, to increase agricultural production, to establish parity between prices of

agricultural produce and industrial goods and to get minimum wages for the agricultural

laborers.


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Some of the important peasant uprising:

1770- Sanyasi rebellion

1831- Wahabi uprising

1855- Santhal uprising

1859- Indigo revolt

1890-1900- Punjab Kisan struggle

1917-18- Champaran satyagraha

1921- Moplah rebellion

1928- Bardoli satyagarya

1946- Telangana movement

1957- Naxalbari movement

Women's Movement:

The women's movement in India is a rich and vibrant movement which has taken different

forms in different parts of the country. Fifty years ago when India became independent, it

was widely acknowledged that the battle for freedom had been fought as much by women as

by men. One of the methods M K Gandhi chose to undermine the authority of the British was

for Indians to defy the law which made it illegal for them to make salt. At the time, salt-

making was a monopoly and earned considerable revenues for the British. Gandhi began his

campaign by going on a march - the salt march - through many villages, leading finally to the

sea, where he and others broke the law by making salt. No woman had been included by

Gandhi in his chosen number of marchers. But nationalist women protested, and they forced

him to allow them to participate. The first to join was Sarojini Naidu, who went on to become

the first woman President of the Indian National Congress in 1925. Her presence was a signal

for hundreds of other women to join, and eventually the salt protest was made successful by

the many women who not only made salt, but also sat openly in marketplaces selling, and

indeed, buying it. The trajectory of this movement is usually traced from the social reform

movements of the 19th century when campaigns for the betterment of the conditions of

women's lives were taken up, initially by men. By the end of the century women had begun to

organize themselves and gradually they took up a number of causes such as education, the


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conditions of women's work and so on. It was in the early part of the 20th century that

women's organizations were set up, and many of the women who were active in these later

became involved in the freedom movement. Independence brought many promises and

dreams for women in India - the dream of an egalitarian, just, democratic society in which

both men and women would have a voice. The reality was, however, somewhat different. For

all that had happened was that, despite some improvements in the status of women, patriarchy

had simply taken on new and different forms. By the 1960s it was clear that many of the

promises of Independence were still unfulfilled. It was thus that the 1960s and 1970s saw a

spate of movements in which women took part: campaigns against rising prices, movements

for land rights, peasant movements. Women from different parts of the country came together

to form groups both inside and outside political parties. Everywhere, in the different

movements that were sweeping the country, women participated in large numbers.

Everywhere, their participation resulted in transforming the movements from within. One of

the first issues to receive countrywide attention from women's groups was violence against

women, specifically in the form of rape, and 'dowry deaths'. This was also the beginning of a

process of learning for women: most protests were directed at the State. Because women

were able to mobilize support, the State responded, seemingly positively, by changing the law

on rape and dowry, making both more stringent. In the early campaigns, groups learnt from

day to day that targeting the State was not enough and that victims also needed support. So a

further level of work was needed: awareness raising so that violence against women could be

prevented, rather than only dealt with after it had happened. Legal aid and counseling centres

were set up, and attempts were made to establish women's shelters. Knowledge was also

recognized as an important need. The women's activity was geared towards improving the

conditions of women's lives. In recent years, the euphoria of the 1970s and early 1980s,

symbolized by street-level protests, campaigns in which groups mobilized at a national level,

has been replaced by a more considered and complex response to issues. In many parts of

India, women are no longer to be seen out on the streets protesting about this or that form of

injustice. This apparent lack of a visible movement has led to the accusation that the women's

movement is dead or dying. While the participation of urban, middle class women is

undeniable, it is not they who make up the backbone of the movement, or of the many,

different campaigns that are generally seen as comprising the movement. The anti-alcohol

agitation in Andhra Pradesh and similar campaigns in other parts of India were started and

sustained by poor, low-caste, often working-class women. The movement to protect the


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environment was begun by poor women in a village called Reni in the northern hill regions of

India, and only after that did it spread to other parts of the country. One of the biggest

challenges women have had to face in recent years is the growing influence of the religious

right in India. Right-wing groups have built much of their support on the involvement of

women: offering to help them with domestic problems, enabling them to enter the public

space in a limited way, and all the while ensuring that the overall ideology within which they

operate remains firmly patriarchal. For activists too, this has posed major problems. It has

forced them to confront the fact that they cannot assume solidarity as women that cuts across

class, religion, caste, ethnic difference. It is important to recognize that for a country of

India's magnitude, change in male-female relations and the kinds of issues the women's

movement is focusing on will not come easy. For every step the movement takes forward,

there will be a possible backlash, a possible regression. And it is this that makes for the

contradictions, this that makes it possible for there to be women who can aspire to, and attain,

the highest political office in the country, and for women to continue to have to confront

patriarchy within the home, in the workplace, throughout their lives.

Backward Caste Movement:

The Backward castes have been deprived of many social, economic, political and religious

privileges. These people provided manual labor and the untouchables occupied the lowest

position among the caste hierarchy. They were subjected to extreme form of exploitation. The

colonial power accentuated the disparities in the distribution of economic power. The

atrocities united the lower castes against the upper castes. Some of the important backward

caste movement which came up was Satyashodak Samaj and Nadar Movement which

consolidated the masses along the castelines.E.V Ramaswamy started Self-Respect

movement against the Brahmins in South India. The SNDP movement in Kerala was more of

a reformist movement. In 1950s there was a widespread desire among the non-Brahmin

castes to be categorized as Backward .Subsequently Backward Class commission was set up

to look into the conditions and requirements of these classes. Mandal Commission submitted

its report in 1980 recommending reservations for backward castes in educational institutions

and government offices. However this move resulted in anti- Mandal Commission movement

which resulted in large scale violence and many students lost their lives.

Dalit Movement:


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Dalits are the suppressed people at the lost rung of the cast-based hierarchy. Their inferior

occupations and low levels of ascriptive status make them vulnerable for attacks at the hands

of upper-caste people. The organizational efforts made by Dalit leadership for uplifting their

status are known as Dalit movement. It is a protest against untouchability ,casteism and

discrimination faced by the dalits.Dalit movement indicates some trends of protest ideologies

which entail the following -withdrawal and self organization, high varna status and extolling

of non-Aryan culture's virtues, abandoning of Hinduism and embracing other religions like

Buddhism and Islam. Mahatma Gandhi in 1923 founded the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh to

start education and schools for the dalits.Another most important dalit leader Dr.Ambedkar

struggled to secure the basic human dignity to the dalits.The Mahad Satyagarh for the right of

water led by him was one of the outstanding movements of the dalits to win equal social

rights. The role of All India Depressed Classes Association and All India Depressed Classes

Federation were the principal organizations which initiated a movement to improve the

conditions of the dalits.These organizations aimed at improving their miserable conditions

and to spread education among them. They worked to secure rights of admission to school,

drawing water from the public wells, entering the temples and to use the roads.

Chapter 2- Social Movements in India

At the risk of sounding repetitive, one needs to reassert that the methodological problem of

identifying and defining a social movement is fairly difficult. The problem becomes

particularly complex when we focus on the Asian region. Given its multi-ethnic, multi-


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lingual and multi-political reality, the bewildering multiplicity and diversity of social

movements in the region should not come as a great surprise. After all, social movements

necessarily must, and firmly are embedded in the social, cultural and political realities of a

nation.

Where as a description of the movements is a matter of information collection and a

systematic presentation of such information, an analysis of the embedded ness and linkages

of the movements with wider socio-political processes is a very difficult and long-term task,

particularly for the Asian region. Apart from being complex, the region is also so vast that to

capture its variety in a single article is quite impossible. Accordingly this paper shall try to

convey an essence of such complexities by focussing on social movements in India, assuming

of course that much of the general aspects of the analysis are extendable to other areas of the

Asian region too.

Nevertheless, it would seem to be necessary to have some kind of a guideline, if not an exact

definition, of a social movement in order to explore further its complexities. Accordingly, we

shall use the following as such a guideline:

A Social Movement is any explicit or implicit persuasion by noninstitutionalized groups

seeking public gain by attempting to change some part of "the system".

Accordingly:

i) Social movements are an attempt to bring about institutional change, mainly from without

the social structure.

ii) Change may be limited to reform. It mayalter some practices or policies of an institution,

but leaves the institution itself intact.

iii) Change advocated may also be radical or revolutionary;demanding fundamental change in

the existing social/institutional structures and relationships.

Quite obviously, a variety of social movements in Asia would fall in at least one of the above

categories; and many may overlap between the three.


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In general one may state that the scope and concerns of the social movements in the Asian

region are not very different from that of other continents of the World. The more historical

movements involving industrial workers, peasants and adivasis (indigenous people) have,

since the independence of many countries in the region from colonial rule, been

supplemented by the womens, environmental, human rights, and peace movements. A

particular characteristic of the South Asian part of the region would be the dalit, the religious

reform, and religious fundamentalist movements. The religious fundamentalist movements

pose a particular problem in any inventory that attempts to list the movements in the region

should one include them or exclude them? In terms of involvement of people, these are large

movements; but as far as their objectives go, they exhibit the inadequacy of the guideline or

definition of a social movement presented above. Many of them are quite radical, since they

even demand a structural change in the system itself from a secular state to a state based on a

particular religion. But in the process, they have also to be seen as movements that promote

enmity, hostility and violence amongst people of different religions, which raises the question

about the legitimacy of including them in any list. If public gain is to be interpreted as

common good for the majority of the oppressed and of those facing injustice in the

definition offered above, religious fundamentalist movements would be difficult to

accommodate since they would seem to be promoting public gain of a particular identity

only, that is if their work is at all characterizable as promoting public gain. But their reality,

extent of penetration within the society and linkages with state politics cannot be simply

dismissed, particularly in the present day India.


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Chapter 3 - The National Movement for Independence in

India

An aspect of Asia that must always be seen as a historical backdrop while discussing its

social movements are a variety of national liberation movements against colonial occupation

in many countries of the region. Contemporary social movements cannot really be well

understood without identifying the elements of continuity and change from such liberation

movements. And nowhere else is that as important as in India. The Indian national

independence movement, as is well known, was greatly influenced by the leadership provided

by Mahatma Gandhi. The sheer number of people who participated in this movement,

particularly from about 1910 to the time of independence in 1947 is staggering. Apart from

gaining political independence for India, the movement influenced a nation of 300 million

people in 1947 and over a billion today in nearly all aspects of politics and life. Apart from its

main characteristics of non-violence and struggle based on truth satyagraha Gandhian thought

penetrated areas like governance, decentralization, ethics and morality of politics, education,

rural and national development, self-reliance, volunteerism, caste and untouchability and

much more.

After gaining independence, and even after Gandhis assassination by a Hindu religious

fanatic in 1948, his thought spurred a wide variety of Gandhian movements and civil society

formations that continue till today. The persistence and resilience of his thoughts can also be

discerned today in movements that may not be direct descendents of Gandhian movements,

like the environmental, adivasi and local governance movements. The more direct Gandhian

movements would include the Sarvodaya movement that concentrated on the redistribution of

land in the fifties and sixties but is fairly dormant now, the movement for bringing in

Panchayati Raj (local governance), and a plethora of Gandhian institutions all over the

country, of which the Gandhi Peace Foundation in Delhi, Sewagram Ashram in Wardha,

Gandhigram in Tamil Nadu, Gandhi University and Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat would be

prominent. His notion of self reliance, symbolized by the hand-spun local cloth, khadi, and a

variety of other locally produced products is promoted by the state through a vast

organization called the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, with an extensive network

of still popular retail outlets.


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Gandhian thought finds popularity amongst groups and movements that seek to establish a

more ethical, moral and harmonious relationship between human activities and nature, and

who are seeking another world that draws away from centralization of political power and

economic production. It would therefore seem to confront and resist both forms of capital,

private or state-owned, putting much more emphasis on community ownership.

Dominant Political Trends

In order to arrive at a somewhat deeper understanding of the continued impact of the

independence movement, as also to situate better the other contemporary movements in India,

a brief outline of the trends that dominate the Indian polity might be appropriate here. The

main organisation that channelised the masses of people towards Indias independence was

the Congress Party. It was through this that Gandhi was able to reach out and consolidate the

movement for independence. It was also clear that by the time India was close to its

independence, the Congress Party had little faith in the Gandhian notions of power,

governance and development. The modernist Nehru, with undiminished respect for his

master, Gandhi, nevertheless violently differed with his ideology. His, and the preference of

the progressive elements within the Congress Party was for a Soviet-style industrial

modernization process, combined with a secular, socialistic approach. In a sense therefore,

Gandhi vision was seen to be utopian by even those within his own organization. This is

coupled with the fact that in spite of Gandhis efforts to bring in reconciliation between the

Hindu nationalists and Muslim elements demanding a separate nation, the country0 was

finally divided on religious lines, and instead of one, two countries, India and the mainly

Muslim Pakistan emerged in 1947, stamping for future a pronounced politics based on

religious fundamentalism and intolerance.

But Gandhi and his thought has faced, and continues to face, violent criticism and opposition

from another section of the society, namely the dalits, who see in B.R.Ambedkar as their true

leader. They believe that Gandhis concern for the untouchables (harijans, the people of

God as he called them) was based on upper caste compassion, and hence false, rather than a

recognition of their social, political and economic rights as equal citizens of India. The Left

was mostly cold and critical of Gandhi since he did not explicitly talk of class, and worse,

his preferred form of resistance, satyagraha, is fairly different from the notion of class


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struggle. What becomes apparent therefore is that Gandhian thought is seen to differ from

that of Dalits and the Left.

The Left has been, and continues to be, a persuasive political force within the country,

without perhaps ever being dominant. Quite clearly, the national independence movement

was dominated by the Congress Party. After independence, and perhaps not uncommon

compared with other multi-party democracies, the single Communist Party of India began to

split, and has three main strands today the CPI, the CPI(marxist) and the CPI(marxist-

leninist), the last being recognizable as the Maoist party in other countries; which itself has

many factions. Formed in 1967 and coinciding with the campus revolts of the late sixties,

with an explicit agenda justifying the use violence as a method for capturing state power, the

CPI(ml) caught the imagination of a large mass of academics, intellectuals and students

during that time, who enrolled in it to work alongside peasants in remote areas of the country.

The CPI and CPI(M) on the other hand have participated in the electoral process, with the

CPI(m) having had more success in the states and the centre; it continues to rule the state of

West Bengal for the last twenty five years continuously, and has a see-saw with the Congress

party in ruling Kerala. Apart from the three left parties, there also exist a large number of left

and left oriented non-party groups and organizations all over India, active in a wide variety of

issues.

State power however continued to remain largely with the Congress Party, who paid the usual

lip service to Gandhi, but moved the country in directions far distant from his ideals. The

most prominent one-off exception to this occurred during Rajiv Gandhis tenure as Prime

Minister, when in 1994 the countrys constitution was amended to pave way for the Local

Governments, the Panchayati Raj, most favoured by Mahatma Gandhi. The Congress Party

leadership also remained mostly and firmly upper-caste, with a centrist approach which

sometimes had a mildly left leaning, as in the case of nationalization of banks. In

contradiction however, it is the Congress Party that ushered in the era of neoliberal

globalization in India beginning 1990. Two departures to this trend of Congress domination

that can be discerned in recent years has been the rise of the lower-castes and the Hindu

nationalist forces in electoral politics, which has completely changed the scenario of Indian

politics.


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The Hindu nationalists had little presence in state politics, but had a strong presence in the

society through civil-society type of work, mainly through their social movement, the RSS.

The lower castes and the dalits, gradually distanced themselves from the benevolence of the

Congress Party by organizing their own parties, like the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajvadi

Party, and elements of Janta Dal. They tasted electoral success in states like Bihar, Uttar

Pradesh and Haryana and began influencing the national politics. The Hindu nationalists,

through a series of acts that heightened communal tensions, including that of the demolition

of the Babri Masjid (a historical mosque) by Hindu fanatics, and by using the rise of Islamic

fundamentalism and the continued hostility with the Muslim Pakistan as a constant marker,

paved the way for the linked political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to grab power at

the centre, as also in other states of India. Gradually therefore, the political polarization

instead of being based on class, poverty and development has moved increasingly to issues

based on identities; of religion, caste and ethnicity. And it is within this mind-boggling

complex system of politics, religion, caste, poverty and cultural diversity that the social

movements operate in, attempting social transformation!

The Movements

The most easily identifiable movements in India are the ones connected/related to the

political parties. Thus the three Communist Parties each have a trade union, a student/youth

union and a womens movement allied to them. But this trend is common for other parties

too, including those whose presence may be more dominant in state rather than central

politics. Thus the Congress and the right wing BJP too have allied to them a trade union, a

student union and a womens movement. These are further supplemented by unions of

professional workers affiliated to political parties, like that of school, college and university

teachers etc. Having deep loyalties to their parties, with a high degree of control, these

movements tend to mimic the traditional tensions and competition that exists between their

parent parties. Though the student, labour and womens and other issues articulated by each

might be the same or similar, yet there would be a tendency to compete with each other. This

does not imply that there are no common agendas or collaborations from time to time. But the

need for unity is a common refrain, particularly from those elements who are bothered by

fragmentation and the subsequent loss of political strength. The contradictions however

appear when the parent party is in power. The allied movements, vociferous when their

parent parties are in opposition, have to muzzle their views to support their party in power,


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negating the definition offered in the beginning that a social movement is the one that is

outside the system. Party allied movements are therefore not seen as independent. Set apart

from such traditional movements are the new and independent movements that tend to

distance themselves from the traditional party linkages, in order to innovate in terms of

organizational structures, leadership roles and proximity with the most oppressed in remote

areas. The Environment movement comes easily to mind as one such example.

Revisiting Chipko Andolan

Andolan is the common term for a movement in India. The well-known Chipko Andolan

literally means Hug the Trees Movement, which originated from an incident in a remote

village high up in the Himalayas in 1972. The bare facts of the incident are that there was a

dispute between the local villagers and a logging contractor who had been allowed to fell

trees in a forest close to the village. On the particular day, there was a meeting with the

related government officials in their office away from the village, for which most of the men

had gone. In the meanwhile, the contractors workers appeared in the forest to cut the trees

while the men folk were absent. Undeterred, the women of the Reni village reached the forest

quickly and clasped the tree trunks thus preventing the workers from putting their axes and

saws to the trees. Thus thwarted, the workers had to withdraw and the incident spread like

wildfire across communities and media and forced the government, to whom the forest

belongs, to negotiate with the community, mostly women. The women began setting up their

committees in the region that began articulating larger issues about eco-friendly development,

as a partnership between the community and the government. In spite of the usual ups and

downs, the movement continues today as a major environmental movement and has inspired

a large number of people in the country and the World.

The underlying elements of this movement are sometimes not well understood by people,

particularly by the elites in India, and in the western world. There is a tendency to cite it as an

example in the same breath as, say, Sierra Club and such like; as a shining example of

environmental conservation. In essence, conservation is at best an underlying element in the

action of the women. What they were articulating more strongly was their right to use, the

issue therefore may be characterized as a competition regarding the rights of use; in this case

the competition was between the state approved contractors against the community. It is not

as if the women were fighting so that the trees remained untouched. In fact it is they


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themselves who had a need for these trees, as a source of firewood for their hearths and for

the leaves as fodder. In comparison, the contractor was going to clear-fell them for the

timber, in this case for manufacturing sports goods. The women were articulating the

question: whose use is primary? theirs for cooking food or of a distant sports goods

factory?. Inherent in this competition to control a natural resource is the conservation of a

replinishable resource, but that is in the method of use rather than in its non-use. The

contractor would have clear-felled the trees, destroying them forever. The communities

traditionally lop the branches and pluck the leaves, allowing the resource to replenish over

time.

Chipko therefore provided a blueprint for future movements, both in its articulation of the

tensions between the state and the communities over right to natural resources, as also in

newer forms of mass action and organizational forms, the most noticeable being the gender

aspect inherent in its action. Though in a different context, the anti-dam movements in India

and other countries of Asia articulate similar concerns regarding the contending rights of the

community and the Government in decisions affecting the common property resources that

provide subsistence to the local populations. Beginning with the Narmada Bachao Andolan

(NBA, Save the Narmada Movement), the anti-dam movements have spearheaded the

environmental movements to the center stage, through their radical redefinition of

development itself. The success of the NBA in forcing the World Bank to withdraw its

financial support to the dams on the Narmada river has reverberated throughout the World,

and largely contributed to the setting of the World Commission on Dams that gave its

persuasive report in 2000. Largely due to the efforts of the NBA, hundreds of movements

resisting in the area of natural resources and environment are allied today under the banner of

National Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM).

The Dalit Agenda

The caste system is an ancient historical legacy closely entwined with Hinduism, and still

dominant in the Indian and South Asian societies, as also in Japan (the Burako). This system

of four varnas (groups) namely Brahmin (the elite, learned and the landed), Kshatriya (the

warriors, well endowed), Vaishya (the traders) and the Shudra (the menials and the lowest),

in that order of hierarchy, has at its bottom the untouchables, the dalits. One of the problems

of the Left in India has been its inability to combine caste with class into an inclusive


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political agenda. From other political formations has come, at best, compassion and

sympathy, including as mentioned earlier from Gandhi, but not political empowerment that

could lead to political rights. The two most influential thinkers and leaders to that end have

come from within the dalits, namely Jyotirao Phule and B.R.Ambedkar.

The influence of the older dalit political party, the Republican Party has dwindled over the

years and has been supplanted by the more successful Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in recent

years. The RP was mostly active in the state of Maharashtra, where as the BSP has extended

itself over large parts of North India, and has actually ruled in the most populous state of

India, Uttar Pradesh. The backward castes, as they are designated officially by the

government, have also changed the political scenario in another populous state of India,

Bihar, where their party the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has been in power for many years now.

Similarly it is another party that espouses the cause of the backward castes, the Samajwadi

Party that is in power in Uttar Pradesh today.

The dalit social and cultural movements have remained robust and active within the civil

society, drawing their strength from Phule and Ambedkar. But like the Left movements,

different strains have come up, often not in harmony with each other. They received

international notice for their fierce protests at the International Conference on Racism in

Durban some years back when the Indian Government refused to have the issue of Dalits

included in the Conference agenda. They form an important component of the upcoming

World Social Forum in Mumbai in January 2004.

Resisting Globalization

With nearly every political party implementing policies of privatization, liberalization and

promoting foreign direct investment and markets since 1990, the conflict between the

marginalized and the impoverished with the government has visibly increased. With the

closure of thousands of older industries, an increase in agricultural inputs and a decrease in

the purchase prices of domestic agricultural produce, the workers and the peasants are

bearing the brunt of the neoliberal policies. With the urban middle class reaping whatever

little benefits the neoliberal world has to offer, the rural-urban divide is further deepening.

India has about 340 million people as its labour force, of which only about 30 million are

organized. Which leaves over 300 million in the unorganized sector, the bulk of which is


21

agricultural labour. The trade union movement has, therefore, been unable to reach out to the

majority of Indian labour. A large number of the unorganized labour is composed of dalits,

women and adivasis. Consequently, most of them find their expression through the social

movements they are allied to; which may be of the environmental, adivasi, peasant or dalit

kind. And increasingly, these movements have had to deal with issues related to globalization

in the last fifteen years. With the national media firmly in the grasp of neoliberal interests,

their expression has got further stifled, and they have become more invisible, since they are

not of interest anymore, meriting little mention in the frenzied news industry.

The Gandhian legacy of volunteerism spawned a plethora of development voluntary agencies,

particularly after the heyday of the Maoist uprisings in the early seventies. Many city

professionals migrated to rural areas working directly with people in areas like education,

health, rural development, water and sanitation etc through these voluntary agencies. In the

beginning there were little funds available to these agencies for their work, and they worked

truly in the spirit of volunteerism, close to the communities. But beginning eighties, the

central government recognized their importance as delivery agencies for rural development

and began to set aside funds for them. Combined with funding available from agencies

abroad, the voluntary sector quickly mushroomed into the more familiar NGO sector,

particularly in numbers. Estimates of NGOs in India go even up to a figure of Rs. 200,000!

The funded, professionally staffed NGO contrasts greatly with the large social and mass

movements that are cash starved but have a much larger peoples base. Very often the two

collaborate on issues, in their geographical areas, but a mutual tension bordering sometimes

on mistrust persists. The movements generally find the NGOs less radical, prone to taking

decisions determined by their funding needs. The advent of globalization seems to have

heightened such tensions, since the NGO sector is heavily favoured by even institutions like

the World Bank.

The situation has got further complicated by the advent of the local government institutions,

the Panchayats, since the constitutional amendments of 1994 that facilitated their emergence.

Since they are elected bodies with five year cycles, movements and NGOs are confronted by

such democratic institutions in precisely the areas they work in. Governments, mostly

irritated by the presence of NGOs and movements have been quick to raise the question of

legitimacy of the civil society institutions in the midst of such democratically elected bodies.

Many NGOs have either ignored the Panchayat institutions, or come in conflict with them.


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But some have recognized their political importance, howsoever inefficient they may be, and

tried various forms of collaboration with them.

One such movement is the Peoples Science Movement. It is unique to India as it is difficult

to find a similar movement in other countries. It consists of a large number of science

professionals engineers, doctors, scientists and a large number of teachers, who have

combined with the local people and communities, and in many instances the Panchayats, in

very large numbers, as many as 300,000, to work nearly all over the country. The movement

combines reconstruction and struggle in its efforts, working in areas of education, literacy,

water, health, rural production, energy and local governance systems; and uses various forms

of struggles to resist the neoliberal onslaught. Whenever feasible, it collaborates with the

government, but also confronts it when it finds itself in disagreement. With a definite left

leaning, the movement has emerged as one that has tried to be inclusive in bringing together

people from all shades, from centre to left, and in its intellectual efforts, has tried to

synthesize Marxist and Gandhian thought. In particular, it has experimented actively in local

level peoples planning methods, in collaboration with the Panchayats, as a means of resisting

the centralizing tendencies of the neoliberal paradigm. A major upheaval is taking place right

now amongst the social movements in India as they are confronted by the challenge of

holding the World Social Forum in January 2004. With the international community

favouring India as the venue for the fourth forum after the first three in Porto Alegre, Brazil,

there were many who doubted whether the process could remain inclusive in a heavily

diverse and somewhat divisive world of Indian social movements and NGOs. Given the fact

that there are divisions even amongst the movements belonging to the same ideology, and the

historical differences between the Left, the Gandhians, the Dalits, the Socialists, the

Environmentalists, the New and the Traditional amongst the women, worker and peasant

movements, the fears can only be termed as genuine. In the end, with a political process that

has gone on for nearly two years, nearly 200 mass movements, social organizations and

NGOs from diverse ideologies have combined to form an Indian working committee to work

together to make the WSF2004 happen. This is quite unprecedented particularly when one is

reminded that the Brazilian organization has only eight member organisatons.

But WSF is obviously not everyones favourite space. Since it excludes groups who believe

in violence as a modality of action, and given the deep mistrust of Indian movements to

foreign funding agencies in general, some groups and movements have come together,


23

including from other countries like the Philippines, to organize a parallel event to the

WSF2004, which they are calling the Mumbai Resistance 2004. Their claim is that their

agenda against imperialist globalization is more radical than that of WSF. As long as

movements ranged against neoliberalism are prepared to mobilize more and more masses for

the purpose, the WSF does not anyway claim or want to be the only platform or space from

which they need to operate from. This has clearly been the articulation of the movements that

have come together for the first time in such large numbers for the WSF in India. Such an

articulation is clearly an indicator of the fact that the movements are beginning to see the

value of keeping the main objective in view rather than quibbling over who is in control. If

such an attitude sustains even after the WSF, one could say that the WSF has had a positive

impact on the Indian movements. One can only hope for that.

The author, formerly a theoretical physicist, has worked at the grassroots for over thirty years

in education, literacy, environment and development. He has been associated with the Bhopal

Gas victims organizations, the Narmada Bachao Andolan and is one of the founders of the

Peoples Science Movement in India. He is also the Chairperson of the Council of Fellows of

the Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives, the Chairperson of Jubilee South

Asia/Pacific; a member of the India Organising Committee, and the International Council of

the WSF.


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Conclusion

Social movements can be aimed at change on an individual level (e.g., AA) or change on a

broader, group or even societal level (e.g., anti-globalization). Social movements can also

advocate for minor changes or radical changes.

The new social movements include the womens movement, the ecology movement, gay

rights movements and various peace movements among others.

From the early 1970s new forms of social mobilisation began in India. They gained a variety

of names such as social movement, people's movement, popular movements etc.[1]These

movements emerged and highlighted some of the major issues as gender and environment.

One of the leading analyst and participant in social movements in India, Sanjay Sangvi,

identified the major agendas of them as "Movements of landless, unorganised labour in rural

and urban areas, adivasis, dalits, displaced people, peasants, urban poor, small entrepreneurs

and unemployed youth took up the issues of livelihood, opportunities, dignity and

development."


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reference

1. http://www.alternatives.ca/

2. http://www.britannica.com/

3. http://www4.lehigh.edu/

Social Movement in India

Documents

study of social movement

new social movements

social change

term new social movement

national movement

ecology movement

research methodology

india subject