Write an essay on ‘New Social Movements’ in developing countries.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 not every demand is material → Marxist reductionism fails → protest shifts to identity, rights, environment
Route 2 Habermas: revolt against the over-sized, over-rational state intruding on private life → but in the developing world the shift is only partial
organisation = decentralisation + participative, middle class & students (Mukherjee and Ramaswamy) → range: youth / feminist / ecological / civil-rights → distinctive Southern face is ecological → Guha’s empty-stomach South vs full-stomach North + Shiva’s resistance to global exploitation → grounding: Tiger Leaping Gorge China (2007), Narmada Bachao, Kudankulam → but no independent evolution → still basic needs, methods identical to old (strikes, dharnas), scope tied to direct concerns
Asef Bayat: don’t romanticise → without real political-economic change, larger goals stay out of reach
Route 1 a hybrid — new aspirations resting on an old material base
Route 2 still incipient — livelihood dominates, democracy stays procedural (only the vote)
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Politics of Representation and Participation — 12 questions in the Vault.
- Of late, centrist and centre-left political parties have been facing setbacks while centre-right parties have been in ascendency the world over. Comment.
- Critically examine the role of political parties in sustaining and stabilising democracies in the developing societies.
- Discuss the major recent social movements related to the physical rights of women in various countries of the world.
How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.