Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Sociology

Chapter

Social Change and Development in India: Social Movements

Question:
Select a statement which complies with the description of Mob and Crowd by E.P Thompson.
Options:
Crowds and Mobs are anarchic hooligans in capitalism.
Crowds and mobs are just assistants of capitalism working for money.
Crowds and mobs include people who want to create disorder in society.
Crowds and Mobs have their own understanding of right and wrong, they are not anarchic hooligans.
Correct Answer:
Crowds and Mobs have their own understanding of right and wrong, they are not anarchic hooligans.
Explanation:
Scholars influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx offered a different view of violent collective action. Historians like E. P. Thompson showed that the ‘crowd’ and the ‘mob’ were not made up of anarchic hooligans out to destroy society. Instead, they too had a ‘moral economy’. In other words they have their own shared understanding of right and wrong that informed their actions.