Q 1.Define a Reformist Social Movement.
(Chapter 8:Social Movements)

Ans:
Reformist social movements strive to change the existing social and political arrangements through gradual, incremental steps.
Right to Information campaign are examples of reformist movements.

Q 2. Who was Birsa Munda? What was the aim of the movement conducted by him?
(Social Change and Development in India chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:
The Ulgulan led by Birsa Munda, an adivasi who led a major uprising against the British.
The issues against which the leaders of the movement in Jharkand agitated were:

• acquisition of land for large irrigation projects and firing ranges;
• survey and settlement operations, which were held up, camps closed down, etc.
• collection of loans, rent and cooperative dues, which were resisted;
• nationalisation of forest produce which they boycotted

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Q 3.Explain the features of social movement.
(Social Change and Development in India Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:

• Social movements often arise with the aim of bringing about changes on a public issue, such as ensuring the right of the tribal population to use the forests or the right of displaced people to settlement and compensation.
• Social movement activists hold meetings to mobilise people around the issues that concern them. Such activities help shared understanding.
• Social movements also chart out campaigns that include lobbying with the government, media and other important makers of public opinion.
• Social movements also develop distinct modes of protest. This could be candle and torch light processions, use of black cloth, street theatres, songs, poetry.

Q 4.What are counter movements? Give example.
(Social Change and Development in India Chapter Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:
Social movements often arise with the aim of bringing about changes on a public issue, such as ensuring the right of the tribal population to use the forests or the right of displaced people to settlement and compensation.While social movements seek to bring in social change, counter movements sometimes arise in defence of status quo.
Example : When Raja Rammohun Roy campaigned against sati and formed the Brahmo Samaj, defenders of sati formed Dharma Sabha and petitioned the British not to legislate against sati.

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Q 5.Explain the Dalit Movement as a caste based movement in India.
(Social Change and Development in India - Chapter 8 : Social Movements)

Ans:

• The Dalit Movement is said to be a struggle for recognition as fellow human beings. It is a struggle for self-confidence and a space for self-determination. It is a struggle for abolishment of stigmatisation, that untouchability implied. It has been called a struggle to be touched.
• Dalit refers to those who have been broken, ground down by those above them in a deliberate way.
• The nature of Dalit movements and the meaning of identity, there has been a common quest for equality, self-dignity and eradication of untouchability.
• The Dalit movement has unquestionably acquired a place in the public sphere that cannot be ignored. This has been accompanied by a growing body of Dalit literature.

Q 6.Analyse social reform movements initiated towards women’s equality and rights in the nineteenth century.
(Chapter 8:Social Movements)

Ans:

• The early 20th century saw the growth of women’s organisations at a national and local level. Organisations like The Women’s India Association (WIA) (1917), All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) (1926), National Council for Women in India (NCWI) (1925) started for women.
• The AIWC Organisation began with the idea that ‘women’s welfare’ and ‘politics’ were mutually exclusive.
• Women participated along with men in struggles and revolts originating in tribal and rural areas in the colonial period.Movements like Tebhaga movement in Bengal, the Telangana arms struggle ,Warli tribal revolt against bondage in Maharashtra are some examples.
• Many of the women activists who were also involved in the nationalist movement got involved in the nation building task.
• Over the years there have been numerous campaigns that have been taken up towards violence against women.
• Important legal changes have taken place because of the women's movement. Issues of land rights, employment have been fought alongside rights against sexual harassment and dowry.

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7.Name any two distinct modes of protest that social movements have developed.
(Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans: They are torch light processions, use of black cloth, street theatres, songs, poetry.

8.Name the features of New Farmer’s Movements.
(Chapter 8 : Social Movements)

Ans:

• The new farmer’s movements began in the 1970s in Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
• These movements were regionally organized, were non-party, and involved farmers rather than peasants.
• The basic ideology of the movement was strongly anti-state and anti-urban.
• The focus of demand were "price and related issues" (for example price procurement, remunerative prices, prices for agricultural inputs, taxation, non-repayment of loans).
• Novel methods of agitation were used: blocking of roads and railways, refusing politicians and bureaucrats entry to villages, and so on.

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9.Explain Chipko movement as an economy, ecology and political movement.
(Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:

• The villagers rallied together to save the oak and rhododendron forests near their villages.
• When government forest contractors came to cut down the trees, villagers, including large numbers of women, stepped forward to hug the trees to prevent their being felled.
• All of them relied on the forest to get firewood, fodder and other daily necessities. This conflict placed the livelihood needs of poor villagers against the government’s desire to generate revenues from selling timber.
• The Chipko movement raised the issue of ecological sustainability as cutting down natural forests was a form of environmental destruction that had resulted in devastating floods and landslides in the region.
• The villages were dependent on the forest for their survival but they also valued the forest for its own sake as a form of ecological wealth that benefits all.
• The Chipko movement also expressed the resentment of hill villagers against a distant government headquartered in the plains that seemed indifferent and hostile to their concerns.
• So concerns about economy, ecology and political representation underlay the Chipko movement.

10.Evaluate peasant movement as a class based movement.
(Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:

• Peasant movements or agrarian struggles started from pre-colonial days.
• The peasant organisation started between 1920 and 1940. The first organisation was the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (1929) and in 1936 the All India Kisan Sabha Between 1920 and 1940 peasant organisations arose.
• The peasants organised by the Sabhas demanded freedom from economic exploitation for peasants, workers and all other exploited classes.
• The first was a struggle of sharecroppers in Bengal in North Bihar for two thirds share of their produce instead of the customary half.
• After independence two major social movements started namely The Naxalite struggle and the new farmer’s movements.’ The Naxalite movement started from the region of Naxalbari (1967) in Bengal.
• The central problem for peasants was land.
• The New farmer's movements began in the 1970s in Punjab and Tamil Nadu. The focus of demand were ‘price and related issues’ (for example price procurement, remunerative prices, prices for agricultural inputs, taxation, non-repayment of loans).

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11.Evaluate worker's movement as a class based movement.
(Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:

• The first trade union was established in April 1918 in Madras by B.P. Wadia, a social worker and member of the Theosophical Society. The AITUC was a broad-based organisation involving diverse ideologies.
• The formation of the AITUC made the colonial government more cautious in dealing with labour.
• It attempted to grant workers some concessions in order to contain unrest. In 1922 the government passed the fourth Factories Act which reduced the working day to 10 hours.
• The British rule the communists gained considerable control over the AITUC. The Indian National Congress chose to form another union called the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in May 1947.
• In 1966-67 due to major recession, it led to a decrease in production and consequently employment.
• In 1974 there was a major railway workers’ strike. The confrontation between the state and trade unions became acute. During the Emergency in 1975-77 the government curbed all trade union activities. The worker's movement was very much part of the wider struggle for civil liberties.

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12.State any two theories of social movements. (Include any two of your choice)
(Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:
The theory of relative deprivation

• Social conflict arises when a social group feels that it is worse off than others around it.Such conflict is likely to result in successful collective protest.
• This theory feels that psychological factors like resentment and rage encourage social movements.
• The limitations of this theory are that while perceptions of deprivation may be a necessary condition for collective action, they are not a sufficient reason in themselves.

• Mancur Olson's book theory argues that a social movement is an aggregation of rational individual actors pursuing their self-interest.
• A person will join a social movement only if s/he will gain something from it. S/he will participate only if the risks are less than the gains.
• Olson's theory is based on the notion of the rational, utility-maximising individual.

• McCarthy and Zald proposed resource mobilisation theory.
• They feel social movement's success depends on its ability to mobilise resources or means of different sorts.
• If a movement can muster resources such as leadership, organisational capacity, and communication facilities, and can use them within the available political opportunity structure, it is more likely to be effective.
• Critics argue that a social movement is not limited by existing resources. It can create resources such as new symbols and identities.

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13.Name and define the three types of social movements.
(Chapter 8: Social Movements)

Ans:
Redemptive social movement aims to bring about a change in the personal consciousness and actions of its individual members. For instance, people in the Ezhava community in Kerala were led by Narayana Guru to change their social practices.

Reformist social movements strive to change the existing social and political arrangements through gradual, incremental steps. The 1960s movement for the reorganisation of Indian states on the basis of language and the recent Right to Information campaign are examples of reformist movements.

Revolutionary social movements attempt to radically transform social relations, often by capturing state power. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia that deposed the Tsar to create a communist state and the Naxalite movement in India that seeks to remove oppressive landlords and state officials can be described as revolutionary movements.

14.Exemplify the difference between Social Change and Social Movement.
(Chapter 8 : Social Movements)

Ans:
Social change is continuous and ongoing. The broad historical processes of social change are the sum total of countless individual and collective actions gathered across time and space.

Social movements are directed towards some specific goals. It involves long and continuous social effort and action by people.Example of social change- Sanskritisation and Westernisation and; example of social movement- 19th century social reformers’ efforts to change society.