So true!!...... But for younger generations this would be like a fiction because they do not find such movements happening now although there are so many problems in our society. The major reasons behind it is that after the fall of soviet union people have lost faith in socialism and equality which this type of movement can bring and secondly, post liberalisation the middle class which use to be the initiators of these movements shifted and became the upper class in the society and the existing middle class is too bifurcated. Shipra Sharma(32092)
For our generation movements like Independence movement, Apartheid movement or American Civil Rights movement has become the golden chapters of history but for the coming generation it’s going to be the ancient history and leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King would be deified. With the decline of the soviet, people have lost over the faith of socialist type of movement. In the present era even the government averse from such solidarity. The voice of masses is suppressed by giving them the petty subsidies on ration, housing etc. Leaders like Anna Hazare have become endangered species. (32037)
As the economy opens up and as the income inequality increases, people are losing the interest to initiate an act collectively because of the number of options available to them. For example, if the textile workers go on strike, people will sell / buy imported goods and nobody will be bothered about the state of the workers on strike. They lose their daily wage and there is no help rendered to them by the affluent section to help them fight for their rights. Hence, the poor will continue to stay oppressed in times to come.
Earlier, social movements were primarily led by the middle class which today has been further divided into further divisions like upper and lower middle class, and much more individualistic in their perspective. In other words, today scenario is business driven and any such social movements are seen an obstruction to it. Hence, today thinking about the masses is secondary while efforts to fulfill basic individual requirements are the primary focus in order to survive. Ankit Sharma 32005
There is something missing, I think. A very latest movement, Arab Uprising, which is 'apparently' non-violent, has tried to defy the above mentioned reasons. This movement got enough spread and now Arab countries are making sufficient leadership changes. It's not that social movements are NIL but they have got some backdrop. One reason can be that some of the outcomes of previous movements do not make much people happy. Some of the movements led to a lot of loss of life and property. Even in India’s struggle for independence, thousands of people died. Gurpreet Singh 32066
The recent movements in the Arab countries including Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are testimony to the existence and strength of movements. What is also interesting to observe that the support / participation is not necessarily by flooding the streets and registering physical presence as seen in conventional movements, but extensive use of internet and social media that not only facilitates but also acts as catalysts. Movements won’t be an endangered species, but the constant bombarding by media might lead to fading of these memories.
A few years from now people may respond as "why do you want to have a movement?" The government is giving you a house, food, education, employment and some cases a marriage allowance as well. Be happy. What is it that you don't have for which you want to create a movement? Basically the state is curbing the scope for any movement even before their conception.
Social movements gained high solidarity and participation during the early 20th century in most parts of the world. The measures taken by dictators and opressive governments to blatantly crush them, catalysed them further. But as the world marched into the 21st century such solidarity in social movements is fading away. Governments have developed weapons of negotiation and manipulation to offset them at early stages. Ultimately many such upheavels result into violent backlash in the form of naxalism or recent movements in the Arab countries. Mayank Gupta(32022)
Can we really call the uprising and apheavels in Arab countries where tanks, grenade launchers and modern firearms are used against the dicatators a 'social movement'?
It is true that social movements are on a decline. One reason is the change in power structure. With the collapse of socialist era and emergence of capitalism issues of social significance like price rise are not able to mobilize masses.Leadership is central to any movement to be successful. In the past leaders came from middle class which was united. Today the middle class is polarized and rarely a leader with mass appeal comes up. Also in context of India 60s and 70s was the period when there was hangover of freedom struggle and social movements were frequent.
Nowadays there is a general indifference exhibited by middle class towards taking an active role in bringing about CHANGE, unless if it is a matter of life or death for him. Everyone is comfortable in their own shoes thinking that someone else will take the responsibility to act against any social injustice. For Generation Next, this situation is further going to deteriorate due to the enormous options available to the flourishing middle class and whatever limited social movement also happening now will be a “FABLE” for them. Kamal Rangan (32075)
Younger generation will be characterized by more individualistic culture than todays. Also they will be experiencing wide income differentials and income group stratification.Also they will be experiencing leadership vacuum because of middle class stratification. This will lead to decrease in no’s sharing common condition or sense of deprivation and need to collude for action. But in my opinion social movements will become less frequent and may vary in impact but cannot become obsolete as evident in recent movements in Tunisia and Libiya.
Earlier movements lasted for years. Indian freedom movement lasted for 200 years. Now days we don’t find any sustainable movements. Baba Ramdeo started Black money movement but now it is not. Anna Hazare movement did quite well, got huge support from every class but now it is much diluted. One reason may be- suppression of these movements by government by any means. In Tahlaka case, each Tahlaka person was charged with atleast 5 cases. Blames were made against Baba Ramdeo, Kiran Bedi and Kejriwal for misutilizing funds. These all shows the power of state to press movements. Rohitash 32088
Today’s generation,, lives a mechanical life. They have no time for things that require persistent efforts. People find accepting a wrong much easier than challenging it. The raison d’être for the same can be attributed to factors like – Lack of time from hectic schedules of work life, Problems in maintenance of a decent living with every increasing inflation, lack of resources (materialistic and human) to fight against the wrong that happens, etc. And most importantly, it is the dearth of effective and influential leadership in the present times, that makes organizing of any social movement almost impossible.
Social movements take place when people come together at large scale to form collective action against their exploitation. Species called social movements was always there in history, it is present in today’s world, examples are Anna hazare movement, and movement which stared at Tahrir square and led to the revolution in Egypt etc and this species will always be there in the future. We can agree on point that social movement has become less frequent these days due to the various reason we discussed in the class (fall of socialism, rising of middle class etc.) Parminder Singh (32083)
Though some social movements are taking place in the present they cannot be compared to the past movements both numerically and also in their appeal to the masses. One major reason for this is the lack of leadership from the middle class. Also, the society has now become more individualistic and materialistic and people are busy in their individual lives rather than be a part of these movements.Also, due to growing globalization, these movements are suppressed with an iron hand as the opportunity cost associated with these movements is very high in the form of loss of national income.
From the early 1970s new form of social mobilization like Chipko Movement,Save Silent Valley, Narmada Bachao Andolan, etc. took place in India. These movements were greatly appealing to people because most of these movements largely distanced themselves from the ideologies of the political parties and were the movements of landless, unorganised labour in rural and urban areas, adivasis, dalits, displaced people, peasants, urban poor, small entrepreneurs and unemployed youth who took up the issues of livelihood, opportunities, dignity and development. But presently there is a dearth of such social mobilization because a movement's commitment to change and the reason of its organization's existence are founded upon the honest and influential leadership, normative commitment to the movement's aims or beliefs, and active participation on the part of the followers or members which is unfortunately a rarity today. Tahira Sheikh 32043
One of the reasons social movements are on a decline is that the problems now are not faced by the entire community. There is stratification on basis of income. The high income group people are never affected by a problem, for example, the latest food price inflation. The change has taken place due to the rise in income of the middle class. Previously, leaders of the social movements emerged from the middle class and they mobilised the lower or the poor class. The indifferent middle class and the highly suppressed lower class are not able to drive a social movement. Himanshu Pilania (32070)
The role played by media and technology especially the social networking sites like twitter is quite prominent in encouraging a new form of a technologically enabled political protest. The younger generations are expected to relate to a movement in the form of the “twitter revolution”, as the social movements are losing their identity. The people are observed to be more inclined towards the individualistic culture. Also the movements observed these days are quite short lived and are often in the form of crowd actions. The various candlelight vigils organized as a protest against terrorism are an example of it, wherein no further steps are taken to institutionalize the movement. Thus the movements are expected to face extinction in the coming years. Deepika Agarwal (32063)
The fall of socialism, globalisation, leadership vacuum and removal of freedom struggle’s influence are factors behind this. Fall of socialism made this idea less appealing. Issue of higher wages have become prime focus in bargaining by labour unions. Capital drives labour. Capitalism and globalisation have eroded bargaining power of labour as firms have more influence and alternatives. People are more individualistic and middle class which took a lead role in initiating and mobilising social movements has now higher economic orientation. Social movements are less fanciful to post-independence generations and leaders with mass appeal are infrequent. Avinash Kumar (32059)
I don’t think that social movements have become extinct; only their form and scale have changed. In the recent past many relevant issues have been taken up by the people which then became a movement. ‘Justice for Jessica’ is an example of a modern-day social movement. Failing to find justice, people from various sections of society came together to demand justice and it soon became a movement, especially in the national capital. Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Upkar fire tragedy and Justice for Priyadarshini Mattoo have all been examples of social movement started by people to demand justice. -Ankush Khanna
There are big chances that social movements can be a history to our younger generations. The rise of economic condition of middle class is one big reason that can be attributed to this phenomenon. After liberalization in 1990s, service sector and its contribution to GDP has grown tremendously. Juxtaposition of the channels of spread of social movements in future might lead to an interesting analysis, as the potential of internet will be realized more by then. And it will be more fascinating to see how virtual movements evolve to. Pavan EVSR(32084)
In times to come, it might be difficult to find people with farsighted approach, who can collectively come forward to fight for what is right; not just for themselves but for others as well ,those who can take right steps to ensure that their thoughts turn into action. With things moving at a high pace, people are badly engrossed in their lives and find no time to even think about others especially to an extent where they can see a commonality between their and others’ problems. All these strengthen the fact of movements becoming a thing of past. aditi(32052)
When stories related to movements will be narrated to a younger generation the result will be that they will listen to them enthusiastically but courage to initiate another movement will be minimal. The reasons might be that there is a little scope left for it now. Government tries to pacify the situation either suspending it for a while or agreeing to the terms and conditions of people. The capability of downtrodden to initiate a movement for a bigger cause is crushed by the government or by the upper business class by providing them meager long term benefits. Khushboo Sinha(p32017)
Any social movement has a cause/reason that is felt simultaneously by a group of people, a leadership and hence a strong leader-followers linkage, a methodology to guide the course of action and a desired outcome or objective.At a time when one would be telling about social movements as a story, the society would be in an ironical state wherein each person would have many connections(mostly virtual!), yet a high degree of complacency, individualism and self-dependence would make the idea of collective solution to problems seem inappropriate.Also,new times would require new methods of action.In the absence of such an innovation,no leader would be able to bind the masses into a unit.
State of affair will most likely depend in the manner the story is being told.If story is told as a subject of history which lacks lessons to be learned and results in younger generation finding hard to attach any significane to those,then probably it will constrain itself to the field to academic only rather than younger ones learning substantially from those stories and increasing their intellectual level. Manas MIttal(P32020)
Pawan EVSR made a valid point about the virtual movements.... Moreover I believe that the movements or uprisings will always be there but the face of the movements will change, as we can see from the movements in Egypt and rest of middle east how things innately remain the same though the methods of movements have changed but they still exist and will remain to exist.
Compared to our pre independence movements, intensity in the movements have decreased. But we must also keep in mind that the necessity (of the common middle class man) of that generation and the current generation are different.The movie Rang De Basanti is an example where a candle light march was carried on to protest injustice We also see a lot of virtual movements that have and are coming up. People are becoming indifferent and so having to mobilise a huge crowd isn’t easy unless the crowd connects to the issue. Social sites are also into publicising these movements.
Social movements may die out gradually and for the subsequent generation this could remain only in the form of stories. The level of individualism has gained more importance than the collectivism and it is difficult to mobilise people for a common cause. There is a dearth of good leaders who could instil the felling of cooperation among the public to fight for a common cause. Social movements could be seen in the form of networking sites through e-mails, facebook etc. in the virtual world only. Support of anti-corruption movement through sms and mails becomes a passive support for the cause. Lipsa Mishra ( 32078)
I feel that younger generation will experience a different kind of social movement. One essential part of social movements is communicating your opinion about something, in this context social media for gen y will be the most important tool be it Lokpal movement or uprising in Egypt social media platforms like twitter or facebook have become the new mass protest medium but what can be achieved in real from these tools is still limited but they have certainly emerged as most easy medium of voicing opinions if not most efficient.
33 comments:
So true!!...... But for younger generations this would be like a fiction because they do not find such movements happening now although there are so many problems in our society. The major reasons behind it is that after the fall of soviet union people have lost faith in socialism and equality which this type of movement can bring and secondly, post liberalisation the middle class which use to be the initiators of these movements shifted and became the upper class in the society and the existing middle class is too bifurcated.
Shipra Sharma(32092)
For our generation movements like Independence movement, Apartheid movement or American Civil Rights movement has become the golden chapters of history but for the coming generation it’s going to be the ancient history and leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King would be deified. With the decline of the soviet, people have lost over the faith of socialist type of movement. In the present era even the government averse from such solidarity. The voice of masses is suppressed by giving them the petty subsidies on ration, housing etc. Leaders like Anna Hazare have become endangered species.
(32037)
As the economy opens up and as the income inequality increases, people are losing the interest to initiate an act collectively because of the number of options available to them. For example, if the textile workers go on strike, people will sell / buy imported goods and nobody will be bothered about the state of the workers on strike. They lose their daily wage and there is no help rendered to them by the affluent section to help them fight for their rights. Hence, the poor will continue to stay oppressed in times to come.
Arshia Gupta (32057)
Earlier, social movements were primarily led by the middle class which today has been further divided into further divisions like upper and lower middle class, and much more individualistic in their perspective. In other words, today scenario is business driven and any such social movements are seen an obstruction to it. Hence, today thinking about the masses is secondary while efforts to fulfill basic individual requirements are the primary focus in order to survive.
Ankit Sharma
32005
There is something missing, I think. A very latest movement, Arab Uprising, which is 'apparently' non-violent, has tried to defy the above mentioned reasons. This movement got enough spread and now Arab countries are making sufficient leadership changes. It's not that social movements are NIL but they have got some backdrop. One reason can be that some of the outcomes of previous movements do not make much people happy. Some of the movements led to a lot of loss of life and property. Even in India’s struggle for independence, thousands of people died.
Gurpreet Singh
32066
The recent movements in the Arab countries including Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are testimony to the existence and strength of movements. What is also interesting to observe that the support / participation is not necessarily by flooding the streets and registering physical presence as seen in conventional movements, but extensive use of internet and social media that not only facilitates but also acts as catalysts. Movements won’t be an endangered species, but the constant bombarding by media might lead to fading of these memories.
Darshit Shah (32062)
A few years from now people may respond as "why do you want to have a movement?" The government is giving you a house, food, education, employment and some cases a marriage allowance as well. Be happy. What is it that you don't have for which you want to create a movement?
Basically the state is curbing the scope for any movement even before their conception.
Social movements gained high solidarity and participation during the early 20th century in most parts of the world. The measures taken by dictators and opressive governments to blatantly crush them, catalysed them further. But as the world marched into the 21st century such solidarity in social movements is fading away. Governments have developed weapons of negotiation and manipulation to offset them at early stages. Ultimately many such upheavels result into violent backlash in the form of naxalism or recent movements in the Arab countries.
Mayank Gupta(32022)
Can we really call the uprising and apheavels in Arab countries where tanks, grenade launchers and modern firearms are used against the dicatators a 'social movement'?
It is true that social movements are on a decline. One reason is the change in power structure. With the collapse of socialist era and emergence of capitalism issues of social significance like price rise are not able to mobilize masses.Leadership is central to any movement to be successful. In the past leaders came from middle class which was united. Today the middle class is polarized and rarely a leader with mass appeal comes up. Also in context of India 60s and 70s was the period when there was hangover of freedom struggle and social movements were frequent.
Mayank Gaur
p32021
Nowadays there is a general indifference exhibited by middle class towards taking an active role in bringing about CHANGE, unless if it is a matter of life or death for him. Everyone is comfortable in their own shoes thinking that someone else will take the responsibility to act against any social injustice. For Generation Next, this situation is further going to deteriorate due to the enormous options available to the flourishing middle class and whatever limited social movement also happening now will be a “FABLE” for them.
Kamal Rangan (32075)
Younger generation will be characterized by more individualistic culture than todays. Also they will be experiencing wide income differentials and income group stratification.Also they will be experiencing leadership vacuum because of middle class stratification. This will lead to decrease in no’s sharing common condition or sense of deprivation and need to collude for action. But in my opinion social movements will become less frequent and may vary in impact but cannot become obsolete as evident in recent movements in Tunisia and Libiya.
Earlier movements lasted for years. Indian freedom movement lasted for 200 years. Now days we don’t find any sustainable movements. Baba Ramdeo started Black money movement but now it is not. Anna Hazare movement did quite well, got huge support from every class but now it is much diluted. One reason may be- suppression of these movements by government by any means. In Tahlaka case, each Tahlaka person was charged with atleast 5 cases. Blames were made against Baba Ramdeo, Kiran Bedi and Kejriwal for misutilizing funds. These all shows the power of state to press movements.
Rohitash 32088
Today’s generation,, lives a mechanical life. They have no time for things that require persistent efforts. People find accepting a wrong much easier than challenging it. The raison d’être for the same can be attributed to factors like – Lack of time from hectic schedules of work life, Problems in maintenance of a decent living with every increasing inflation, lack of resources (materialistic and human) to fight against the wrong that happens, etc. And most importantly, it is the dearth of effective and influential leadership in the present times, that makes organizing of any social movement almost impossible.
Jainee Nathwani
32071
Social movements take place when people come together at large scale to form collective action against their exploitation. Species called social movements was always there in history, it is present in today’s world, examples are Anna hazare movement, and movement which stared at Tahrir square and led to the revolution in Egypt etc and this species will always be there in the future. We can agree on point that social movement has become less frequent these days due to the various reason we discussed in the class (fall of socialism, rising of middle class etc.)
Parminder Singh (32083)
Though some social movements are taking place in the present they cannot be compared to the past movements both numerically and also in their appeal to the masses. One major reason for this is the lack of leadership from the middle class. Also, the society has now become more individualistic and materialistic and people are busy in their individual lives rather than be a part of these movements.Also, due to growing globalization, these movements are suppressed with an iron hand as the opportunity cost associated with these movements is very high in the form of loss of national income.
From the early 1970s new form of social mobilization like Chipko Movement,Save Silent Valley, Narmada Bachao Andolan, etc. took place in India. These movements were greatly appealing to people because most of these movements largely distanced themselves from the ideologies of the political parties and were the movements of landless, unorganised labour in rural and urban areas, adivasis, dalits, displaced people, peasants, urban poor, small entrepreneurs and unemployed youth who took up the issues of livelihood, opportunities, dignity and development. But presently there is a dearth of such social mobilization because a movement's commitment to change and the reason of its organization's existence are founded upon the honest and influential leadership, normative commitment to the movement's aims or beliefs, and active participation on the part of the followers or members which is unfortunately a rarity today.
Tahira Sheikh
32043
One of the reasons social movements are on a decline is that the problems now are not faced by the entire community. There is stratification on basis of income. The high income group people are never affected by a problem, for example, the latest food price inflation. The change has taken place due to the rise in income of the middle class. Previously, leaders of the social movements emerged from the middle class and they mobilised the lower or the poor class. The indifferent middle class and the highly suppressed lower class are not able to drive a social movement.
Himanshu Pilania
(32070)
The role played by media and technology especially the social networking sites like twitter is quite prominent in encouraging a new form of a technologically enabled political protest. The younger generations are expected to relate to a movement in the form of the “twitter revolution”, as the social movements are losing their identity. The people are observed to be more inclined towards the individualistic culture. Also the movements observed these days are quite short lived and are often in the form of crowd actions. The various candlelight vigils organized as a protest against terrorism are an example of it, wherein no further steps are taken to institutionalize the movement. Thus the movements are expected to face extinction in the coming years.
Deepika Agarwal (32063)
The fall of socialism, globalisation, leadership vacuum and removal of freedom struggle’s influence are factors behind this. Fall of socialism made this idea less appealing. Issue of higher wages have become prime focus in bargaining by labour unions. Capital drives labour. Capitalism and globalisation have eroded bargaining power of labour as firms have more influence and alternatives. People are more individualistic and middle class which took a lead role in initiating and mobilising social movements has now higher economic orientation. Social movements are less fanciful to post-independence generations and leaders with mass appeal are infrequent.
Avinash Kumar
(32059)
I don’t think that social movements have become extinct; only their form and scale have changed. In the recent past many relevant issues have been taken up by the people which then became a movement. ‘Justice for Jessica’ is an example of a modern-day social movement. Failing to find justice, people from various sections of society came together to demand justice and it soon became a movement, especially in the national capital. Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Upkar fire tragedy and Justice for Priyadarshini Mattoo have all been examples of social movement started by people to demand justice.
-Ankush Khanna
There are big chances that social movements can be a history to our younger generations. The rise of economic condition of middle class is one big reason that can be attributed to this phenomenon. After liberalization in 1990s, service sector and its contribution to GDP has grown tremendously. Juxtaposition of the channels of spread of social movements in future might lead to an interesting analysis, as the potential of internet will be realized more by then. And it will be more fascinating to see how virtual movements evolve to.
Pavan EVSR(32084)
In times to come, it might be difficult to find people with farsighted approach, who can collectively come forward to fight for what is right; not just for themselves but for others as well ,those who can take right steps to ensure that their thoughts turn into action. With things moving at a high pace, people are badly engrossed in their lives and find no time to even think about others especially to an extent where they can see a commonality between their and others’ problems. All these strengthen the fact of movements becoming a thing of past.
aditi(32052)
When stories related to movements will be narrated to a younger generation the result will be that they will listen to them enthusiastically but courage to initiate another movement will be minimal. The reasons might be that there is a little scope left for it now. Government tries to pacify the situation either suspending it for a while or agreeing to the terms and conditions of people. The capability of downtrodden to initiate a movement for a bigger cause is crushed by the government or by the upper business class by providing them meager long term benefits.
Khushboo Sinha(p32017)
Any social movement has a cause/reason that is felt simultaneously by a group of people, a leadership and hence a strong leader-followers linkage, a methodology to guide the course of action and a desired outcome or objective.At a time when one would be telling about social movements as a story, the society would be in an ironical state wherein each person would have many connections(mostly virtual!), yet a high degree of complacency, individualism and self-dependence would make the idea of collective solution to problems seem inappropriate.Also,new times would require new methods of action.In the absence of such an innovation,no leader would be able to bind the masses into a unit.
State of affair will most likely depend in the manner the story is being told.If story is told as a subject of history which lacks lessons to be learned and results in younger generation finding hard to attach any significane to those,then probably it will constrain itself to the field to academic only rather than younger ones learning substantially from those stories and increasing their intellectual level.
Manas MIttal(P32020)
Pawan EVSR made a valid point about the virtual movements.... Moreover I believe that the movements or uprisings will always be there but the face of the movements will change, as we can see from the movements in Egypt and rest of middle east how things innately remain the same though the methods of movements have changed but they still exist and will remain to exist.
Compared to our pre independence movements, intensity in the movements have decreased. But we must also keep in mind that the necessity (of the common middle class man) of that generation and the current generation are different.The movie Rang De Basanti is an example where a candle light march was carried on to protest injustice We also see a lot of virtual movements that have and are coming up. People are becoming indifferent and so having to mobilise a huge crowd isn’t easy unless the crowd connects to the issue. Social sites are also into publicising these movements.
Sameera Mushini
P32038
Social movements may die out gradually and for the subsequent generation this could remain only in the form of stories. The level of individualism has gained more importance than the collectivism and it is difficult to mobilise people for a common cause. There is a dearth of good leaders who could instil the felling of cooperation among the public to fight for a common cause. Social movements could be seen in the form of networking sites through e-mails, facebook etc. in the virtual world only. Support of anti-corruption movement through sms and mails becomes a passive support for the cause.
Lipsa Mishra ( 32078)
I feel that younger generation will experience a different kind of social movement. One essential part of social movements is communicating your opinion about something, in this context social media for gen y will be the most important tool be it Lokpal movement or uprising in Egypt social media platforms like twitter or facebook have become the new mass protest medium but what can be achieved in real from these tools is still limited but they have certainly emerged as most easy medium of voicing opinions if not most efficient.
Shashank Singhania
P32091
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