Social Movements and Social Reform in India
What this domain tests
The exam tests the definition and types of social movements, their stages, and major Indian reform movements and reformers. Expect matching questions on reformers, dates and issues, and an evaluation question on reform versus revolution.
Movements
- A social movement is sustained, organised collective action by a group to promote or resist social change. Its elements are grievance, ideology, organisation, mobilisation and repertoire.
- Types: reform movements change one aspect; revolutionary movements seek to replace the whole order; reactionary movements resist change; revivalist movements seek to restore a past; new social movements focus on environment, women, human rights and identity.
- Stages: emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization and decline.
- A movement is not a riot, an NGO or a political party, though it may overlap with them.
Indian reform
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj and campaigned against sati; the Bengal Sati Regulation was passed in 1829.
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar campaigned for widow remarriage; the Widow Remarriage Act followed in 1856.
- Jyotiba Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj and promoted anti-caste ideas and women's education.
- Periyar led the Self-Respect Movement; Ambedkar led anti-caste struggles including the Mahad tank satyagraha in 1927 and temple entry; Gandhi founded the Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1932, though Ambedkar criticised his approach as paternalistic.
- Other movements include women's movements, peasant movements, trade unions, Chipko, the Narmada Bachao Andolan and farmers' movements.
- Karnataka: the twelfth-century Basavanna and the Lingayat movement challenged caste and encouraged women's participation; later Dalit and backward-class movements and farmers' and environmental movements are significant.
Worked example
Sati abolition involved a reformist campaign, colonial legislation and changed public opinion. Reasoning: a movement is not only protest; it needs organisation, allies and a route to social control through law. Success was partial: legislation did not end all violence.
Traps
- Reform is not revolution; a movement is not a riot.
- Do not attribute reform to a single hero; movements are collective.
- Ambedkar and Gandhi differed on strategy, not on the need to end untouchability.
- Dates are easy to confuse: 1829 sati regulation, 1856 widow remarriage, 1927 Mahad.
- Do not claim a movement succeeded merely because a law was passed.