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Rise of Popular Movements
What is meant by Chipko Movement? When did it start and where? What is the Significance of this movement in the conservation of the environment?
OR
‘Towards the end of the 1980s, five major changes took place in Indian political system.’ In the light of this statement, examine any three changes.
Chipko movement was a protest movement which used a novel tactic of hugging the trees to prevent them from being cut down.
It started in early 1973 in Uttarakhand.
The movement achieved a victory when the goverment issued a ban on felling of trees in the Himalayan regions for fifteen years, until the green cover was fully restored.
OR
The major changes took place in Indian political system are:
(i) Rise of Mandal Issue-The Mandal Issue started with the National Front Government’s decision to implement the recommendation of Mandal Commission that jobs in the Central government should be reserved for OBCs.This led to violent anti Mandal protests in different parts of the county.
(ii) New Economic Policy-This is known as the initiation of the structural adjustment programmes. Started by Rajiv Gandhi, these changes first become visible in 1991 and radically changed the direction that the Indian economy had pursued since independence.
(iii) Demolition of Babri Masjid or Ayodhya dispute-Ayodhya dispute started with the demolition of the disputed structure of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in December 1992. This event symbolised and triggered various changes in politics of the country and intensified debate about the nature of Indian nationalism and secularism.
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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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