What is a social movement?
A social movement is a long-lasting, organised effort by a large group of people who share a goal to bring about (or resist) change in society.
- Shared goal and ideas: people agree on what is wrong and what should change.
- Organisation and leadership: there are leaders, meetings, plans.
- Continuity: it lasts over time, not just one day.
- Collective action: people act together through protests, marches, petitions, court cases, songs and media.
A riot or one-day crowd is collective action but not a movement, because it has no lasting organisation. Movements often lead to counter-movements by people who want to keep things as they are.
Social change happens all the time slowly (like urbanisation). A movement is a deliberate effort to push change in a direction.
Theories of social movements
1. Relative deprivation theory
People feel they have less than others, or less than they deserve. This feeling of unfairness turns into anger and collective action. Weakness: many deprived people never protest, and feeling deprived alone does not build an organisation.
2. Logic of collective action (Mancur Olson)
A person acts in their own interest. They join a movement only if the gain is more than the cost. Problem: if the benefit comes to everyone anyway, why should I take the risk? This is the free rider problem. Weakness: people also join for values and belonging, not only for gain.
3. Resource mobilisation theory (McCarthy and Zald)
A movement succeeds when it can gather resources: leaders, money, members, organisation and media. Weakness: some movements succeed with very few resources, and not every movement is limited by resources.
Types of social movements
- Reformist: changes laws, customs or policies step by step inside the system (e.g. the Right to Information campaign).
- Redemptive: changes the inner life and behaviour of its members (e.g. Sree Narayana Guru's movement among the Ezhavas of Kerala).
- Revolutionary: wants to overturn the whole social or political system (e.g. the Russian Revolution).
Old and new social movements
Old movements (before the 1970s) worked through political parties and were about class and power, like workers' and peasants' movements and the anti-colonial struggle. New social movements are about identity, dignity, quality of life and environment, like women's, environmental and Dalit movements, and often act outside parties. In India the line is blurred: environmental movements such as Chipko were also about livelihood and class.
Environmental movements
Environmental movements join nature and livelihood. In the Chipko movement (1970s, Himalayan villages), women hugged trees to stop outside contractors from cutting them. The forest gave them fuel, fodder and water, so saving it meant saving their homes. It also questioned a far-away government that treated local forests as timber.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan questioned big dams: who gains (cities, farms) and who loses (villagers and tribal people whose land is flooded). Environmental movements ask for a kind of development that does not push the poor aside.
Peasant and workers' movements
Peasant movements
Peasants protested high land tax and unfair rent in colonial times, for example the Bardoli satyagraha (1928, Gujarat). The Tebhaga movement (1946โ47, Bengal) was by sharecroppers who wanted two-thirds of the crop instead of half. The Telangana movement (1946โ51) fought against oppressive landlords. After independence came the Naxalbari uprising (1967) and, in the 1980s, new farmers' movements by market-oriented farmers asking for better crop prices and lower costs, often using road blockades.
Workers' movements
Factory workers began organising in port cities. The first modern trade union was formed in Madras in 1918, and the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed in 1920. Unions fought for pay, hours and safety. Later, unions split along party lines, and after liberalisation the growth of contract and informal work weakened them.
Dalit and backward class movements
Dalit movements fight untouchability and caste humiliation and ask for dignity, equality and self-respect, not only jobs or money. Examples: the Satnami movement among the Chamars of Chhattisgarh, the Adi Dharm movement in Punjab, the Mahar movement in Maharashtra, temple-entry and water-tank satyagrahas led by Dr B. R. Ambedkar, and the Dalit Panthers (1972). Dalit writing and poetry became a strong voice.
Backward class movements started in the colonial period, often in the south (like the non-Brahmin movement), asking for a fair share in education, government jobs and political power. After independence they pushed for reservations for backward classes.
Tribal movements
Tribal movements are mostly about land, forests and identity. Outsiders, moneylenders, mining and dams took away tribal land. The Jharkhand movement in the Chotanagpur region is a long example: it began with leaders like Birsa Munda's earlier revolt against landlords and colonial rule, grew through groups of educated tribal leaders, and asked for control over land and resources and a separate state. Jharkhand became a state in 2000. Movements in the north-east also raised questions of identity and autonomy.
Women's movements
In the 19th century, social reformers worked for widow remarriage, against child marriage and for girls' schools. In the early 20th century women formed national organisations, like the Women's India Association (1917) and the All India Women's Conference (1926), and joined the freedom struggle in large numbers.
From the 1970s a second phase began. Autonomous women's groups (not tied to parties) campaigned against dowry deaths, rape and domestic violence, and for equal pay and rights. The report Towards Equality (1974) showed how far women still lagged. Women also played leading roles in peasant, tribal and environmental movements like Chipko.
Try it: spot a movement
Read one news story about a protest this week. Check it against C-O-L-D: is there a common goal, an organisation, leaders and ideas, and has it lasted? Then decide: reformist, redemptive or revolutionary? Old (class) or new (identity, environment)? Use the picker in the 3D free-play step to compare.
Key formulas and definitions
- Social movement: long, organised, collective effort with a shared goal to bring or resist change
- Counter-movement: a movement that opposes another movement's change
- Relative deprivation: feeling of having less than others or than deserved
- Olson's logic of collective action: join only if gain > cost; free rider problem
- Resource mobilisation (McCarthy and Zald): success depends on leaders, money, members, media
- Reformist / Redemptive / Revolutionary: change step by step / change the person / overturn the system
- Old social movements: class and power, via parties; New social movements: identity, environment, quality of life
- Key dates: AITUC 1920, Bardoli 1928, Tebhaga 1946โ47, Dalit Panthers 1972, Towards Equality 1974, Jharkhand state 2000
Worked examples
1. Thousands of people protest once after a road accident and go home. Is this a social movement?
No. It is collective action, but it has no lasting organisation, shared long-term plan or leadership, and it does not continue over time.
2. Which theory best explains this: 'Farmers saw city incomes rise while their crop prices stayed low, so they began protesting'?
Relative deprivation theory: the farmers compared themselves with others and felt unfairly left behind.
3. Classify the Chipko movement as old or new, and explain.
It looks like a new social movement because it was about the environment. But it was also about livelihood and the rights of poor hill villagers against the state and contractors, so it had 'old' class issues too. In India the two often mix.
4. Why is the Dalit movement described as a struggle for dignity and not only for money?
Because its main aim is to end untouchability and caste humiliation and to be treated as equal human beings. Jobs and money matter, but self-respect and recognition are at the centre.
Common mistakes
- Calling every protest or riot a social movement. A movement needs organisation and continuity.
- Mixing up redemptive and revolutionary: redemptive changes the individual; revolutionary changes the whole system.
- Thinking environmental movements in India are only about nature. They are usually about livelihood and justice too.
- Linking the wrong names: Olson = collective action logic; McCarthy and Zald = resource mobilisation.