"It takes a Movement to change....."

People may destroy a bus and attack its driver when the bus runs over a child. It is an isolated protest. It is not a popular movement. A popular movement is a sustained collective action over time. Such action is aimed against the state and takes shape into demand for a change in state policy or practice. Any such collective action is marked by some degree of organizations. Any popular movement must have a social orientation and a shared belief about its objectives and ideologies. Popular movement is successful when it takes the shape into a social movement. Popular as it often arise with the aim of bringing about changes on a public issue. In India before Independence such popular movements were organized by Raja Ram Mohan Roy who led protest against Sati. Similarly, Dalit movements were organized against suppression by upper castes. Proposals were also made to oppose ruthless exploitation on peasants. Popular movements are therefore social movements which are directed towards the achievement of some specific goals.

In older times, popular movements aimed for getting better wages, living conditions, health security, colonization, etc. The old movement clearly saw reorganization of power relations as a central goal. They therefore operated within the framework of political parties as The Indian national movement was for instance led by Indian National Congress. Likewise workers’ movements were led by trade unions. But the new movements are not about changing the distribution of power in society. They rather aim for issues related to quality of life like clean environment, resettlement, etc.. Popular movements therefore are now led by non-party political formations or non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) or social organizations. Popular movements therefore now include both old and new types of movements.  

OLD MOVEMENTS: PARTY BASED

Popular movements take the form of social movements or political movements and they may even overlap. Nationalist struggles, for instance was mainly a national movement. The deliberations on social and economic issues however, in the colonial period gave rise to autonomous social movements like the anti-caste movement, farmer’s movements and trade union protest in beginning of the 20^th century. These movements often raised issues related to some underlying social conflicts. Most of the movements continued even in the post-independent era. Trade Union Movement was strong in industrial workers of big cities like Kanpur, Kolkata and Mumbai. Nearly all political parties have set up their trade unions to mobilize certain sections of workers. The backwardness in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh (then known) gave rise to large scale peasant rebellions led by the communist parties in the initial years after Independence, they aimed for redistribution of land to cultivators. Such agitations were used later even in West Bengal, Bihar and adjoining areas. Peasants and agricultural laborers in these regions organized under the leadership of Marxist-Leninist workers and popularly their movement called Naxalite movements. These movements had no formal participation in elections but they were linked with political parties, as many individual and related organizations were closely linked with political parties. These links gave adequate representation of demands of diverse social sections in party politics.

NEW MOVEMENTS: NON-PARTY BASED

The decade of 1970-80s led to disappointment with political parties. The failure of Janata experiment and resulting political instability in the country led to disillusion with the economic policies of the state. India had gone for planned economy after independence aiming for the twin idea of growth and distribution. Despite massive strides in key sectors of the economy in the first twenty years of independence, poverty and inequality existed on a large scale. Benefits of economic growth did not reach all sections of society. Widespread social inequalities due to caste and gender discriminations complicated the issue of poverty. Further a huge gap existed between the urban industrial sector and the rural agrarian sector and it created a feeling of deprivation and injustice among several groups. Politically vibrant classes became dissatisfied with democracy and electoral politics and they decided to indulge outside party and indulge in mass mobilization for registering their protests. Students and activists from several sections of society came to the forefront for organizing the marginalized sections like Dalits and Adivasi’s. Further, middle class young activists launched service organizations and constructive programs for the rural poor. These organizations were called voluntary sector organizations since their nature of social work was voluntary and these chose to remain outside petty politics. They even did not contest elections at local or regional levels and neither did they support any political party. Most of the voluntary groups imposed faith in politics but not through political parties. Such associations were called non-party political formations. They believed that active and direct participation by local groups of citizens would be more effective in resolution of local issues rather than by political parties. It was even hoped that direct participation by people would reform the nature of democratic government. Such voluntary organizations continue their work in rural and urban areas. But their cause of work has changed. Recently such organizations are funded by external agencies which include international service agencies. It has weakened the idea of local initiatives as external funds are available to these groups on a large scale.

                                                                                                                        Shweta