Saurabh SharmaAIR 23 · CSE 2023 · 310 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a definition
Social movement is an organized form of collective action (with some degree of spontaneity) backed by an ideology, leadership and condusive organizational structure.
MSA Rao described the preconditions of social movement as:
Body · points and prose
→ Social strain → Ideology → Revitalisation
[ Old order ] → [ gets replaced by ] [ new order ]
• Social movement differ from protests and agitation in terms of their sustained nature and their ability to bring lasting changes
Close · a summary
The decade of 1960s, 70s, 80s saw new forms of social movement in the form of women's protests, Student's protest, demand for rights of LGBTQ+ etc.
They departed from old social movement which was largely restricted to bringing changes in socio-political order.
As described by Habermas they focussed on quality of lifestyle and were centered around socio-cultural rights.
They weren't interested to politicize their movement by involving political party leaders, Rather they were forms of mass mobilization which were self sustaining.
Other differences are as follows:
| Old Social Movement | New Social Movement | |
|---|---|---|
| Leader-ship | Upper class, politically articulative individuals. | New middle class are harbingers of these movem-ents as described by T.K. Oomen |
| Aim | Overturning the existing political-economic order | Reforming/expanding the scope of socio-cultural rights. |
| Methods | Protest, agitation prayer, petition, litigation | Cultural festivals, Sitins → Pride March |
| P-a-r-t-i-c-i-p-a-t-i-o-n | More restricted to urban section who were politically conscious and had a vision for change. | Diversification of participation → Recent farm protest had farmers from all class and caste group → Hitherto subdued section like Dalit, women are vocal now |
New social movement thus represent the force of "counter hegemony" as described by Gramsci.
They represent/testify the pluralist theory of power that power is distributed amoung various actors.
New social movement is thus agent for change in 21st century.