Rise of Popular Movements

Rise of Popular Movements 1 mark When did farmer's movement start in India? The farmer's movement began in India with the Permanent Settlement of Bengal (1783) which introduced a new system of land revenue collection. Which commission has demanded reservation for the OBCs? The Mandal Commission has demanded reservation for the OBCs. How many regions does J&K comprise? Jammu & Kashmir comprises three social and political regions – Jammu, Kashmir Valley and Ladakh. When and where was the Dalit Panthers organisation formed? In 1972, at Maharashtra. Name the first organisation which asserted its Right to Information. Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in Bhim Tehsil in a backward region of Rajasthan in 1990. What was AASU? The AASU stands for All Assam Students' Union. It was not affiliated to any political party and led an anti foreigner movement in 1979. What are non-party political organisations? These are voluntary organisations which feel that active participation by local groups of citizens would be more effective in resolving local issues than political parties. When did farmer’s movement in India start strengthening? The farmer’s movement started strengthening in India in 1980s. Which Article of the Constitution of India gives greater autonomy to J&K? Article 370 of the Constitution of India gives greater autonomy to Jammu & Kashmir. When did RTI Act come into force? The Right to Information Act came into force in June 2005. What is the work of National Fish workers' Forum? The work of National Fish workers' Forum is to protect the interest of fish workers that rely on fishing for subsistence. Who led the Narmada Bachao Andolan? Medha Patkar led the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Where was the Sardar Sarovar project started? Sardar Sarovar project was in the state of Gujarat. Which amendment granted reservation to women in political affairs? The 73rd and 74th Amendment have granted reservations to women in local level political offices.

2 marks What were the causes of protest by Bhartiya Kissan Union? Cause of the Protest by Bhartiya Kissan Union: • Higher government floor prices for sugarcane and wheat. • Abolition of restrictions on the inter-state movement of farm produce. • Guaranteed supply of electricity at reasonable rates. • Waiving of repayments due on loans to farmers. • The provision of a government pension for farmers. When did RTI act come into force? Which all parts of India is covered in the RTI Act? The Right to Information Act came into force on the 12 October 2005. The act extends to the whole of India except the state of Jammu & Kashmir. What is Sardar Sarovar Project? It is a multi-purpose mega-scale dam. Its advocates say that it would benefit huge areas of Gujarat and the adjoining states in terms of availability of drinking water, water for irrigation, generation of electricity and increase in agricultural production. Name the two movements which have gained success? The Chipko Movement in Uttarakhand and the movement against silent valley project in Kerala in 1970 have gained success. What does Right to Information mean? Right to Information include right to – • Inspect works, documents, and records. • Take notes, extracts, or certified copies of documents or records. • Take certified samples of material. • Obtain information in form of print out, diskettes, floppies, and videocassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printout. Whom does the Marathi poet Namdeo Dhasal in one of his poems refer to as 'Pilgrims of darkness'? Who is the 'sunflower- giving fakir'? 'Pilgrims of darkness' is referred to the members of Dalit communities. Sunflowergiving fakir is referring to Dr. Ambedkar as their liberator. Mention the claims given by the advocates of Sardar Sarovar Project in favour of the project? The advocates of Sardar Sarovar Project claim that this project would benefit huge areas of Gujarat and the three adjoining states in terms of availability of drinking water and water for irrigation, generation of electricity and increase in agricultural production. The also adds benefits like effective flood and drought control in the region. What is Chipko movement? The villages of Garhwal in Uttarakhand used a novel tactic for their protest- that of hugging trees to prevent them from being cut down. These protests marked the beginning of a world famous environmental movement in India- the Chipko Movement. Why did Dalit panthers decline?

After the post emergency period, Dalit panthers got involved in electoral compromises. It underwent many splits that led to the decline of Dalit panthers. What is NBA? NBA stands for Narmada Bachao Andolan. It is a national coalition of environmental and human rights activists, scientists, academics and project-affected people, working to stop several dam projects in the Narmada Valley. What is RTI? RTI stands for Right to Information. Right to Information is a part of Fundamental rights under Article 19 (1) of the constitution. Article 19 (1) says that every citizen has a freedom of speech and expression. 4 marks Describe the nature of non party political formations. • These are the voluntary organisations with constructive programmes among rural poor. • These organisations chose to remain outside party politics. • They did not contest elections at the local or regional level nor did they support any one political party. • Most of these groups believed in politics and wanted to participate in it but not through political parties. • They hoped that direct and active participation by people will reform the nature of democratic government. Trace the reasons behind the origin of Dalit Panthers. The reasons that formed organization like Dalit Panthers were: • In early 1970s, the first generation Dalit graduates especially living in city slums started asserting themselves from various platforms. As a part of these assertions a militant organization of the Dalit youth named Dalit Panthers was formed in Maharashtra in 1972. After Independence the constitution of India provided them the guarantees of equality and justice. In spite of the guarantees they faced continuous caste based inequalities and material injustices. Effective implementation of reservations and other such policies of social justice was one of their prominent demands. • The second reason for their origin was that though the Indian constitution abolished the practice of untouchability and passed laws to that effect in the 1960s and 1970s yet Dalit continued to be discriminated and faced violence in various ways. They were denied access to common resources of drinking water. Dalit women were dishonoured and abused and worst of all. Legal mechanisms proved in adequate to stop the economic and social oppression of Dalits. Political parties like Republican Party of India were not successful and always remained marginalized. They had to ally with some other party in order to in elections and faced constant skills. Describe the lessons learnt from movements? The lessons learnt from movements can be described as following: Movements help to understand better the nature of democratic politics. These movements rectify the problems in the functioning of party politics. These movements ensure effective representation of diverse groups and their demands. This has helped

in reducing the possibility of deep social conflict and disaffection of these groups with democracy. These movements have suggested new forms of active participation and the idea of participation in Indian democracy has broadened. Critics of movements argue that the activities adopted by these movements disrupt the functioning of the government. But they forget to note that the groups mobilized by these movements are poor, socially and economically disadvantaged sections of the society from marginal social groups. Democracy has failed to give enough space for the voices of these social groups. This has resulted into mass actions and mobilizations outside the electoral arena. Briefly discuss about the movements in the post independence period? In the pre- independence period, many movements (both social & political) were raised. Many of these movements continued in the post- independence period. Trade union movement had a strong presence among industrial workers in major cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Kanpur. Peasants in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh under the leadership of communist parties, peasants and agricultural labourers in parts of Andhra, West Bengal, and Bihar under the leadership of Marxist Leninist workers, known as Naxalities continued their agitation. Write a short note on Chipko movement? The Chipko movement began in two or three villages of Uttarakhand when the forest department refused permission to the villages to fell ash trees for forest department allotted the same patch of land to a sports manufacture for commercial use. This enraged the villagers and they protested against the move of the government. The struggle soon spread across many parts of Uttarakhand region. The villagers demanded that no forest exploiting contracts should be given to outsiders. The local communities should have effective control over natural resources like land, water and forests. They wanted the government to provide low cost materials to small industries and ensure development of the region without disturbing the ecological balance. The movement took up economic issues of landless forest workers and asked for guarantees of minimum age. The movement achieved a victory when the government issued a ban on felling of trees in the Himalayan region for 15 years, until the green cover was fully restored. How did anti-arrack movement originate? In Andhra Pradesh, India, an anti- arrack movement was created which grew out of the awareness about by the mass- literacy campaigns of the National Literacy Mission (NLC). It began as a spontaneous movement against alcoholism in a remote village in Dubaganta supported by the NLC in Nellore and adopted by the other districts of Andhra Pradesh. It is noted that there was no organized leadership in the anti-arrack movement. Most of the groundwork was done with local initiative; with women collectively protesting against arrack in their village. With the movement gathering momentum, political parties entered at the very last stage. Eventually, the movement resulted in the declaration of total prohibition of liquor in India. In addition, it provided a change in the party in power in the state, with the Congress losing to the Telugu Desam Party. It also showed a feminist way of looking at issues, especially politics; thus aligning women's issues to the larger issues of state and society. What issues did the Dalit panthers address? The larger ideological agenda of the panthers was to destroy the caste system and to build an organization of all oppressed sections like the landless poor peasants and urban industrial workers along with Dalits. Activities of Dalit panthers mostly

centered around fighting increasing atrocities on Dalits in various parts of the state. As a result of sustained agitations on the part of Dalit panthers along with other like minded organizations over the issue of atrocities against Dalits, the government passed a comprehensive law in 1989 that provided for rigorous punishment for such acts. • The movement provided a platform for Dalit educated youth to use their creativity as protest activity. • Dalit writers protested against the brutalities of the caste system in their numerous autobiographic and other literary works published during this period. These works portraying the life experience of the most down trodden social sections of Indian society sent shock waves in broad based and representative of different social sections and initiated contestations in the cultural realm. • In the Post‐ Emergency period Dalit Panthers got involved in electoral compromises it also underwent many splits which led to its decline. 6 marks Write a note on non-party movements? In the 1970s and 1980s, many sections of the society became disillusioned with the functioning of political parties. Failure of the Janata experiment and the state of political instability led many sections of the society disappointed with the functioning of political parties. The disappointment was also because of the economic policies of the state. Though there was impressive growth in many sectors of economy in the first 20 years of independence but poverty and inequalities persisted on a large scale. The benefits were not equally distributed to all sections of the society. Besides that there were differences between the urban industrial sector and the rural agrarian sector. This also added the sense of injustice among different groups. Many of the politically active groups lost faith in exiting democratic institutions and electoral politics. They therefore chose of step outside the party politics and engage in mass mobilization for registering their protests. Students and young political activists, and other young activists launched service organizations and constructive programmes. They remained outside the party politics. They did not contest elections at the local or regional level nor did they support any one political party. They believed that direct and active party citation by local groups of citizens would be more effective in raising local issues than political parties. Hence, these organizations were called non-party political formations or non-party movement. Write a note on the National fish workers' forum? National fish workers' Forum is a forum of different local fish workers organizations working together to protect lives of fish workers. The Indian Fishers constitute the second largest fishing population is the world. Both in the eastern and western coastal areas of India hundreds of thousands of families; mainly belonging to the indigenous fisherman communities are engaged in the occupation of fishing. The lives of these fish workers was threatened in a major way when the government permitted entry to mechanized trawlers and technologies like bottom trawling for large-sale harvest of fish in the Indian seas. Throughout the seventies and eighties, local fish workers organizations fought with the state governments over the issues of their livelihood. But with the coming of policies of economic liberalization in and around the mid eighties these organizations

come together under one umbrella named National Fish workers' Forum. Fish workers form Kerala look the main responsibility of mobilizing fellow workers. They also included women workers from other states. In 1991, the NFF won its first legal battle with the Union government. This battle was about the governments' deep-sea fishing policy that opened up India is water to large commercial vessels including those of the multinational fishing companies. NFF worked to protect the interests of those who rely on fishing for subsistence rather than those who invest in the sector for profit throughout the nineties. The NFF had also joined hands with organization all over the world for protecting ecology and for protecting lives of the fish workers.