Under the influence of globalization, developmental processes in India have produced spaces of advantage and disadvantage and new geographies of power. A variety of protest movements emerged to interrogate and challenge this developmental paradigm that evidently also weakens the democratic space vital to the formulation of a critical consensus.
This course proposes to introduce students to the conditions, contexts, and forms of political contestation over development paradigms and examine their bearings on the retrieval of democratic voice of citizens. It introduces the social and political movements in post-independent India with special reference to mobilization politics in movements for the formation of separate states, agrarian movements, tribal movements, anti-caste movements, and movements related to development projects.
It will help students develop an understanding of the perspectives on three ideological strands represented by agrarian movements, anti-caste movements, and women’s movements.
Course Content
Unit I
a) Social and Political Movements: Concepts, Theories, and Types
b) Social and Political Movements in India: Background, History, and Debates
Unit II
a) Peasants’ Movements: Genesis and Growth
b) Tribal Movements: Issues and Dynamics
Unit III
a) Dalit and Backward Caste Movements: Issues, Leadership, and Organizations
b) Women’s Movement: Gender Justice and Empowerment
c) Challenges to Women’s Movement: Fundamentalism, Caste, Violence, and Moral Policing
Unit IV
a) Environmental Movements:
- Chipko Movement
- Silent Valley Movement
- Narmada Bachao Andolan
b) State, Civil Society, and Social Movements in India
Essential Readings
- Basu, A. (Ed.). (2018). The Challenge of Local Feminism: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective. Taylor & Francis.
- Gail, O. (1993). Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition. Routledge Publications.
- Mohanty, M. (Ed.). (2004). Caste, Class and Gender. Sage Publications.
- Oommen, T. K. (Ed.). (2010). Social Movements (Vol. I & Vol. II). Oxford University Press.
- Shah, G. (2002). Social Movements and the State. Sage Publications.
Source: Undergraduate (UG) Political Science Syllabus – Core XX (Semester VIII): Social and Political Movements in Contemporary India.