People may damage a bus and attack its driver when the bus has run over a child. This is an isolated incident of protest. Since it flares up and dies down it is not a social movement. A social movement requires sustained collective action over time. Such action is often directed against the state and takes the form of demanding changes in state policy or practice. Spontaneous, disorganised protest cannot be called a social movement either. Collective action must be marked by some degree of organisation. This organisation may include a leadership and a structure that defines how members relate to each other, make decisions and carry them out. Those participating in a social movement also have shared objectives and ideologies. A social movement has a general orientation or way of approaching to bring about (or to prevent) change. These defining features are not constant. They may change over the course of a social movement's life. Social movements often arise with the aim of bringing about changes on a public issue, such as ensuring the right of the tribal population to use the forests or the right of displaced people to settlement and compensation. Think of other issues that social movements have taken up in the past and present. While social movements seek to bring in social change, counter movements sometimes arise in defence of status quo.
Read the passage above and answer the following questions.
Damaging a bus and attacking the bus driver after a road accident is an example of-
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Protest
Option (1) Protest — Correct. When a bus has run over a child, people may damage the bus and attack its driver. This is an isolated incident of protest: an angry, spontaneous reaction to one event, which flares up and dies down.
Option (2) Movement — Incorrect. A movement requires sustained collective action over time, some organisation and shared objectives. A crowd that reacts to one accident and then disperses has none of these.
Option (3) Conflict — Incorrect. A conflict is a clash between groups whose interests are opposed, which goes on over an issue. Here a crowd reacts to a single accident; what it expresses is protest at the child’s death.
Option (4) Fight — Incorrect. A fight is a physical quarrel between persons. The attack on the driver is part of the crowd’s anger, but the act as a whole is an expression of objection to what happened, which is why it is called a protest.
Note: The example of people damaging a bus and attacking its driver, with which the section ‘Features of a Social Movement’ of the chapter ‘Social Movements’ opened, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This example has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the section and its point, that a social movement requires sustained collective action over time, are still there.
NCERT (2025-26): “8.1 Features of a Social Movement … A social movement requires sustained collective action over time. Such action is often directed against the state and takes the form of demanding changes in state policy or practice. Spontaneous, disorganised protest cannot be called a social movement either. Collective action must be marked by some degree of organisation. This organisation may include a leadership and a structure that defines how members relate to each other, make decisions and carry them out.…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “8.1 Features of a Social Movement … People may damage a bus and attack its driver when the bus has run over a child. This is an isolated incident of protest. Since it flares up and dies down it is not a social movement.…” |