Ahmednagar Jilha Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj’s

NEW LAW COLLEGE, AHMEDNAGAR

Subject : Sociology, Paper Name – Society In India (304)

Class : B.A.LL.B.II (Semester 3rd) Pattern – 2017

Name of Teacher : Anuradha Sahebrao Jadhav ( M.A. NET )

1
 Index

MODULE PARTICULARS PAGE

NO. NO.
1. Module No 01 - Indian Social Structures – India as Plural Society 3-14

1. Religious Diversity –Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity

2. Primitive tribes and Nomadic tribe in India
3. Linguistic and regional diversity
2. 15-27
Module No - 02. Social Stratification and Social Institution

1.Social stratification – Caste, Class, Tribe and Gender

2.Social institutions – Family, Kinship and Marriage

3. 28-99
Module No 0 3. - Social Movements in Pre and Post- Independent
India
1.Dalit’s Movements, Linguistic Movements and tribal movements
Peasant Movement, Women’s movements, Student’s movements and
Environment movements.

4. 100-115
Module No 04. Segment of Indian Society and its Characteristics
1.Tribal Society
2.Rural Society
3 Urban Society
5. Module No 5. Continuity and Change 116-122

1.Major process of Change- Sanskritisation, Westernization and

Modernization.
2.Factors of Change- Economy Education and Constitutional
Provisions
123
References

2
MODULE NO - 01
Indian Social Structure – India as Plural Society:
1. Religious diversity –Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity
2. Primitive tribes and Nomadic tribe in India
3. Linguistic and regional diversity

1.Religious diversity –Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity

1.1. Introduction –
India is a vast country or rather, subcontinents. We have different languages, religions,
cast and tribe’s also culture. But still we share the “We felling” that is a feeling of belonging
to one country. One of the unique features of Indian culture is unity in diversity which means
that Indian social structure and culture patterns are characterised by diversity as well as unity.
1.2 Religious diversity –
India is a land of many religions. Almost all major religions of the world like Hinduism,
Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam and Christianity are found in India. Besides these the
tribal communities have their own religious and cultural traditions. Not only that there are
numerous sects believing in different Goads and following different rituals. Thus Vaishnavs
and Arya-samaj, Shias and sunnies, Catholics and protestants, Digamber and Shvetambar are
sub religions of the main religious group. Every religion has its own festivals and ceremonies,
rituals, beliefs, celebration and places of worship, temples, Church and gurudwars etc. The
existence of so many religions in India has oftenled to religious and social conflicts.
1.2.1 Hinduism –
According to the historians like Thapar, Deshpande etc. The origin of the word
‘Hindu’ is geographical and is related to those living in the Indian sub-continent. The sindhu
(Indus) river was referred to as an Hindu by the Persians and the Greeks. The term
“Hinduism” has to be understand in terms of indigenous meaning, in its meaning of medieval
period and in its contemporary meaning. In its indigenous meaning the view of Hinduism was
derived from the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, etc. Then came a period when
some Brahmin acharyas (Teachers) represented the religious literature and described some
practices and beliefs. Were sati, human Sacrifice, devdesis, child marriage, worship of village
goddess, with the slaughter of an animal, belief in shakti cult and so on. Hinduism believes in
certain theological ideas such aspunarjanma (rebirth) immorality of atma (soul), papa (sin),

3
punya (merit) Karma, dharma (morality) and Moksha (salvation). The ideas of pollution and
Purity are equally important in Hinduism. Hierarchy in Hinduism exists in term of division in
varnas and castes. The most noticeable common feature of Hindu religion is its belief in idol-
worship. The major characteristic of Hinduism is that it is not a uniform monolithic (single
god) religion but a juxtaposition of flexible religious sects. Hinduism believe in non-violence
and Hindu religion is that it supports the segregation of social communities (castes) in social
relations, worship and beliefs.
1.2.2 Islam:-
Islam is also perceived as a product of political colonialism, like Christianity. But there
are certain vital differences between them. Muslim are minority in India. There are three
about three dozen Muslim are majority nations in the world, India has the third biggest
Muslim population in the world. This numerical strength bestows on Muslim and communal
interest groups in democratic politics. Hajrat Muhammad was related to Islam community.
He believed that god is one. He is all powerful and all means are equal before him. He was
opposed to ideol worship. The holy book of Muslim is Qurans.
According to Islamic tradition there are five basic things that Muslims should do. They
are called “The five Pillars of Islam”
Tawheed (Faith)- The testimony is the core of the Muslim belief that there is no god but
Allah himself and that Muhammad is his last messenger.
Sallaat (namaz)-Muslims pray five times prayed at special times of the day. When they pray,
they face kaaba, a large cubic structure located at the holy city of Mecca. Salat is namaz in
Persian, Turkish and Urdu, shia Muslims can pray the afternoon and evening prayers right
after each other.
Zakaat (Charity) –Muslims who have money must give ¼ of their money to help people
who do not have money or need help.
Sawm or Siyam (fasting) – Fasting during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic year.
Muslims do not eat or drink from dawn till sunset for one lunar month. After Ramadan, there
is a holiday called Eid- al –fitr (which means “festival of end –fast”) on Eid –al fitr, Muslim

usually go to the mosque in the morning for a special religious service and then have a party
with families and friends.
Hajj(pilgrimage) – During the month of zulkaedah,the 12th month of the Islamic calendar is
pilgrimage season. Where many Muslims go to Mecca, the holiest city of Islam. However

4
should a Muslim is financially unable to perform the Hajj he or she is unnecessary to do so
those who posses great financial capacity were the most obligated to perform the hajj.
1.3 Christian-
The identity of Christians in India is a diffused one but the dominant image is that they
are mainly converts from scheduled Tribes, scheduled castes and other backward classes.
During the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries Christianity is the widest spread
religions of the world about 1000 million people of the world are Christians today. Jesus
Christ is their religious leader. He was born in Bethlehem. Christ is believes that there should
be no distinction between rich &poor high &low god is father of all. In India Christianity was
brought by the britishers. There are two types of Christian’s peoples followers are Catholics
and those who opposed him are protestant and Catholics differ from the religious philosophy
of protestant. Christians in India are predominantly rural most Christians are economically
poor and usually they are engaged in low prestige occupations. However there are a small
section of urban middle class Christians who experienced upwards mobility through the
educational facilities made available to them by missionaries.
Christians believe that there is only one God ,whom they call father as Jesus Christ taught
them .Christians recognise Jesus as son of god who was sent to save mankind, from death and
sin Jesus taught that he was son of god. His teachings can be summarised, briefly as the love
of god ones neighbour. Jesus said that he had come to fulfil god law rather than teach it.
1.3.1The basics of Christian’s beliefs.
A) God- Christian believes that there is only one god, whom they call father.
B) The Trinity –Christians believe in trinity that is in god as father, son and Holy Spirit.
C) Life after death – Christians believe that there is a life after earthly death while the
actual nature of this life is not known; Christians believe that many spiritual experiences in
this life help to give them some idea of what eternal life will be like.
D) Prayer –Prayer is the means by which Christians communicate with their god. Whilst
prayer is often directed to god as father as thought by Jesus, some traditions encourage prayer
to god through intermediaries such as saints
E) The church – The Christian church is fundamental to believers. Although it has many
faults it is recognised is god body on earth.
F) Baptism –The Christian church believes in one baptism in to the Christian church,
whether this be as an outward sign of an inward commitment to the teaching of Jesus.
G) Eucharist -the Eucharist is known as a communion meal in some churches.

5
H) Sects- There are two major sects in Christian one is catholic (the Roman Catholic Church)
teaches that it is the one holy catholic church founded by Jesus Christ. And second is
protestant (The term protestant are presents a diverse range theological and social
perspectives.)
1.4 Buddhism-
Buddhism is an Indian religion, or dharma, begun by Siddhartha Gautama Buddhism
teaches people how to end their suffering by cutting out greed, hatred and ignorance.
Buddhism along with other Indian religions, believes in karma. When people do bad things,
bad things will happen to them. When people do good things, good things will happen.
Meaning-Buddha is a pali word which means “The awakened one” someone who has woken
up to the truth of the mind and suffering and teaches the truth to other is called a Buddha. The
word “Buddha” often means the historical Buddha named Buddha Shakyamuni.
Buddhists do not believe that a Buddha is a god, but that he is a human being this
knowledge totally changes the person. This person can help others become enlightened too
enlightened people are beyond birth, death and rebirth.
1.4.1Beliefs of Buddhism-
Buddhism often talk about the three Jewels, which are the Buddha, the Dharma
(Dhamma) and the Sangha. The dharma is the way the Buddha taught to live your life. The
sangha is the group of monks and other people who meet together and practice what the
Buddha taught. Buddhists say “I take refuge” in the Buddha, the dharma and sangha” This
means that these three things keep them safe. They give themselves up to the community and
teachings in spared by the Buddha.
1.4.2 Four Noble Truths –
1) Life often in fact almost always involves suffering.
2) The reason for this suffering is that we want things.
3) The way to cure suffering is to stop the wanting.
4) The way to stop wanting is to follow the Noble Eightfold path, which focuses not on
changing our mind on how we view things.
1.4.3 Noble Eightfold path-
1) Know and understand the four Noble truths.
2) Turn you mind away from the world and towards the Dharma.
3) Tell the truth, don’t gossip, and don’t talk boldly about others.
4) Don’t commit evil acts, like killing, stealing, or living an unclean life.

6
5) Earn your money in a way that doesn’t harm anyone.
6) Make your mind more good and less evil.
7) Remember the dharma and apply it all the time.
8) Practice meditation as a way of understanding reality.
1.4.4 Five precepts -
1) I will not hurt a person or animal that is alive.
2) I will not take something if it was not given to me.
3) I will not engage in sexual misconduct.
4) I will not lie or say things that hurt people.
5) I will not take intoxicants like alcohol or drugs, causing heedlessness.
1.5. Primitive tribes and Nomadic tribe in India

1.5.1 Meaning-
Primitive’s means belonging to a very early period in the development of an animal or
plant. If we describe something as primitive, mean that it is very simple in style or very old
fashioned. Origin of primitive tribes is 1350-1400
Primitive Tribes of India- Government of India classification created communities with
particularly low development indices.

The dhebar commission (1960-1961) stated that within schedule tribe there existed and
inequality in rat of development. During the fourth five years plan sub- category was created
within scheduled tribes to identify group that considered to be at lower level of development.
The sub- category was named “Primitive tribal group”.The features of such a group include a
pre- agricultural system of existence that is practice of hunting and gathering, zero negative
population growth extremely low level of literacy in comparison.
Earth has been a place for the living organisms since it beginning various shreds of
evidence are found that describes a number of species which are still present and are the
cause of revolution. Still you will find few tribes in India who are separated from the modern
or urban living oriented to the older or ancient lifestyle and have a strong ethnic to live in the
same manner no matter how much has an advanced mode of living.
1.5.2 Primitive Tribes-

7
 There is not any precise definition of tribe. Different anthropologists have given
numerous definitions. Some of them are concerned with socio-economic and cultural aspects
of the tribal for other physical isolation self sufficiency different physically features and
dialect are the defining feature of a tribe. Some of the important definitions are as follows.
1. Gillin& Gillin- “A tribe is a group of local communities which lives in a common area,
speaks a common dialect and follows a common culture.
2. Anthropology-Primitive tribes are relating to a preliterate or tribal people having cultural
or physical similarities with their early ancestors no longer in technical use.
1.5.3 Primitive Tribe’S in India :-
1) JARAWAS-
One of the Adi tribes in India located in the islands of the Andaman. The tribes are entirely
isolated putting themselves away from the rural civilization either through they are found to
be diminishing day by day due to the effect of modern culture. Related to the mortern food
habits it might astonish us as they still hunt and survive through hunting wild pigs, monitor
lizards. Not through hunting guns, simply bows and arrows. Seafood’s are their main part of
food.
2) Jangli-
Rutland island located about 20 km from port Blair and is a part of the Andman and
Nicobar island. The Jangli is also one more schedule tribe located in the one of the Rutland

island near the Bay of Bengal. They are the neighbours of Jarawas also know as the Rutland
Jarwa. The language as per evidence and was difficult to be understood.
3) Negrito-
One of the most similar to the pygmies groups which include the Andaman people of the
island. This indigenous population is also found in the parts of semang and Batek people of
Malaysia and 30 others Adi tribal groups in the Philippines. Negrito groups show that their
features maybe the adaptation of the African origin. The lifestyle and mode of living are
hunting for animals including the kinds of seafood similar to the jarawas. They are also one
of the isolated ethnic groups though found in a wide range in many parts of the world. Studies
on the genetics show that they have distinctive and primitive genes compared to the other and
are colonized in the islands for more than 30to 40 thousand of years.

8
1.5.4 Characteristics’ of Tribal Society-
1) Common Territory-
A tribe is a territorial community. It means that the tribe has a definite territory in which
its members Naga and other tribal’s reside in Nagaland, Garos, Khasis Khasas live in Assam.
Bhils in Madhya Pradesh; Soligas in Mysore; Thodasin in Niligiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, and
so on. In the absence of a common locality or territory a tribe would lose its uniqueness.
2) Common Economic Organisation-
As agonist 73% National average, 91% of the tribal workers are engaged in agriculture.
About 3% of tribal’s are engaged in manufacturing against the national average of 11% and
5% in tertiary servicing (against the national average of 16%) Just 1% tribal’s are engaged in
forestry and food gathering. Their economic position is very poor. Though they are poor,
against the national average of 43% nearly 57% of tribal’s are economically active. In spite of
that , they get very poor returns for their efforts.
3. Orgaisation of Clans-
The clan or sibs an important part of tribal – organisation. The clan includes all the
relatives of mothers or fathers and the children of one ancestor. People belonging to a clan
trace their origin to one ancestor. The descendants of a clan are of either matrilineal or
partilineal lineage. The tribal society may include in itself many clans. There exists mutual
helpfulness among the members of different clans.

4. Feeling of Unity –
The members of a tribe always feel that they are united. This sense of unity is essential
for them to retain their identity. Tribals are normally cohesive as they fight against common
enemies as one man. They are ever ready to avenge the injustice done to the group or the
individuals.
5. Simplicity and Self Sufficiency-
A tribal society is not complex but simple in character. Hunting, Fishing and collection
of roots, fruits, nuts, berries, honey, and forest products are their main means of subsistence.
Some have taken to cultivation also. They do not posses; neither do they enjoy the facilities
of civilised people. There was time when the tribal’s were self- sufficient. Due to the increase
in their population and changed economic conditions, their self- sufficiency has gone. They

9
are becoming more and more dependent on the civilised community and also the government
help. They are simple honest, frugal and some of them are very hospitable also. They are not
educated neither are they interested in it.
6. Endogamous Group –
Though not always, the members of a tribe generally marry among themselves,
marrying within one’s own group is called endogamy. Each tribe has many clans within itself
and these are exogamy in nature. The tribal’s practise endogamy probably to maintain the
purity of blood and cultural peculiarities and to preserve the property within the group. But
today, due to the influence of the civilised people and increased contacts, exogamy is also
practised.
7. Common Religion–
Religion plays an important role in the tribal organisation. The members of a tribe
usually worship a common ancestor. Also, ‘nature worship’ is common among them. In
addition to the ancestral worship and nature worship the tribal’s practise other types of faith,
such as animism and totemism. Magic is also wide spread among them. The tribal social and
political organisations are based on this religion, participation in common religious
ceremonies functions and festivals contributes to unity of the group. A sizeable proportion of
Naga, Mizos, Santhals and Munda etc. Have imbraced Christianity while some tribals such as
lepcha, Butia, have largely indentified with Buddhism.

8. Common Culture -
Each tribe has a way of life of its own. Each tribe has its own way of behaving, thinking
feeling and acting. Each has its own customs traditions, morals, values its own peculiar
institutions in brief its own culture. The very peculiarities of a tribe reveal that it has a
distinctive culture of its own.
9. Common Political Organizations –
Each tribe has its own political system. The tribal chief normally exercises authority
over all the other members. The chieftainship is normally hereditary. He occupies an
important positions in the tribal society. The tribals do not possess a government in the
modern sense of the term. But, they do have their tribal government, tribal council and tribal
court or judicial system. Santhal for example, an advanced tribe has a village council the

10
members of which are democratically elected. Nagaland emerged on the first of December
1963 as the 16th state of the republic of India and Meghalaya in 1972
10) Common Language –
The members of a tribe speak a particular language. Different tribes speak different
languages. These languages are not only different from the languages of the civilised people,
but they themselves differ from one another. Common languages contributes much to the
development of community feeling. Since these languages do not have a script of their own,
education of the tribals has become problematic.
1.6 Nomadic Tribe in India
1.6.1 Meaning –
Nomads are known as group of community who travel from place to place for their
livelihood. The nomadic communities in India can be broadly divided in to three group’s
hunter, gatherers, and the peripatetic nomads are most neglected and discriminated social
groups in India. In the British period they listed such groups that posed a threat to settled
society and introduced a legislative measures the criminal tribes Act (CTA in 1871 ) and as a
result of which nearly 200 (198) such communities stood “Notified” as criminal (The word
Nomad comes from a Greek word that means one who wanders for pasture).
Definitions-
1. According to –Anthropology & Ethnology – “A member of people or tribe who move
from place to place to find pasture and food”.

2) “A person who continually moves from place to place (wanderer).”

1.6.2Characteristics of Nomadic Tribes-
1) Population Size – population is very small sometimes not more than thousand.
2) Geographical mobility- Geographical mobility is common for the sake of food, grass,
shelter water and income. They don’t have their permanent place of residence.
3) Absence of ownership – Nomadic people of society don’t have Auricular or ancestral
property.
4) Traditional way of living - Their way of living is old and traditional. Old customs and
values are practiced and transmitted from generation to generation.
5) Strict social Norms: - They have defined their own social norms which are very strict in
practice. Strict punishment is awarded by their council (tribe council) to the violator of
norms.

11
6) Local culture- They are having their own subculture which include local language,
dialect, dresses, marriage ceremonies, and practices on the occasion of death and birth.
7) Profession- Animal husbandry, labour and small cottage industry are the major
professions of the people. Now some of them are serving in Arab states as labours.
8) Resistance to social change – People dislikes and strongly resist to social changes. They
prefer to live with their own old way of living and culture as they consider it.
1.6 Linguistic and Regional Diversity –
1.7.1 Linguistic Diversity –
Language is purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. In India there
are number of languages which are used by the people in various forms some with written
script, some only verbal. The magnitude from the fact that around 1652 languages and
dialects are spoken by different people.
Though the constitution of India has recognized eighteen major languages. Broadly,
these languages belong to three family of languages Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and European.
The Indo-Aryan languages include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, oriya, Punjabi, Bihari,
Rajasthani, Assames, Sanskrit, sindhi and Kashmiri languages covering about three-fourths
of India’s population. The Dravidian language include English, Portuguese and French. The
last two languages are mostly spoken by people in Goa and Pondicherry.

Hindi is the official language of India and English is an associate language. According to
1991 figures, Hindi is spoken by the highest number of people (247.85 million) followed by
Telugu (72.08 million), Bengali (71.78 million) , Urdu (46.11) Gujarati (41.37), Malayalam
(35.32 million), Kannada (34.78 million), Oriya (31.9 million), Bhojpuri (23.11) and Punjabi
(22.41) the rest of the languages are spoken by one million each. Some states were even
created after independence on the language basis, e.g. Punjab was divided in Punjab and
Haryana and Maharashtra was divided in Maharashtra and Gujarat some states like Mizoram
and Nagaland were created on cultural basis.
1.7.2 Regional Diversity –
Diversity refers to the acceptance and respect of all individuals’ regard of their
cultural or ethnic background, gender, age, education or disability Regional Diversity
narrows this acceptance the people found within a certain region or area.

12
Following points are indicating Regional Diversity in India.
1) South India – The people of south India ethnically Dravidians and considered the original
in habitants, of the sub-continent. These are located four southern states of Karnataka. The
common languages spoken in these states are Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Canada
respectively English is quite common may be preferred to Hindi (The National Language).
These are as generally have had more Exposure Christian influence than other parts of India.
The major cities of south India are Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
2) North India – The classification of north Indian typically includes most of the other
Indian status. These have Indo-Aryan descent and migrated to the subcontinent around 1500
BC. in terms of population, they represent the majority at 75% of the country and have the
most densely populated states, Hindi is the most common language spoken in the north and
many of the other languages are linguistically related to it. While the central part of the North
India is considered the Hindu heartland, there are significant Muslim populations as well and
frequent historic reminders of the Muslim, mogul conquest several centuries ago. Some
people of Nepal are related to North Indians while some have more Tibetan and Chinese
heritage.
Western Region of India – While considered part of north India, familiarity with the
western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat is helpful. Maharashtra is home to Mumbai the
largest city of India and its financial capital. It is also the centre of the thriving movie
industry nickname “Bollywood” so Mumbai is roughly a new York /los Angeles combination

and exerts a significant influence on the culture of India through the media. This area is also
well represented by Indian students in the U.S. The state of Gujarat with its capital of
Ahmadabad is also an influential financial and business area is the important part of western
India. Hindi Marathi and Gujarati are major languages in this area.
Eastern Region of India- This too is a North India area but helpful to distinguish. The state of
west Bengal neighbours Bangladesh and shares a common language Bengali. Calcutta (Cor-
Kolkata) is the most notable city in this area the birth place of mother Teresa ministry. The
adjacent state of Orissa has received widespread publicity for recent persecution of
Christians.

13
 MODULE NO 02.

Social Stratification and Social Institution :

1. Social stratification – Caste, Class, Tribe and Gender

2. Social institutions – Family, Kinship and Marriage

2. Social Stratification – Caste, Class, Tribe and Gender

2.1 Introduction-

14
 Every society has unequal distribution of resources wealth or property, power and
prestige among its members. From the viewpoint of enjoying power and privileges these
differently ranked groups have their respective status in society. Those who have more power
and privileges belong to higher social strata. During different periods of history different
societies had different system of distribution of power and privileges. Social stratification is a
result of above system

2.2 Meaning-
Social stratification is only one from of social inequality. It refers to the existence of social
groups which are ranked one above the other, usually in terms of the amount of wealth,
power and prestige their members possess. The members of the same stratum have some
common interest and a common identity. They generally share similar life chance and life
style which to some degree. Distinguish them from the members of other social strata.

Definitions-
1. According to Theodor Caplow-‘’ Stratification is the arrangement of the members of a
social system in starta or levels having unequal status.
As per above definitions inequality is the base of social stratification

2.3 Forms of social stratification or Types of social stratification

There are two major types of social stratification

(1) Closed Stratification

(2) Open stratification

1. Closed Stratification- A system of stratification in which there is virtually no social

mobility, where people remain in the social position of their parents. For example - Caste
System.

2. Open stratification-A system of stratification in which social mobility is based on

personal achievement. For example Class system.

2.4 Cast System-

Meaning – Caste is known as a ‘Jati’ in common parlance. Caste as a system of social
relations has been a central point in Hindu societies for several centuries. Caste is one of the
most important forms of stratification in India. Caste is a closed from of social stratification.
The position of caste system is determined by birth which cannot be changed during an
individual’s life.

Definition-
1) According to Dressler: - “A Caste is an arrangement of status relationship that prevents
people from achieving higher status or social position than was accorded them at birth”.

2.4.1 Characteristics of Caste –

15
1. Segmental Division of society-The society is divided in to various castes with a small
developed life of their own, the membership of which is determined by birth.

2. Hierarchy – The whole caste system is hierarchically arranged. The basis of hierarchy is
the notion of purity and pollution.
3. Restrictions on feeding and social intercourse:-There are restrictions on feeding and
social intercourse. Minute rules are failed down with regard to the kind of food that may be
acceptable by a person and from what caste.
4. Endogamy:- No caste permits its members to have inter-caste marriage.

5. Caste based occupation- Every case has its own occupation. At the ideal level no caste is
supposed to change his occupation according to the caste principle.
6. Civil and Religious disabilities:- Generally civil and religious disabilities are associated
with caste system.

2.5 Class System

2.5.1 Meaning-

In sociology class system is generally associated with achieved status and open stratification.
Class are important groups of the present capitalist industrial system. Class is a factual
structure without any religious or legal sanction. Class status is determined by property,
achievement and capacity of an individual. Class is based on competition and individual’s
capability. Class are relatively open not closed.

Definitions-

1. According to Tischler Whitten and Hunter: ‘A social class consists of a category of

people who share similar opportunities, similar economic and vocational positions, similar
life-styles and similar attitudes and behaviour”.

2.5.2 Characteristics of class system.

1. Class- A Status Group: A social class is essentially a status group. Class is related to
status. Different status arises in a society as people do different things, engage in different
activities and pursue different vocations. The idea of social status separates the
individuals not only physically, sometimes even mentally.
2. Achieved Status and Not Ascribed Status: Status in the case of class system is achieved
and not ascribed. Birth is not the criterion of status. Achievements of an individual mostly
decide his status. Class system provides scope for changing or improving one’s status.

16
 Factors like income, occupation, wealth, education, life-styles etc. Decide the status of
individual.
3. The Class System is Universal:-Class is almost a universal phenomenon. The class
system appears in all the modern complex societies of the world.
4. Mode of Feeling: In class system we may observe three modes of feelings-There is a
feeling of equality in relation to the member of one’s own class, there is a feeling of
inferiority in relation to those who occupy the higher status in the socio-economic
hierarchy, and there is a feeling of superiority in relation. This kind of feeling develops
into class-consciousness and finally results in class solidarity.
5. Social class –An Open Group: Social classes are open groups. They represent an open
social system. An open class system is one in which vertical social mobility is possible.
6. Class Consciousness: Class system is associated with class consciousness. Class
consciousness is ‘the sentiment that characterises the relations of men towards the
members of their own and others class.’
In a society there are so many difference bases of prestige that we might wonder
whether social classes are definite groups with definite membership, or whether they are
only social categories whose defining characteristics and membership are somewhat
arbitrarily determined by sociologists. The difference bases have been adopted from time
to time for determining the status of person. We place a person in higher or lower in
status scale according to whether or not he has the given characteristics. But we compared
difference Societies, we find that people respond differently to different characteristics for
e.g. Birth Place, Religion, Culture, education wealth etc.

2.5.3 Theories of Social stratification

There are two main theories concerning the origin of social stratification
(I) Theory of Economic Determinism of Karl Marx

(II) The functionalist theory.

(A) Theory of Economic Determinism Of the conflict theory.

According to this theory economic factors are responsible for the emergence of different
social strata or social classes. Therefore, social classes are defined by their relation to the

means of production ( by their ownership or non-ownership). Thus, there are , in every

society two mutually conflicting classes-the class of the capitalists and the class of the
workers or the rich and the poor. Since these two classes have mutually opposite interests,
conflicts between the two are inevitable.

(B)Functionalist Theory-
Kingsley Davis, P.A. Soronkin, Maclver and others have rejected the conflict theory of
Marx. Soronkin mainted that conflict may facilitate stratification but has never originated it.
He attributed social stratification mainly to inherited individual differences in environmental
conditions.Kingsley Davis has stated that the stratification system is universal. According to
him, it has come into being due to functional necessity of the social system. The main
functional necessity is ‘the requirement faced by any society of placing and motivating
individuals in the social structure. Social stratification is an unconscientiously evolved device

17
by which societies ensure that the most important position is conscientiously filled by the
most qualified persons. The functional theory emphasises the integrating function of social
stratification based upon individual merit and reward. Both have their own merits and
demerits.

2.5.4 Functions and dysfunctions of Social Stratification

Encourages hard work-
One of the main functions of stratification is to induce people to work hard to live up to
values. Those who best fulfil the values of a particular society are normally rewarded with
greater prestige and social acceptance by others.
1. Helps to pursue different professions or jobs:
The values, attitudes and qualities of different classes do differ. This difference is also
functional for society to some extent. Because society needs manual as well as no manual
workers. Many jobs are not attractive to highly trained or refined people for they are
socialised to aspire for certain other jobs. Because of the early influence of family and
socialization the individuals imbibe in them certain values, attitudes and qualities relevant to
the social class to which they belong. This will influence their selection of jobs.

2. Social control- Further, to the extent that ‘Lower class’ cultural characteristics are to
society, the classes are, of course, functional. In fact a certain amount of mutual antagonism
between social classes is also functional. To some extent, upper-class and lower-class groups
can act as negative reference groups for each other. Thus they act as a means of social control
also.

3. Serves an economic function:-The competitive aspect has a kind of economic function in

that it helps to ensure the rational use of available talent. It is also functionally necessary to
offer differential rewards if the positions at the top are largely ascribed as it is in the case of
caste system.

Dysfunctions-

1. Division of society- The Hindu society is gradational one. It is divided into several small
groups called castes and sub castes. A sense of ‘highness’ and ‘lowerness’ or ‘superiority’
and ‘inferiority’ is associated with this gradation of ranking.
2. Restriction on social relations- The stratification puts restrictions on the range of social
relations also. The idea of ‘Pollution’ makes this point clear. It means a touch of a lower caste
man (particularly Harijan) would pollute or defeat a man of higher caste.
3. Social and Religious Disability- In the social stratification lower cast people suffered from
certain civil or social and religious disabilities. Generally the impure castes are made to live
on the outskirts of the city or the village.
4. Sapinda Exogamy: In Hindu social stratification is in favour of marriage within the
‘pinda’ is prohibited. Pinda means common parentage.

18
2.6 Gender –
According to Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru you can tell the condition of the nation by looking at the
status of the woman. This statement shows that development of woman is an important sign
of development of the country . In India Gender is one of the criteria of stratification. Indian
history shows some positive and negative aspects of gender justice. If one looks at the Indian
history it is clear that women have been given a place of pride, but gradually certain
traditions and customs of Indian society place the women in sub-ordinate position not only a
family but also within society.

2.6.1 Gender and Stratification –

In India from ancient time women are treated as inferior to men, but at the same time there
are incidences for honour towards women. In India gender injustices has taken place in many
ways which begins with abortion of fetus.

Abortion of Femel Fetus – It is old belif of Indian Society that the son will act as safty wall
in old age and daughter is “Paraya Dhan” i-e- other asset. Hence the rate of aboration of
femal fetus is very high in paritular areas like haryanas.

Discriminative treatment in family –

Many families differentiate between girl and boy. Gender system various from community
to community. Many opportunities are denied to girl in order to educate son. In this way
gender system affect her financial, economical educational, social life.

Conservative Thinking –
Many families believe that women should give to first priority to family and next to job.
Traditionally there life is bound to household chores and children still today most of the
women are engaged in the functions of like cooking, washing, caring of family members, and
nourishment of children

Inequality and exploitation at work places –

In work places also women faces different types of discrimination coupled with exploitation
either by higher authority or colleagues. In India till the case of vishakha verses state of
Rajasthan. AIR 1997 SC 3011,thre were no guidelines which protect the working women
from exploitation at working places.,

2.7 Social institutions – Family, Kinship and Marriage

2.7.1 Introduction-
In ordinary speech or writing people often use the word in institution to mean an
organization with some specific purpose, as a public or charitable institution. Sometime it is

19
used to denote any set of people in organised interaction as a family or club or government.
But the sociological meaning of institution of above things is different.

2.7.2 Meaning of Social Institution –

A social institution consists of a group of people who have come together for a common
purpose. These institutions are a part of the social order of society and they govern behaviour
and expectation of individuals. This is also a system of behavioural and relationship patterns
that are densely interwoven and enduring, and function across an entire society.

Definition-
1. According to Kingslay Davis – ‘’ An institution may be defined as a set of interwoven
folkways, mores and laws built around one or more functions’’.

2.7.3 Types of Social Institutions

Some important Types of social institution are as follows

(I)Family

(II) Marriage

(III) Religion

(IV) Education

(V) Polity

(VI) Kinship

2.7.4 FAMILY INSTITUTION

Introduction-

The family is the basic unit of society. Man is born in the family. It is in the family that he
learns languages, the behavioural patterns and social norms in the childhood. In some way or

the other the family is a social group. It exists in tribal, rural and urban communities and
among the followers of all religions and cultures.

MEANING OF FAMILY –

The word ‘ Family ‘ has been taken over from Latin word ‘Famulus’ which means a
servant .In Roman Law the word denoted a group of producers and slaves and other servants
as well as members connected by common descant or marriage . Thus originally, family
consisted of a man and woman with a child or children and servants.

Definitions-

20
The meaning of family better understand with the help of following definitions.

1. According to Nimkoff –‘’Family is more or less durable association of husband and wife
with or without children or of a man or women alone with children’’.

Functions of Family

Primary Function
i) Stable Satisfaction of Sex
ii) Reproduction or Procreation
iii) Reproduction and Raring of Children
iv) Provision of Home

Secondary Functions of Family

i) Economic Functions
ii) Educational Functions
iii) Religious Functions
iv) The Recreational Functions

1. Stable Satisfaction of Sex-

Sex drive is powerful in human beings. Family regulate the sexual behaviour of man by its
agent, the marriage. Thus its provides for the satisfaction of the sex need of the man.

2. Reproduction or procreation-
The result of Sexual satisfaction is reproduction. The process of reproduction is
institutionalised in the family. Hence it assumes regularity and a stability that all societies
recognise as desirable. Thus family introduces a legitimacy into the act of reproduction.

3. Production and raring of child-

The child which is helpless at the time of birth is given the needed protection in the family.
Further, family is an institution par excellence for the production and rearing of children.

4. Provision of home-

Family provides homes for its members. The desire for home is strongly felt in man and
women. Children are born and brought up in homes only.

5. Economic Function-
The family fulfils the economic needs of its members. This has been the traditional function
of family. Previously, the family was an economic unit. Goods were produced in the family.
Men used to work in family or in farms for the production of goods. Family members used to
work together for this purpose.

Types of Family-

21
Family has been divided in to various parts on the basis of Size, Residence and Ancestry they
are as follows.

(A) Size (B) Residence (C) Authority (D) Ancestry (E)

Marriage

I Nuclear i Patrilocal i Patriarchal Family i Patrilineal i

Monogamous

Ii Extended ii Matrilocal ii Matriarchal ii Matrilineal ii

Polygamous

iii Joint iii Avunculocal iv

Neolocal

(I)On the basis of size family has been divided into three types

A) Nuclear Family- The individual nuclear family is a universal social phenomenon. It

consists of husband wife and children.

B) Extended Family- An extended family can be viewed as a merger of several nuclear

families. A small extended family may include an old man and his wife, their son, the sun’s
wife and the sun’s children’s.

C) Joint Family- The joint family is also known as undivided family. It normally consists of
members who at least belong to three generations: husband and wife, their married and
unmarried children, and their married as well as unmarried grandchildren. The joint family
system constituted the basic social institution in many traditional societies.

(II) On the basis of residence family has been divided into four types

A) Patrilocal Family - In this types of family wife goes to her husband’s house.
B) Matrilocal Family - In this types of family husband goes and lives in his wife’s house.
E.g. Nayars

C) Avunculocal Family – In which the couple go and live in maternal uncles house.
D) Neolocal Family- The newly married couple set their own house.

(II) On the basis on Authory

A) Patriarchal Family- The family in which authority is vested in the mail member of the
family.
B) Matriarchal Family – The family in which authority is vested in the female member of
the family.

22
(III)On the basis of Ancestry

A) Patrilineal Family- In these types of family property inheritance and reckoning of decent
follow along the line of father.
B) Matrilineal Family- In these types of family property inheritance and ancestors follow
mother’s line.

(IV)On the basis of Marriage

A) Monogamous Family- In which one man marries with one woman at a time.
B) Polygamous Family- It is a based on marriage of one man with several women. Naga,
Baiga etc. Practice these types of marriages.
C) Polyandrous Family- It is a based on marriage of one woman with several man e.g. Toda
of Nilgari, Khasa of Jaunsar Barware.

2.7.5 Marriage Institutions

Introduction-
Marriage is one of the universal social institutions. It is established by the human society to
control and regulate the sex life of man. It is closely connected with the institution of family.
In fact, family and marriage are complementary to each other. Marriage is an institution of
society which can have very different implications in different cultures. Its purposes,
functions and forms may differ from society to society, but it is present everywhere as an
institution.

Meaning of Marriage-

Marriage is an institution or complex of social norms that sanctions the relationship of man
and woman and binds them in a system of mutual obligations and rights essential to the
functioning of family life.

Definitions of Marriage-

i) According to Gillin and Gillin- ‘’ Marriage is a socially approved way of establishing a

family of procreation’’.

 Characteristics of Marriage-
1) Marriage is more or less a universal institution.

ii) Relationship between Man and Woman.

23
iii) Marriage indicate long lasting bond between the husband and wife.

iv) Marriage Requires Social Approval.

iv) Marriage is associated with some civil or religious ceremony.

v) Marriage creates mutual obligations.

 Functions OF Marriage-

A) Biological functions-

The institution of marriage regulates and socially validates relatively long term legitimate
sexual relation between mail and females. Marriage gives social recognition to sexual
relationship. It makes the society to accept the relationship of boy and girl as husband and
wife.

B) Social functions-

Marriage is also a way to acquire new kinsman. Marriage links one kin group to another kin
group. It is only after marriage of family comes into being, it is after marriage that there is
desire to perpetuate the names of the family, and women get security with marriage.

C) Economic Functions-

The institution of marriage performs economic function in the form of brining economic co-
operation between men and women and ensuring the survival of individuals in every society.

D) Educational Functions-

The institution of marriage enables the parents to educate their children through proper
culture of the family.

 Forms of Marriage/ Types of Marriage:

The type of marriage in different communities and cultural groups differ according to their
customs and systems of thought.

Types of Marriage

A) Monogamy:

Institutionally permitted to have only one spouse at a time. Modern societies practice this
type of marriage. Some tribal groups such as Khasis, Kadars, Santals etc. The Hindu marriage
Act 1955, PROVIDES Monogamy as a form of marriage.

B) Polygamy:

24
There are two types of polygamy

i)Polygamy:

One man marries several women at a time. Naga, Gond,

Biga,etc.are some examples.

ii) Polyandry:

One woman can have marital relationship with several men. There are two types of
polyandry

D) Fraternal Polyandry :

In these types of marriage several brothers share a common wife. Khasa, Toda and Jaunsar
bawar practices this types of marriage.

E) Non-Fraternal Polyandry:

in this type of marriage, husbands are not related to each one another. They may not be
brothers. Wife goes to spend some time with each of her husband. So long as a woman lives
with one of her husbands the others have no claim. Nayars practice this type of marriage.

2.8 Kinship
 Introduction –

No society can exist without having institutions of kinship. In a kinship system social
recognition overrides biological facts. In every society social relationships are formed
because of family, marriage and common lineage tradition. These relationships are known as
grandfather, father and so on. Relationships and address are the bases of kinship. A number
of rights and obligations are associated with these relationships that give stability and a
definite viewpoint to them. Every kinship system has blood relations and relatives.

 Meaning-

Kinship may be defined as a social relationship based on ties of blood or on ties based on
marriage. The bond of blood or marriage which binds people together in group is called
kinship.

Definitions-

1.According to Parim

Al Kar- ‘’The customary system of status and roles that govern the behaviour of people who
are related to each other through marriage or descent from a common ancestor”

 Types of Kinship

25
III) Primary Kins: If Kins are directly related to each other, they are called primary kins.
One’s father is one’s primary consanguineous kin. One’s wife is one’s primary affinal kin.
Brother –sister, father-mother, daughters-sons are primary kins.

IV) Secondary Kins: Any kin related to ego through primary kin, themselves being primary
kin. Ego’s father’s brother, ego’s step mother is secondary kin.

V) Teritiary Kins: Secondary kins of primary kins and primary kins of secondary kins are
known as teritiary kins.

 Bases of Kinship-
According to Harry M. Johnson, Kinship has six important bases.

1. Sex- The term ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ also indicate the sex of blood relations.

2. Generation: The terms ‘father’ and ‘son’ indicate two generations on one hand and on the
other blood relations also.

3. Closeness: The relationship with son-in-law and father’s sister’s husband is based on
closeness but these relations are not based on blood relations.

4. Blood Relation: The Kinship based on blood relation is divided into lineage such as
grandfather, father, son, grandson, etc. And also such as uncles and their children.

5. Division: All kinship relations are generally divided into two branches. For example,
Father (paternal grandfather) and mother’s father (maternal grandfather) brother’s daughter
and sister’s daughter, son’s son and daughter’s son.

6.Binding Thread: The importance of the above division is connected with the intimacy of
the relatives. The binding thread of these relations is close or blood relationships. For
example, the relationship of Father-in-Law is based on the relation thread either of husband
or that of the wife. The basis of the kinship relations are the family tree, the rules of lineal
descent and residence types of marriage and the family.

26
 Module No - 3
Social Movements in Pre and Post- Independent India:

1. Dalit’s Movements, Linguistic Movements and tribal movements

2. Peasant Movement, Women’s movements, Student’s movements and Environment
movements.

3.1 Introduction –

27
 History testifies the presence of social cleavages in Indian society, in terms of caste,
class, gender and the like. Such cleavages has changed the entire social fabric of Indian
society, whereby the exploited section, be it the Dalits, adivasis or women, have been
systematically pushed to the periphery by the traditional Brahmanical structure of oppression.
Dalits are the people who are economically, socially, politically exploited from centuries.
Unable to live in the society of human beings, they have been living outside the village
depending on lower level of occupation, and lived as ―untouchable‖ .This exploitation is due
to the discrimination followed by age old caste hierarchical tradition in the Hindu society.
This hierarchy has been the cause for oppression of Dalits in each and every sphere of society
since centuries. It has subjected them to a life of poverty and humiliation. The Dalits(ex-
untouchables), who have been brutally exploited by the so-called upper castes, lag outside the
Varnasrama theory and were referred to as outcasts in pre-independent India. India attained
independence, but the Dalits were not allowed to live a life with dignity and equality. It is this
idea of ‗equality, which sparked the beginning of the Dalit Movement in India, as a protest to
the age-old atrocities committed against them. Dalit movement is a struggle that tries to
counter attack the socio – cultural hegemony of the upper castes. It is a movement of the
masses that craves for justice through the speeches, literary works, dramas, songs, cultural
organisations and all the other possible measurers. So it can be called as a movement which
has been led by Dalits to seek equality with all other castes of the Hindu society. The main
objective of the Dalit Movement was to establish a society in India based on social equality.
The constitutional identity, however, fails to capture the true picture. The real picture is
something different which will be reflected in this paper, in the light of the four books

including Debrahmanising History, Poisoned Bread, The Prisons We Broke and Dalit
Visions.

 Different Connotations of the Word ‘Dalit’

Dalits, the group of people who constitute the last category of castes in the
Varnasrama Theory .This is the traditional definition of the term Dalit as is given by different
scholars. According to the Indian Constitution the Dalits are the people coming under the
category ‗Scheduled castes‘. With slight changes, however ,the term ‗Dalit‘ would mean not
Only one category of caste, it means the human who is exploited economically, socially,
politically and from all the spheres of life, by the traditions of the country. By tradition would

28
mean the‗Brahmanical Indian tradition‘ prevailing in the country for centurie . A Dalit does
not believe in God, religion as propagated by the Hindu scriptures and religious texts , as
because it is these tradition only that have made them slaves. A Dalit is the person who has
the realization of the sorrows and struggles of those in the lowest stratum of the society. The
Dalits , called by different names like Dasyu, Dasa, Atisudra, Panchama, Tirukulattar,
Adikarnataka, Adi Dravida, are actually the ―Depressed Classes‖ of Indian society. Dalit is
one who believes in equality, who practices equality and who combats inequality. A Dalit is
the believer of Humanism—the ultimate ideology of human beings. The real symbol of
present Dalit is ‗Change and Revolution‘. Therefore, any individual from any caste category
(including the Brahmin) , will be considered a Dalit given the fact that the person is
depressed and exploited ,aspire to attain equality through change and revolution , being the
firm believer of the ideology of‗Humanism‘.

 Brahmanism as the Root Cause of Dalit Movement: A Historical

Critique
The Dalits and women in India are, at present, categorized under the marginalized
sections of the society. All these castes (Pariahs, Chamars, Mahars, Bhangis and so on) share
a common condition of exploitation and oppression by the so called upper castes of the
Indian society .If we trace back to the historical periods, it will be found that the root cause is
the formation of the ‗Caste System‘ which actually led to the oppression of the other
categories of oppressed classes of India– the women. It was with the Aryans who entered the
country from Middle East and settled in the fertile land of the Ganges after a fight with the
indigenous people of the civilization. The people, well versed in the techniques as shown in

historical aspects, were defeated by the Aryans. The Minority Aryans defeated the majority
Dalits by the use of their tactics of Divide and Rule, as assumed by Braj Ranjan Mani
because without doing so they won‘t be able to defeat the majority. The Brahmins had retain
this tactic even today .Later in the vedic period , the formation of the Rig Veda laid the
foundation of the oppression of the people in their own land , with the Purusha shukta in its
tenth book . It was later in the 5th century that people of Shudra Varna were transformed to
untouchable. And this led to beginning of the Brahmin domination accompanied by Dalit
exploitation. A Brahman is a great God, whether he is learned or imbecile and the Brahmans
should be respected in any way, even if they indulge in a crime1. These are the Religious
texts of the Hindus, which strives for an unequal society, a society where a certain group of

29
people are given the status of God, in total contrast with the other group who are considered
even worse than animals. God who is considered as the Almighty do not exist, but is
considered as the Supreme power. Is it that the Arya-Brahmins, devised the institution of
Varna and thereby caste, in order that they consider themselves as the ‗Supreme‘. By putting
themselves in the supreme position, they actually wanted to attain superior status, a life of
dignity, and aspired to be obeyed by everyone in the Indian society. Caste, the very creation
of man and not God, is now rooted firmly in the Indian society, through the religion of
majority Hinduism .Gail Omvedt in her book ―Dalit Visions‖, equated Hinduism with
Brahmanism. Hinduism is constructed in order to hide the discriminatory laws of
Brahmanism under a religion to be considered as the
religion of the country, and thereby obeyed without any question. The caste ideology is
founded in the twin religious doctrines of Karma and Dharma. And that it was the basic duty
of every individual to maintain Dharma which was to retain the social structure based on the
Varnasrama Theory. Not only Manu , Kautilya , another Brahmin , also emphasized on
retaining the Caste structure as the basic structure of Indian society that cannot and should
not be changed .The same was asserted by Gandhi, the Father of the Nation ,to change is to
create disorder2. This means that the Brahmins should stay at the top of the pyramid and the
Dalits at the bottom. Even if the Dalits die under the situation, they should not be uplifted.
This is Brahmanism –believer of inequality, the roots of which lie in the ancient Vedas.
Formulated 3500 thousand years back, the Vedas are ruling Indian society even now, through
its instrument –Hinduism. It is controlling the minds of the people, which made the minority
groups –the Brahmins to be the policy makers of the country. And in order to retain their
position they have devised myths .For instance , they devised the myth of ‗Punarjanma‘

which explains the phenomena of ‗re-birth‘.It explains that the activities of our past janma ,
is responsible for our present status , and the activities of present will decide our life after re-
bith . This myth has two connotations-
Firstly, the Dalits should accept the exploitation done against them as the result of their own
deeds of past birth. They should consider that they committed some bad deeds due to which
they are facing such kind of oppression.
Secondly, even if they are exploited in this birth, they should not protest, which will provide
them a good life in the next birth after re-birth. That is with the desire to get happiness in the
next birth, they should cry. Because it is believed that, God will help them to come out of
distress, and that the Brahmins being Gods are the only solution for their distress. If these

30
texts are observed closely in socio –historical perspective , the aim to write these texts
become clear ,which is to establish and maintain Brahmanical hegemony , and exploit the non
–Brahmins , basically the Dalits.

3.2 Dalit movement in India

 Major Causes of the Dalit Movement
The Dalit Movement is the result of the constant hatred being generated from
centuries in their heart from the barbaric activities of the upper castes of India. Since Dalits
were assigned the duties of serving the other three Varnas, that is all the non– Dalit, they
were deprived of higher training of mind and were denied social-economic and political
status. The division of labour led to the division of the labourers, based on inequality and
exploitation. The caste system degenerated Dalit lifes into pathogenic condition where
occupations changed into castes. The higher castes of the society looked down upon the
Shudras. It was a general belief that the Dalits are part of the lowest of low Varnas. Thus for
centuries Dalits have been positioned at the bottom of the rigid Indian caste society. People
from other castes, who considered themselve to be higher, believe that Dalits are impure by
birth and that their touch or sheer presence could be polluting. Hence, they are assumed to be
untouchable. For centuries, Dalits were excluded from the mainstream society and were only
allowed to pursue menial occupations like cleaning dry latrines, sweeping, tanning or
working as landless labour for meager daily wages. They were the people who cultivated the
land and worked as bonded labour , did the work of scavenging and did all types of manual
works. The most inhuman practice is that of untouchability, which made the Dalits to live in
extreme inhuman situations . In other words, they lived a barbaric life. Starving for food in

their own land where they themselves are the owner of the land,enraged the Dalits . This has
made the Dalits to rise and protest, against the inhuman practices of Brahmanism .Dalits were
discriminated in every sense. They lived in the Hindu villages hence did not have advantage
of geographical isolation like tribes. They were pushed to the jungles whereas, the mainland
was occupied by the Brahmins. They were to serve all classes of people around and had to do
all the dirty jobs. They were barred from entering into those mainland areas in every sense,
they were prohibited to wear decent dress and ornaments besides being untouchable. Many of
the atrocities were committed in the name of religion. Besides, the system of Devadasi they
poured molten lead into the ears of a Dalit, who happened to listen to some mantra. To retain
the stronghold on people, education was monopolized.

31
From the vedic age the Dalits began struggle against oppression and exploitation. The most
striking aspect of Manus formulations is in the sphere of punishment for breaking law where
the quantum of punishment for the offender increases as one goes down the caste hierarchy
(Chakraborty .11) .From the classic instances of Shambuk who was killed for acquiring
spiritual knowledge and Eklavya who was forced to cut off his thumb for his prowness to
archery ,the Dalits were always punished. Their only fault was that they are ‗Dalits‘, and that
they did not have any right to attain knowledge. Dronacharya could not take off the art of
archery from Eklavya finally punished him by taking away his finger . The Dalits were
always been punished for the deeds that they didn‘t commit, just because it was coming in the
way to the Brahmins. Whenever they constitute a threat to the Brahmanic hegemony, the
Brahmins would not leave a chance to punish them .The Dalits were never placed in their
rightful position, which they deserve. Today, they constitute the marginalized section of
society .The reason behind this is that they were denied access to resources –material or
intellectual as well as were exploited .It was thus the Dalits decided to stop the following of
such unequal practices in society where one group benefits stealing from the other and began
their movement due to the fact that they were denied equal status.
 Dalit Movement-The Struggle of the Submerged Communities
The Dalits-the submerged communities of India, began their movement in India with their
basic demand for equality because they struggle to combat inequality in society as having
firm belief in the ideal of equality.

32
The inhuman and barbaric practices committed against the Dalits, led them to protest against
the caste –based hierarchical system of India, that has divided Indian society on the basis of
caste (based on Varna system), class (Brahmin haves and non– Brahmin have nots) and
gender. The Dalit movement that gained momentum in the post independence period , have
its roots in the Vedic period . It was to the Shramanic -Brahmanic confrontation and then to
the Mukti Movement (term given to Bhakti Movement by G.Alosius). The Mukti movement
was led by very poor Dalits who fought against the saint - poets of the time. With the
introduction of western language, and with the influence of the Christian missionaries, the
Dalits began to come across the ideals of equality and liberty and thus began the Dalit
Movement in modern times. The frustrated Dalit minds when mixed with reason began
confrontation against the atrocities of Brahmanism. Educated Dalit , gradually begin to talk
about the problems of poor and about exploitation and humiliations from the upper castes
without any hesitation educated Dalits tried to explain to the other illiterate brothers about the
required change in the society. Dalit Movement gave rise to the birth of many writers and
journalists. A new group of thinkers emerged among Dalit community. Many writers through
their writing made the people to be aware of exploitation carried on them by the elite section
of the society. In the 1970s, the Dalit Panther Movement began in Maharashtra. The most
fundamental factor responsible for the rise of Dalit Panthars was the repression and terror
under which the oppressed Dalits continued to live in the rural area. Inspired by the Black
Movement, the Dalit Panthers was formed by a group of educated Mahars in order to lead the
movement . The Dalit movement cannot be understood without the Dalit Literary Movement.

 Dalit Literary Movement

At a time, when there was no means of communication to support the Dalits, pen was the
only solution. The media, newspapers were all under the control of the powerful class –the
Brahmins. Given that the Brahmins would never allow the Dalits voice to be expressed, as it
would be a threat for their own survival, the Dalits began their own magazine and began to
express their own experiences. Their pen wrote not with ink , but with blood, of their own
cuts –the cuts being basically mental , with instincts of physical in them. Dalit literature, the
literature produced by the Dalit consciousness, emerged initially during the Mukti movement.
Later, with the formation of the Dalit Panthers, there began to flourish a series of Dalit poetry
and stories depicting the miseries of the Dalits the roots of which lies in the rules and laws of
Vedas and Smritis. All these literature argued that Dalit Movement fights not only against the

33
Brahmins but all those people whoever practices exploitation, and those can be the Brahmins
or even the Dalits themselves. New revolutionary songs, poems , stories , autobiographies
were written by Dalit writers . All their feelings were bursting out in the form of writings.
Writing is not simply writing , it is an act that reflect ones continous fight against evil. It
seemed as if the entire Dalit community found the space to break out their silence of thousand
years . Such effective were the writings that each of its word had the capability to draw
blood. The songs were sung in every village , poem and other writings were read by the entire
community. Educated Dalit and intellectuals begin to talk about the problems of poor and
about exploitation and humiliations from the upper castes without any hesitation educated
Dalits tried to explain to the other illiterate brothers about the required change in the society.
Dalit literature, try to compare the past situation of Dalits to the present and future generation
not to create hatred, but to make them aware of their pitiable condition. It is not caste
literature but is associated with Dalit movement to bring about socio –economic change,
through a democratic social movement.
 Preservation of Brahmanism: A Marxist Connotation

Despite the fact that a group of educated Dalits began movement against the exploitation
of Brahmanism, it could not succeed even now. There are varied reasons for which the
movement could not be successful and Brahmanism is well preserved in the social structure
of India .The Arya-Brahmins ,the originator of the Vedas have actually institutionalized
discrimination through the institution of caste .The majority are accepting caste system
because the dominant ideology is inflicted in peoples mind by the process of hegemony.
Brahmanism, in order to continue discrimination has made use of Gramscian ‗hegemony‘
through social institutions like schools, temples, to maintain their hegemonic status .The
majority accepted Brahmanic Ideals as their own and thus, they are discriminated with
‗consent‘. The Brahmins have very systematically deprived the Dalits from their own land
and resources. However, since no dominant ideology goes unchallenged, and the exercise of
power involves resistance, the dominant Brahmanical ideology of caste is also being resisted
by a small group, that took the shape of Dalit Movement. Thus, it were the few educated
Dalits who organized the majority to begin the movement. Indian structure has become
pyramidal - the top place is occupied by the ‗minority Brahmins‘ sitting at the topmost chairs
in every Department, and the bottom is occupied by the ‗majority non-Brahmins‘ pushed to

34
the low-grade manual works. In a Marxist connotation, the ‗Brahmin superstucture‘ is
controlling the mode of production , in order to exploit the ‗Dalit base‘, through ideology
inflicted in people‘s mind through ‗cultural hegemony‘. And the major role in this is played
by the writers who are writing with the touch of a Brahmanism. The writings produced by
these writers reflect the problem of Dalit Movement in India: In the light of four Dalit
literatures www.iosrjournals.org 96 | Page

35
 Dalits not as written by the Dalit writers. This is because those writers were Brahmanized
by the Brahmanic ideals in their mind. This is how the majority minds are controlled by the
Brahmanical ideology through hegemony. To control minds, socio-religious institutions are
used as the main instruments which made the people to accept these rules as their own, the
gods as their own and the caste –based tradition as their own creation, when this has been
very systematically shaped, preserved and protected by the Brahmins. Blank minds can be
filled but when the Dalit minds are already filled by the Brahmanical ideas, it is very difficult
to change . Despite this, the Brahmins have further preserved caste through the institution of
marriage. The Vedas followed by Manusmriti picturizes women in such a way that women
need to be controlled in order to preserve caste. Marriage should be within the caste only or it
will lead to social degeneration. Thus began the practice of gender discrimination leading to
the Brahmanic hegemony in Indian society. Caste and gender are linked, each shaping the
other and where women are crucial in maintaining the boundaries of castes (Chakraborty .
34) .A child acquires caste by birth and thus ,if the women are married within the caste , it
will automatically preserve caste in the society. Casteism is well preserved by the institution
of ‗arranged marriage‘ where the father gift his virgin daughter to another man of same caste,
through the ritual of ‘Kanyadan‘. On one side, the meagre Dalit –elites have become the
puppets in the hands of the Brahmins, and on the other, the Shudras are discriminating the
Ati-Shudras, both of which are Dalits. This discrimination made the majority of Brahmanised
Dalits to accept the Brahmanical domination willingly.

36
 Power-Means to Attain Dignity
The Dalits devoid of any particular work are vulnerable to all the evils of society. The
situation of the Dalits was such that they lived the life of animals. And it was the lack of
knowledge, that was responsible for the degeneration of the Dalits into animals. To end that
state of exploitation, and live a life of dignity, the only thing required was power. Power on
other side can be cut by only power. Hence, to attain power, the first thing required is
knowledge. It was thus, Phule and Ambedkar gave the main emphasis on the education of the
Dalits , which will not only bestow them with reason and judgement capacity , but also
political power ,and thereby socio—economic status and a life of dignity. They knew that the
political strategy of gaining power is either an end in itself or a means to other ends . In other
words, if the Dalits have power, then they do not have to go begging to the upper castes .
Also they will get greater economic and educational opportunities. The upper castes enjoy
social power ,regardless of their individual circumstances with respect to their control over
material resources , through their linkages with the other caste fellows in the political system
–in the bureaucracy , judiciary and legislature (chakraborty . 13) .And so , the Dalits require
power to control the economic scenario and thereby the politics of the country. Thus, they
sressed on the importance of education , essential requirement to regain their status in Indian
society. Phule thus added that without knowledge , intellect was lost ; without intellect ,
morality was lost ;without morality, dynamism was lost ;without dynamism ,money was lost
;without money Shudras were degraded (demoralized) , all this misery and disaster were due
to the lack of knowledge(Paik.1)!However ,it was Phule ,who for the first time recognized the
immense importance of education .Inspired by Thomas Paine‘s ―The rights of Man‖ ,Phule
sought the way of education which can only unite the Dalits in their struggle for equality. The
movement was carried forward by Ambedkar who contested with Gandhi to give the Dalits,
their right to equality.Gandhis politics was unambigously centering around the defence of
caste with the preservation of social order in Brahmanical pattern. Gandhi ,highly influenced
by Brahmanical rules, had established himself as the supreme leader of Hindu society and
therefore, he could not accept the fact that Ambedkar, a mere Dalit should rule the social
scenario . He was fighting for the rights of Dalits but was not ready for inter-caste marriage
as he knew only marriage can preserve caste. Gandhi who described himself as an
untouchable by choice did nothing but played the game of power politics. The classic
example is the Hunger Strike unto death to protest the reservation of Dalits to choose their
own leaders , leading to the signing of the Poona Pact .May be , he was scared that Ambedkar

37
will win and that the Dalits will be uplifted. He could neither change the attitude of caste
Hindus nor satisfy the untouchables as the practice of untouchability and discrimination
continued to operate against the Dalits. To the untouchables Hinduism based on the Vedas,
Smritis, Shastras were responsible for the system of caste the nature of which is exploitative
and oppressive. Inequality in Hindu society stunts the progress of individuals and in
consequence stunts society. The same inequality prevents society from bringing into use
powers stored in individuals . In both ways, this inequality is weakening Hindu society
,which is in disarray because of the four - caste system (Dangle .268). This inequality should
be replaced by equality and thus , Ambedkar asserted that the Dalits need to be educated, and
unite to crush the Brahmanical power and lead the movement . In the words of Ambedkar
,Educate, Organize and agitate. Education, the major source of reason , inflicts human mind
with extensive knowledge of the world , whereby , they can know the truth of aphenomena
,that is reality. It therefore, would help to know the truth of Brahmanism in Indian society
,and will make them to agitate against caste based inhuman practices. Only when agitation
begin , in the real sense , can the Dalit be able to attain power and win the movement against
exploitation , and then only can the Dalits live a life of equal status and dignity

38
Conclusion - Dalit Movement , a social revolution aimed for social change, replacing the
age old hierarchical Indian society , based on the democratic ideals of liberty ,equality
and social justice , has begun much earlier , became intense in the 1970s and began to
deem at present. One reason behind this, as pointed out by Uma Chakraborty, is that the
academicians are not paying much attention. Books on Dalit Movement are written but
these books do not reflect the actual things and are written keeping in view the Brahmin
elites. No one want to confront with those who have power. Besides this, the minds of the
people are brahmanised through hegemony. Yet another vital issue is that the movement
lack people from all the communities of Dalits. For instance, in Maharashtra, the Mahars
dominated the movement. The other Dalit communities like the Mangs, Chamars were
not actively involved in the Movement. As Kamble pointed out that the Mangs and
Chamars had their traditional duties, whereby, they could somehow manage their food
.But the Mahars did not have any traditional duty which made them toprotest. At present
there came up many new issues. The Dalits who got power became the dolls in the hands
of the Brahmins. Many of them tend to imitate the Brahmins changing their surnames and
thus identity. They are ashamed of being called Dalits which make them to discriminate
against their own kith and kins. It should be noted that Dalit Movement is against
Brahmanism and not Brahmins. The Brahminism is a mental state which accepts
superiority of one man over another man. It gives more respect and profit for the caste
which is up in the ladder of caste system, and as it goes down the ladder, resources and
respect also decreases. It‘s contribution for the Dalits which is lowest of all the castes is
nothing but exploitation, jeering and slavery. This mental state of Brahminism not only
exists in Brahmins but also in Shudras, who simply shape the ideas of Brahmanical
practices without testing them with scientific temperament and reasoning. India got
independence but the Dalits are humiliated even now. Untouchability is abolished but
injustice practices are not. Today to wear good clothes is not forbidden, but to get good
job is. In the name of reforms and social uplift, today's political and social systems are
pitting one group against the other, sowing hatred and perpetuating a sense of rejection
from the past. Education is the only remedy for such discrimination. Thus the Movement
for social change will succeed only when all the Dalits unite together to fight for equality.
However they should accept that caste that is deeply rooted in peoples mind cannot be
erased. So here social change would mean to get rid of discriminatory practices and get
rights, necessary for the upliftment of the backward section of society-the Dalits.

39
3.3 Peasant Movement’s in India –

 Introduction
Among social movements in India which have attracted attention historically, for their
intermittent yet widespread struggle are the peasant movements. In fact peasant movements
in India have a long history going back to the colonial period which belies commonly held
doubts regarding the revolutionary potential of Indian peasantry. But before referring to that
debate, it is necessary to elaborate what the term ‘peasant’ stands for.
Ghanshyam Shah (2004) finds the term ‘peasant’, misleading and an inadequate translation of
the term Kisan or Khedut normally used for cultivators of land in local parlance. Rural people
are differentiated in terms of their relationship to land. The English referent ‘peasant'
attempts to be of an encompassing nature not quite revealing the differentiations within such
as agriculturist of a supervisory nature, owner- cultivator, small peasant, share croppers,
tenant cultivator and landless labourers. According to Shah (2004), the ambiguity in usage
also results because the term peasant is used differently by different authors or variously by
the same author in different studies. These categories of people have different kinds of vested
interests in land and therefore, different propensities towards mobilisation. While the middle
peasant has been known to provide leadership to peasant movements, because of their relative
stability in terms of landownership and other resources, the spirit of radicalism and
aggression is known to be the highest among the landless peasants. In other words, the term
peasant needs to be used and understood in a more nuanced and cautious manner.
Another debate that needs to be recounted here before one launches full-fledged in a
discussion of the peasant movement pertains to the revolutionary capability of the peasantry
in India. Following Marx who while speaking about the Asiatic mode of production thought
of peasants in Asia as ‘potatoes amidst a sack of potatoes’, i.e. without any consciousness, it
was assumed by many a western scholar like Barrington Moore Jr (1966) and others like Eric
Stokes (1978) that the Indian peasantry is ‘fatalistic, docile, unresisting, superstitious and
passive’ and lacked the revolutionary potential. But this has been proved to be without any
foundation as many scholars have shown how agrarian mobilisations have been persistent
phenomena in rural countryside over a long period of time (Gough 1974, Dhanagare 1983,
Mukherji 1978, Desai 1979, Guha 1983). But this should not lead us to believe that peasants
were active only during the colonial period. In contemporary times, large scale agrarian

40
mobilisations continue to make their presence felt under varied organisational identities. In
fact ‘political parties, sabhas, sanghas,

 Typology of Peasant Movements

Peasant movements have been studied and classified in different ways in social movement
literature. Classification and formation of typologies has been understood as a way of making
sense of the enormous diversity that prevails in society. But there are several limitations of
typologies too.
Scholars who have studied peasant movements in India have classified these movements
along several lines. According to Ghanshyam Shah (2004) peasant movements have been
grouped according to those in the pre-British, British or colonial period and in the post-
independence period. Peasant movements in the post independence period again, have been
classified as pre-Naxalbari and post Naxalbari or pre-green revolution and post green
revolution. The latter has been further subdivided into movements occurring in the pre and
post Emergency period. Movements occurring in the post green revolution period are termed
as farmer's movements, as they mainly dealt with the issues and demands of the middle and
big farmers who emerged more strongly in the post Green revolution period. The shift in
nomenclature is indicates the differentiation in the nature of actors. They have been studied
by Dipankar Gupta (1997) Tom Brass (1995) among others. Gail Omvedt has classified the
peasant struggles into 'old' and 'new', whereby the former is known by the term peasant
movements, and the latter as farmers movements.
A. R Desai (1978) in his study classified the struggles in the colonial period as 'peasant
struggles' and those in the post independent period 'agrarian struggles'. The usage of the term
agrarian struggles indicates the presence of a broad coalition consisting of peasants and other
classes in these struggles. Desai further sub-divides struggles in the post independence period
into two categories - 'the movements launched by the newly emerged proprietary classes
comprising of rich farmers, viable sections of the middle peasant proprietors and the
landlords and the movements launched by various sections of the agrarian poor in which
agrarian proletariat have been acquiring central importance' (cited in Shah 2004).

41
 Peasant Movements in Independent India
In the post independence period, some of the issues and problems of the peasants
continued to be raised in the peasant movements though the nature of these movements
underwent a change. The nature of the peasant questions in the post independence phase was
characterised by a dramatic shift.
Studies of peasant movements generally point towards the existence of structural
contradictions in the system of land relations and movements as the creation of those
contradictions. The peasant struggles were earlier directed towards the zamindars and
jagirdars at a micro level and towards colonialism at a macro level. Rajendra Singh mentions
that ‘the agrarian contradictions now begin to be located mostly around a) the civil society
versus the state and b) the emergent, aggressive middle peasantry versus the rural poor and
the landless. The swollen middle class peasantry constitutes the rising new kulaks of rural
India at present’ (Singh 2001: 238). It is they who confront the state for achieving more gains
as is evident in the farmer’s movements. One of the most enduring impacts of the Green
Revolution has been the emergence of the class of middle peasant who now confront the state
above them and the landless and the rural poor located at the lowest level of the socio-
economic hierarchy. The landless, rural poor in turn are also defiant rather than passive, in
this fight which involves them, the state and the middle peasant.
The post independent period saw a change in the nature of agrarian classes and interests
resulting from the state policies. Accordingly, two categories of rural struggles could be
identified by A. R Desai (cited in Singh 2001): a) the movement launched by newly emergent
proprietary class comprising of rich farmers and middle peasant proprietors, and b)
movements launched by various sections of the agrarian proletariat. The rural poor consisting
of the poor peasants, women, a rapidly rising agrarian proletariat belonging to the lower
castes and from a varied ethnic, linguistic and religious faiths wanted to establish a radically
different and qualitatively new type of society where a decent, dignified existence could be
ensured.
These contradictions are said to be a consequence of the sweeping developmental policies of
the state, democratic participation of the people in the sharing and shaping of power in the
making of the state, the new production technology, the heightened sense of rural-urban
exchange, the rise of the dominant class of rich peasants, the relatively unchanged conditions
of the rural poor and the lower castes, accelerated process of social mobility, migration and

42
communication etc. Though the Bhoodan and Gramdan movements attempted to address the
issue of inequality of land ownership in the decade of the 50s by acquiring land by peaceful
means and redistributing it amongst the landless and poor, the attempt was not long lasting.
Vinoba Bhave’s successors were not charismatic enough to secure land from the landed. The
land that had been secured were not of good quality and hence unfit for cultivation in some
cases and lastly the management of land which had been collected was also not carried out
efficiently. In other words the agrarian questions were not resolved following independence.
These unresolved questions themselves sowed the seeds of severe agrarian tensions
subsequently.
Anand Chakravarty (1986: 229) makes an in-depth study of one such struggle the Santhal
Bataidars (share croppers) of Purnea district which took place in the 1970s. He highlights the
nature of the failure of the land reform policies, the persistence of land domination by
traditional landlords and maliks of the oppressed sections, the struggle and uprisings of the
oppressed against the oppressing sections of the maliks (owners), the listed scope the success
of the struggles of the oppressed and the nature of the persistence of the conflict-core in the
countryside keeping alive the agrarian conditions for peasant revolt.

43
Thus, peasant mobilisations have been regarded as an unfinished struggle; they emerged due
to the failure of land reform policies in India. Change in the mode of production in
agriculture did not disturb the traditional relationships in any significant manner in that the
exploitative, feudal, hierarchical relations continued. Further commercialisation of agriculture
was not accompanied by modernisation of agriculture. One of the most significant rebellions
which took place during the decade of the 60s, whose implications were far reaching was the
Naxalbari Movement of 1967-68. The movement demanded the abolition of the zamindari
system and land to be restored to the tiller, protesting against tenant eviction, land alienation,
cultivators’ rights to go on cultivating without surrendering and so on. It enjoyed the support
of rich peasants (who had undergone a downward mobility due to loss of land over the years)
as well as the sharecroppers and poor, landless agricultural labourers but it was fragmented. It
was found that as a section of the peasantry succeeded in meeting its own demands it
withdrew from the struggle, though there was a worker-peasant alliance in the early part of
the struggle. Later on the movement was overtaken by the urban youth and it gradually lost
its goals of peasant upliftment and lapsed into acts of violence.
The peasant movements in independent India have become more internally differentiated.
The class interests of the rich peasants and landowners have diverged from those of the small
cultivators, sharecroppers and landless labourers. Since the green revolution which was
accompanied by capitalist agriculture, a deeper penetration of the market economy and
globalisation, peasant struggles have undergone a change. Subsequently in this period
farmers’ have been demanding remunerative prices of their produce, concessions and
subsidies in the prices of agricultural inputs, lowering of water, fertilizer, electricity and
irrigation charges and betterment levies, easier terms for agricultural loans etc. Farmers’
organisations like the Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in
Uttar Pradesh, Khedut Samaj in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Punjab have come to wield a lot of
political importance and clout (For details on Farmer’s Movement, read module 23).
‘Farmer’s movements have been quite content staying outside national parties and have found
that they were most effective when they work as a pressure group outside established
structures’ (Gupta 2002: 197). Although some farmer’s movements like Shetkari Sangathana
have given rise to a dichotomy between ‘Bharat versus India’, in a study Dipankar Gupta
(1997) has shown how the Bhartaiya Kisan Union has tried to win over the urban areas by the
call of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan.’ These movements primarily see themselves as concerned with
economic issues and its enemy is the state, not the local overlord or exploiter. In other words
they do not absolve the government of its alleged apathy towards rural issues.

44
Post 1970s also saw a change in the nature of peasant struggles, which led to the forging of
peasant-workers alliance initially during the Naxalbari movement and later on in political
groups like Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana which calls itself a non party people’s
movement of the landless and rural poor striving for issues like the redistribution of land, and
minimum wages. Having found a niche in Rajasthan, the MKSS went beyond the issues of
peasant cultivators, and raised concerns about certain basic rights like the workers’ right to
work and receive minimum wages under the NREGA program which they were denied in the
absence of records. This led to the demand for ‘right to know’ in view of people’s right to
freedom of speech under Article 21 of the Constitution and even right to life and liberty.
Another trend in the contemporary peasant movements is the forging of transnational
networks by certain farmer’s organisations like Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangh (KRRS), who
agitate against farmer’s distress due to drought, pest attack and price fall. Farmers
organisations have been protesting against the

45
introduction of genetically modified seeds, marketed by companies, bought at a huge cost,
leading farmers debt ridden when crops fail, often resulting in their suicides in different parts
of the country.
 Ideological diversity in Peasant Movements
Peasantry consists of a large, substantial section of Indian society. Being the most numerous
group it is characterised by enormous social and structural contradictions and hence it is also
said to be ‘the natural site of ideological mobilisations’ (Singh 2001: 231). Studies of peasant
movements generally tend to express two different approaches to achieving the goals and
objectives of peasant struggles. The first set of studies drawing from radical Left views
present the peasantry as a revolutionary category. Examples of this type are the Telengana
and Tebhaga movements which were inspired by the Communist ideology and were violent
in nature. The role of Naxalite ideology in violent peasant uprisings during late 60s-early 70s
is also well known.
The second group comprises of pacifist, non-violent resistance movements such as
Satyagraha, Sarvodaya and Bhoodan Gramdan movements. These studies articulate the
Gandhian model of peaceful and non violent action on peasant issues and social
reconstruction. They moved away from the use of force or violence in the method of
distribution of land and tried to bring about a change by adopting peaceful means.2 Through
Bhoodan, Vinoba Bhave aimed to show the peasantry that there was an efficient alternative to
the Communist programme. The Sarvodaya Movement inspired by the Gandhian philosophy
which was advocated by both Vinoba Bhave and Jayprakash Narayan subsequently, also
emphasised the redistribution of land along with other forms of upliftment of people. In fact
Bhoodan and later on Gramdan became a very important focus of Sarvodaya movement.
Land and other means of production were to be collectively owned by the village community
and were to be under the control of the users, the movement also emphasized a limit that the
owners could possess.
2 The inspiration for Bhoodan came to Vinoba Bhave when he was touring the strife torn
Telengana region, Hyderabad in 1951, which had witnessed violent clashes between the local
peasants (who were helped by Communists) and the landlords in the wake of a revolutionary
peasant uprising in 1947, which had led to a loss of both land and lives. Bhoodan - gramdan
began as an experiment of a radical recasting of the Indian social order using a nonviolent
method.

46
In some studies like that of Krishnarajulu (cited in Singh 2001) the concept of the peasant
movement has been treated as the peasant’s search for identity. The study on peasant
movement in the state of Karnataka, adopts the identity oriented framework adopted by Alan
Touraine and refers to the collective actions of peasants to produce a sense of solidarity and
identity leading to acts of self reproduction. During the period of 1980s and the 90s the
ideological orientations changed as peasant movements gave way to the farmer’s movements
against big capital.

3.4 Tribal Movement in India –

Introduction --
India is known for its tribal or adivasi inhabitants. The term ‘adivasi’ connotes that
they were the first or original inhabitants of the land, having original habitat, native to the
soil. Rivers has defined a tribe as a social group of a simple kind, the members of which
speak a common dialect and act together for such common purpose as welfare. Tribes live in
a definite habitat and area, remain unified by a social organisation that is based primarily on
blood relationship, cultural homogeneity, a common scheme of deities and common ancestors
and a common dialect with a common folk lore. Their habitat and culture not only provides
them a sense of freedom, self identity and respect, it also empowers them to stand united
against any kind of exploitation, oppression and harassment by outsiders like zamindars,
kings, British and others. As a corollary, the tribal history of India is abundant with stories of
uprising against the exploiters as and when such occasion arose (Wilson 1973).
Before independence, tribal revolts stood primarily against alien rulers. According to
Mahapatra (1972), most of the tribal movements had their origins in religious upheavals.
Vaishnavist movements were one of the important religious movements found among the
Meithei tribe in Manipur, Bhumij in West Bengal, Nokte Naga in Assam, Bathudi in Orissa
and tribals in Jharkhand (Bihar), Orissa and south India. These were also found among Gonds
in central India, Kondh in Orissa and Bhils in Rajasthan. In the early years of colonisation, no
other community and even rulers of so many dynasties in India could put forward such heroic
resistance to British rule and faced tragic consequences as did by the numerous Advise or
tribal communities of present Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Bengal. Shah (1977) has
stated that there were also movements against oppressing landlords, moneylenders and
harassment by police and forest officials in Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. For

47
example, Bhagat movements were found among Oraon of Chotanagpur, Bhils of Rajasthan,
etc (Bose 1975: 64-71). These were also revivalist movement for avoiding animal food,
liquor and blood sacrifices. Apart from that, Mundas reformative movement was also
reported under a powerful charismatic leader Dharti Aba who preached Hindu ideals of ritual
purity, morality and asceticism and criticised the worship of priests (Singh 1985).
Extinction of two important resources of the tribals namely land and forest were at the
helm of many tribal movements. Xaxa (2012) has argued that the erosion on land rights of
tribes began with the coming of the British rule and administration. It was brought about by a
combination of forces that were at work during the British period. Of these the most
important were the introduction of the private property in land and the penetration of the
market forces. The two taken together opened up the way for large-scale alienation of land
from tribes to non-tribes especially after the tribal areas came to be linked by roads and
railways. The mechanisms through which this was achieved were fraud, deceit, coercion and
the most widely debt bondage. Despite much protective and even restorative legislation to
stop land alienation in the post-independence period, there has been little success to this
effect. Of course the major source of land alienation in the post-independence period is not so
much the encroachment of the non-tribals into the tribal land as the process of development
that the Indian State has followed during the period. The large scale industrialisation and
exploitation of mineral resources and the construction of irrigation dams and the power
projects that the tribal areas have witnessed during the period have been the single most
factors that have uprooted more people
 Major Reasons of Tribal Movements
Various reasons have stimulated the tribal’s for uprising. Historically speaking, however,
there is a qualitative shift in tribal movement in independent India as compared to the period
before 1947. Let us begin by explaining this difference.
Before Independence
It is possible to classify tribal movement in India before 1947 into three types
(Mahapatra 1972). The first type is called the ‘reactionary’ movement. It attempted to oppose
political or social reform by the tribes mostly in the context of mixture with non-tribes. Such
movement was mostly seen among the tribals living a simple and isolated life in forest.
Whenever they saw alien groups creating obstacles in their life, they became offensive and
tried to bring back the ‘good old days’. The second type is ‘conservative’ which opposed any

48
kind of changes in tribal life and culture and sought to maintain status quo. And the third type
is ‘revolutionary’ that aimed to replace certain traits of their traditional culture or social order
with a progressive one. This movement is also termed as ‘revivalistic’ as the leaders of such
movement also sought to ‘purify’ certain elements of culture by eliminating evil customs,
beliefs and institutions.
Apart from these, there are several other attempts to classify tribal movements. For instance,
Singh (1982) has suggested a four fold classification which is based on i) political autonomy
(e.g. Jharkhand movement), ii) agrarian (e.g. Santhal Movement) and forest based issues (Koi
movement), iii) sanskritization (e.g. Bhagat movement), and iv) cultural movements for script
and language (Bhil movement). Again, Sinha (1968) has classified tribal movements into five
types: a) Ethnic rebellion, b) Reform movements, c) Political autonomy movements within
the Indian Union, d) Secessionist movements, and e) Agrarian unrest. For Dubey (1982),
these movements are of four categories namely, a) Religious and social reform movements,
b) Movements for separate statehood, c) Insurgent movements and d) Cultural rights
movements. Shah (1990) too has categorised them in three groups which are Ethnic,
Agrarian, and Political.
After Independence
After independence, the Government of India and various state governments have made great
and incessant efforts in the direction of tribal welfare and development. Various efforts have
been made by these governments to improve the socio-economic status of the tribal’s and to
guarantee constitutional safeguards given to tribal people.
undertaken in the successive Five Year Plans. But, at the same time, the establishment of
heavy industries, construction of dams and launching of development plans in tribal zones
has necessitated displacement of local population. Destruction of forests as a consequence of
felling of trees for industrial purposes has threatened the small communities of hunters and
food gathers. In spite of some rehabilitation and resettlement programmes here and there,
unfortunately a large section of the tribals became the victims of developmental projects and
they could not also adequately adopt themselves with new challenges (Rao 1978). Against
rising economic and social disparities, the tribals started raising their collective voice in
independent India. The tribals especially in central India had reacted sharply against their
exploiters. These movements were directed towards freeing their land from all those who
exploited them economically and culturally (Roy and Debal 2004). At the same time, each of
these movements put emphasis on revitalisation of their culture, their traditional culture

49
which was swayed under the impact of the outsiders. So, the basic issues behind the tribal
movements in India after independence are: land alienation, unemployment, deprivation,
cultural sub-mergence and unbalanced development.

50
strata of peasantry. In other words, he found that the poor peasant class generally participated
in the insurrectionary and the millenarian movements, whereas the rich and the middle class
peasantry would generally involve itself in the nationalist, non-violent resistant movements.
Pradhan Prasad (cited in Shah 2004) notes how in some parts of Bihar, the organised
movement of the poor peasantry mounted pressure on landlords and rich peasantry
successfully. They resorted to strikes for higher wages, public meetings and demonstrations
to protest against unlawful and exploitative actions of the rural rich. They even took to armed
intervention to prevent the eviction of sharecroppers. David Hardiman mentions that in the
Kheda satyagraha, on several occasions middle peasants pressurised the rich peasants into
joining nationalist agitations. They launched a satyagraha which also received support from
the subsistence peasants because they had endured a lot of hardship in the early decades of
the 20th century.
In the early years of independence when the Telengana and Tebhaga movements
raged, many acts of protests even led to violent outcomes. In the case of the Tebhaga
movement where a substantial number were Rajbansi share croppers, Santal landless
labourers and Oraon tribal peasants, they cut crops and defied custom by taking away paddy
to their own threshing floors. The peasant’s interests were confined to retaining two-thirds
share of the produce to themselves, the bargadars did not attempt to seize lands or to set up a
parallel administration or government. In some places they were even willing to give one
third of their produce to the jotedars, but the latter gave the names of Kisan Sabha workers
and turbulent bargadars to the police for repressive action. This led to clashes between the
police and the sharecroppers which were often violent.
The forms of protests adopted by the movements also vary according to the different
phases. For example, as one witnesses in Dhanagare’s account of the Telengana movement
(1946-51) that in the first and the second phase the peasant insurrection had a reformist
orientation, but in the last phase when the peasant leadership deserted the movement, the poor
tenants started to seize lands. Lands seized forcibly were distributed among the agricultural
labourers and evicted tenants. Village soviets were set up especially in about 4000 villages in
the districts which were communist strongholds namely Nalgonda, Warangal and Khammam.
Police action by the Government against the peasants and the communist dalams were also
equally strong and harsh in these regions.
T. K Oommen (1985) has observed that protest studies in India are marked by a relative
neglect of individual protests and micro mobilisations. Both left wing and liberal theorists of
revolutionary political action give a privileged position to organised movements. The

51
underlying assumption is that these are unorganised, unsystematic and individual acts and
have no revolutionary consequences. But following James Scott, we now know that
collectively these small events of everyday resistances may add up to a large event. Acts such
as pilfering, foot dragging and false compliance among peasants cannot be sustained without
a high level of cooperation among those who resist.
The state response to peasant uprisings and revolts resulted in the implementation of various
land reform measures. These measures reflected the response of the state to the various
peasant struggles of the 1940s and the 50s and led to the abolition of the zamindari and the
jagirdari system, fixation of ceilings on landholding size etc. These land reform measures in
turn produced a number of historically ‘new’ conflictual forces in the countryside. The large
scale pauperisation of the rural poor, and consequent scaling down of the importance of
erstwhile zamindars and jagirdars, the rise of an aggressive and

52
entrepreneurial middle caste-class peasantry and finally the generally unchanged socio-
economic conditions of the rural landless, the poor and wage earning sections gave rise to
new social contradictions and forces in the countryside.
Conclusion: An Assessment of Peasant Movements
Peasant movements in India therefore go far back in history. Though it is hard to say
whether the peasant movements and revolts contributed substantially to the larger and more
distant goals of complete restructuring of the social order, yet their significance lies in raising
fundamental issues about land, lives and livelihood. The state responded to their agitations by
initiating land reforms, imposing the land ceiling act, abolishing the zamindari system though
these reforms remain unfinished as yet.
A significant aspect that is being recognised today is the existence of a considerable
overlap of concerns and interests of the peasant movement and the environmental movement
as we can find in the Chipko movement or between the interests of the peasant-cultivators
and landless labourers dependent on land or in the farmers and others protesting against
displacement in anti SEZ movements in the context of globalisation in different parts of our
country. Therefore the presence of intersectionality is a persistent, ubiquitous phenomenon in
all peasant movements today.
In addition these movements have also effectively challenged several myths prevalent in
literature, regarding the revolutionary potential of the peasant. In the Indian subcontinent we
find that contrary to the dominant theoretical understanding in the West, the agricultural
labourers and the small and middle peasants have always engaged in persistent struggles and
revolts against the king as well as against the colonial authorities. Secondly, another
conjecture that has been falsified concerns the vanishing category of the peasant itself.
Despite modernisation, the peasant cultivator is here to stay, though in the contemporary
context of huge land grab all across the world and even in India, their existence is in peril.
But as long as land continues to be the source of our sustenance, peasants will remain
significant a category.
 Spectrum of Major Tribal’s Movements in India
In 1976, the Anthropological Survey of India had identified 36 tribal movements in the
country. Raghavaiah (1971) has listed 70 revolts from 1978 to 1971, while various other
scholars (Mathur 1988; Fuchs 1965; Shah 1990; Sharma 1986; Singh 1972) have argued that
instances of tribal movements could be traced even before 1768. Singh (1982) has divided all
these movements into three faces. The first face was between 1778 and 1860 and these

53
coincide with the rise, expansion and establishment of the British Empire. The second face
covers the period of colonialism when merchant capital penetrated into tribal economy
affecting their relationship with the land and forest. The third phase deals with the period
from 1920 till the achievement of independence in 1947. During this phase the tribals not
only began to launch the so called separatist movement but at the same time participated in
nationalist and agrarian movements. Apart from these faces, we are able to identify the fourth
face of the insurgents which started from 1947 and continuing at present.
There have however been attempts to identify several tribal movements basically as peasant
uprisings.
It is true that the tribals mostly live as forest dwellers and simple peasants. According to
Shah (1990) despite tribals joining movements of different types, land question predominates
in all these. Many other scholars have also treated tribal movements as peasant movements
(Gough 1974; Desai 1979; Guha 1983). Historically speaking, since the introduction of the
permanent settlement by Lord Cornwallis, increasing instances of alienation of tribal land led
to general discontentment among them (Hardiman 1981). It has also been argued that the
tribals revolted mostly against those alien groups who wanted to acquire their culture, habitat,
farm, forest as well as solidarity (Gopalankatty 1981). For example, Mundas joined the
Sardar movement which was a peasant movement based on agrarian reforming. Similarly, the
Gonds of Andhra Pradesh protested when they lost their traditional privileges in the forest.
According to Verier Elwin (1965), the tribals firmly believe that the forests belong to them
and they have a right to collect forest products. They also worship forest as their ‘god’. They
have been there for centuries; it is their life and they consider themselves justified in resisting
any attempt to deprive them of it. On the whole, most of the tribal movements, during the
British rule in particular, were organised in order to mobilize tribal peasants against
oppressors like land lords (Zamindars) money lenders and officials of British.

Table 2: Tribals Movements in India from 1768 to 2008

S.N. Movement Period Place Leader
1 Chuar 1768 Midnapur Jagannath Singh, the
uprising zamindar of Ghatshila or
the king of Dhalbhum
2 Halba 1774-79 Donger, -

54
 rebellion Chhatisgarh
3 Chakma 1776-1787 North East -
rebellion India
4 Pahariya 1778 Chhotanagpur Raja Jagganath
Sardar’s
Revolution
5 Tamar’s 1794-1795 Chhotanagpur Chief Bisoi
revolution
6 Bhopalpatnam 1795 Bhopalpatnam -
Struggle
7 Chuar 1795-1800 Midnapur Jagannath Singh,
rebellion in Dhadkar Shyamganjan
Bengal and Durjol Singh
8 Kol Rebellion 1795-1831 Chhotanagpur Bir Budhu Bhagat, Joa
Bhagat, Jhindrai Manki
and Sui Munda
9 Tribal Revolt 1798 Chhotanagpur Raja Jagganath
against the
sale of
Panchet estate
10 Mizo 1810 Mizoram -
Movement
11 Khurda 1817 Orisha -
Rebellion
12 Kondhas 1817 Orissa -
Rebellion
13 Bhil rebellion 1822-1857 Rajasthan and Bhagoji Naik and Kajar
Madhyaprades Singh
h
14 Paralkot 1825 Bastar Gend Singh
Rebellion
15 Khasi and 1829 Meghalaya -
Garo

55
 Rebellion
16 Tarapur 1842-54 Bastar -
rebellion
17 Maria 1842-63 Bastar -
rebellion
18 Jharkhand 1845 Jharkhand -
Movement
19 Kond 1850 Orissa Chief Bisoi.
Revolution
20 First Freedom 1856-57 Sidu Murmu -
Struggle and Kanu
Murmu
21 Bhil rebellion 1858 Banswara Tantya Tope
22 Koi revolt 1859 Bastar
23 Gond 1860 Ramji Gond Adilabad
rebellion
24 Synteng tribal 1860-1862 North East -
India
25 Kuki Invasion 1860s Manipur -
26 Juang tribal 1861 Orissa -
27 Koya 1862 Andhra Tammandora
Pradesh
28 Bhuiyas 1868 Keonjhar -
Rebellion
29 Daflas 1875 North East -
Rebellion India
30 Rani of Nagas 1878-82 Manipur -
rebellion
31 1st Rampa 1879 Vizagapatnam -
Rebellion (Visakhapatna
m)
32 Naga 1879 North East Tikendraji Singh
Movement India

56
33 Sentinelese 1883 Andaman and -
tribal people Nicobar
Islands

 Some Major Tribal Movements:

1 The Chuar Revolt

The Chuars were inhabitant of north western Midnapur. Basically they were simple
farmers and hunters and also worked under local zamindars. They received tax free land
instead of salaries. During colonization period of East India Company, when the
zamindars had imposed huge tax burden, the Chuars revolted. The uprising continued for
around three decades from 1768-69 to 1799. Table 3: Three Phases of The Chuar
Revolt
Periods Leader Significant Aspect
1768-69 Jagannath Singh, the It was initially an armed
zamindar of Ghatshila or the uprising backed by local
king of Dhalbhum zamindars and 50,000
Chuars. The frightened
Government who returned
the zamindari to Jagannath.
1771 Dhadkar Shyamganjan Chuars rose again, but they
failed that time.
1783-84 and 1789-90 Durjol Singh This was the most
significant uprising. In
1789-90, it was brutally put
down by the Government.
The revolt covered
Midnapur, Bankura,
Birbhum and Dhalbhum. It
was a spontaneous and

57
 extensive uprising of poor
and lower classes. Peasants
were the pillars of this
movement.

2 The Kol Revolt

The Kol tribe was the inhabitant of Chotanagpur. They preferred an independent life. The
main reason of Kol revolt was imposition of new taxes by the king of Porhat. In 1820, the
king of Porhat agreed to support the British and pay them huge taxes annually. In return, he
claimed the neighbouring Kol region for collection of taxes. He went on to collect taxes from
the Kols. The Kols resented against this kind of taxes and a few officials were killed by them.
The British then sent troops in support of the king. The Kols took up traditional arms like
bows and arrows to face British troops armed in modern weapons. They revolted very
bravely but had to surrender in 1821. In 1831 the Kols rose again because the region of
Chotanagpur was leased out to Hindu, Muslim and Sikh money lenders for revenue
collection. The oppressive tactics of money lenders, high revenue rates, British judicial and
vulnerable revenue policies devastated the traditional socio-cultural framework of the Kols.
They gathered under the leadership of Bir Budhu Bhagat, Joa Bhagat, Jhindrai Manki and Sui
Munda. In 1831, Munda and Oraon peasants first took up arms against the British. It
encouraged the tribals of Singbhum, Manbhum, Hazaribagh and Palamou as well. But, after
two years of intense resistance they lost to modern weapons of the British. Thousands of
tribal men, women and children were killed and the rebellion was suppressed.

3 The Santhal Revolt

The Santhals were mainly agriculturalists living in the dense forests of Bankura, Midnapur,
Birbhum, Manbhum, Chotanagpur and Palamou. The Santhals fled their original land
(Bhagalpur and Manbhoom) when the oppressive zamindars brought that land under
Company’s revenue control. They started living and farming in hill of Rajmahal, calling it
Damin-i-Koh. But their oppressors followed them and exploitation started in full swing.
Apart from the zamindari and British Company, local moneylenders also cheated them with
high interest rates. The simple minded Santals reeled under loans and taxes and had to lose
everything. Sidhu and Kanhu, the two brothers, rose against these dreadful activities. Santhals
assembled at the Bhagnadihi fields on 30 June 1855 and pledged to establish a free Santhal

58
state. The rebels’ ranks swelled and they numbered nearly 50,000 from early 10000. Almost
all the postal and rail services were thoroughly disrupted during this movement. They bravely
fought with only bows and arrows with the armed British soldiers. At last, in February 1856,
the British could suppress this uprising by slaughtering 23,000 rebels. Overall the Santhal
Revolt was essentially a peasant revolt. People from all professions and communities such as
potters, blacksmiths, weavers, leather workers and doms also joined in (Chandra 1998). It
was distinctly against the policies of colonial rulers in British India.
4 Koi Revolt
Koi revolt is an important mass uprising among the tribals of Bastar. The people of the
Jamindaris, who were involved in the cutting of trees, were known as Kois, which
subsequently became the name of the revolution. The rebellion stood against the autocratic
and dominant British rule. A vital revolution among the other tribal rebellions, Koi revolt is
considered as a serious uprising that resulted in a considerable change in its aftermath. The
tribal people denied the decision of the British, which offered the contracts of cutting of Sal
trees to people outside the region of Bastar. The outside contractors who were offered the
contract of cutting the trees were also known to exploit the innocent tribal people in many
ways. This added to the problem and the tribal men were exploited both economically as well
as mentally. When the water rose above their heads, the tribal people of Bastar collectively
decided that they would not tolerate the cutting of a single tree. The British wanted to
suppress the unrest and used various methods to stop the opposition led by the tribal people.
But the tribals were very rigid in their decision. They stated that forest and its trees was their
mother and they would not allow the exploitation of their natural resources and forests.
Finally, they decided that they
5 Paralkot Rebellion
In 1825, the Paralkot rebellion was a symbol of protest against foreign rules by Abujhmarias,
who were the inhabitants of the present day state of Chhattisgarh. The anger of Abujhmarias
mainly originated against the foreign rulers like the Marathas and the British. Gend Singh led
the revolt of Paralkot and the other Abujhmarias supported him. The purpose of this rebellion
was to acquire a world that is free from all outsiders. In the time of Maratha Dynasty,
Abujhmariyas were levied heavy tax, which was impossible for them to pay. So, they
revolted against the injustice by the foreign powers. One thing noteworthy of this movement
was the desire of the Abujhmarias to build an independent Bastar, free of foreign intrusion.

59
The Paralkot revolt is one of the important tribal rebellions in the history of the Indian state
of Chhattisgarh.
6 Halba rebellion
The event of Halba rebellion took place in the Bastar District in Chhattisgarh. The Halba
rebellion started against the Marathas and the British in the year 1774 after the decline of the
Chalukyas. The governor of Dongar, Ajmer Singh, was the initiator leader of the revolt of
Halba. The movement of Halba was aimed at creating a new and independent state in
Dongar. The Halbas stood beside Ajmer Singh as the soldiers. Another reason for insurgency
was lack of money and food in the hands of the common people. Added to this huge problem,
there was the pressure and fear caused by the Maratha and the British which eventually
resulted in the uprising. Many of the Halba tribal people were killed by the British and
Maratha armies. Subsequently, the army of Halba was also defeated. The Halba revolt created
conditions for the decline of the Chalukya dynasty which in turn significantly altered the
history of Bastar. It created circumstances for first bringing the Marathas and then the British
to the region.
7 Maria Rebellion
The uprising of Maria Tribe was a prolonged rebellion in Bastar; it continued for twenty
years from 1842 to 1863. It was apparently fought to preserve the practice of human sacrifice.
The Anglo-Maratha Rule forced the aboriginal tribes to part with their tribal faiths and
practices. The British and the Marathas used to enter the temples constantly, which according
to the innocent beliefs of the tribal people polluted the sacred atmosphere of the temples. The
only way to save the identity of the Marias was to revolt against the invaders. The Maria
Rebellion is considered one of the major tribal rebellions for their expression of particular
identity and socio-cultural specificity.
8 Muria Rebellion
Muria rebellion of 1876 is another revolt that appeared in the region of Bastar. It is a great
booster for the ill treated and suppressed people of all ages, all over the country. In the year
1867, Gopinath Kapardas was selected as the Diwan of the state of Bastar. Gopinath
Kapardas used to exploit the simple and innocent tribal people. The tribal people appealed to
the King to remove the Diwan from the position, but the King did not support their subjects.
Being repeatedly neglected by the King, the Murias were left with only one option: to revolt.
On second March of the year 1876, the raging tribal people enclosed Jagdalpur, the abode of

60
the King. The Muria people besieged the King and blocked all the ways of exit. Surrounded
by all sides, the King faced real inconvenience to inform the British about the unrest that had
generated among the tribal people. Much later, the British Army was sent which rescued the
king and suppressed the revolution. Despite such suppression, the Muria rebellion
encouraged the common people to raise the voice against injustice done against them.

9 Tarapur Rebellion
Tarapur rebellion is a great example of the tribal rebellions in Bastar, the present
Chhattisgarh. The common people of Bastar stood against the foreign rulers. The revolt of
Tarapur took place from 1842 to 1854. The native people of Bastar felt that their local
tradition and culture were being considerably harmed and the social, political as well as
economic interests were being hampered. Thus, they stood against the Anglo-Maratha reign
in order to restore their native culture and protest against imposition of heavy taxes. The local
Diwan, who used to collect the taxes from the common people, became the symbol of
oppression for them. The tribal rage grew more and more, resulting in the Tarapur rebellion.
It was an assertion of tribal identity against the tampering with their traditional aspects of
living. For tribals, the experience of coercive taxation was alien and therefore they opposed
them. As a result of such taxation, the annual tribute paid to the Nagpur rulers in Tarapur had
increased which was opposed by Dalganijan Singh. The latter decided to leave Tarapur after
being pressurised by the Nagpur rulers.
10 Bodo Movement
The Bodos are recognized as a plains tribe in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
The major objective of the Bodo movement was to have a separate state of their own. Since
the colonial period, there had been attempts to subsume the Bodos under the umbrella of
Assamese nationalism. Therefore, it was under the British rule that the Bodos first raised the
demand for a separate homeland along with the hill tribes of the northeast. The formation of
the All Assam Plains Tribal League (AAPTL) in 1933 was evidence enough. Subsequently,
formation of organisations such as the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) in 1952, Plains Tribal
Council of Assam (PTCA), and All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) in 1967 reflected the Bodo
people’s quest for political power and self-determination. The movement of ABSU began
with the slogan “Divide Assam Fifty-Fifty”. In order to spearhead the movement, the All
Bodo Students Union (ABSU) created a political organization called the Bodo People’s

61
Action Committee (BPAC). Initially, the ABSU and PTCA worked in tandem to put forth the
demand for a separate homeland for the Bodos, but ABSU withdrew its support to PTCA in
1979 when they felt that the PTCA had failed to fulfill the aspirations of the Bodo people for
a separate state during the reorganisation process of Assam. This movement officially started
under the leadership of Upendranath Brahma on 2 March 1987; but the movement was
suppressed by the Government and ended up with the creation of Bodoland Autonomous
Council (BAC) through bipartite Bodo Accord in 1993.
11 Jharkhand Movement
The Jharkhand movement in Bihar is a movement of tribal communities consisting of settled
agriculturalists who are sensitised to Vaishnavism. There were major cultural changes in the
life of tribals since 1845 when the Christian missionaries first arrived in Jharkhand. Many
tribes were converted into Christianity and many schools including higher institutions for
both the sexes were established for educating the tribals. The impact of modern education on
the changing aspirations of the tribal boys and girls became evident later. As against such
positive development, the tribals also had to face many problems due to extraction of mineral
wealth from Jharkhand. The region is a rich source of coal and iron. Even bauxite, copper,
asbestos, limestone and graphite are also found there. Coal mining in this region had started
in the year 1856 itself. In the year 1907, the Tata Iron and Steel Factory was established in
Jamshedpur. Since independence, much emphasis was laid on planned industrialization
concentrating on heavy industries especially on the expansion of mining. Interestingly, the
Jharkhand region contributed to 75 percent of the revenue of Bihar. The Government began
acquiring the lands of the tribals, but did not resettle and rehabilitate them. The local people
also felt that the prices of different forest products, which the Government paid them, were
much less. In the course of time, these problems continued and were intensified. In the early
part of the twentieth century, the Jharkhand movement was initiated by the Christian tribal students
and it was later continued by the non-tribals and the non-Christians too.
Interestingly, the Jharkhand movement developed in phases from ethnicity to regionalism
since 1950. The social base of this movement later got broadened to include the non-tribals so
as to transform it from an ethnic to a regional movement (Ghosh 2001).The movement was
based on the demand of autonomous state owing to the exploitation of local tribal people by
dikus or non tribals. It was a result of the interplay between historical, cultural, economic and
political forces which culminated in the emergence of Jharkhand Party in the Chotanagpur

62
division and the Santhal Parganas of Bihar in the late 1940s. The tribal autonomy in the
Jharkhand movement comprises the whole of the Chotanagpur plains, some districts of
Orissa, Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. The formation of the Jharkhand party in 1950 gave a
new direction to political and other welfare activities in the Jharkhand region in Bihar. The
history of Jharkhand movement has passed through four phases since independence: first
from 1947 to 1954, second from 1955 to 1963, third from 1964 to 1969 and forth was 1970
onwards. The Jarkhand Mukti Morcha was formally formed during the first period. It
contested the 1952 general election and emerged as the main opposition in the Bihar
Legislative Assembly. The second phase started with the States Reorganization
Commission’s rejection of the demand for a separate Jharkhand State and ended with the
merger of the Jharkhand party with the Congress Party. During the third phase, there emerged
factions and cleavages among the Jharkhand cadre. The movement which lasted for more
than five decades which started since 1845 and significantly the movement ended with the
formation of new separate Jharkhand State.
12 Bhumkal
The Bhumkal rebellion took place in the year 1910 in the present Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
It was a widespread rebellion. Tribal people of forty six out of the eighty four parganas of the
district of Bastar participated in this movement. According to most of the historians, the
origin of the Bhumkal protest movement was rooted in the previous rebellious movements
that took place in this region. It was a movement based in the earlier struggle of the tribal
people of Bastar to protect and preserve their tradition, culture and customs. The revolt of the
tribal people of Bastar was to reassert their rights on the forests and other natural resources of
this area. It is because all their customs, culture and economic activities depended on their
basic belief about the relation between man and nature. The sudden dispossession of the
forestland since 1908 when the British declared the forests as ‘reserved zones’ initiated the
Bhumkal rebellion.
13 Bhil Rebellion
The Bhils are a tribe of central India, mainly distributed in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,
who traditionally had an identity of guerrilla fighters and warriors. Under the Moghul
Emperors, they could peaceful live the life of a hunter-gatherers; but they faced persecution
under the Marathas. They took to the jungles and became less acquiescent to authority. In
1818, when the British organised the princely states of Central India into the Central India

63
Agency, centred on the town of Neemuch (north-west Madhya Pradesh, close to the border
with Rajasthan), they attempted to bring the Bhils from the hill. But the Bhils did not like
this. The Bhil’s main objection was similar to that of nomadic hunter gatherers anywhere in
the colonised world, whether it is Apache or Sioux in America, Bushmen in South Africa and
aborigines in Australia. Therefore, in 1825 the British created a Bhil Agency, specifically to
deal with them and a Bhil Corps was formed, in an attempt to quell the less cooperative
tribesmen. But the British failed to control them completely and Captain Henry Bowden
Smith died at Neemuch in 1831 because of “wounds received in action against the Bhils”
(Singh, 1972). The Bhils being nomadic hunters operated from thick jungle and the
regimented British forces clearly found them difficult to overcome. The guerrilla war lasted
for over twenty years.

14 Tana Bhagat Movement

Tana Bhagats is a tribal community of Jharkhand. This community were formed by Oaron
saints Jatra Bhagat and Turia Bhagat. In its earlier phase, it was called as Kurukh Dharam.
Kurukh is literally the original religion of the Oraons. The movement was against the
Zamindars, missionaries and British. Tana Bhagats were followers of Mahatma Gandhi and
believes in Non-violence. They opposed the taxes imposed on them by the British and they
staged a Satyagraha (civil disobedience movement) even joined Gandhi’s satyagraha
movement.
15 Nagas Rebellion
Nagas were once head hunters, as they used to cut off the heads of the enemies and preserve
them as trophies. But with the advent of Christianity and education, the Nagas, comprising
more than 30 tribes, have evolved a rich culture and tradition. The Naga national movement
is the consequence of the intermingling of ethnicity, geography, history and most
significantly the indomitable spirit of the Nagas who belong to Mongoloid race under Tibeto-
Burman category. They have customs and traditions which are very different from those of
the plains people. One of the theoretical paradigms of how an ethnic group becomes a nation
is when that group faces a common enemy (Fuchs, 1965). This may be said to be true in the
case of the Nagas as the emergence of their national movement and simultaneously that of
their nation have their moorings in their interaction and contact with the outside world, which
is riven with unpleasant exchanges. Oral tradition indicates that the Nagas fought battles with

64
the people of other plains. In order to protect their indigenous culture, they demanded
independent homeland for the Nagas.
The objective of the NSCN (Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland), that led the
movement, was to establish a Sovereign State by unifying all the Naga inhabited areas in the
North East of India and Northern Burma which the organisation and the people of the area
proposed as Nagalim. Unification of all Naga tribes under one administration and 'liberating'
Nagalim from India is listed as one of the supposed main objectives of the organisation. Its
manifesto is based on the principle of Socialism for economic development and a Baptist
Christian religious outlook. The leaders however had to forgo many of their demands when
the new state of Nagaland was finally formed on 31 January 1980. The name of the
Government was called "The People Republic of Nagaland (Nagalim)".
Munda Rebellion
This rebellion was led by Birsa Munda in the south of Ranchi in the year 1899 against of land
alienation. The “Great Tumult” aimed to establish Munda Raj and independence.
Traditionally, the Mundas enjoyed a preferential rent rate known as the khuntkattidar, which
meant the original clearer of the forest. However, in course of time, the Mundas realized that
this system of khuntkattidar is being corroded by the jagirdars and thikadars who came as
moneylenders and as traders. After the establishment of the British rule, the movement into
the tribal regions by the non-tribals increased. This, in turn, led to increase in the practice of
forced labour. The tribal people became more aware of their rights due to the spread of
education, which was provided by the missionaries. The social cleavage between the
Christian and non-Christian Mundas deepened due to which the solidarity of the tribals got
diluted. Therefore, there were two reasons for the revitalization of the movement, one was
agrarian discontent and the other was the advent of Christianity. The movement aimed to
reconstruct the tribal society from disintegration, which was staring in its face due to the
stress and strains of the colonial rule.

Dongria Kondh’s Struggle:

Dongria Kondh tribe have resided in the Niyamgiri Mountains for generations. They have
sacred and symbiotic relationship with nature. One of the mountains in the Niyamgiri hill
range, Niyam Dongar, is regarded by the tribe to be the abode of their divine God, Niyam
Raja (The King of Law). As a part of their customs, felling trees on mountain tops is
considered taboo and a sign of disrespect to their supreme deity. The peaceful life of the tribe

65
was brought under threat, when on June 7, 2003 Vedanta signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Odisha for the construction of one million ton
per annum alumina refinery, along with coal based power plant in the Lanjigarh region of
Kalahandi district. For the purpose of obtaining bauxite for this alumina refinery, Vedanta
owned Sterlite Industries also entered the picture, with plans to construct an open pit, bauxite
mining plant at the top of the sacred Niyam Dongar Mountain.
The Dongria people clearly understood that any mining activity at the top of the mountain
would cause these perennial streams to dry up. So, they stood together and prevented workers
from Vedanta from entering their sacred hill. They strongly stand against the mining process
in Niyamgiri. The movement against Vedanta was not only lead by the local tribes, but it also
gained massive support from international communities. Organizations like Survival
International, Amnesty International and Foil Vedanta visited the protest site in India
regularly and also organized mass rallies outside the company’s London office. For seven
years, Survival International organized demonstrations at the Annual General Meeting of the
company in London. The organization also launched an international campaign, encouraging
major shareholders of Vedanta Resources to disinvest in the company until it removed its
operations from Niyamgiri. Witnessing the company’s atrocious treatment of the Dongria
Kondh and its involvement in the blatant violation of human rights, many international
investors like the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, Martin Currie, the Church of
England and Marlborough Ethical Fund sold their stocks in the company.

3.5 Women’s Movement in India

Introduction
This module has conceived the multifaceted history of the women’s movement in India
through three conceptual phases: the first, the second and the third and an in-between stage
connecting the first and the second. The classification of phases, serving analytical purposes,
remains grounded on certain contextual-chronological and thematic principles. The
classification of phases, one must remember, do not necessarily invoke a unilinear
evolutionary trail, based on the logic of a gradual proliferation of feminist consciousness
(where each phase is always an ‘improvement’ over the previous one). The feat of a specific
phase, in India, cannot be gauged in reference to a generic index of ‘feminist movement’
across the world. The questions raised in the course of the movement can neither be

66
pigeonholed into the dominant/Western mode of categorizing women’s movement into
liberal, radical or socialist categories nor be seen to follow the same developmental paths.
Movement remains marked by the specific political and discursive contexts traversed by the
multiple per formative possibilities of individual/group of women.

 The First Phase

i) The Early Years
The broader nationalist programme of nation-building largely informed the early phase of
women’s movement in India. The nationalists seemed to think that a colony, which ‘required’
the ‘civilizing mission’ of the colonizer to ‘emancipate’ the native women (subjugated and
oppressed, uneducated and ignorant) from the barbaric tradition, could not build a sovereign
nation without addressing the question of the ‘woman’. The point was to incorporate women
within the men’s discourse of nation building which involved self-determination, statehood,
democracy, progress and modernity.
In the first wave of the feminist movement, Sen writes, “…women’s organizations were able
to draw both on the benefits of modernity (from colonial rulers and male Indian reformers)
and from the idiom of “Indianness” constructed in the nationalist discourse” (Sen 2000: 57).
Both the colonial rulers and nationalist reformers were enthused by the ‘ideals’ of modernity
– to uproot the social evil of sati, sanction widow remarriage, prohibit child marriage,
diminish illiteracy, standardize the age of consent to marriage and guarantee property rights
through legal interventions. The involvement of women in the reform movements demanding
their civil and political rights, largely under the leadership of the nationalists, produced a
‘unique blend of feminism and nationalism’ (Forbes 1998 and 2005, Sen 2000, Chaudhuri
2010). Throughout the country, a few women associations were also established. Under the
leadership of Keshab Chandra Sen (Brahmo Samaj) in Kolkata, Narayan Ganesh
Chandavarkar, Madhav Govind Ranade and R.G. Bhandarkar in Pune and Mahipatram
Rupram Nilkanth and his associates in Ahmedabad organizations were formed to demand
prohibition of child marriage, widow remarriage and women’s education (Sen 2000, Kumar
1993, Mazumdar 2001). By the end of the nineteenth century a group of women, from the
reformed elite families, come to establish a number of women’s organizations.

67
Swarnakumari Devi, the daughter of Devendranath Tagore, institutes the Ladies Society
(1882 Kolkata) for empowering the deprived women. Ramabai Saraswati establishes the
Arya Mahila Samaj (also in 1882) in Pune and Sharda Sadan in Bombay. Sarala Debi
Chaudhurani (daughter of Swarnakumari Devi), the archetype of the first phase of women’s
movement in India (Sen Chaudhuri 2014) – being critical of the women’s meetings held in
conjunction with the National Social Conference – calls attention to the necessity of a distinct
association for the women. In 1910 she establishes Bharat Stree Mahamandal and developed
its branches in Lahore, Karachi, Allahabad, Delhi, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Bankura,
Hazaribagh, Midnapur and Calcutta to unify women from all race, creed, class and party on
the grounds of moral and material progress (Bagal 1964, Sen 2000, Ray 2002).
ii) The Inter-War Years

The first phase of women’s movement in India, during the inter-war years of 1917 and
1945, successfully addresses two significant issues: i) voting rights (1917-1926), and ii)
reform of personal law (1927-29). Edwin Montague, the Secretary of State for India,
proclaims (in 1917) the British government’s intention to include more Indians in the
governing process. Sarojini Naidu (with an all-India delegation of women) and Sarala Devi
Chaudhurani (with the representatives of Bharat Stree Mahamandal) meet Montague and
Chelmsford and appeal for women’s suffrage. They also secure the support of Congress for
women’s franchise (Forbes 1998). Alongside, Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins and Dorothy
Jinarajadasa (Irish Theosophists) jointly establish the Women’s Indian Association (1917):
the first all India women’s association for obtaining voting rights. A delegation sent to
England pursues the Joint Parliamentary Committee to finally remove the sex
disqualification. Travancore-Cochin, a princely state, is the first to offer voting rights to
women in 1920, followed by Madras and Bombay in 1921. In 1926, propertied women in
Bengal get the right to vote.
The All India Women’s Conference was set up in 1927 at the initiative of Margaret
Cousins to attend the issue of women’s education (Basu and Ray 2003). It was soon
comprehended that the issue of education remains tagged to the general social problems
including purdah, child marriage, and other social customs. AIWC thus conducted a
campaign to rise the age of marriage. This resulted in the passing of the Sarda Act in 1929.
AIWC also began to campaign for the reformation of the personal law. Facing resistance to a
common civil law, it called for the reform of Hindu laws forbidding polygamy, offering
women the right to divorce and to inherit property. An unrelenting campaign for these

68
reforms eventually saw the passing of the Hindu Code Bills in the 1950s (several laws passed
to reform Hindu Personal Law). Samita Sen (2000) has identified this phase of the
movement, tagged to the wider nationalist movement, represented by the upper caste/class
women as ‘social feminism’. The nationalist discourse authorized the Hindu elite women to
speak on behalf of ‘Indian women’ from a common stand.
iii) The Call for Swaraj
The “petition politics” of the 1920s had outlived its efficacy by the 1930s. The intensity of
the movement petered out by the 1940s when the weight of the nationalist struggle trampled
feminist issues, and their diverse range of activities broke the purported unity of “Indian
women”. There was a visible departure from the radical probes of an earlier period to a time
when the Hindu Code Bill was being opposed not just by conservatives but by many within
the Indian National Congress (Sen 2010). During this decade, the fight against colonial rule
gained height and women’s participation in nationalist movement assumed a new shape.
Women had joined Congress sessions, took part in the Swadeshi (1905-11) and the Home
Rule Movement earlier. Yet their mass participation never

69
happened before the Gandhian call for the non-co-operation movement, rural satyagrahas,
salt satyagraha, civil disobedience movement, and quit India movement. Women organized
meetings, rallies, picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops, and were jailed in numbers (Kumar
1993). During the whole period, the rapidly growing women’s organisations such as Desh
Sevika Sangh, Nari Satyagraha Samiti, Mahila Rashtriya Sangh, Ladies Picketing Board, Stri
Swarajya Sangh and Swayam Sevika Sangh organised the mass boycott of foreign cloth and
liquor (Kumar 1993). Now non-violence became a dominant mode of protest. While
thousands of women joined the freedom movement in response to Gandhi’s call, there were
others who could not accept his creed of non-violence and joined revolutionary or terrorist
groups. Subhash Chandra Bose also claimed for the participation of women in the women’s
regiment of the Azad Hind Fauj.
Now a large section of women came out of their home to join the mass movements. This
exposed the nationalists to a host of perturbing questions about the contradictory role of
women in the ‘contradictory’ realms of the public and the private. The nationalists had to
review the question of woman’s participation, now directly in the realm of public, in terms of
the sustenance of the age-old feminine virtues based on sexual purity (that could only be
retained by remaining at home). The political practices of both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash
Chandra Bose, though oppositional in nature, tried to retain the iconic role of the ‘Indian
woman’ based on ‘sexual purity’. Gandhi resorted to a clear cut distinction between two sets
of woman; one is the married woman who is both a mother and wife involved in the
nationalist activities from within the home, while the other is the sexually inactive unmarried
woman or widow who has sacrificed her familial ties in the name of the nation (Patel 1985).
Bose, who particularly supported female activism, adhered to the Gandhian stance of
classifying women on the ground of sexuality. Emphasizing the active participation of mother
rendering support and sister rendering direct assistance, he did not accommodate the sexually
active “wives” in his scheme (Forbes 1984).
Nevertheless, the reform ideals and nationalist commitments had brought a number of women
out of their domestic confinements. There is no account of the magnitude and severity of
oppositions these women had to endure in the society in general and their families in
particular (Gandhi and Shah 1992). Many scholars have rightly pointed at the subservient
nature of the first phase. “[T]he independence of the country and of women had become so
intertwined”, observes Vina Mazumdar, “as to be identical” (2001: 135). Yet, the first phase
of feminist movement in India cannot fully be circumscribed within the scope of nationalism.
The history of the Indian national movement and the women’s movement have overlapped at

70
many points yet opposed in many others. One can ponder on the feminist possibilities of the
first wave keeping in mind the overall context of colonization and discourses of nation-
building (Sen Chaudhuri 2010).
iv) Post Independence (linking the first and the second phase)
The ‘cause’ of women remained a national concern in the post independent India. The
principle of gender equality adopted in the Fundamental Rights Resolution of 1931, was later
secured as a constitutional measure guaranteeing “Equality between the sexes” (Articles 14
and 16). Various administrative bodies were also set up for the creation of opportunities for
women. The question remains: who were these women the government of India were aiming
at? Now, there had been a subtle shift of attention of the nationalist elites: from the upper and
middle class women in the early 19th century – to the women at large in the Gandhian
politics – culminating in marking the poor woman as the icon of independent India. Women’s
Role in a Planned Economy (WRPE) happened to be the first Plan on women, by the
National Planning Committee (NPC) 1938. Though it drew attention to the poor women
(urban and rural workers), oriented in a ‘developmental model’ it remained incapable to
identify their problems. Similarly the issue of women in the Ford Foundation
community development programmes 1950s and 60s was a welfare mission rather an effort to
empower them (John 1996). When the aspiration for the new governmental policies gradually
dissipated, by 1960s, India witnessed a chain of revolt and unrest (peasant movements, anti-
price-rise agitation in Kolkata, Bombay and Gujarat). During this time, the Nehru
government had also to negotiate with the Tebhaga and Telengana Peasant Movement and a
war against China (1962). Post-independence, 1950s and 60s, observed a relative lull in the
course of women’s movement (Lateef 1977, Mazumdar 1985). The feminists were now more
splintered than ever before. No longer was there a common enemy to fight against.
Discrimination of gender was still not an independent issue clearly distinguishable from other
socio-political problems. While many women still sought the membership of the congress
government, there were various other groups increasingly seeking their autonomy.
All the way through women’ movement continued in fragments till the culmination of the
new women’s liberation movement in the late seventies. This has its roots in the late sixties
radicalization of the student, farmer, trade union and dalit politics (Patel 2002). Since the
early seventies, quite a few movements on the radical left (Naxalbari movement in West
Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab) and the socialist fronts had interesting
implications for women’s movement including the growth of the various women’s

71
organizations (Kumar 1993). Shramik Sangathana (followed by the Shahada agitation 1970s),
The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA by Ela Bhatt followed by trade union
movement in 1972, Ahmedabad) and many other organizations were formed. The anti price-
rise movement, organized by the students in Gujarat, was joined by thousands of middle class
women taking the shape of the Nav Nirman movement of 1974 (Kumar 1993). This was
stimulated in Bihar, in the name of Sampoorna Kranti Movement, under the leadership of the
Gandhian leader, Jay Prakash Narayan. In Delhi, a significant group of women leadership
evolved in the radical students’ movement and the democratic rights movement. Women in
different political parties, all over India, were gradually questioning the patriarchal
predispositions of their organisations. In 1973 Mrinal Gore from the Socialist Party along
with other women from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) came to form the United
Women’s Anti-Price Rise Front (which turned into a women’s mass movement seeking
consumer protection). In 1973-74 the Maoist women established the Progressive
Organisation of Women, instigating a feminist critique of the radical leftist politics (Kumar
1995, Sen 2000). On the other corner of the country, the Chipko movement, initiated in 1973
and joined by women in 1974, laid a milestone for the women’s movement in India. The
Chipko (embrace the tree) movement, a non-violent environmental protest against
commercial logging in the Himalayas, holds a deeper meaning for the eco-feminists (Shiva
1986, Mellor 2008, Kumar 1995). It is considered as the first political-environmental
movement led by the women representing their ‘deep connection’ with nature (shaped by
their gendered role of nurturing).
Series of such responses, covertly or overtly anti-patriarchal, gradually paved the way for the
autonomous women’s movement surfacing by the late seventies. These independent women’s
groups could come out only after the emergency rule got over by 1977 (Patel 2002). Yet
neither the gravity of these movements nor the plight of women throughout the country could
formally be conceded before the publication of the Towards Equality Report (1974): a
signpost for the women’s movement in India.

72
 The Second Phase

i) The Towards Equality Report

The United Nations organised the World Conference on Women in Mexico (1975) and
acknowledged 1975–1985 as the International Decade of the Woman. As a part of the ‘World
Plan of Action’ the National Committee on the Status of Women was set up in India to look
at the ‘status of women’ in the country. The Committee published and presented the Towards
Equality Report (1974) in the parliament. The report, prepared by the scholars with an
interdisciplinary outlook, exposed the abysmal state of women in contemporary India
manifested in: the declining sex ratio, the increasing rate of female mortality and morbidity,
economic marginalisation of women and the evils of discriminatory personal laws. It made
several recommendations vindicating the role of the government in achieving ‘gender
equality’ in the demographic legal, economic, educational, political, and media spheres
(through the: eradication of dowry, polygamy, bigamy, child marriage - provisions for
crèches, better working conditions, equal pay for equal work - legal reforms on divorce,
maintenance, inheritance, adoption, guardianship, maternity benefits - establishment of the
Uniform Civil Code - universalization of education and so on). But the report did not
comment on violence against women in the civil society and by the custodians of law and
order (Patel 1985). However it got a remarkable response from the state and media. Research
bodies like the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) came up with financial
support for women related research. Yet even after a quarter century, as per the report of the
National Commission for Women entitled Towards Equality: The Unfinished Agenda, the
Status of Women in India 2001, much of these recommendations remain unfulfilled. The
publication of the Towards Equality Report (1974) and The Convention on the Abolition of
all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979 CEDAW) offered the moral and rational
basis of a new wave of autonomous women’s movement manifested both in the activist and
the academic spheres. This almost overlapped with the declaration of the ‘emergency rule’,
(1975-77) by the then prime minister Ms. Indira Gandhi, suspending the civil liberties of the
citizens. By the time the ‘emergency’ was withdrawn in 1977, a number of women’s groups
grew up – paving the way for the autonomous women’s movement. Breaking the forced
inaction, of the emergency years, Indian media now came to report the violence committed
against women during all this time (Patel 1985).

73
The whole process was taken to its heights when the feminists all over the country, belonging
primarily to the upper/middle caste/class, could carry the cause of the women across the
streets- railway stations-universities-parliament achieving a platform-identity-language they
never had before. The autonomous women’s movement emphasizes – in contrast to the
women’s organizations affiliated to the political parties, government or NGOs – the
‘women’s only’ issues. The affiliated organizations render women’s issues subservient to the
wider programmes of the parental body. Though the leaders of autonomous women’s
movements did not forget the multiple axes of discriminations (class, caste, race) affecting
women, by no means did they conceptually subordinate women’s concerns to other causes.
The autonomous women’s movements, largely spearheaded by the educated middle class,
took up several women’s issues committed to the cause of ‘shared sisterhood’: ‘facilitating’
the ‘other’ woman and often speaking on their behalf. This has far reaching consequences for
the course of feminist politics in India. The hegemonic impulses of the ‘Indian’ feminism
both in the first and the second phase, as rightly been marked out in the dalit feminist
movements of the 1990s, to represent the ‘Indian’ women have made it parochial. Gail
Omvedt (1980), while talking about the role of middle-class feminist organisations, observed
that though they were not grass root mass organisations, they had a momentous role to play.
i) Affiliated Women’s Organizations
While some women’s movements in India have purposively refrained from allying with
political parties, others have worked closely with them. Some have feared that a close
relationship with political parties might lead to their cooptation and de-radicalization, while
others have seen parties as vital for advancing women’s political interests. Earlier on the All-
India Women’s Conference, in a “harmonious alliance” with the male National Congress
leadership, approved the independent Indian state as an ally (Sen 2000). Later, the National
Federation of Indian Women (NFIW 1954) affiliated to the CPI (after the split), came to play
a significant role. It was as late in 1981 that the CPI (M) formed the All India Democratic
Women’s Association (AIDWA). Throughout the 1970s, the CPI (M) did not have an
organized women’s wing. Although officially formed in 1981, AIDWA considers its
existence from the formation of the Mahila Atmaraksha Samity (MARS) in 1943 (dominated
by women from the still underground Communist Party) and celebrated its fiftieth
anniversary in 1993. Unlike its predecessors, AIDWA accepted members who were not
affiliated to the CPI (M). Initiated with the slogan of “Equality, Democracy, and Women’s
Liberation”, it collaborated actively with the autonomous women’s groups and took up the

74
question of violence against women. The Regional affiliates of All India Democratic
Women’s Association include Paschimbangla Ganatantrik Mahila Samiti (PBGMS West
Bengal), Ganatantrik Nari Samiti (Tripura), Janwadi Mahila Sanghatan (Maharashtra), etc.
However these organizational movements did not coalesce into any significant mass
mobilization of women on gender issues. Agitation over women’s issues remained limited to
the urban elite women, while poor women were mobilized for class or nationalist causes. The
questioning (though within limits) of gender roles that persisted in early communist groups
later dissipated. In its “mass face”, the Communist Party thus began to be questioned on
account of its “patriarchal leanings” (Sen 2000). ‘Feminism’ often remained a controversial
word in the women’s movement in India, as well as in the party allied organizations.
Avowedly, AIDWA was not a feminist organisation though an instrument forged to struggle
for the emancipation of women. The question remains how successful have women’s
movements been in strengthening the parties’ commitments to gender equality when they
have tried to do so? The biggest obstacle that confronts any serious attempt to challenge
gender inequality through the party system is that parties draw on women’s participation as
individuals, not as members of a group that has suffered discrimination. If women’s
participation in party based politics undermines women’s sense of collective identity (Basu
2005), how would the autonomous organizations strive against this trend (Sen Chaudhuri
2007)?
ii) The Autonomous Women’s Movement
Contrary to the formal structural mandate of the affiliated organizations – the autonomous
groups, representing women across classes-castes-communities, were coupled together
through ‘informal networking’ and a rising ‘feminist press’. Their mode of communication
and commitment had a leftist charge. Oriented towards pan-Indian protests, throughout the
1970-80s, the autonomous groups primarily addressed: violence against women (Sen 2000)
and the overtly patriarchal nature of the society. They addressed the questions of sexual
oppression and violence against women in the form of dowry killings/deaths, bride burning,
rape, sati, honour killing and so on. It is interesting to note that, in the 1980s, almost all
campaigns against violence on women resulted in pro-women legislations (Agnes 1992). The
second phase of women’s movement is significant for its ‘real’ achievements both in the form
of consciousness raising and legal enactments. In the next section, we would discuss about
some of the protest movements resulting in the major legal enactments of the 1980s

75
(following Agnes 1992, Desai and Patel 1985, Patel 1985, 2002, Sharma 1989, Lerner 1981,
Forbes 1998).
iii) 1980s: the Decade of Pro-Woman Enactments
The country wide anti-rape movement was inflicted by the Supreme Court judgment
acquitting two policemen accused of raping a minor tribal girl, Mathura, despite the fact that
the High Court had indicted them. Four eminent lawyers addressed an open letter to the Chief
Justice of India protesting the unjust decision. This flared-up a series of country-wide
demonstrations by the autonomous women’s organisations like Nari Niryatana Pratirodh
Mancha (Kolkata), Progressive Organization of Women (Hyderabad), Forum Against
Oppression of Women (Mumbai), Stree Sangharsh, Samata and Saheli (Delhi), Stree Shakti
Sangathana (Hyderabad), Vimochana (Banglore). Several other rape cases became parts of
this campaign where redefining ‘consent’ in a rape trial was one of the key issues. After long
discussions with women’s groups, the rape law was amended in 1983 by the government of
India. The late 1970s saw the growth of a movement against dowry and the violence against
women in the marital home. POW, Stree Sangharsh, Mahila Dakshita Samiti, Dahej Virodhi
Chetna Mandal organized public protests against dowry deaths which received wide media
coverage. In the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the definition of ‘dowry’ was too narrow
and vague. Continued movement of the women’s organizations succeeded in getting the
dowry law amended in 1984 and then again in 1986. Madhushree Dutta, a women’s
movement activist was assaulted by few men, late in the night, in a railway station. Without
supporting her, the police labelled her as a ‘prostitute’ soliciting in a public place. This was
followed by a series of demonstrations against the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women
and Girls (SIT) Act, 1956 which penalises the victim on the grounds of her immoral nature.
Eventually the act was amended and given a new name: The Immoral Traffic (Prevention)
Act, 1988.

Responding to the protests of the women’s movement against deprecating portrayal of

women in the media, the Act against Indecent Representation of Women came into effect in
1987. An extensive protest against the public murder of Roop Kanwar, an 18-year old
Rajasthani girl, was followed by the1988 Sati (Prevention) Act. The 1971 Medical
Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act provided women the right to safe, scientific and legal
abortions. However, this right got associated to female foeticide. Campaigns against this
resulted in a central legislation banning pre-natal sex selection techniques facilitating female

76
foeticide. While addressing the problems pertaining to marriage, divorce, maintenance,
alimony, property rights, custody and guardianship rights, the misogynist nature of the
existing personal and customary laws came into open. All personal laws help persisting
patriarchy, patriliny and patrilocality. This culminated to a nation-wide, still on-going, debate
on the Uniform Civil Code. For years together the women’s organizations fought to see the
Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act getting passed in 1986 overriding the
Supreme Court decision in the Shah Bano case. Flavia Agnes (1992: WS 19)) has rightly
observed: “[i]f oppression could be tackled by passing laws, then this decade would be
adjudged a golden period for Indian women, when protective laws were offered on a platter”.
The enactment or amendments of laws, always retaining the basic patriarchal structure, fail to
address the problems of the women. The onus of this failure rests largely on the flawed laws:
emerging as a ‘token’ rather as a ‘true’ concern for women. The activists, often without
considering the causes and consequences of these enactments, had to accept them as a way in
to ‘empowerment’ (Agnes 1992).
iv) The rise of Women’s Studies as an Academic Discipline
Over the years, it gradually came to be realised that mere enactments of laws, without proper
consciousness and education among women, does not make much sense. On the one hand,
this showed women’s movement the way to take up a more resolute stance towards legal
literacy and education, gender sensitization of textbooks and media. While on the other,
perhaps the significance of academic interventions was also felt. This along with the
governmental support for women related research paved the way for the discipline of
women’s studies to flourish. Following the ‘Towards Equality’ report, several micro-studies
were carried out all over the country which led to the growth of this new area of study. The
United Nation Mid Decade Conference in Copenhagen in 1980 also vindicated the need for
the discipline of women’s studies. The first National Conference of the Association of
Women’s Studies, an institution of women academics and activists involved in research and
teaching, was held in 1981 underscoring the necessity of offering of Women’s Studies
courses at the universities. At that time, there were only a few Women’s Studies centres at
universities like the Research Centre for Women’s Studies at the SNDT Women’s University,
Mumbai and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, also in Mumbai. Gradually quite a few
universities and colleges opened up women’s study centres. During the last four decades a
substantive number of women related research projects, conferences, seminars were
organized and books, journals, teaching materials were published. Unlike other social

77
sciences women’s studies is an avowedly value loaded discipline committed to the cause of
women (Sharma 1989, Basu 2003). Vina Mazumdar considered women’s studies, the
academic arms of the women’s movement, as a tool to transform the women’s perceptions
about themselves and people’s perception about women (1985).
By the end of 1980s there has been a wider recognition of the issue of women’s rights and
equality among genders. The women’s movements comprising of autonomous women’s
organisations, affiliated women’s groups and women’s studies centres have played no small
role in bringing about this change. The second phase, marked by the autonomous women’s
movement, primarily had an urban middle/ upper class/caste leadership- appeal. Yet, it had
invoked a strong sense of ‘shared sisterhood’ (although burdened with its own problems).
Conceivably this underlying concord, among

disparate groups, emanated from the issue of ‘violence against women’: an experience shared
by the women across stratifications. Post 1990s – in the face of the dalit feminist and LGBT
movements, rise of the right wing women’s associations and NGOs, and continued debates
around Uniform Civil Code and Reservations – witnessed a collapse of this ‘unity’. Yet
women’s movement continued – addressing wide ranging issues and representing disparate
groups – it marked out a new phase.

 The Third Phase

The 1990s happen to be a breaking point in the politico-economy of India: the decade of
economic liberalisation, the anti-Mandal agitation, the rise to power of the Bharatiya Janata
Party, emergence of the caste based parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi
Party, demolition of the Babri Masjid and communal riots. Mary John (2000: 3829) observes
that “[t]he growing economic and social disparities that are a hallmark of liberalisation”
points at “... the reality that patriarchy in contemporary society is neither a single monolith
nor a set of discrete unconnected enclaves, but rather, a complex articulation of unequal
patriarchies”. Amidst this, the women in India, although no longer tied together by a
purported unity, have made persistent protests against specific issues affecting their lives.

i) The Continued Legal Battle

The issues raised by the women’s movement in the 1970s and 1980s could not still be
resolved. They remain, even confounded by the trends of globalization and communalism, as

78
some of the major concerns of the 1990s. Pro-woman legislations still remain a major
concern for the activists throughout the country. Since the All India Women’s Conference in
1937, there have been disparate responses of the women’s movement to the Uniform Civil
Code for all religious communities. This demand is sustained by the women’s movement in
the late 1980s until the 1990s when it acquired a different shape. Conceding the existence of
the homosexual couples, the heterosexual couples outside marriage and multiple other modes
of living, the expression ‘uniform’ has been rejected from the debate in the 1990s. Saheli,
People’s Union for Democratic Rights (Delhi), Forum Against Oppression of Women
(Bombay), Working Group on Women’s Rights (Delhi) now demand for a
negotiable/common/gender-just/egalitarian code rather than ‘uniform’ code (Menon 1998).
On the other hand, a long thirty years of movement demanding Protection of Women from
Domestic Violence resulted in an Act in 2005. Continued protests against female foeticide
resulted in the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Technique Act (2002). The Public
Interest Litigations to address sexual harassment at work place registered by the NGOs
resulted to the 1997 Supreme Court directives for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at
Workplace. The Vishakha guideline, as it was popularly known, later took the shape of a law:
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act
2013. The 73rd and the 74th amendments to the Constitution (assuring local self-governance)
provided a 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in the Panchayat and Nagarpalika
bodies. Women at the ‘grass roots’ of the society were provided with the opportunity to be a
part of formal decision making and governance. Yet, Women’s Reservation Bill or the 81st
Constitutional Amendment Bill 1996, seeking to reserve one-third seats for women in
Parliament, has been resisted from various sections of the society. The matter was soon
caught up within the caste politics demanding special quotas for the women of the other
backward classes and minorities. Once again, it came into open that the homogenous
category “Indian women” does not carry any meaning. Different women with oppositional
interests, representing different caste-community-class-religion-party, inhabit the sub-
continent. For the women’s movement, as Mary John observes (2000: 3829) “[t]his is nothing
less than an opportunity to link – rather than oppose – women’s rights to rights based on
caste, class or minority status in the broader context of a common democratic struggle”.

79
ii) The Dalit Feminist Movement

This realization could be conceived as a consequence of the rise of the dalit feminists calling
attention to the caste-blind, dominant Hindu predispositions of the women’s movement in
India. The agenda of the women’s movement at the national level has always been framed by
the upper-caste, middle/upper class women’s perspectives effacing the identity of the dalit
women and identifying the lower caste as the ‘rapacious’ male who becomes the legitimate
object of feminist rage (Tharu and Niranjana 1996). The National Federation of Dalit Women
(NFDW), established in 1995, has compelled the activists to attend to the question of caste.
Dalit feminists articulated the three-fold nature oppression of Dalit women by: 1) upper
castes, 2) upper class, and 3) men of their own castes. Dalit Mahila Samiti (DMS) organizes a
movement of the Dalit women of Uttar Pradesh. It is supported by Vanangana, a feminist
NGO that has its roots in the Mahila Samakhya (MS) programme, which was launched by the
Government of India in the late 1980’s to empower women through the popular education
(Chaudhury 2004). Reprimanding the elitist accent of the contemporary feminists’ eminent
social scientists like Gopal Guru (1995) and Sharmila Rege (1998) offered significant
insights for a dalit standpoint approach. Representing the voice of the ‘differently talking’
dalit women, the dalit standpoint articulates against the hegemonic middle caste-class women
and the patriarchal upper-caste/dalit men.

iii) Rightist Women’s Organizations

Since the decade of the 1990s there has been a significant rise of a kind of militant
‘feminism’ steered by the women’s wings of some Hindu fundamentalist groups
(Rashtrasevika Samity of RSS, Durga Vahini of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Mohila Aghadi
of Shiv Sena). Based on the religious fundamentalist claims, these women’s groups have
deeply strained the women’s movement of the country. They call for an inversion of the time-
honoured ‘self-abnegation’ of the upper caste Hindu women. Assuming a new authority to
awaken ‘Hindutva’ and salvage the birth place of Rama, they step out of their conventional
image as the ‘victimized Hindu woman’ (Roy 2001). The acclamation of the self is grounded
on the revival of the Hindu nationalist icon of Bharatmata – the reincarnation of the devi: (the
abode of shakti) strong, courageous, and conscientious. Their assertions, in strange ways, cart
off the prospects of problematizing gender-based inequalities and limit the scope of women’s

80
movement (Kumar 1994, Setalvad, 1996, Tharu and Niranjana 1996, Ghosal Guha 2005).
According to Tanika Sarkar (2002: 193), the thrust of these rightist women’s organizations
“... is to obliterate the notion of selfhood, to erase concern with social and gender justice and
to situate the public, political, extra-domestic identity on authoritarian community commands
and a totalitarian model of individual existence, every particle of which is derived from an
all-male organization which not only teaches her about politics but also about religion, human
relationships and child rearing”.
iv) Protesting Globalization
The women’s movement countered the open economic policy 1990s with widespread
agitation focusing largely on the withdrawal of the state from the social sector, erosion of
food security and the adverse effects of globalization and Structural Adjustment Policies
(SAP) on the women in India. In March 2000, through the initiatives of the six national level
women’s organisations including the CWDS, some ninety women’s groups and organisations
were signatory to a document prepared for the Global March 2000. Again the 2004 Forum
provided a meeting ground for peasant, workers, women’s, dalit and environmental
movements to come together against the “capitalist led globalization”. During 1970s and
1980s the women’s movement highlighted the economic marginalisation of the women. In
the 1990, the women’s movement started demanding its legitimate place within the
mainstream with its own agenda of empowerment. Since the 1990s several women’s
organisations in the form of foreign aided Non Government Organizations (NGO) came up.
The funding agencies by and large come to determine their course of actions. The earlier
generation of activists abhor ‘NGOisation’, largely regulated by the foreign capital, for
dissipating the force of women’s movement (Mehrotra 2002).
 The LGBT Movement
Increasing AIDS consciousness in the late 1980s necessitates the widening of the discourse
on sexuality beyond violence against women and population control. Internationally funded
HIV/AIDS projects were taken up by many NGOs. In Kolkata, the Durbar Mahila
Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), emanated from a Government of India STD-HIV
intervention project, now works as a women sex workers’ union demanding the right to sex
work. In the 1990s, the LGBT (Lesbian-gay-bisexual-transsexual) movement was gradually
put in order, providing spaces for the political

81
expression of the ‘non-normative sexualities’: around the rights of same-sex people, the hijras
and the kothis. The movement has induced the “counter-heteronormative” arguments
claiming to revoke the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which penalizes homosexual
sexual acts (Menon 2009: 98). In 2009, the Delhi High Court had decriminalised
homosexuality between two consenting adults in private. In December 2013, however, setting
aside the 2009 judgement, the Supreme Court endorses the constitutional validity of the penal
provision against same-sex practices.
Questioning heteronormativity is now an inalienable part of the agenda of the different
strands of women’s movement in the country. Underlying this broad agreement there are
internal strains and discrepancies. The interfaces of the women’s movement with the
struggles of queer and the LGBT are often fraught with tension. If the issue of sexuality is not
denigrated as an ‘elitist concern’, the impulse of integrating diverse sexual proclivities and
practices tend to efface their specific identities and politics.

3.6 Environmental Movements in India –

 Introduction
Environmental movements in India have emerged from 1970s onwards as critiques of
state sponsored forms of development. Natural resource based conflicts over the access and
use of natural resources in different parts of the country lie at the centre of these
environmental movements. These movements have resisted ‘increasing commodification and
monopolization of natural resources like land, water, forests, their unsustainable use and
unequal distribution, exploitative power relations, the centralization of decision making and
disempowerment of communities caused by the development process. They asserted people’s
rights over natural rights and decision making processes (Sangvai 2007: 111). However we
cannot speak of a singular trajectory of the environmental movement in India, as the
environmental discourse is constituted of multi-sited events, a range of practices, political and
institutional contexts, a diversity of actors and frameworks of thinking and intervention
(Brara 2005). The situation gets additionally complicated when ‘actions deemed as
environmental cross cut parallel forms of collective actions in the field of ethnicity, gender,
regional autonomy, labour and human rights’ (Dwivedi 2001).
Environmental movements in the West have been emphasizing ideas of conservation, deep
ecology, quality of life and past-materialistic values. Therefore, they have been understood

82
more as new social movements which are believed to gather support along lines of ‘personal
and moral conviction’ and not relate to class per se. But ecological movements in India show
continuities with the classical social movements while exhibiting some features of new social
movements. Although they appeal to certain universal values, ecological struggles have been
found to affect certain classes of people more, giving importance to the question ‘who should
sacrifice and for whose benefit?’ In fact, the ecological struggles have acted as a medium
through which the tribals, peasants, backward castes, fisherman or people displaced from
their means of livelihood due to large projects, along with organized and unorganized
workers, small entrepreneurs and manufacturers and all those who are surviving on land,
forests, rivers, ponds and sea and other local resources stake their claim to these natural
resources. In short, in the words of Ranjit Dwivedi, ‘environment movement is best
understood as an ‘envelope’ as it encompasses a variety of socially and discursively
constructed ideologies and actions, theories and practices’ (2008: 12).
 Emergence of Environmental Movements in India: A short history
The emergence of environmental movements in India can be traced back to the British
period, though they were not known as ‘environmental movements’ then. People’s bitter
resistance to the taking over of large areas by the colonial state to put it to intensive forms of
resource use like commercial forestry are quite well known. This led to prolonged fights and
social conflicts between the colonial state and its subjects. The British tried to restrict access
to forests, common lands, forest produce which came to be construed as an infringement of
customary rights of forest dwellers, hunter gatherers, nomadic and pastoral communities,
farmers etc, jeopardized their survival and resulted in peasant rebellions. These uprisings
were not understood as environmental movements as such, but they contained elements for
which they could be considered as precursors of later day ecological struggles. For example,
in the years following the World War I, people resisted acquisition of land by the Tatas for
building a dam at Mulshi, near Pune, which would supply power to the city of Bombay. It has
come to be known as one of the earliest environmental movements in India. Senapati Bapat, a
Congress man, led the local people and succeeded in halting the construction of the dam for
nearly a year till the Bombay government promulgated an ordinance that the Tatas could
acquire land on payment of compensation.

This caused a split in the movement, whereby one section, namely the Brahmin landlords of
Pune, who owned lands in the Mulshi valley, were willing to part with their land for the

83
project in return for compensation whereas the cultivators and their leaders were totally
opposed to the idea. Peasants had to give in being opposed by the power company, the British
government and the landlords; but the movement succeeded in securing reasonable
compensation from the Tatas in exchange of land. They did not proceed with dam building in
other sites subsequently.
The emergence of the environmental movements in post independent India during the
1970s was a response to the nature of policies of development and governance followed by
the nation state. The process of economic development led to more intensive resource use.
According to Gadgil and Guha (1994), earlier the conflicts had emerged out of competing
claims over the forests, now a distinct ecological dimension was added to these socio-
political conflicts as they took place in the context of a dwindling resource base affecting the
poor peasants and tribals. In independent India another kind of conflict which has evoked
huge popular response pertained to the social consequences of the river valley projects.
According to an estimate, given by Gadgil and Guha (1994: 8), till about mid 90s around 11.5
million people have been displaced due to building of dams without any thought of
compensation or rehabilitation. Therefore, movements representing dam displaced people
have gained in importance over the past 30 years. Although the displacement caused by dams
is said to be for greater good, the Indian villager today is reluctant to make way without
resistance.
In the contemporary period characterized by globalization, what marks the attitude
towards nature and its resources is the profit motive of the private multinational companies.
The gradual withdrawal of the state making way for private extractive capital has meant an
increase in assault on nature and natural resources and a near total disregard for the
ecosystem people who live close to it. Hence we see violent conflicts leading to even deaths
of the people who are willing to lay down their lives protecting their land, culture, identities
and ways of life.
 Forms of Environmental Conflicts

In the Indian context environmental movements have arisen in a number of sectors as a result
of the nature of development followed by the Indian state. We may discuss the following
major sectors:
a) Conflicts over forests: This issue dominated the early years of the environmental
movements’ discourse. For the first 20 years, the question of ‘forests for whom and for
84
what?’ animated a series of protests which swept the Himalayan region in the early 1970s.
The Chipko movement ‘reflected the widespread resentment among the hill peasantry
directed at State forest policies which had consistently favoured outside commercial interests
at the expense of their own subsistence needs for fuel, firewood and timber’ (Gadgil and
Guha 1994: 104). It brought into focus wide ranging issues which had environmental
implications. It also inspired a series of conflicts in the tribal dominated Central Indian
regions like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra where the dependence on the
forests was much more direct. This period also saw the growth of commercial forestry in the
form of monocultures of eucalyptus.
Popular movements which defended customary rights of the forest dwellers (over forests)
aimed at two things: a) they claimed that the forests which had been acquired by the State in
the name of forest management be returned to the people so that they can manage it without
the intervention of the forest department, and b) they opposed the commercialization of
forests, emphasizing the subsistence orientation of the communities who were dependent on
it. Thus, the period after independence, though marked by greater talk of people’s
participation and ecological security, also saw an increase in competing sets of demands over
the forests and its produce.
In the context of globalization, India’s environmental resources are under siege. This
period has seen an increase in the rapacious intent of the state and private capital to use
India’s natural resources without bothering to be accountable in any way. In fact, in February
2013, the Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a circular that it would not be
mandatory for the Grama Sabhas to give permission for diversion of forest land to be used for
linear infrastructural development projects such as roads, canals, power transmission lines
etc. This circular violated an important clause of the Forest Rights Act 2006. In another
instance, the Minister of Environment and Forests was pushed out to make way for a new
minister who by her own admission granted ‘forest clearance’ to 754 out of 828 projects after
2011 within a period of just 18 months (EPW 2013). For example, there is a lot of resentment
among people in Sambalpur district of Orissa as the government has granted permission to
build roads for laying a water pipeline through a one hundred year old community managed
forest. ‘Development at all costs’ with the help of private capital, is the new slogan in support
of globalization induced industrialization, which will make India one of the fastest growing
economies in the world. Significantly, enhanced mining, exploitation of marine resources,
commercialization of agriculture and other processes have been the direct results of trying to

85
rapidly increase export earnings. The logic of the current phase of globalization dominated by
profit interest is based on externalization of environmental and social costs of development
(Wani and Kothari 2008). Therefore, once again, we have a renewed spate of environmental
movements in different parts of the country.
b) Movements in Mining Sector: Exploitation of mineral resources especially open cast
mining in the sensitive watersheds of Himalayas, Western Ghats and Central India has caused
a lot of environmental damage. People’s protests in these regions opposing the reckless effect
of mining leading to their physical and economic survival have been documented by many
scholars (Shiva and Bandyopadhyay 1988, Gadgil and Guha 1995). Notable among these was
the successful resistance against limestone quarrying in the Doon Valley which led the
Supreme Court to pass a judgement circumscribing the area of mining. All but 6 mines were
closed. But movements against mining everywhere not managed to garner the same kind of
attention either from the media or from the judiciary. For example, mining of soapstone and
magnesium in other interior places like Almora and Pithoragarh districts of Kumaon leading
to degradation of common forest and pasture land, a reduction in the local access to fuel,
fodder and water continued apace. Social activists and villagers in the area have struggled
hard to raise the consciousness of the villagers and the state authorities which eventually led
to the closure of several mines in the area. Subsequently villagers have turned their energies
towards land reclamation through afforestation.
In the more recent years, mining in Orissa has been at the heart of many people’s
struggles. Orissa is one of the most mineral rich states and contains more than half of the
bauxite reserves and about one-third of the iron ore reserves of our country. Quite like its
neighbours like Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, Orissa is expecting large revenues from its
mineral resources and is also inviting steel, aluminium and power companies to the state with
promises of land, cheap power and easy access to the raw materials. Expectedly so, the state
is witnessing a lot of resistance from its people at Kashipur, Niyamgiri, Kalinganagar,
Jagatsinghpur who stand to lose their land, livelihood, social, religious and cultural rights to
foreign multinational companies like Vedanta and Posco.
In the era immediately after independence, it was the state who led this process of
displacement and dispossession due to the building of dams, military establishments, and iron
and steel plants and other such public sector industries. Two almost year-long people’s
struggles at Gandhamardan Hills in Sambalpur district against bauxite mining by BALCO

86
and at Baliapal in the mid-1980s were successful in stalling large projects and continue to
inspire people’s mobilizations thereafter. During the post 1990s, ‘private capital has begun
replacing state projects as the major driver of enclosures, displacement and environmental
damage’ (Kumar 2014: 67).
c) Movements over Water Resources: Water too has emerged as a major source of social
conflict in different parts of India. According to Gadgil and Guha (1995), ‘inequitable control
leading to mismanagement of water resources underlies many aspects of India’s
environmental crisis.’ Large river valley projects which have come up at a fast pace since
independence has been the mainstay of the India’s development. In the name of harnessing
the water resources, these large river valley projects have led to submersion of forests and
agricultural lands on a large scale. Ecology movements have emerged emphasizing the issue
of exploitation of forests and agricultural lands as these have been the material basis for the
survival of a large number of people in India, especially the tribals (Bandyopadhyay and
Shiva 1988/2013). Most notable among people’s movements against dams on this issue of
submersion are Bedthi, Inchampalli, Bhopalpatnam, Narmada, KoelKaro etc. People’s
movements against widespread water logging, salinization and resulting desertification in the
command areas of many dams like Tawa, Kosi, Gandak, Tungabhadra, Malaprabha etc., have
been registered. While excess water led to ecological destruction in these cases, improper and
unsustainable use of water in the arid and semi-arid regions also gave rise to people’s
protests. The anti-drought and desertification movements have become very strong in the dry
areas of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Orissa. Water based movements like Pani
Chetana, Pani Panchayats, Mukti Sangharsh etc., have been advocating ecological water use.
In the decade of the 80s, the Narmada Bachao Andolan provided ‘an archetype of
environmental representation and action’ (Brara 2004: 113). Following this agitation,
mobilisation and resistance against big dams elsewhere in the country became more frequent
and are also widely reported in the media. The movement has questioned the resettlement of
the people displaced by the dam and eventually the model of development pursued by the
state.
In the recent years, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti in Assam under the leadership
of Akhil Gogoi has been fighting against big dams on Brahmaputra and attracting the ire of
the government. Ecological groups have been joining hands to oppose the projects and say
that they do not support the building of big dams in a highly sensitive seismic zone.

87
Thousands of people including farmers, school teachers, students, daily wage earners have
come together to oppose the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project as its impact on a host of
aspects like fisheries, agriculture, earthquake etc is not yet clear. Despite these protests, the
State government and the NHPC are hell bent on going ahead with the project.
According to a report in Down to Earth magazine published by Centre for Science and
Environment, Arunachal Pradesh has been planning about 168 hydroelectric projects both big
and small. It has signed numerous memoranda with various private and public sector
companies to develop hydel power in the state, so much so that protests against dams are
gradually snowballing into political movements in the region. (Dutta: 2010). It is believed
that together they will endanger the lives of people both upstream as well as downstream.
There is a persistent clamour from the environmentalists for decommissioning the dams as
they have limited potential for irrigation, development and flood control.
3.7 Student Movement in India –

 Introduction
The term "Youth" in Sociology is regarded as an ascribed status or socially constructed label
rather than the biological condition of being young. Youth is the stage of life between
childhood and adulthood. Students in the present context refer to those who are studying in
schools, colleges and universities. For our present purpose, we will define a student as a
youth between the ages of 15-29 years studying in an educational institution.

 Factors leading to Youth and Student Movements

Youth movements may be defined as political or religious or social reform movement or
agitation consisting chiefly of young people (http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/youth
%20movement). Youth movements have played a key role in social transformation. As
Chock (2012) quite rightly pointed out, "Young people are key actors in powerful social
movements that transform the course of human history. Indeed, youth have been deeply
important to every progressive social movement, including the United States Civil rights
movement, the transnational LGBTQ movement, successive waves of feminism,
environmentalism, and environmental justice, the labour, anti-war, and immigrant

rights movements and more". She also points out that youth, and in particular coloured
youth in US, are subjected to increasing surveillance. She argues that we have much to learn
from young people who have already engaged in mobilising their peers, families and

88
communities towards positive social transformation. Apart from Chock (2012) a number of
other scholars, like Edmunds& Turner (2005), Feixia, Pereira and Juris (2009), Butt (2014),
Chadha (2012) have studied youth and youth movements.

Quest for Freedom

Students and youth have time and again stood for their quest for freedom. For instance,
during the National Liberation Movements in India (and many other countries), participation
of students and youth was seen in large numbers. Indian student and youth movements began
on an anti-colonial note during the early twentieth century. During the Emergency in India
(1975-77), students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University etc., played a major
role in keeping the spirit of defiance alive in their quest for freedom (Banerjee 1998).
ii) State Policy
Government policy is to a large extent responsible for student and youth protest. The
government policy in the education sphere, for instance, directly affects students. Similarly,
absence of policy related to employment generation is a major agenda for many youth
movements. So, any policy which adversely affects the students or youth is bound to lead to
student and youth agitations. For example, the reservation policy pursued by the Government
of India has time and again led to student and youth movements in 1990, 2006 and 2015.
iii) Unemployment
Unemployment often leads to student or youth unrest. As Rudolph Gyan D'Mello pointed
out: "The unemployed, whatever their economic condition, are focal points of tension in
society. When unemployment is fuelled by the educated, the situation can become potentially
inflammable" (Quoted in Banerjee 1998: 103). Thus, on 29th October, 2014, The Telegraph
reported that the students of Aliah University in Kolkata started an indefinite class boycott
demanding job placements. The university runs job oriented courses, like B. Tech, MBA,
MCA, etc. The students claimed that the job
fair held by the university was a flop show. Of the 30 companies which were invited, only
two turned up and they offered jobs with salaries of Rs.4000/- or Rs.5000/-, they alleged.
iv) Deprivation and Injustice
Social deprivation and injustice also provoke youths to launch social movements. Under the
rule of the tribal king, in the 1930s and 1940s, the tribals of Tripura were suffering from a
host of social evils. Starvation deaths were common, various superstitions and evils blighted
the lives of the tribals. Land alienation occurred as a result of the dowry system. Some

89
progressive youths in Tripura under the banner of Janasiksha Samity launched a literacy
campaign that continued in spite of royal opposition. Two tribal youths, Rajkhiram Thakur
and Oakhiram Thakur, set up tribal hostels so that tribal students would not have problems
with their schooling (Roy 1998: 134). Jagat Jyoti Roy observed that social injustice and
deprivation were the main factors that seriously provoked a section of tribal youths in Tripura
who were affected by the modern way of life to launch movements to launch movements to
modernise the tribals (Roy 1998: 136)
v) Education System
The education system naturally affects the students the most. In most countries, the education
system is authoritarian and bureaucratic. Due to structural conditions prevailing in our
education system, the teachers often deliberately distance themselves from students and
becomes like a banker doling out knowledge (Freire 1986). The net result is that students
become alienated from the teachers. At the same time, the education system introduces
critical elements in the thinking of our students. This may induce them to become radicals or
revolutionaries. Metta Spencer (1967) has observed that students in humanities and social
sciences have the greatest potential to be radical or revolutionary. Those who study such
subjects have greater chances of becoming critics of their societies.
vi) Generation Gap
A generation may be defined after Feuer (1969: 25) as "persons in a common age group who
in their formative years have known the same historical experiences, shared the same hopes
and disappointments, and experienced a common disillusionment with respect to the elder
age group towards whom their sense of opposition is defined." Since the sixties, many
scholars have sought to explain virtually every student and youth movement in terms of
generation gap. They range from the youthful bohemianism of the hippies in the sixties much
more sophisticated ideology based movements like the New Left or Civil rights Movements
in the sixties of the last century.
vii) Social background
The social background of students or youths greatly affects their chances of becoming an
activist. Philip G. Altbach (1968) has drawn our attention to two types of leadership found in
Indian universities. One is the respectable non-political leadership, from upper class families
which gives leadership in the social and cultural organizations. On the other hand, the
political leadership comes from the middle and lower class students. While the snobbish and
sophisticated rich students enjoy all the good things in life, the middle and lower classes

90
suffer from all the disadvantages - poor housing, lack of textbooks, etc. Naturally, they are
discontented.
viii) Alienation
Alienation may be regarded as a major factor leading to youth movements. According to
Oommen (1990: 199), "an overwhelming majority of Indian youth are in the clutches of the
over organized social structure, are not aware of their role and consequently alienated from
the wider society". Reasons for such alienation could also be the fact that current system of
education to a large extent fails to generate employment.
ix) Use of quick information system like Internet
The 21st century has seen extensive use of the social media in organizing protest movements.
The Egyptian Revolution, which overthrew President Hoshni Mubarak, may be cited as an
example. Linda Herrera, who studied the role of the Egyptian youth in the movement, made a
case study of the role of social media by youth in organizing movements for political change.
According to Herrera (2014: 23), 1) youth in Arab countries live under authoritarian and
militarised regimes which took power long ago and are still clinging on to power. 2) Youth
unemployment is highest in Arab countries. 3) Young, educated Arabs, make an exceedingly
disaffected group. According to Eid, "Wired youth in Egypt have been in the global vanguard
when it comes to using communication tools as 'a weapon of opposition" (Eid, cited in
Herrera 2014: 24). The first uses of the term" Facebook Revolution" and "Twitter
Revolution" in western media were in relation to Egypt in 2000. Herrera traced four phases in
the emergence of Internet linked youth activism. In the first phase, which she termed"
Opening Frontiers", Egyptian youth started using the Internet for leaning or other activities,
like gaming. In the second phase, the phase of "Cultural Revolution", profound changes were
noticed among the youth using the Internet. In the third phase, "Citizen Media", scores of
Egyptian youth were using computers, and mobile phones, exchanging photographs, passing
on jokes and flirting. In this phase, youth also began to acquire political sensibilities. The
fourth phase "Becoming a Wired Generation", was the phase in which youth began to interact
for political activism. This phase was marked by extensive use of social media (Shabab al-
Face) for political organizing. Youths rallied around the cause of Mohammed El Baredei,
who founded the national Association of Change in Egypt to advocate electoral reforms and
pave the way for representative democracy. Using digital tools, members of the wired
generation emboldened each other to challenge the status quo. Herrera concluded by saying

91
that Egypt's wired generation 'contributed in no small measure to the success of the first stage
of the revolution, namely toppling President Hoshni Mubarak (Ibid.: 34)
Indian youths have also extensively used the social media. Anna Hazare's Movement and the
Nirbhaya Movement may be cited as examples (See 6.2).
3.8 Youth Movements
Student and youth activism is governed inter alia by a number of psychological factors.
These are as follows:
i) Desire for power;
ii) Anti-establishment feeling;
iii) Radical attitudes.
Now, let us have a look at these factors.

i) Desire for power

Max Weber has defined power as the chance of men to realise their own will in a communal
action even against those who are participating in this action (Scott 2009: 591). Students and
youth have a great need for independence. Students and youth desire power, but not in the
sense of gaining control of others or prestige. They value independence because adolescents
normally go through a stage in which they try to become free and independent of the ‘control’
of their parents. The protest movements are an indirect way to find redress for psychological
and educational gaps.
ii) Anti-establishment feeling
Anti-establishment feeling is ubiquitous among students and youths. The educational
institutions and social systems often appear as authoritarian to the youth/student population.
The awakening of social and political consciousness of the educated youth is marked by
critical reflection about the social and political order in which they live. They find much
hypocrisy and corruption that is an anathema to them. The majority of the youth find it
loathsome to compromise with the establishment. The ethical perception of the young people
often prompts them to revolt against the establishment.
iii) Radical attitudes
Radical attitudes are the third psychological factor in student and youth movements. In its
sociological application, as Selden C. Menefee (1958: 247) has pointed out, “the term applies
in general to those who believe in drastic measures for the improvement of social conditions,
and in particular to those who believe in and/or advocate sweeping changes in the political

92
and/or economic structure of society.” Egon Bittner (1968: 298) has divided radicalism into
left wing and right wing varieties on the basis of the ideological postures adopted. While Left-
wing radicalism is associated with Marxism and other left-wing ideologies which advocate
the cause of the downtrodden and exploited masses, social and economic equality, right-wing
radicalism seeks to serve the interests of the privileged few and to establish one form or
another of human inequality in an elitist fashion. If Marxism and its variants represent the
ideological stance of Left-wing radicalism, Right-wing radicalism is exemplified by such
ideologies as Nazism and Fascism. Both left and right wing student movements are found in
India.
 Youth Movement in India Today
Throughout the world, scholars see youth movements as a major force for social change. Let
us first look at youth movements from a global perspective. I present here two perspectives.
Citing Eisenstadt, Edmunds and Turner (2005: 560) observe that youth movements have been
critical in national liberation movements in Middle East India, Indonesia. They conceptualise
generational shift as being from a passive cohort ('generation in itself') to an active cohort
('generation for itself') when they are able to exploit resources (political, educational,
economic) to innovate in cultural, intellectual and political spheres (Ibid.: 562). They trace
the history of generational rebellions from the 1960s which they regarded as the first global
generation to the 21st century. All along, there have been generational shifts - the 1960s
generation was the first to have a global consciousness. The war in Vietnam was the major
focus of their protests. The seventies saw ecological concerns becoming a central theme. The
eighties focussed on health and lifestyles. The 1990s marked the period of the use of
electronic communication which played an important role in the creation of a radicalised
youth movement alienated by the military strategy of the Bush administration (Ibid.: 569).
The power of the Internet to bring about political change was demonstrated in case of Serbia
when the country's student youth used websites to communicate their dissatisfaction with the
Milosevic administration and 6.1 Youth Protest in Kashmir
Kashmiri youth have played a major role in political conflict with armed forces prevailing in
that part of the state for the last two decades. Ahmed Dar (2015) feels that the
counterinsurgency offensive by Indian troops has resulted in more than 70,000 killings and
around 8000 enforced disappearances. But the opposite view of young militants being trained
and supported by Islamic fundamentalist organization and even Pakistan is equally aired.

93
Interestingly, in all insurgent mobilization, like those led by the Maoists, youth participation
is seen as an important strategy to fight the repressive forces of the state.
Researchers have however pointed out that only a small percentage of youths have been
attracted to radical Islamic ideologies and that the majority of Kashmiri youths do not depend
on Pakistani channels. Chadha's (2012: 33) research suggests that despite growth in radical
influences, 75% of the Kashmiri people have indicated their preference for peaceful protests,
while 75% decidedly rejected the option of the gun. To him, the main factor behind youth
protests is the demand for azadi or Independence. But most Kashmiri youths view azadi as
extension of political and civic rights, not separation from India. They are also disillusioned
with Pakistan. They have seen through the ISI strategy that views Kashmir as part of a larger
game plan. We also find that a large chunk of Kashmiri youths are educated and modern in
their outlook and depend extensively on social media for information and mobilising for
protest movements. These findings have great sociological and strategic implications. The
sociological significance of the findings is that despite the tilt of a minority towards radical
Islamic ideologies, the majority of Kashmiri youth view themselves as integral components
of Indian society.
 Youth Protests over sexual violence and corruption
Two youth movements in recent past have highlighted the role of the youth: 1) youths joined
Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption, and 2) the Nirbhaya protests. Both these
movements involved 1) large scale participation of middle class youths, and 2) extensive use
of the social media by the activists. Social media played an important role in Anna Hazare's
crusade against corruption. Sitapati (2011) observed: "The foot soldiers of the Anna Hazare
movement were educated and urban. The methods used - Twitterupdates, SMS campaigns,
candlelight vigils and media management -
suggest that Hazare was able to fire the idealism of the 21st century India's burgeoning
middle class (Ibid.: 39).
Dasgupta (2013) observed that 2012 witnessed the awakening of Indian youth in the post-
liberalization era and gave a clear message to the political establishment - that the distance
between them and the young generation is increasing, and 2) the political establishment will
face the anger of the youth. The Nirbhaya Rape and murder case not only ignited youth
protests throughout India, internationally, it also gave a bad reputation to India. The Nirbhaya
case forced the government to make draconian laws on sexual violence and sharply increase
the quantum of punishment for various offences. Bose (2013) saw in these protests a rare
94
hope in the younger generation that often forces political establishment to come to its senses.
The Nirbhaya Movement also involved extensive use of the social media. Narang (2012)
correctly observed that that the Nirbhaya protests were the expression of middle class angst
rising out of a collapse between them and the liberal state (Ibid.: 1212). There was no leader
in this movement. No common ideology was shared by the participants. Narang supports
Gladwell's thesis that there is a Generational Paradigm shift from a notion of social
organization, hierarchy and expertise to a social organization around a network (Ibid.: 1217).
Patidar Protests
The Patidars of Gujarat are a farming caste having considerable landed property. But, their
position has declined due to economic reasons. In August 2015, they started a movement
demanding OBC status. However, the government, till now, not responded to their demands.
The movement was led by 23 year old Hardik Patel under the banner of Patidar Anamat
Andolan Samity (Mallet 2015).

 The Naxalite Movement and Student Power

In the history of Independent India, the Naxalite Movement stands out as the first attempt to
usher in socialism through armed revolution. Initially, Charu Majumdar tried to mechanically
copy the tactics of peasant war, so successfully used by Mao-Dze Dong in the Chinese
Revolution, and usher in armed revolution in India. Later, it relied heavily on the student and
youth power. Charu Majumdar was heavily influenced by the Cultural Revolution of Mao
and tried to build up a cadre of 'Red Guards' to spread the revolution in the countryside. He
soon found recruits to his ideology in the extreme section of the student movement, the
BPSF(L), which had become extremely popular among the students, capturing 65% of the
student unions (Democratic Student Centre 1986: 26). But Majumdar's order to boycott the
student unions was suicidal as it alienated the revolutionary student leaders from the mass of
students and enables the State to effectively throttle the revolutionary student movement.
The mid-seventies witnessed an organized student movement that went hand in hand with a
wider political movement that sought to dislodge the Indira Gandhi government from power.
The opposition movement was led by Jayaprakash Narayan, the Sarvodaya leader. A number
of factors led to the student movements: food crisis, rising prices and corruption, and the like.
Throughout India, student organizations, irrespective of ideological inclinations, rebelled
against the government. In Gujarat, the Navnirman Samity, in Bihar, Chattra Sangharsh
Samity, in Delhi University, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and in Jawaharlal Nehru

95
University, the Student Federation of India led the resistance movement. According to
Jayaram (1981: 215), it was only in 1974 that the student agitations started manifesting the
characteristics of an articulated movement. The movement originated in Gujarat, spread to
Bihar and engulfed the whole country (Banerjee 1998: 101).
In the eighties, right wing radical movements prevailed. The origin of both the right wing and
left wing movements lies in a number of factors. One of them is unemployment. Secondly,
the fanning of religious fanaticism by politicians for their political gains can become
counterproductive, as it happened in case of the Khalistan Movement. Thirdly, the porous
border between Assam and Bangladesh, which resulted in alleged migration of a large
number of Bangladeshis led to a fear in the mind of the Assamese that they will be swamped
by Bengalis. This fear, among other factors, precipitated the Assam Movement. We will first
briefly study the Assam Movement and then the Khalistan Movement.
 The Assam Movement (1979-1985)
The Assam Movement had originated in the context of issues like i) low economic
development; ii) presence of a culturally superior minority, i.e., the Bengalis; iii) the foreign
hand, which has been suspected of fomenting the movement (Banerjee 1998: 104). It was led
by two organizations namely, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the All Assam
Ganasagram Parishad (AAGSP). The two important features of this movement were: i)
wholesale pogroms of minorities at Mongoldoi and Nellie on the eve of the 1983 elections,
and ii) economic blockade (picketing the installations of Indian Oil and blocking the
movement of major and minor forest products to the rest of India). The Assam Accord of
1985 did not satisfy the student leaders of the movement. Yet, it paved the way for

the assumption of power by the Asom Ganaparishad which emerged out of the alliance of
leaders affiliated to AASU and AAGSP. Prafulla Mahanta, one of the main leaders of the
movement, became the Chief Minister. It was the first student led government in India.
Prafulla Mahanta was technically a student when he assumed the mantle of the Chief
Minister.

96
 The Khalistan Movement (1980-1990)
The origin of Khalistan Movement may be traced to factors like i) desire of Congress leaders
to cling on to power; ii) open patronage of religious fundamentalists like Bhindranwale; iii)
economic frustration of middle class Sikh youths .
The Khalistan Movement was the first terrorist student movement in India. Its ideology was
religious fundamentalism. It was avowedly anti-India. The militants had their bases in foreign
countries like USA, UK and Canada. They usurped the Golden Temple, and sowed the seeds
of dissention among the Hindu and Sikh masses. The typical terrorist was a male, aged 20-30
years, with at least a partial university education, with an affluent middle class family
background and motivated by frustration and nihilist notions, says E. A. Vas (Cited in
Banerjee 1998: 108). The All India Sikh Students Federation (AISF) played a big role in the
movement.
 Student Movement in Globalised India
Since economic globalisation in India, one could notice changes in the issues of student
movement in India. The ideologically committed active student movement became a matter
of the past. The focus rather on the issues directly affecting the student community: facilities
provided by the institution, higher rates of tuition fee charged, poor examination result,
training and placement facilities of the students and the like. The term ‘business unionism’
referred to identify trade unions relating themselves only with bread and butter issues might
also be applied to characterise student movement of this period. In most instances, these
movements remained confined within the four walls of the academic intuitions. Absence of
political and ideological agenda of these movements also resulted in bright students shunning
politics. This is despite the fact that most of the known organisations of the students had open
or secret link with political parties. Political affiliation of the student bodies also resulted in
violent classes among students belonging to rival organizations for the control of union.
Another interesting turn in student (and youth) politics of this period is the use of ethnic and
caste affiliation to organise young people. Thus, in Assam and the entire North-Eastern
Indian states, student including disaffected youths were seen engaged in terrorist activities
and violent conflict. While the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was openly anti-
national, having independence of Assam as its single point agenda, the Bodos were divided
about the path to be followed-secessionism or a separate state within India. Ethnicity also
played a major role in agitations led by All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union and All

97
Manipur Students Union. Recently, we found that Indian youth are taking increasing interest
in terrorist organizations abroad, like the Islamic State.
The use of casteism as a facilitating factor in the student and youth movement was also
seen in North India in the 1990s. The acceptance of the recommendations of the Mandal
Commission (27% reservations for Other Backward Classes), led to a political storm among
the upper caste educated students and youths. Such agitation was also marked by
demonstrative self-immolations, which cost the lives of some young people. Interestingly, the
role of ‘free media’ at that point of time became critical in either popularising or criticising a
movement. It is worth noting here that in a period of ‘media led globalization’, television,
newspaper and computer network have gradually allowed students and youth greater access
to information and allowed them to see an extensive variety of forms of life than previously
possible (Ghosh 2011). One of the direct consequences of this is that organized, broad based
student activism, with a specific goal or set of goals, is nearly missing now. Most of the
movements are sporadic and based on local issue. The ongoing movement by the students of
Film and Television Institute of India shows that students are resisting the attempt on the part
of the central government to foist its ideology through its nominee, the Director. This is not to
deny that use of electronic communication has made it possible for the students to build up
broad based unity on wider issues. For instance, in 2006, under the banner of Youth for
Equality, the upper caste students, studying professional courses like medicine or
engineering, tried to garner support to protest against reservation granted to Other Backward
Classes (OBC) in admission to professional educational institutions. It may therefore be
argued that even local college/university based student movements of today try to draw
support from wider public at large. This may appear contradictory, yet real that ‘local’ issues
are now becoming ‘global’. Like other neo-social movements like environmental and
women’s movement, student and youth movement of today draw sustenance from media
reports, social media campaign and opinion of people at large. In a global network society,
we should not lose sight of this aspect of social movement.
Conclusion
In this module, we have studied the main factors leading to youth unrest and
student movements and reviewed the major trends in student and youth activism. A student
movement differs from a youth movement in that it is based mainly on ideal issues, rather
than bread and butter ones. While students remain mostly concerned with educational issues,
the demands of the youths include wider issues like employment or development that also

98
affect the students. Youth movements are therefore more broad based and more inclusive
than student movements. In India, we often find that student and youth movements are
closely linked. Student and youth activism had their roots deep in the western education
system introduced by the British. Organized student activism took a definite shape during the
Freedom Struggle in the first half of the 20th century. It also exhibited a more or less
progressive role, fighting for the rights of various sections of society. Feuer (1969) termed
this trend as the 'back to the people spirit' of student movements. But from the eighties
onwards, we find student and youth activism in India taking a right wing turn. But students
and youths have always protested against any form of injustice taking place in society.
Despite changes in the issues of student and youth movement in contemporary India, there is
increasing use of internet and social media to popularise a local issue to garnet wider support.
As a constituent of neo-social movement, both student and youth movements today reflect the
social, economic and political tension of modern living.

99
 Module No 04
Segment of Indian Society and its Characteristics
Tribal Society
Urban Society
Rural Society

4.1 Tribal Society -

There is not any precise definition of tribe. Different anthropologists have given
numerous definitions. Some of them are concerned with socio-economic and cultural aspects
of the tribal for other physical isolation self sufficiency different physically features and
dialect are the defining feature of a tribe. Some of the important definitions are as follows.
1. Gillin& Gillin- “A tribe is a group of local communities which lives in a common area,
speaks a common dialect and follows a common culture.
2. Anthropology-Primitive tribes are relating to a preliterate or tribal people having cultural
or physical similarities with their early ancestors no longer in technical use.
 Meaning-
Primitives means belonging to a very early period in the development of an animal or
plant. If we describe something as primitive, mean that it is very simple in style or very old
fashioned. Origin of primitive tribes are 1350-1400
Primitive Tribes of India- Government of India classification created communities with
particularly low development indices.
The dhebar commission (1960-1961) stated that within schedule tribe there existed
and inequality in rat of development. During the fourth five years plan sub- category was
created within scheduled tribes to identify group that considered to be at lower level of
development. The sub- category was named “Primitive tribal group”.The features of such a
group include a pre- agricultural system of existence that is practice of hunting and gathering,
zero negative population growth extremely low level of literacy in comparison.
Earth has been a place for the living organisms since it beginning various shreds of
evidence are found that describes a number of species which are still present and are the

100
cause of revolution. Still you will find few tribes in India who are separated from the modern
or urban living oriented to the older or ancient lifestyle and have a strong ethnic to live in the
same manner no matter how much has an advanced mode of living
4.1.2 CHARACTERISRICES OF TRIBAL SOCIETY-
1) Common territory-
A tribe is a territorial community. It means that the tribe has a definite territory in which
its members Naga and other tribal’s reside in Nagaland, Garos, Khasis Khasas live in Assam.
Bhils in Madhya Pradesh; Soligas in Mysore; Thodasin in Niligiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, and
so on. In the absence of a common locality or territory a tribe would lose its uniqueness.
2) Common economic organisation-
As agonist 73% National average, 91% of the tribal workers are engaged in agriculture.
About 3% of tribal’s are engaged in manufacturing against the national average of 11% and
5% in tertiary servicing (against the national average of 16%) Just 1% tribal’s are engaged in
forestry and food gathering. Their economic position is very poor. Though they are poor,
against the national average of 43% nearly 57% of tribal’s are economically active. In spite of
that , they get very poor returns for their efforts.
3. Orgaisation of clans-
The clan or sibs an important part of tribal – organisation. The clan includes all the
relatives of mothers or fathers and the children of one ancestor. People belonging to a clan
trace their origin to one ancestor. The descendants of a clan are of either matrilineal or
partilineal lineage. The tribal society may include in itself many clans. There exists mutual
helpfulness among the members of different clans.
4. Feeling of unity –
The members of a tribe always feel that they are united. This sense of unity is essential
for them to retain their identity. Tribal’s are normally cohesive as they fight against common
enemies as one man. They are ever ready to avenge the injustice done to the group or the
individuals.
5. Simplicity and self sufficiency-
A tribal society is not complex but simple in character. Hunting, Fishing and collection
of roots, fruits, nuts, berries, honey, and forest products are their main means of subsistence.
Some have taken to cultivation also. They do not posses, neither do they enjoy the facilities
of civilised people. There was time when the tribal’s were self- sufficient. Due to the increase

101
in their population and changed economic conditions, their self- sufficiency has gone. They
are becoming more and more dependent on the civilised community and also the government
help. They are simple honest, frugal and some of them are very hospitable also. They are not
educated neither are they interested in it.
6. Endogamous group –
Though not always, the members of a tribe generally marry among themselves,
marrying within one’s own group is called endogamy. Each tribe has many clans within itself
and these are exogamy in nature. The tribal’s practise endogamy probably to maintain the
purity of blood and cultural peculiarities and to preserve the property within the group. But
today, due to the influence of the civilised people and increased contacts, exogamy is also
practised.
7. Common religion–
Religion plays an important role in the tribal organisation. The members of a tribe
usually worship a common ancestor. Also, ‘nature worship’ is common among them. In
addition to the ancestral worship and nature worship the tribal’s practise other types of faith,
such as animism and totemism. Magic is also wide spread among them. The tribal social and
political organisations are based on this religion, participation in common religious
ceremonies functions and festivals contributes to unity of the group. A sizeable proportion of
Naga, Mizos, Santhals and Munda etc. Have imbraced Christianity while some tribals such as
lepcha, Butia, have largely indentified with Buddhism.
8. Common culture-
Each tribe has a way of life of its own. Each tribe has its own way of behaving, thinking
feeling and acting. Each has its own customs traditions, morals, values its own peculiar
institutions in brief its own culture. The very peculiarities of a tribe reveal that it has a
distinctive culture of its own.
4.2 Urban Society -
 Urbanization and Urbanism

Urbanization and urbanism form central trope around which urban social theory tries to
discussgrowth and development of cities. As Chandavarkar (2009) says, the study of cities
have been motivated by two concerns. First, urbanization was taken as an index of economic

102
development and social change, not only for its part in the dissolution of feudalism in the
medieval West but also as a measure of modernization in the Third World today. The second
concern in urban studies has related broadly to culture. This has been interpreted not simply
in terms of the culture of its inhabitants but more generally the urban as a social space is also
associated with a state of mind (Chandavarkar 2009: 210-211). One can understand urbanism
as the patterns of behaviour, relationships, modes of thinking that characterizes urban
dwellers while urbanization is primarily understood as a process of movement of people from
rural areas to urban areas by the virtue of which population as well as spatial boundary of a
city grows. Often, this growth occurs due to increased economic activities which triggers
migration or pulls people from rural areas to urban areas. Earlier, it was common to consider
rural-urban migration an essential cause of urbanization. However, in recent times, urban
population growth is also influenced by urban-urban migration. In earlier times, urban growth
in Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi might have occurred due to rural to urban migration of manual
labour who moved from villages to cities to work in manufacturing sector. In recent times
cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore (also other cities like Mumbai) are witnessing urban
population growth due to movement of people from other cities. This population growth is
mainly a result of migration of skilled workers to work in service sector. Urbanization is also
quantified. It is measured around: level of urbanization i.e. ratio of urban to rural
population; and, rate of population growth in urban areas. The level of urbanization
indicates urban population share with respect to total population of a nation
The level of urbanization
Indicates urban population share with respect to total population of a nation while rate of
Urbanization indicates annual growth rate of urban population. Taking these two parameters
Together, one can say that cities have been growing and probably will grow further in the
future. The growth of population in cities give rise to various issues such as shortage of
residentialspaces, shooting up of residential and office rents, outward and upward growth of
city, growth of slums, increased pressure on infrastructure, heavy traffic and road
congestions, and many other environmental problems. The population growth also triggers
pressure on basic amenities such as water and power supply. In effect, these also affect the
quality of life in urban areas. Therefore, urbanization has had important consequences for
many aspects of social, political, and economic life.

103
Emergence of modern cities in Europe:
Archeologists often claim that city as a space existed ever since human beings stopped
sedentary life and began settled life especially with the beginning of horticultural, pastoral
and agricultural practices. They consider size and density of population, street layout,
existence of some central place. Based on remnants, the cities in places such as Indus Valley,
Mesopotamia, and so on are constructed. In this essay, we are not concerned with the
existence of cities in the antiquity or the nature of urbanisation and urbanism at archeological
sites. We are concerned here with modern cities that formed, grew and expanded in modern
times partly due to scientific and technological advancements, industrial revolution,
colonisation and imperialism, and modern capitalism. In doing so, we are concerned how
these changes structured modern cities and how social thinkers responded and understood
modern cities. Kingsley Davis (1955) aptly points that every human settlement, from the past,
cannot be called urban. There is a specific nature of cities that grew with modernity. In
modern cities, new methods of commerce and trade developed; new economic structures
grew; new work sites started; new jobs and modes of employment created; new population
groups arrived; new industries and factories were established; and new social groups
developed new cultural patterns and new social structures.“The urban world is a provocative
terrain to contemplate central experiences, structures, and problems of the social world, and
how they have transformed over the last two hundred years”. There was something new
developing in the modern cities that bothered social thinkers. The growth of modern cities
and thereby urbanization is closely associated with the idea of modernization,
industrialization and capitalism which started in Europe from around mid eighteenth century.
However, urban scholars have argued that for urbanization to take place, a threshold should
be achieved in agriculture which leads to surplus production which further assists in the
growth of new markets and new economies. With the advancements in science and
technology, new machines developed which sufficed growth of industries and thereby
industrialization. Industrialization means a shift in production mechanism and techniques
away from agriculture to industries where production is done at mass scale. The early
industries were labour intensive and required a large number of people. People also saw
incentives of working in industries rather than in agricultural field. Therefore, both pull and
push factors played crucial role in migration of people to the cities. Once arrived in city,
people required places to live which in turn gave rise to demand for housing, sanitation,
drinking water and so on. The rate of population growth at that time was very high which the

104
cities could not manage. There was lack of sanitation, crime rates were high, various diseases
were prevalent and mortality rate was high. The working and living conditions were poor. In
1801 urban population in Europe was only 17% which rose to 35% in 1851 and again to 54%
in 1891 (Davis 1955). This rise in population illustrates the rate of urbanization. However,
industrialization alone cannot explain the nature and scale at which urbanization was
experienced. A range of other determinants need to be considered, such as capitalist spurt of
commerce and underlying profit motives, increase in financial services, cities serving as
nodes for intercontinental commerce and so on, also influenced the growth of cities. The
urban growth, physical as well as functional, was facilitated by development of public
transport systems. Due to the lack of housing facilities around industries and factories, the
workers/labours settled down at far away places. In such situation, public transport assisted
commutation which lead to the expansion of city boundaries. This brief and cursory
description provides a broad sketch of the growth of early modern cities. Social Scientists
believed that the modern cities have assumed a different character due to changes in the
modes of production. Based on this criterion, Sjoberg talks about urban topologies in terms
of preindustrial cities and industrial cities. For him, preindustrial cities have base in
agricultural practices and characterized by low social mobility and less social differentiation
whereas industrial cities have diverse economic opportunities and have high degree of social
differentiation and specialized division of labour. Similarly, Robert Redfield classifies cities
as Orthogenetic (a city of moral order and unitary folk culture) and Heterogenetic (a city of
technical order that gives priority to economic growth). Hoselitz differentiates cities as
Parasite (has a dampening effect on economic growth) and, Generative (the city acts as a
centre of change and stimulates economic growth). The early social thinkers considered
social and psychological changes in European society that developed in urban areas due to
industrialization and capitalism. Thinkers such as Marx and Engels, Ferdinand Tonnies,
Emile Durkheim, George Simmel, Max Weber, W.E.B.DuBois were concerned with modern
cities and each of these thinkers tried to explain urban social world, urban personalities and
urban social relations. The early thinkers were disturbed by the sordid nature of modern
cities, its anomic nature, its alienating atmosphere and a lost ‘ideal’ community that
characterized premodern human life. Marx and Engels analyse industrialization and
capitalist system and talk about urban labour, working conditions and their relationship with
the bourgeoise (the capitalist class). They believe that preindustrial societies were generic but
with the rise of modern city a shift has come from barbarism to civilization with which

105
people gain productive specialization. For them, capitalist system need to be transformed into
socialist/communist system to realize the full growth of free and independent human beings.
For them, capitalist system, which perpetuates in the city, generates inequality and thus is the
reason for alienation and conflict. Ferdinand Tonnies, a German sociologist, was concerned
with the shift in social structure of city. For him, rural life was characterized by gemeinschaft
i.e. community feeling and ties that develop around families, kin groups and neighbourhood
and have face-to-face relationship. While gesellschaft characterizes city life which is
mechanical and leads to disunity, individualism and selfishness. Similarly, Emile Durkheim,
a French sociologist, looks at social solidarity. For him, mechanical solidarity characterizes
pre-modern societies which refers to
social bonds constructed on likeness and largely depends on commonalities. While modern
societies exhibit organic solidarity which refers complex division of labour where many
different people specialize in many different occupations and develop a social order based on
social differences. For Durkheim, city inhabitants have greater freedom but impersonality,
anomie and alienation from social world also develops. Among all the early thinkers, George
Simmel, a German sociologist, understands the ambivalent nature of city. In his essay, The
Metropolis and the Mental Life, he views city life in terms of social psychology. Simmel
argues that nervous stimuli is a unique trait of modern city in which city dwellers are
constantly bombarded with sights, sounds and smells and from which the city dweller has to
cope with. He focuses more on urbanism than on urbanization. In cities, the inhabitants learn
to discriminate, become rational and calculating and develop a blasé attitude. The urban
inhabitants are reserve and detached and respond with head rather than heart. But the city
environment also provide liberating atmosphere which allows urban dwellers to free
themselves from traditional social bonds. German sociologist, Max Weber, looks at the city
as an ideal type. He argues that a city needs trade and commerce, legal system, political
autonomy, self-sufficiency to protect itself and needs social associations where individuals
could engage in social relationships. In his book, The City, he offers an ecological-
demographic model of city and understands the city as an economic system. Weber
considered features like closed settlement, large locality, lack of personal relationship and
non-agricultural life as distinctive features of city. W.E.B. DuBois discusses centrality of
race in the analysis of urban social structure. Lewis Mumford in his book, The City in
History, visualised cities as a social phenomenon. He was not much concerned with city as a

106
physical entity. Rather he discusses the organic relationship between human being and
environment. Despite such deep insights, there was no unified trajectory or comprehensive
analysis of urban social structure, urban settlement patterns, urbanization and urbanism
before the establishment of Human Ecology or the Chicago School.
The Chicago School
The Chicago School refers to a group of sociologists at University of Chicago. The scholars
focussed on the city of Chicago and looked at the city as social laboratory where true human
nature could be explored. The School offered several concepts to understand city. However,
in this module we would discuss a few key ideas that rotate around land use, growth and
structuring and urban way of life. Robert Ezra Park, Ernest Burgess, Louis Wirth are a few
among many influential Chicago School urbanists who explored different dimensions of the
city. With the publication of the book, The City: Suggestions for Investigation of Human
Behaviour in the Urban Environment, the School announced its arrival (Dear 2005: 54). The
city of Chicago which saw an unprecedented growth at that time served as an apt place for
the Chicago School to investigate processes of modern urban growth. As prevalent at that
time, the School offers a modernist view of city as a unified whole. The School looked at
urban processes and conditions through subjective experiences of urbanites. As Micheal Dear
(2002) writes that the works of urbanists of Chicago School “is typically grounded in the
individual subjectivities of urbanites, their personal choices ultimately explaining the overall
urban condition, including spatial structure, crime, poverty, and racism” The School
propounded several influential ideas that formed foundational concept in understanding the
evolution of differentiated urban social areas and urban way of life. Robert E. Park coined the
term Human Ecology that attempts to apply biological processes/concepts to the social world
and maintains that the city and city life are product of competition in the natural environment.
The School also focused on the physical form of the city and human’s adjustment to the
ecological conditions of urban life. The School was also influenced by Functional Theory
and Social Darwinism and looked at city as social organism where different parts/segments
are bound together by internal processes. For the Chicago School, the cities are similar to
biotic/symbiotic environments in which inhabitants compete for paltry resources. Among
several ideas of the Chicago School, Concentric Ring Theory, propounded by Ernest
Burgess, remained important for a long time in understanding the pattern the urban growth.
The Concentric Theory proposes that the city grows outward in continuous residential

107
circles around a Central Business District (CBD). The theory is “based on assumptions that
included a uniform land surface, universal access to a single entered city, free competition for
space, and the notion that development would take place outward from a central core,
Burgess concluded that the city would tend to form a series of concentric zones (see figure)”
(Dear 2002). Burgess argues that CBD forms the core of city. Around CBD, a transitional
zone develops offices and dwelling places by converting older houses. Beyond transitional
zone, working population zone develops which contains residential units of working men and
lower class population. A zone, Middle Class Zone, further develops where middle class have
residences which has relatively new dwelling units. At the outer most part, the commuter
zone develops which is separate from the continuous built-up area of the city. In response to
Burgess’ model, two more theories of urban morphology were developed by the Chicago
School. Homer Hoyt in his Sector Theory noted the tendency of cities to grow in starshaped
rather than concentric form along highways that radiate from a center with contrasting land
uses in the interstices. Hoyt stresses the importance of axial route ways that spreads the
outward growth of the built-up area. Concentric Zone as well as Sector Theory are based on
the idea that city develops around a Central Business District. However, Harris and Ullman
argued that there are several subsidiary centres beyond the CBD. They called their theory as
Multiple12 Nuclei theory which proposed that “cities have a cellular structure in which
land-uses develop around multiple growth-nuclei within the metropolis” (Dear 2002). These
theories remained influential is urban social theory for most part of the twentieth century
which also influenced planning as well as growth of cities. It should be noted that
urbanization concentrates mainly on demographic growth and the Chicago theorists focused
on ecological dimensions of cities. “Although both demographic and ecological aspects are
important in any urban (or rural) study, in themselves, they do not enable us to understand the
social institutions, interactions, activities, values and norms of the urban dwellers” . Another
influential idea that came out of the Chicago School was ‘Urbanism as a Way of Life’’.
Propounded by Louis Wirth, it rests on the idea that cities have a distinctive mode of life. He
stressed on the study of social aspects of urbanization. Wirth considers population size,
density and heterogeneous social groups as the characteristic features of urban life. As
discussed earlier, socio-cultural aspects of city was already been considered by theories but it
was with Wirth’sarticle that urbanism as an idea was established in urban studies. Tonnies,
Durkheim, Simmel as well as Weber had already described patterns of social relations that
develop in cities. “Louis Wirth carried the perspectives of the nineteenth-century European

108
theorists in the American city of the early twentieth century. He drew greater attention than
Simmel to the negative consequences of modernity, especially the status of Durkheimian
anomie and… urban social problems and personality disorders” (Lin and Mele 2013:2).
Unlike other theorists of the School, Wirth focused “on the constellation of personalities that
collectively amounted to social organization and control” (Dear 2002). Wirth does not only
take city as an isolated space but also considers how cities are linked with regional hinterland.
The School came under strong scrutiny towards the 1970s when scholars, often labelled as
Neo- Marxists, used the political economy approach to understand social inequalities
perpetuated in 13 the city. Harvey Molotch (1976) using the metaphor of “city as growth
machine” explains the gap that exists in the description of city growth. He argues that the
dominant ideas propounded by Chicago theorists obscures to consider actual realities of
social structure that shapes the city and “decisions affecting land use, the public budget, and
urban social life” (Molotch 1976: 326). Scholars argued that “the capitalist economy
structures opportunities that result in differential access by social group and location; and that
economic changes influence political and social life. The research agenda that emerged from
these studies pinpointed the phenomenon of economic restructuring as the key to
understanding other urban issues” (Kleniewski 2005:2). With the end of Fordism and
beginning of flexible production, the labor employed in the erstwhile factories and industries
were hard hit. In such situation, the modern character of cities with Central Business District
transformed into several centers. Micheal Dear (2002) extends the critique of human ecology
with his discussion of the Los Angeles (LA) School of urban studies. He suggests that the
modernist hegemony of urban elites has given a way to a polycentric, polyglot and
polycultural pastiche of urban development. Dear (2002) suggests that LA has superseded as
a paradigm of urban growth in the twenty-first century (Lin and Mele 2013). The shift in
production system also affected land use and value of land. The erstwhile factories were
converted into gated communities, multiplexes and shopping malls. The right to use city
spaces became a contested issue and urban land and city spaces became properties of middle
class and the rich sections of society.
 Urbanization and Urbanism: Indian Context
Researchers and several agencies such as UNDP have projected that the developing nations
will urbanize faster than the developed world in twenty-first century. The year 2007 was
announced as a remarkable point in human history when more than 50% of world population

109
lived in urban regions. The Census of India 2011 indicated that more than 30% of Indian
population is living in its cities. Compared to Europe and North America, this proportion of
urban population is still too low. But it is also related to the process of urban growth and
development experienced in different places. Unlike Europe, India has a different experience
with modern urbanization process which has a lot of influence due to its colonial history.
Nevertheless, one of the 14 important aspects of Indian urbanization is that it has a
continuous history of urbanization starting from Indus Valley to the present day, says . It is an
arduous task to trace the entire history of urbanization and urbanism in India in this short
introduction. As like our discussion on European urbanization, we will discuss major trends
of urbanization in India that began with colonization. During initial days of British rule,
Indian cities did not experience much growth but later on several pre-existing cities were
revived and new cities established. There were phases of growth of cities across Indian
subcontinent. These ancient cities flourished around some specific functions though they also
served other functions. writes, Cities grew in number and size during during the Mauryan and
post-Maurya periods (from 300 BC to AD 600), both in northern India as well as in the
extreme South. Cities declined and were largely neglected during the post-Gupta period. In
southern India, on the other hand, urbanization attained a zenith during the period from AD
800 to 1200. Urbanization on a subdued scale flourished in northern India under the influence
of Muslims rulers…and attained a second climax during the Mughal period when many of
India’s cities were established. The British came to India at a time when India was perhaps
the most urbanized nation in the world, and the early part of British rule saw a decline in the
level of Indian urbanization. During the latter half of British rule, Indian cities regained some
of their lost importance; further, the British added several new towns and cities, in addition to
generating newer urban forms in the existing cities. The post-Independence period has
witnessed urbanization in India on a scale never before achieved. Further, Ramachandran
adds, “The story of urbanization in historical times is a story of spatial and temporal
discontinuities”. He says, 15 The causative factors behind urbanization varied from time to
time, leading to not one
but several urbanization processes at different points in time. In the prehistoric period,
urbanization was synonymous with the origin and rise of civilization itself, thus manifesting
itself essentially as a cultural process. In the historical periods from ancient times to the
British period, urbanization was inextricably related to the rise and fall of kingdoms,
dynasties and empire, and thus in effect urbanization during this period was essentially a

110
political process. In the recent times, urbanization has been associated with industrialization
and economic development. In this sense, urbanization is essentially an economic process.
The above excerpt indicates broad patterns and trajectories of urbanization in India.
Ramachandran’s description of cities essentializes different phases of urbanization such as
growth of initial cities is associated as cultural process while later phases of urbanizations are
associated with political and economic processes. He might be talking about dominant
characters of cities at various points of time in history. But it is difficult to dissociate various
processes that work together and give shape to cities. In modern times, as Ramachandran
says, cities developed around economic processes. However, it needs to be recognized that
economic processes feed into and fed by political and cultural processes as well. Another
dominant idea in considering urbanization in India is periodization of urban history: ancient
as Hindu, medieval as Islamic and modern as British. There are major issues that need to be
considered while tracing urban history, urbanization and urbanism in India. One, the
periodization of urban history used in European history is highly problematic in Indian
context and “prompts generalizations which may not be justified…also that there is no family
resemblance between the colonial towns of North America and those of South Asia” (Gupta
2004:142). Annapurna Shaw(2012), in a different manner, discusses urban history in three
phases: precolonial, colonial and postcolonial. Rao (1974) highlights two important issues
regarding studying urban social and cultural life. According to Rao, some scholars believe
that majority of Indian population, around 70%, still live in rural areas. Therefore, there is no
point in considering urban as a subject for investigation. 16 In addition, unlike Europe, there
is no rupture in urbanization and urbanism in India. Urbanites in India are mostly migrants
from rural areas who carry rural and traditional cultural practices to the cities. Pocock [(1960)
1974] argued that village India and urban centers in India are the “elements of the same
civilization” . Nevertheless, urban India forms an important site for various social inquiries.
Even though 70% population lives in villages but 30% population that lives in India is not
insignificant. In absolute terms, this 30% population forms a substantial proportion of Indian
population. Also, even if urban world is not similar to European cities but it is also not
similar to Indian villages. On various counts such as family structure, caste values, religious
rituals, economic practices, political affiliations display different modalities and these need to
be explored. rightly suggests that it is necessary to ask questions how traditional and modern
interact and what are the emergent forms of social relations, behaviours, associations in urban
areas. As discussed earlier, urbanization is considered as an index of development, growth,

111
modernization and social change. Urban was considered to be a new beginning in the
civilization history of human being. It was also thought that urban sites will help: in upward
social mobility, in experiencing freedom, and in realizing modern values. In western context,
urbanization produced a rupture with traditional system. In Indian context one may argue that
there is no complete breakdown from the traditional structures and processes. But is also
necessary to emphasize that cities have definitely modified traditions (for a more detailed
discussion on such changes see Module 5.2 tilted Dynamics of Caste in Urban India). Also,
cities were imagined to be the crucibles of self-dependent India where one can overcome
limitations exerted by traditional social structures e.g. caste system. Along this line of
thinking, urbanization is considered to supplement modernization of India. Here, urban is a
considered a nodal point that would influence social, economic and cultural changes in the
villages .
With the establishment of British rule, cities saw various changes in layout, administration,
economic activities and cultural institutions. The colonial rulers introduced “many rule,
regulations and practices that aimed to make Indian cities more manageable and legible to the
British so that control over them would be easier” (Shaw 2012:12). The British
administration 17 established civil lines and cantonment that marked a distinct area from the
old indigenous city (Shaw 2012:13). The architecture of the cities changed, encroachment of
land and regularization by paying fine, development of municipal authority, construction of
public buildings are a few changes that Indian cities saw during British rule. During British
rule several new cities developed e.g. Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai which served economic
functions. Also a range of small hill towns (Shimla), industrial and canal towns were
established. Introduction of railways and transportation system, establishment of
communication channels, establishment of educational institutions and universities marked
the growth of different kind of cities in India. The British rule on one hand was modernizing
the Indian cities while on the other cities were experienced differently by different sections of
Indian society. “This division was directly reflected in their residences—where the rich and
poor lived in the city and how they lived”. The same is true even today. Therefore, even if
India got Independence from foreign rule, it was unable to create an equitable and just
society. This differentiation remains a reality because we still find squatters, pave dwellers
and slums in cities. As Shaw (2012) writes, with independence India saw a different phase
when urbanization speeded up for a number of reasons. Refugees from East and West
Pakistan, immediately after Independence, required new spaces due to which existing cities in

112
Punjab, Bengal extended. Then towns such as Bhilai, Durgapur, Bokaro, Rourkela grew due
to establishment of heavy industries. The modernist dream of Nehru was translated with the
creation of city of Chandigarh. In post-liberalization era, the number of metropolitan cities
have increased but along with it a lot of dualities have also developed. The horizontal and
vertical expansion of cities, rise in number of residential complexes, gated communities,
shopping malls, widening of city roads, depletion of basic services in inner city, creation of
ring roads, flyovers and so on are a few features of current urban growth. The cities are being
privatized in the name of beatification and sanitization. Slums, slum dwellers, poor are
systematically ousted. Therefore, the current phase of urban growth offers a dual picture.
Nonetheless, urbanization continues to be important. With the growth of neoliberal economic
settlements, urbanisation continues to be critically important, it is also important to recognise
that in some ways the rural/urban dichotomy is losing its salience. The boundary between
rural and urban is increasingly blurred, and many of the traditional distinctions between urban
and rural cultures, lifestyles and enterprises are eroding or 18 reforming , more particularly
when the importance of nation-state is eroding and cities are becoming important site for
market activities and global capitalism.
 Conclusion: The Urban Turn in India
Of late, scholars have started paying greater attention towards cities which is quite
different from the ways in which cities were imagined, explained and discussed in India
before liberalisation of economy in the 1990s. The imaginations about city in India were
highly influenced by thoughts of Gandhi, Nehru and other nationalist leaders for whom the
real India comprises of the villages which itself was influenced by the colonial knowledge
about India. For the colonists, India comprised of self-sufficient village republics. Gandhi’s
exhalation of gram swaraj is closely associated with colonial constructions of village
republic. Gandhi considered cities as places of evil and corruption that takes away simplicity,
authenticity and tampers the “inner spirit” of Indian civilisation. Nehru also shared the same
vision but considered villages as sites of ignorance and backwardness. After Independence,
this vision about Indian nation was also
shared by social scientists, planners and administrators who approached cities as the site of
several problems such as crime, violence, corruption, housing and so on. Cities, for a large
part of post-independence Indian history, was approached and understood from this
perspective. Gyan Prakash (2002) argues that the general trend (between 1940s to 1970s) was
to treat cities as locations for a range of urban problems. The importance of city rested on the

113
idea that cities are a seat of government, industry and commerce. This kind of imagination
and approach obscured considerations about urban social life, urban social structure and
urban way of living. Gyan Prakash further argues that such approach created an abstract
image of the city which hindered social sciences to look at lived environment. It is common
to observe that most of the cities in India, as elsewhere, are now expanding and making
connections with the countryside. There is a greater role of market and global techniques of
governance and globalization in cities. The importance of cities are growing. In fact, as many
commentators have argued, under globalization and neoliberal economic activities, the
importance of nation-state is now being taken up by the cities where most of the market
activities 19 are performed (Please refer to Module 1.2 titled Cities in the World System). In
order to bring in more capital, finance and opportunities, the cities have seen a rapid
advancement in urbanisation. It is in this overall context that Gyan Prakash places the “urban
turn.” He asserts that part of the reason for the emergence of the urban from the shadows has
to do with globalization. At a time when neo-liberal forms are changing Indian cities
fundamentally, it is all the more relevant and urgent to understand the city as society. Further,
Gyan Prakash says that the modern city as a particular configuration of social relations and
experience; that is, not just a site where politics and society happen, but itself an embodiment
of, as well as the condition of possibility for, society. Therefore, it is an urgent requirement to
read class, ethnicity, religion, economy, culture, and politics in the very texture of the city –
in its built and institutional forms, and in the spaces and rhythms of everyday life.
4.3 Rural Society –

4.3.1 Introduction –

The earliest Human communities were perhaps the loosely organised aggregations of a few
families who carried on mutually interdependent activities in gathering food and defending
them self against their enemies.

Characteristics of Rural Society

1.Community Consciousness

2.Role of Neighbourhood

3.Joint family

114
4.Faith in Religion

5.Simplicity

6.Social Homogeneity

7.Primary Relation Dominate

115
 Module No 5. Continuity and Change:
1.Major process of Change- Sanskritisation, Westernization and Modernization 2.Factors of
Change- Economy Education and Constitutional Provisions

 Major Changes
5.1 Sanskritization

Srinivas coined the term Sanskritization to reflect the social mobility present in Indian
Society. According to M.N. Srinivas “Sanskritization is a process by which a “low” Hindu
caste, or tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual, ideology, and way of life in the
direction of a high, and frequently, a “twice” born caste. It is followed by a claim to a higher
position in the caste hierarchy than traditionally concealed to the claimant caste by the local
community. Such claims are made over a period of time, sometimes a generation or two
before they are conceded.” In his study of Mysore Village, Srinivas finds that at some time or
the other, every caste tries to change its rank in the hierarchy by giving up its attributes and
trying to adopt those of castes above them. this process of attempting to change one’s rank by
giving up attributes that define a caste as low and adopting attributes that are indicative of
higher status is called ‘Sanskritization’. This process essentially involves a change in one’s
dietary habits from non- vegetarianism to vegetarianism, and change in one’s occupation
habits from unclean to clean occupation. The attributes of a caste become the basis of
interaction between castes.

5.1.1 Dominant Caste

The concept of dominant caste has been used for the first item in sociological literature by an
eminent Indian Sociologist M.N. Srinivas in his essay Social System of a Mysore Village,
which was written after his study of village Rampura. The concept occupies a key position in
the process of ‘Sanskritisation’. The term dominant caste is used to refer to a caste which
“wields economic or political power and occupies a fairly high position in the hierarchy.”
These castes 30

116
are accorded high status and position in all the fields of social life. The people of other lower
castes look at them as their ‘reference group’ and try to imitate their behavior, ritual pattern,
custom and ideology. In this way, the dominant caste of a particular locality plays an
important role in the ‘process of cultural transmission’ in that area. The members of a
dominant caste have an upper hand in all the affairs of the locality and enjoy many special
opportunities as well as privileges. Srinivas has defined the following six major
characteristics of Dominant caste.
i) Land Ownership:
Land is the most precious possession in rural area since it is the principal source of income.
Uneven distribution of locally available cultivable field is a regular phenomenon of Indian
Society. A vast area of land is concentrated in the hands of rich minority. Generally the big
landowners come from higher castes. These land owners employ the people of other castes as
their laborers. They also give land on rent to the people. As a result, the entire population of
the locality remains obliged to the few land owners of a particular caste.
These few landlords of a caste exercise considerable amount of power over all other castes
and become the dominant caste of that locality. Srinivas cites the examples of landowning
jats treating Brahmins as their servants in Punjab. Thakur landlords also deny cooked food
from all Brahmins accept their gurus and religious teachers.
ii) Numerical Strength:
The numerical strength of a caste also contributes towards its dominance. The more the
number the greater the power. In many areas, the Kshyatriyas due to their large population
are able to exercise their control and power even over the few rich Brahmins of a locality and
are able to dominate the socio-political situation. 31

117
iii) High place in local hierarchy:
Indian Society has been stratified into various groups on the basis of caste system organised
according to the beliefs and ideas of purity and pollution. In every locality certain caste is
accorded high status owing to its ritual purity. They always enjoy social superiority to all
other castes in every aspects of social life.
All the factors described above contributed towards the dominance of a caste in traditional
society. With the onset of modernization and change in the attitude and belief of people the
following new factors have come up overshadowing the old ones,
iv) Education:
The caste, member of which are highly educated, is naturally looked up by the members of
others castes. Due to their high education, they win the morale of others. The illiterate people
have to take their help in many occasions owing to the complexities of modern social life.
The educated people, due to their adequate information and knowledge about various
developmental activities, plans and programmes, are also in a better position to utilise them
which aids to their prosperity making them dominant in a particular area.
v) Job in administration and urban sources of income:
The caste, the majority members of which is in government bureaucracy or has sound
economic strength, always finds itself in an advantageous position. Its members hold legal
and administrative powers by virtue of their being government officials. They help their other
caste fellows to have different sources of urban income like supplying of food grains to urban
dwellers, doing various types of business.

118
In this way they strengthen their economic position and become comparatively rich then, the
members of caste who are engaged only in agricultural activities. All these aid to the higher
position of that caste in a locality and make it dominant.
vi) Political involvement:
The dominant place of politics in contemporary Indian Society can hardly be undermined.
The caste being more involved in political affairs of the state or locality, automatically raises
its position and exercises control in all fields of social life. Till now we have been
emphasizing on the point that a caste becomes dominant in a locality due to its attributes as
discussed above. But dominance is no longer a purely local phenomenon.
The caste may or may not have attributes of dominance in a particular locality or village;
nevertheless it can contribute to be a dominant caste, if the same caste occupies a dominant
position in that wider region. In such a case, the network or relationship and friendship ties of
the members of locally unimportant caste with the dominant relatives of that region, makes
them dominant.

5.2 Westernisation –

Means the British impact on the Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years
of British rule in India and changes brought out at different levels in technology institutions,
ideology and values.

Characteristics of Westernization –

1) Scientific and technological inventions –

2) Western thoughts helped Indian scientists for scientific and technological inventions
3) Changes in lifestyle is the basic characteristics of westernisation. For example
preference of jeans, Tee. shirts, fast food etc.
4) Westernisation directly influences original norms, cultural values, social relationships.
5) Impressive literary writing by Indians in English is the result of westernisation.
6) Democratic values, humanitarianism, equilibrianism and secularization spread all
over India.
7) Westernisation has changed status of women.
8) Urbanisation and Industrialization were influenced by westernisation.
9) Western education often implied opening up to new opportunity.

119
 10) Apart from way of life and thinking westernisation influenced Indian art and
literature.
11) In the view of M.N Srinivas lower caste sought to be sanskrtised, while upper caste
sought to be westernised.
12) It is responsible for new ideas and changes in institutions like education political, law
reforms
13) Westernisation has thrown away bad customs of Indian society.
14) It facilitied railways, road transport, printing, radio and other means of
communication.
15) In shorts westernisation influence the way of life, culture, food pattern, norms,
values, fashion, language and brought structural change in Indian society.

5.3 Modernisation –
Modernisation is a specific type of social change wherein a traditional society inclines to
develop a new pattern of conduct in response to emerging challenges of the new age. It is the
process of becoming or being made Morden, a change that usages that elements of science
and technology for achieving a better and more satisfactory life. It implies cultural libralirasm
and pragmatism modernisation gives more important to science and technology.
Modernisation has placed new ideology in the place of traditional system. Development of
science and technology leads to modernisation.

Indian Society and Modernisation –

In Indian society modernisation has taken place in each sector. Following are the sectors
where modernisation has occurred

1.Modernisation of Indian Constitution – Originally our constitution is modern

constitution as the Indian constitution was drafted in mid 20th century which gave advantages
its maker to in-corporate the good provision of all existing constitutions of the world

2. The Modernisation in Family – i) Conversion of Joint Family into Nuclear Family ii)
Women as a Karta of the family iii) Modernisation in family laws

3.Modernisation in Agriculture sector – Due to modernisation lot’s of reforms have been

carried out in pattern of farming. The modern technique of farming enables Indian food
grain. To be exported other country.

120
5.4 Factors of Change- Economy Education and Constitutional Provisions

Economic Factor –

Economic gives overview of economic structure of country. Economic consist ices of two
parts – Micro Economics (i-e Study of individual unit) and Macro Economics (I.E. Aggregate
study of whole country. Economic institution is one of the most important institution of the
society, as it deals with organise use of recourse for the maximum production of desired
goods and services. The economic activities of the country deal with for major question – i)
what to Produce? ii) How much to produce? When to produce? How to distribute?

Education-

1. Education as tool to empower the individual:-

Education is the best instrument of human development. A child first gets informal
education from his family and then he takes formal education from schools at primary level
and colleges at higher level. This formal education teaches a man how to behave properly in
society. In this way, this type of social change brings progress of society.

2).Education has become secular:-

In India, education has become secular concept. Irrespective of religion, Government of

India is providing free and compulsory education from age group 6to 14 years. Now
educational institutions are independent. Minorities also have been given right to establish
and administer their own institutions for imparting education under Art.29and 30. Subject to
education changes from institution to institutions for e.g., Science and Technology
Institutions, Institutions of commerce, Medical institutions, Legal Institutions etc.

3.)Responsible Government:-

In modern society rules are established made person should process require qualification
for participating in election process as a candidate. Education fulfils the criteria democratic
form of government. In responsible government.

121
4).It is a process to transmission of social heritage:-

Education the process through which social heritage of a group is passed on from one
generation to next. Socialization is another name of education. It is an attempt to shape the
development of life coming generation in accordance of customs and social ideals of life.
Education not only gives job opportunities to persons but also it imparts moral and ethics.

5). Health awareness and participation in the cultural and economic activities –

Literacy as a prerequisite to education is an instrument of empowerment. Literacy can

lead to health awareness and fuller participation in the cultural and economic well being of
the community. Traditionally in Indian Society many superstitious activities which resulted
even into loss of life. But due to spread of education ratio of such practices is decreased.

122
 References

1. Beteille, A. 1974 Studies in Agrarian Social Structure. Oxford University Press,

Delhi.
2. Beteille, A. 1974 Six Essays in Comparative Sociology. Oxford University Press,
Delhi.
3. Bhaduri, A. 1984 The Economic Structure of Backward Agriculture. Macmillan,
Delhi.
4. Desai, A.R. 1959 Social Background of Indian Nationalism. Popular Prakshan,
Bombay.
5. Beteille, Andre, “Ideas and Interest: Some Conceptual Problems in the Study
of Social Stratification in India”, International Social Journal, Vol. 21,No. 7, 1969.
6. Desai, A R., State and Society in India: Essays in Dissent, Popular Prakashan,
Bombay, 1975.
7. Ghurye, G. S., Caste and Class in India, Popular Book Depot, 1950.
8. Gidden, A., Sociology, Polity Press, 1999.
Hutton, J. H., Caste in India, Oxford University Press, 1946.
9. Indian Society, Text Book of Sociology for Class XII - NCERT.
10. Introduction to Sociology – Text Book for Class XI – NCERT.
11. Murdoch, J., Review of Caste in India, Rawat Publication, Jaipur, 1977.
12. Sharma, K.L., Essays in Social Stratification, Rawat Publication, 1980.
13. Singh, Y., “Caste and Class: Some Aspects of Continuity and Change’’ Sociological
Bulletin, Vol. XVII, No.2, 1968.
14. Srinivas, M.N., Caste in Modern India and other Essays, Asia Publishing House, 1972.
15. Bottomore, T.B. (1972) Sociology ---- A Guide to Problems and Literature, (Third
Impression), Blackie and Son (India, Ltd.)
16. Chakraborty, B. (1992) ‘‘AIDS --- Fighting the Fear and the Virus’’, Swasth Hind, (Nov.-
Dec.1992), Vol. XXXVI, No. 11-12, New Delhi.
17. Chatterjee, M. (1993) ‘‘Occupational Health of Self-employed Women Workers’’, Health
for Millions, Vol. No. 1, (Feb. 1993,) Women and Health Series, VHAI, New Delhi.
18. Desai, M. (1993) ‘‘Family Dynamics and Developmental Programmes: Curriculum
Planning’’,Indian Journal of Social Work (Jan., 1993) Special Issue ---- Family

123
19. Mehryar, A. (1992) ‘‘AIDS Education at School and at Work’’, Swasth Hind (Nov.-
Dec.1992), Vol. XXXVI, No. 11-12, New Delhi.
20. Parsons, Talcott, the Social System, New York, 1951.
21. Patnaik, R. (1991) ‘‘Women in Society’’, Social Implications of Reproductive
Technology with Special Focus on Indian Women, M.Phil. Dissertation, Centre for Social
Medicine and Community Health, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi.
22.Sathyamala C., et al (1986) Taking Sides --- The Choice Before a Health Worker,
ANITRA, 32nd Cross, Besant Nagar, Madras.
23. Tribhuwan, R.D. (1993) ‘‘Maternal and Child Health Care; Beliefs and Practices of
Thakurs’’, Journal of Education and Social Change.

124