What is new in ‘new social movement ‘? Elaborate your answer with special reference to India. (UPSC CSE Mains 2017 - Sociology, Paper 1)
Theorists such as Alain Touraine, Alberto Melucci and Jurgen Habermas posited that new social movements (the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay rights movement, the peace movement, the environmental movement and so on) were representative of a ‘new’ politics. It is clearly elaborated by Habermas that new social movements are the ''new politics'' which is about quality of life, individual self-realisation and human rights whereas the ''old politics'' focus on economic, political, and military security.
Jurgen Habermas argued that new social movements were products of a postindustrial social formation where the welfare state had made classic forms of exploitation and deprivation obsolete, where modern society has created new forms of alienation.
Rajni Kothari described the movements in 1970s and 1980s as ‘non-party political formations’, which was a new organizational form that allowed them to avoid the corruption and compulsion of electoral politics. The emergency period showed that a vigil upon state action could be maintained by civil society, mobilized through non-party political formations. Social Movements since 1990s has change due to the phenomenon of liberalization, privatization and globalization.
Social movements have become transnational as well as highly interconnected within a country. Rural movements have been building alliances with metropolitan groups and the media have been relatively neglected, even though they have become increasingly significant in shaping a movements’ success. The social movements have experienced the institutionalization of campaigns and the growing presence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) since 1990s.
New in new social movement:
- Old social movements were based on Marxist ideology which intended to destroy the existing system and questioned authority of state. New social movement never wants to abolish the state. For ex-
- New social movement is inspired by post materialism and is more interested in quality of life. Earlier movements were interested in subsistence needs. For example- ecological movements like Save the Bhagirathi in India.
- New social movements are cross country movements while Old social movements are generally confined within state boundaries. For ex- Farmer movement in India falls under Old social movement but Human rights movement (Against AFSPA) is cross country movement.
- In the old social movement, beneficiaries are participants. In the New social movement, beneficiaries are merely sympathizers and they provide moral and monetary support. Movement is carried out by activists.
- Social constituency of Old social movements is mainly proletariats but in the New social movement, participants are middle class.
- New social movement has sustained a source of finance. Even the government supports such movements. Old social movements were constrained in terms of resources.
The new social movement shows dissatisfaction with the predominantly Marxist view that treats social movements as reflecting a fundamental struggle among classes organized around economic production. They can be interpreted as struggles against the social inequalities, the dominance of the mass media, and other features of post industrial capitalism and the welfare state.
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