B-2 Ch-7 Social and New Social

CBSE Class 12 Political Science

(Politics in India since Independence)
NCERT Solutions
Chapter-7 Rise of Popular Movements

Q 1. Which of these statements are incorrect:

The Chipko Movement was an environmental movement to prevent cutting down of trees.
raised questions of ecological and economic exploitation.
was a movement against alcoholism started by the women.
demanded that local communities should have control over their natural resources.

Ans. c. was a movement against alcoholism started by the women.

Q 2. Some of the statements below are incorrect. Identify the incorrect statements and rewrite those with necessary correction.

Social movements are hampering the functioning of India’s democracy.
The main strength of social movements lies in their mass base across social sections.
Social movements in India emerged because there were many issues that political parties did not address.

Ans.

Rewritten- Social movements involve a gradual process of coming together of people with similar problems.
Rewritten- Social movements in India emerged to reduce the possibility of deep social conflict and disaffection of groups from democracy.

Q 3. Identify the reasons which led to the Chipko Movement in U.P. in early 1970s. What was the impact of this movement?

Ans. The reasons that led to the Chipko Movement in UP were:

The Chipko movement began in two or three villages of Uttarakhand on refusal of permission to villagers to fell ash trees for making agricultural tools and allotted the same patch of land to a sports manufacturer for commercial use.
This enraged the villagers and they protested against the move of the government. The struggle soon spread across many parts of the Uttarakhand region.
The villagers protested against the practices of logging to be permitted by the government.
Villagers used a novel tactic to hug the trees to protect them from being cut down.

Impact of movement:

It soon spread across many parts of the Uttarakhand and larger issues of ecological and economic exploitation of the region were also raised.
The government issued a ban on falling of trees in the Himalayan regions for fifteen years until the green cover was fully restored.
Active participation of women was also a very aspect of the movement.
This movement was started with a single issue but became a symbol of many such popular movements emerging in different parts of the country during the 1970s and later.

Q 4. The Bharatiya Kisan Union is a leading organisation highlighting the plight of farmers. What were the issues addressed by it in the nineties and to what extent were they successful?

Ans. Bharatiya Kisan Union was one of the leading farmers’ movement to protest against the policies of the process of liberalisation of Indian economy. The following were the issued addressed by them:

Issues addressed by BKU:

The BKU demanded higher government floor prices for sugarcane and wheat,
Abolition of restrictions on the inter-state movement of farm produce
Guaranteed supply of electricity at reasonable rates
Waiving of repayments due on loans to farmers
The provision of a government pension for farmers.

Highlighted the plight of farmers:

BKU conducted rallies, demonstrations, and Jail Bharo agitations.
These protests involved thousands of 20 over lakhs farmers from western UPs adjoining regions.
BKU operated as a pressure group in politics with its strength of sheer members.

Extent of Success:

The organisation, along with the other farmers’ organisations across States, did manage to get some of their economic demands accepted.
The farmers’ movement became one of the most successful social movements of the ’eighties in this respect.
The success of the movement was an outcome of political bargaining powers that its members possessed.
The movement was active mainly in the prosperous States of the country.
An outcome of political bargaining powered by its members.
BKU farmers dominated regional electoral politics also.

Q 5. The anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh drew the attention of the country to some serious issues. What were these issues?

Ans. The following were the issues that drew the attention of the country to some serious issues:

It was a spontaneous mobilisation of women demanding a ban on the sale of alcohol in their neighbourhoods.
Rural women in remote villages from the State of Andhra Pradesh fought a battle against alcoholism, against mafias and against the government during this period.
The movement had its roots in “adult literacy drive” where women complained of increased consumption of locally brewed alcohol arrack by men in their families to effect on rural economy also.
In Nellore, women came together in spontaneous local initiatives to protest against arrack and forced the closure of wine shop.

Thus, this movement spread slowly all over the state.

Issues relating to movements:

The Anti-arrack movement aimed at prohibition on the sale of arrack.
Its demand touched upon a larger section of social, economic and political issues which had established a close nexus between crime and politics.
Women openly discussed the issues of domestic violence like dowry, sexual violence etc.
Anti-arrack movement provided a platform to discuss private issues of domestic violence.

Q 6. Would you consider the anti-arrack movement as a women’s movement? Why?

Ans. Yes, we would consider the Anti-arrack movement as a part of the women’s movement to provide a platform for women to discuss private issues of domestic violence:

The demand of the movement was a prohibition on the sale of arrack. But this simple demand touched upon larger social, economic and political issues of the region that affected women’s life.
Groups of local women tried to address these complex issues in their agitation against arrack. They also openly discussed the issue of domestic violence.
It focused on issues of sexual violence against women either within the family or outside.
The women launched a campaign against the system of dowry and demanded personal and property laws based on the norms of gender equality.
These campaigns contributed a great deal in increasing overall social awareness about women’s questions.
Focus of the women’s movement gradually shifted from legal reforms to open social confrontations.

Finally, the movement made demands of equal representation to women in politics during the nineties. This contributed to the 73rd and 74th amendments granting reservations to women in local level political offices. Thus, the anti-arrack movement was a women's movement in this sense.

Q 7. Why did the Narmada Bachao Aandolan oppose the dam projects in the Narmada Valley?

Ans: Narmada Bachao Aandolan was a collective local organisation's movement to save river Narmada which opposed the construction of dams. The Narmada Sagar Project and questioned the nature of ongoing developmental projects in the country.

Narmada Bachao Aandolan linked its opposition to Sardar Sarovar Project with larger issues concerning the nature of ongoing developmental projects, the efficiency of the model of development that the country followed and about what constituted a public interest in a democracy.
It demanded that there should be a cost-benefit analysis of the major developmental projects due to the construction of dam submerged around 245 villages to require two and a half lakh population to be relocated.
The movement demanded proper rehabilitation of all those to be affected from the construction of these projects.
This movement also questioned the nature of the decision-making process to be in the framing of mega-scale development projects.
Movement also insists that local communities must have a say in such decision making along with effective control over natural resources.
Hence, NBA achieved a comprehensive National Rehabilitation Policy formed by government in 2003.

Q 8. Do movements and protests in a country strengthen democracy? Justify your answer with examples.

Ans. Yes, to some extent movements and protests in the country strengthen democracy to have mixed reactions both for and against:

Arguments for:

Anti-arrack movement, Chipko movement, NBA etc., rectified some problems to be seen as an integral part of democratic politics.
These movements ensured participation and representation from diverse groups to reduce the possibility of deep social conflicts in democracy.
This movement broadened the idea of participation in Indian democracy i. e., Anti arrack movement and Dalit Panthers.

Arguments against:

Collective actions like strikes, sit-ins and rallies disrupt the functioning of the government, delay decision making and destabilise the routines of democracy.
Popular movements have raised the legitimate demands of the people and have involved large scale participation of citizens.
It should be noted that the groups mobilised by these movements are poor, socially and economically disadvantaged sections of the society from marginal social groups.
The frequency and the methods used by the movements suggest that the routine functioning of democracy did not have enough space for the voices of these social groups.
That is perhaps why these groups turned to mass actions and mobilisations outside the electoral arena.

Hence, we may conclude that movements are not only about collective assertions or rallies or protest, but they also involve a gradual process of coming together of people with similar problems, demand and expectations.

Q 9. What issues did the Dalit Panthers address?

Ans. Dalit Panthers was a militant organisation of the Dalit youth, was formed in Maharashtra in 1972 as a part of asserting their identity.

Activities of Dalit Panthers mostly centred around fighting increasing atrocities on Dalits in various parts of the State.
As a result of sustained agitations on the part of Dalit Panthers along with other like-minded organisations over the issue of atrocities against Dalits, the government passed a comprehensive law in 1989 that provided for rigorous punishment for such acts.
The larger ideological agenda of the Panthers was to destroy the caste system and to build an organisation of all oppressed sections like the landless poor peasants and urban industrial workers along with Dalits.

Q 10. Read the passage and answer questions below:

...., nearly all ‘new social movements’ have emerged as corrective to new maladies - environmental degradation, violation of the status of women, destruction of tribal cultures and the undermining of human rights - none of which are in and by themselves transformative of the social order. They are in that way quite different from revolutionary ideologies of the past. But their weakness lies in their being so heavily fragmented .......a large part of the space occupied by the new social movements seem to be suffering from ......various characteristics which have prevented them from being relevant to the truly oppressed and the poor in the form of a solid unified movement of the people. They are too fragmented, reactive, admonish, providing no comprehensive framework of basic social change. Their being anti-this or that (anti-West, anti-capitalist, anti-development, etc.) does not make them any more coherent, any more relevant to oppressed and peripheralised communities.-Rajni Kothari

What is the difference between new social movements and revolutionary ideologies?
What according to the author are the limitations of social movements?
If social movements address specific issues, would you say that they are ‘fragmented’ or that they are more focused? Give reasons for your answer by giving examples.

Ans.

The difference is that like revolutionary ideologies none of the new social movements is in and by themselves transformative of the social order but they emerged as corrective of new melodies.
According to author these movements are not any more coherent, relevant to oppressed and peripheralised communities. To some extent, these are éfifected by party politics.
If social movements address specific issues, we would say that these are fragmented which provide no comprehensive framework of social change i.e., Anti-arrack movement, Dalit Panthers etc.

B-2 Ch-7 Social and New Social - Solutions