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Rise of Popular Movements
Suppose you are an important leader of the Farmers‟ agitation. The government authorities ask you to present any three demands on behalf of the farmers. On priority basis, which three demands will you make? Support your demands with appropriate arguments.
(This depends on perceptions of the leader.)
These demands can be:
(i) Free electricity for agriculture
(ii) Minimum Support Price for the agricultural produce should be enhanced.
(iii) Agricultural insurance for all the farmers.
(iv) No ban on movement of agricultural products from one state to other states.
OR
This can be both yes and no. If yes:
(i) People have given absolute majority to a national party B.J.P.
(ii) People were fed up with the previous experience of coalition governments led by scam ridden Congress.
(iii) Regional parties like NC, B.S.P, DMK have been punished by voters by not giving a single seat.
If no:
(i) Regional parties still have relevance and they are ruling in different states.
(ii) The present government still depends and needs the support of different regional parties to get the bills passed in the Parliament.
(iii) At present, the Congress party is trying to unite the opposition parties and regional parties against the ruling party with the purpose to regain power.
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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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