Social movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan is a new social movement because
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → It has employed the strategy of non-party civil society participation and international alliances.
Option (1) It has employed the strategy of ahimsa or non-violence. — Incorrect. Non-violence is a method of protest that old and new movements alike can use; the national movement itself used it. A method shared by both cannot be what makes a movement ‘new’.
Option (2) It has identified women as the most affected group. — Incorrect. Movements against big dams speak for all the people displaced from their homes and livelihood; picking out one group as most affected is not the mark of a new social movement.
Option (3) It has focused on redistribution of wealth among the affected tribal areas. — Incorrect. Sharing out wealth and power is the aim of the old social movements, which saw the reorganisation of power relations as their central goal. New social movements are about quality-of-life issues such as a clean environment.
Option (4) It has employed the strategy of non-party civil society participation and international alliances. — Correct. Old movements worked through political parties. People left out by the party system now join non-party political formations to press the state from outside, and many new movements are international in scope, working in new alliances. A movement against dams that works through citizens’ groups and allies abroad shows both features.
NCERT (2025-26): “Distinguishing the new social movement from the old social movements … Political scientist Rajni Kothari attributes the surge of social movements in India in the 1970s to people’s growing dissatisfaction with parliamentary democracy. Kothari argues that the institutions of the state have been captured by elites. Due to this, electoral representation by political parties is no longer an effective way for the poor to get their voices heard. People left out by the formal political system join social movements or non-party political formations in order to put pressure on the state from outside.… …Not surprisingly therefore many of the new social movements are international in scope. What is significant, however, is that the old and new movements are working together in new alliances such as the World Social Forum that have been raising awareness about the hazards of globalisation.…” |