NCERT Class 12 Political Science Chapter 14 Social and New Social Movement in India Solutions to each chapter is provided in the list so that you can easily browse through different chapters NCERT Class 12 Political Science Chapter 14 Social and New Social Movement in India and select need one. NCERT Class 12 Political Science Chapter 14 Social and New Social Movement in India Question Answers Download PDF. NCERT Political Science Class 12 Solutions.
NCERT Class 12 Political Science Chapter 14 Social and New Social Movement in India
Also, you can read the NCERT book online in these sections Solutions by Expert Teachers as per Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Book guidelines. CBSE Class 12 Political Science Solutions are part of All Subject Solutions. Here we have given NCERT Class 12 Political Science Chapter 14 Social and New Social Movement in India Notes, NCERT Class 12 Political Science Textbook Solutions for All Chapters, You can practice these here.
Social and New Social Movement in India
Chapter: 14
POLITICAL SCIENCE
PART – II: CHALLENGES OF NATION BUILDING
TEXTBOOK QUESTION ANSWER
Q. 1. Which of these statements are incorrect?
The Chipko Movement:
(a) was an environmental movement to prevent cutting down of trees.
(b) raised questions of ecological and economic exploitation.
(c) was a movement against alcoholism started by the women.
(d) 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 re-write those with necessary correction:
(a) Social movements are hampering the functioning of India’s democracy.
Ans. Social movements are not hampering the functioning of India’s democracy.
(b) The main strength of social movements lies in their mass base across social sections.
Ans. The main strength of social movements lies in their mass base across social sections.
(c) Social movements in India emerged because there were many issues that political parties did not address.
Ans. There were many issues emerged in India because political parties did not address the social movements.
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. Chipko Movement:
(i) Reasons for Beginning of Movement: The movement began in a small village of Uttarakhand (the then U.P.). A story is related with this movement, that villagers said to the forest department to require the ash trees for the purpose of manufacturing agricultural tools. The forest department refused permission to the villagers to fell ash trees for making agricultural tools. However, the forest department 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. Larger issues of ecological and economic exploitation of the region were raised. The villagers demanded that no forest-exploiting contracts should be given to outsiders and local communities should have effective control over natural resources like land, water and forests. They wanted the government to provide low cost materials to small industries and ensure development of the region without disturbing the ecological balance. The movement took up economic issues of landless forest workers and asked for guarantees of minimum wage.
(ii) Impact of the Movement: Women’s active participation in the Chipko agitation was a very novel aspect of the movement. The forest contractors of the region usually doubled up as suppliers of alcohol to men. Women held sustained agitations against the habit of alcoholism and broadened the agenda of the movement to cover other social issues. But more than that, the Chipko Movement, which started over a single issue, became a symbol of many such popular movements emerging in different parts of the country during the 1970s and later. The movement achieved a victory when the government issued a ban on felling of trees in the Himalayan regions for fifteen years, until the green cover was fully restored.
Q. 4. The Bhartiya 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. In January 1988, around twenty thousand farmers had gathered in the city of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. They were protesting against the government decision to increase electricity rates. The farmers camped for about three weeks outside the District Collector’s office until their demands were fulfilled. It was a very disciplined agitation of the farmers and all those days they received regular food supply from the nearby villages.
The Meerut agitation was seen as a great show of rural power i.e. farmer cultivators. These agitating farmers were members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), an organisation of farmers’ from western Uttar Pradesh and adjoining areas. The BKU was one of the leading organisations in the farmers movement of the eighties.
This 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. Until the early nineties, the BKU distanced itself from all political parties. It operated as a pressure group in politics with its strength of sheer numbers. The organization.across states, did manage to get some of their economic demands accepted.
Unlike most of the Indian farmers who engage in agriculture for subsistence, members of the organisation like the BKU grew cash crops for the market. Like the BKU, farmers’ organisations across states recruited their members from communities that dominated regional electoral politics. Shetkari Sangathan of Maharashtra and Rayata Sangha of Karnataka, are prominent examples of such organisations of the farmers.
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 serious issues towards which the anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh drew the attention of the country were as given below:
1. Increased consumption of a locally brewed alcohol-arrack- by men. The habit of alcoholism was ruining the physical and mental health of village people.
2. It effected the rural economy. Indebtedness grew with increasing-scales of consumption of alcohol. Men remained absent from their jobs due to effects of alcoholism.
3. There was increase in crime because contractors of alcohol engaged in crime for securing their monopoly over the arrack-trade.
4. Effects on family life. It resulted in the collapse of the family economy. The women were beaten by the males in the family particularly by the husband. The issue of domestic violence was discussed openly.
Q. 6. Would you consider the anti-arrack movement as a women’s movement?
Ans. Anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh was definitely a movement of women. In Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh women came together in spontaneous local initiative to protest against arrack (Local alcohol) and forced closure of wine shop. The news spread very fast and women of about 5000 villages got inspired and met together in meetings passed resolution for complete prohibition and sent these resolutions to the District Collector and Higher autorities. Due to women’s protests, the arrack auctions in Nellore district were postponed 17 times. In 1992 women took out a big procession in Hyderabad to protest against the sale of ‘arrack’. Women also raised the issue of domestic violence: Anti-arrack movement became a part of the women’s movement.
Q. 7. Why did the Narmada Bachao Aandolan oppose the dam projects in the Narmada Valley?
Ans. Sardar Sarovar Project is a multipurpose mega-scale dam. Its advocates say that it would benefit huge areas of Gujarat and the three adjoining states in terms of availability of drinking water and water for irrigation, generation of electricity and increase in agricultural production.
Sardar Sarover Project in Gujarat and the Narmada Sagar Project in Madhya Pradesh were two of the most important and biggest, multi- purpose dams planned under the project. Narmada Bachao Aandolan, a movement to save Narmada, opposed the construction of these dams and questioned the nature of ongoing developmental projects in the country.
An ambitious developmental project was launched in the Narmada Valley of central India in early eighties. The project consisted of 30 big dams, 135 medium sized and around 3,000 small dams to be constructed on the Narmada and its tributaries that flow across three states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The reasons of oppose by NBA:
Since its inception the NBA linked its opposition to the Sardar Sarovar Project with larger issues concerning the nature of ongoing developmental projects, efficacy of the model of development that country followed. Narmada Bachao Aandolan continued a sustained agitation for more than twenty years. It used every available democrátic strategy to put forward its demands. These included appeals to the judiciary, mobilisation of support at the international level, public rallies in support of the movement and a revival of forms of Satyagraha to convince people about the movement’s position. A comprehensive National Rehabilitation Policy formed by the government in 2003 can be seen as an achievement of the movements like the NBA. However, its demand to stop the construction of the dam was severely criticised by many as obstructing the process of development denying access to water and to economic development for many. The Supreme Court upheld the government’s decision to goverment ahead with the construction of the dam while also instructing to ensure proper rehabilitation.
In fact the journey of the Narmada Bachao Aandolan depicted a gradual process of disjunction between political parties and social movements in Indian politics. By the end of the nineties, however, the NBA was not alone. There emerged many local groups and movements that challenged the logic of large scale developmental projects in their areas. Around this time, the NBA became part of a larger alliance of people’s movements that are involved in struggles for similar issues in different regions of the country.
Q. 8. Do movements and protests in a country strengthen democracy? Justify your answer with examples.
Or
Evaluate the lessons that have been learnt from popular movements in India.
Ans. The following lessons have been learnt from the popular movements in India:
Advantages or merits of social movements:
(i) Popular movements ensured effective representation of diverse groups and their demands. This reduced the possibility of deep social conflict and disaffection of these groups from democracy. Popular movements suggested new forms of active participation and thus broadened the idea of participation in Indian democracy.
(ii) The history of these popular movements helps us to understand better the nature of democratic politics. We have seen that these non- party movements are neither sporadic in nature nor are these a problem. These movements came up to rectify some problems in the functioning of party politics and should be seen as integral part of our democratic politics. They represented new social groups whose economic and social grievances were not redressed in the realm of electoral politics.
(iii) It should be noted that the group 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.
(iv) Some of these movements continued in the post-independence period as well. Trade Union movement had a strong presence among industrial workers in major cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Kanpur. All major political parties have these sections of workers. Peasants in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh organised massive agitations under the leadership of Communist parties in the early years of independence and demanded redistribution of land to cultivators. Peasants and agricultural labourers in parts of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and adjoining areas continued their agitations under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist workers, who were known as the Naxalites. The peasants’ and the workers’ movements mainly focussed on issues of economic injustice and inequality.
Limitations of social movements:
Critics of movements and protests often argue that collective actions like strikes, sit-ins and rallies disrupt the functioning of the government, delay decision making and destabilise the routines of democracy. Such an argument invites a deeper questions: Why do these movements resorts to such assertive forms to action?
(i) Democratic politics requires a broad alliance of various disadvantaged social groups. Such an alliance does not seem to be shaping under the leadership of these movements. Political parties are required to bring together different sectional interests, but they also seem to be unable to do so. Parties do not seem to be taking up issues of marginal social groups. The movements that take up these issues operate in a very restrictive manner. The relationship between popular movements and political parties has grown weaker over the years, creating a vacuum in politics. In the recent years this has become a major problem in Indian politics.
(ii) Social movements seen to be suffering from varous characteristics which have prevented them from being relevant to the truely oppressed and the poor in the form of a solid unified movement of the people.
(iii) If social movements address specific issues, they are fragmented because they are suffering from various characteristics which have prevented them from being relevant to the truely oppressed and the poor in the form of a solid movement of the people.
Q.9. What issues did the Dalit Panthers address?
Or
Who were Dalit Panthers? What was their major issue?
Or
Mention any two issues raised by the Dalit Panthers.
Or
What were the issues of Dalit Panthers?
Ans. By the early 1970s, the first generation Dalit graduates, especially those living in city slums began to assert themselves from various platforms. Dalit Panthers, a militant organisation of the Dalit youth, was formed in Maharashtra in 1972 as a part of these assertions.
The larger ideological agenda of the Dalit 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. Activities of Dalit Panthers mostly centred around fighting increasing atrocities on Dalits in various parts of the state of Maharashtra. 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.
1. The movement provided a platform for Dalit educated youth to use their creativity as a protest activity.
2. Dalit writers protested against the brutalities of the caste system in their numerous autobiographies and other literary works published during this period. These works portraying the life experiences of the most downtrodden social sections of Indian society sent shock waves in Marathi literary world, made literature more broad based and representative of different social sections and initiated contestations in the cultural realm.
3. In the post-Emergency period, Dalit Panthers got involved in electoral compromises; it also underwent many splits, which led to its decline.
Q. 10. Read the passage and answer the 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 as 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 and hocish, 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 peripheralized communities.
-Rajni Kothari
Questions
1. What is the differences between new social movements and revolutionary ideologies?
Ans. 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. They are in that way quite different from revolutionary ideologies of the past.
2. What according to the author are the limitations of social movements?
Ans. 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.
3. If social movements address specific issues, would you say that they are ‘fragmented’ or that they are more focussed? Give reasons for your answer by giving examples
Ans. If social movements address specific issues, they are fragmented because they are suffering from various characteristics which have prevented them from being relevant to the truly oppressed and the poor in the form of a solid movement of the people.
