According to one of the theories of social movements, social conflict arises when a social group feels that it is worse off than others around it. What is this theory known as?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Theory of Relative Deprivation
Option (1) Theory of Relative Deprivation — Correct. According to this theory, social conflict arises when a social group feels that it is worse off than others around it, and such conflict is likely to result in collective protest. The deprivation is ‘relative’ because it is measured against others. The theory stresses psychological factors such as resentment and rage. Its weakness is that feeling deprived is not enough by itself: not every deprived group starts a movement, since leadership and organisation also matter.
Option (2) Theory of Reformative Action — Incorrect. ‘Reformist’ is the name of a type of social movement, one that changes existing social and political arrangements through gradual steps, such as the Right to Information campaign. It is not a theory of why conflict arises.
Option (3) Theory of Redemptive Action — Incorrect. ‘Redemptive’ is also a type of social movement: one that aims to change the personal consciousness and actions of its members, as the Ezhavas of Kerala changed their social practices under Narayana Guru. It does not explain conflict between groups.
Option (4) Theory of Resource Mobilization — Incorrect. This theory of McCarthy and Zald holds that a movement’s success depends on its ability to mobilise resources such as leadership, organisational capacity and communication facilities. It looks at how a movement succeeds, not at a group’s feeling of being worse off.
Note: The section ‘Theories of Social Movements’ of the chapter ‘Social Movements’, with the theory of relative deprivation, Olson’s logic of collective action and the resource mobilisation theory, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT. It had already been deleted in the 2023-24 NCERT, which NTA followed in 2024, and is not in the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter is still there. NTA reached back past the 2023-24 book for this one; a theory that fits in two lines is a quick mark to keep.
NCERT (2025-26): “8.3 Types of Social Movements … There are different kinds of social movements. They can be classified as: (i) redemptive or transformatory; (ii) reformist; and (iii) revolutionary. A redemptive social movement aims to bring about a change in the personal consciousness and actions of its individual members. For instance, people in the Ezhava community in Kerala were led by Narayana Guru to change their social practices. Reformist social movements strive to change the existing social and political arrangements through gradual, incremental steps. The 1960s movement for the reorganisation of Indian states on the basis of language and the recent Right to Information campaign are examples of reformist movements.…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “…According to the theory of relative deprivation, social conflict arises when a social group feels that it is worse off than others around it. Such conflict is likely to result in successful collective protest. This theory emphasises the role of psychological factors such as resentment and rage in inciting social movements. The limitations of this theory are that while perceptions of deprivation may be a necessary condition for collective action, they are not a sufficient reason in themselves. All instances where people feel relatively deprived do not result in social movements. Can you think of any example where people do feel deprived but do not start or join a social movement to redress their grievance? To mobilise collectively in a sustained and organised manner, grievances have to be discussed and analysed in order to arrive at a shared ideology and strategy. That is, there is no automatic causal relationship between relative deprivation and collective action. There are other factors such as leadership and organisation that are equally important.” “McCarthy and Zald’s proposed resource mobilisation theory rejected Olson’s assumption that social movements are made up of individuals pursuing their self-interest. Instead, they argued that a social movement’s success depends on its ability to mobilise resources or means of different sorts. If a movement can muster resources such as leadership, organisational capacity, and communication facilities, and can use them within the available political opportunity structure, it is more likely to be effective.…” |