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Rise of Popular Movements
The Narmada Bachao Aandolan opposed the dam projects in the Narmada Valley on the following grounds :
(i) In the process of construction of the dam 245 villages were expected to be submerged.
(ii) It required relocation and proper rehabilitation of about two and a half lakh people from these villages.
(iii) It questioned the nature of ongoing developmental projects, efficacy of the model of development that the country followed and about constituted public interest in a democracy.
(iv) It was opposed on the ground that the local people did not have any say in the decision making process.
(v) It was also argued that the interests of some people should not be sacrificed for the benefit of others.
(vi)It also demanded cost benefit analysis of the major developmental projects completed in the country so far.
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.....nearly all ‘new social movements have emerged as corrective to new maladies–environmental degradation, violation of the status of women, destruction of tribal cultures and the undermining of human rights-none of which are in and by themselves transformative of the social order. They are in that way quite different from revolutionary ideologies of the past. But their weakness lies in their being so heavily fragmented......................a large part of the space occupied by the new social movements seem to be suffering from ..various characteristics which Have prevented them from being relevant to the truly oppressed and the poor in the form of a solid unified movement of the people. They are too fragmented, reactive, ad hocish, providing no comprehensive framework of basic social change. Their being anti-this or that (anti-West, anti-capitalist, anti-development, etc.) does not make them any more coherent, any more relevant to oppressed and peripheralised communities. —Rajni Kothari
(a) What is the difference between new social movements and revolutionary ideologies ?
(b) What according to the author are the limitations of social movements ?
(c) If social movements address specific issues, would you say that they are ‘fragmented’ or that they are more focused ? Give reasons for your answer by giving examples.
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