📘 Class 12 Political Science – Chapter 7
🌟 Rise of Popular Movements – Notes
🌀 Nature of Popular Movements
- Popular movements can be simple or complex.
- They represent unusual forms of collective action (सामूहिक कार्यवाही).
- Many movements adopt novel tactics (नई रणनीतियाँ) for protest.
Types of Movements:
- Party-Based Movements – Closely associated with political parties; follow party objectives & ideologies.
- Non-Party Movements – Independent of political parties and specific ideologies.
🌿 Chipko Movement
- An environmental movement (पर्यावरण आंदोलन) to prevent cutting of trees.
- Demanded that local communities control their natural resources.
- Started in Uttarakhand villages in 1973 when villagers were denied permission to fell ash trees for agricultural tools.
- Highlighted ecological and economic exploitation (पारिस्थितिक और आर्थिक शोषण) of the region.
- Women’s participation was a unique and significant feature. 👩🌾🌳
✊ Movements of Dalit Panthers
- Formed in Maharashtra in 1972, a militant (सशस्त्र/संगठित संघर्ष) organisation of Dalit youth.
- Fought against increased atrocities (अत्याचार) on Dalits.
- Ideology: Destroy caste system (जातिवाद प्रणाली) & unite all oppressed sections.
- Post-emergency, Dalit Panthers got involved in electoral compromises, faced splits, and declined.
🌾 Growth of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU)
- Organisation of farmers from Western Uttar Pradesh & Haryana.
- Key demands:
- Higher government floor prices (न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य) for sugarcane & wheat.
- Abolition of restrictions on inter-state movement of farm produce.
- Guaranteed electricity supply at reasonable rates. ⚡
- Methods to pressurise government: Rallies, demonstrations, and Jail Bharo (जेल भरो आंदोलन).
- Early 1990s: BKU remained non-aligned with political parties.
- Unlike subsistence farmers, BKU members grew cash crops for market.
- Other farmer organisations:
- Shetkari Sanghatana (Maharashtra)
- Rayata Sangha (Karnataka)
🌟 Rise of Popular Movements – Part 2 Notes
🍶 Anti-Arrack Movement
- Location: Andhra Pradesh, early 1990s.
- Nature: Spontaneous mobilisation of women demanding a ban on sale of alcohol (शराब बिक्री पर प्रतिबंध) in their neighbourhoods.
- Origin: Women of Dubagunta, Nellore district, were part of the Adult Literacy Drive. During class discussions, they complained about men consuming locally brewed alcohol (arrack).
- Significance:
- Simple demand for banning arrack highlighted larger social, economic, and political issues affecting women’s lives.
- Inspired other women’s movements in later years. 👩🦰✊
🌊 Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA)
- Cause: Protest against displacement (स्थानीय विस्थापन) caused by huge development projects.
- Key Project: Sardar Sarovar Project, Narmada Valley, early 1980s.
- Involved three states: Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra.
- NBA Formation: Around 1988-89, a loose collective of voluntary organisations united under the banner of NBA.
- Demands:
- Cost-benefit analysis of major developmental projects.
- Address social costs – forced resettlement, loss of livelihood, cultural loss, ecological depletion. 🌱🏞️
- Approach: Used democratic strategies for more than 20 years, shifting from rehabilitation demands to total opposition to the dam.
📚 Lessons From Popular Movements
- Help understand the nature of democratic politics (लोकतांत्रिक राजनीति).
- Ensure effective representation of diverse groups and their demands.
- Suggest new forms of active participation, broadening democratic participation in India. ✊🗳️
📝 Movement for Right to Information (RTI)
- Start: 1990, by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), Rajasthan.
- Demand: Access to records of famine relief work and accounts of labourers.
- Jan Sunwais (Public Hearings): Organised in 1994 & 1996; administration asked to explain actions publicly. 🗣️
- National Campaign: 1996, MKSS formed National Council for People’s Right to Information in Delhi.
- Legislation:
- 2002: Weak Freedom of Information Act, never enforced.
- 2004: RTI Bill tabled; received Presidential assent in June 2005. 📜✅
🌟 Rise of Popular Movements – Facts & Key Terms
📌 FACTS THAT MATTER
- Chipko Movement 🌳
- Protest against commercial logging (व्यावसायिक कटाई) permitted by the government.
- Villagers were refused permission to fell ash trees for agricultural tools; the land was allotted to sports manufacturers.
- Novel aspect: Active participation of women with social agenda. 👩🌾✊
- Nature of Popular Movements 🗣️
- People come together to raise voice for their demands.
- Party-based movements: Supported by political parties (e.g., Trade Union Movement in Kolkata, Kanpur, Bombay).
- Non-party based movements: Independent of political parties; often emerge due to disillusionment with democracy.
- Emergence of Non-Party Movements 🔹
- Caused by:
- Disillusionment among various sections
- Failure of Janata experiment
- Gap between urban-industrial sector
- Political instability
- Social inequality and sense of injustice
- Dalit Panthers ✊
- Militant organisation of Dalit youth, formed in 1972 in Maharashtra.
- Fought against caste-based inequalities (जातिगत असमानताएं), demanded social justice (सामाजिक न्याय) and proper implementation of reservations (आरक्षण).
- Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) 🌾
- Leading farmers’ movement in Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
- Demands:
- Higher government floor prices
- Removal of restrictions on inter-state movement of produce
- Guaranteed supply of electricity ⚡
- Government pension for farmers 💰
- Anti-Arrack Movement 🍶
- Started by rural women in Andhra Pradesh against alcoholism and mafia.
- Mobilisation of women to ban the sale of alcohol.
- Highlighted domestic violence (घरेलू हिंसा) issues like dowry and sexual violence.
- Narmada Bachao Andolan 🌊
- Loose collective of local organisations to save Narmada River.
- Opposed Sardar Sarovar multipurpose dam; questioned development projects.
- Shifted from rehabilitation demands to total opposition.
- Led to National Rehabilitation Policy 2003. ✅
- Democratic Impact 🏛️
- Movements involve more than rallies; they raise awareness of rights, expand democracy, and mobilise citizens constructively.
- Right to Information Movement 📄
- Started in 1990 by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), Rajasthan.
- Demanded records of famine relief work and accounts of labourers.
- Became law in 2005 after nationwide mobilisation.
📝 WORDS THAT MATTER
- Party-based Movements: Supported by political parties; activists do not contest elections formally.
- Non-party Based Movements: Mass mobilisation outside party politics.
- MKSS: Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, demanded records of famine relief work and labour accounts.
- Dalit Panthers: Militant Dalit youth organisation (1972, Maharashtra) against caste inequalities and social injustice.
