Social movements and the environmental movements

Detail

1. What is a social movement?

• Social movement: many people acting together over a long time to bring about change, or to stop a change. The action is loosely organised and often happens outside formal institutions such as Parliament, courts or parties.
• Three key features:
• Sustained: it lasts for years. A one-day protest is not a movement.
• Loosely organised: it may have no single office, membership list or constitution.
• Outside institutions: it uses marches, sit-ins, hunger strikes, petitions and songs, and only later goes to courts or lawmakers.

Feature	Social movement	Pressure group	Political party
Aim	Broad change in society or policy	Narrow interest of one group (traders, workers, doctors)	Win elections and form a government
Organisation	Loose, often without a formal structure	Formal, with members and office-bearers	Formal, with a constitution, members and a party symbol
Seeks office?	No	No	Yes
Example	Chipko, Narmada Bachao Andolan	FICCI, a trade union	INC, BJP

2. Old and new social movements

• Old social movements: built around class, nation or peasants. Examples are the national movement, peasant revolts and trade-union struggles. They mainly fought over who owns and controls economic resources.
• New social movements: since the 1970s, movements have centred on environment, gender, identity and rights rather than class.
• They are often led by civil-society groups. Civil society means the space between family and State where citizens form groups of their own, such as NGOs, associations and campaigns.
• Rajni Kothari called them "non-party political formations". These are groups that do politics, meaning they try to change public decisions, without being parties or contesting elections.

• The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) was formed in 1992 as a network of such movements. Medha Patkar was one of its founders [4].

• Life cycle of a movement: 1. Emergence: people feel a grievance, but action is scattered. 2. Coalescence: leaders, slogans and a shared goal appear. 3. Institutionalisation: the movement builds organisations, networks and legal teams. 4. Outcome: success (its demand becomes law), co-optation (the State or a party absorbs its leaders or ideas), or decline.

• How movements shape policy:

• Agenda-setting: they make the media and Parliament discuss an issue.
• Litigation: they go to court, for example through a public interest petition.
• Law: their demands enter Acts and rules, such as the forest ban of 1980 and resettlement norms in 2013.

3. Chipko movement (from 1973, Garhwal Himalayas)

• Chipko means "to hug" or "to cling". Villagers hugged trees to stop them from being cut.
• Start:
• 1973, Mandal village in the Alaknanda valley, Garhwal (then Uttar Pradesh, now Uttarakhand) [2].
• The forest department allotted ash trees to a sports-goods firm, but villagers had been refused the same trees for their own farm tools.

• Villagers resisted the commercial logging permit by embracing the trees [2].

• Reni (1974):

• Women led by Gaura Devi hugged trees to stop the felling.

• The men were away at the time, so women stood at the centre of the protest.

• Leaders:

• Chandi Prasad Bhatt led the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh (DGSS), a local cooperative in Gopeshwar.

• Sunderlal Bahuguna led campaigns to protect Himalayan forests through non-violence, following Gandhi's idea of satyagraha (peaceful resistance based on truth) [3].

• Result:

• In 1980 the government imposed a 15-year ban on green felling (cutting living, green trees) in the UP Himalayas.

• This came at the same time as the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Under that Act, forest land cannot be used for non-forest purposes without the Centre's prior approval.

• Significance:

• It linked forest protection with local livelihoods such as fodder, fuel and small timber [2].
• It put women at the centre of ecological protest.
• It became a world symbol of grassroots, non-violent environmental action [2].

4. Appiko movement (1983, Western Ghats)

• Appiko is the Kannada word for "to hug".
• It started in 1983 in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka, and was led by Panduranga Hegde.
• It carried Chipko-style tree-hugging to the Western Ghats, against commercial felling and monoculture plantations.
• Lesson: a movement's method can spread from one region to another. Scholars call this diffusion.

5. Silent Valley movement (Kerala)

• Issue: a hydel (hydroelectric) dam on the Kunthipuzha river, approved by the Planning Commission [3].
• Who opposed it:
• Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP), a people's science movement.
• Scientists, who warned that the rare evergreen rainforest would be lost.

• Poets such as Sugathakumari, whose poems carried the campaign to the public.

• Outcome:

• The project was dropped in 1983.

• The area was declared Silent Valley National Park in 1984 [3].

• Lesson: a mix of science, literature and public opinion can stop a project before it is built.

6. Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA)

6.1 Origin and demands

• Narmada Bachao Andolan means the "Save Narmada Movement".
• It emerged in 1985 (NCERT: "late 1980s") against the Narmada Valley Development Project. This is a plan for many dams on the Narmada, and its largest and most contested dam is Sardar Sarovar [4][5].
• Leaders: Medha Patkar and Baba Amte [4].
• Members: tribal communities, farmers, environmentalists and human-rights activists [4].
• Grievances:
• Displacement (people forced to leave their land and homes).
• Inadequate rehabilitation (new land, housing and livelihood were not given properly).

• Submergence of forests [4].

• The water-sharing dispute between states and the 1979 tribunal award are covered under federalism and centre-state relations.

6.2 World Bank and the Morse Review

• Morse Review (1992):
• Criticism over resettlement and environment led the World Bank to order an independent review chaired by Bradford Morse [6][7].
• It found that both the Government of India and the World Bank were responsible for the project's failures [6].

• It found that the project went ahead without the data needed to judge people's needs and the environmental damage. It advised the Bank to "step back" [6].

• Withdrawal (1993):

• At India's request, the Bank cancelled the remaining loan in 1993 (NCERT: the Bank withdrew in 1993) [6][8].
• In 1993 the Bank also created an independent Inspection Panel, modelled on the Morse Commission. The panel hears complaints that the Bank broke its own policies on a project [6].

6.3 Supreme Court: Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India (October 2000)

• The case was decided by a 2:1 majority.
• Holding: construction of the dam could continue, provided rehabilitation kept pace with each increase in the dam's height.
• The majority deferred to policy: the court did not want to reopen a large project that had already been decided and was partly built.
• The dissent (the one judge who disagreed) stressed proper environmental clearance and rehabilitation before more construction.

6.4 Completion

• PM Narendra Modi dedicated the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation at Kevadia, Gujarat, on 17 September 2017 [9].
• The dam was raised to 138.68 metres, with usable storage of 4.73 million acre-feet (2017) [9].
• Beneficiary states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra [9].

6.5 Legacy

• Resettlement norms: the NBA made rehabilitation a legal duty, not a favour.
• Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act):
• Social impact assessment (SIA): before land is taken, the government must study how the project affects people. The study is done together with affected families and discussed in public [10][11].
• Social Impact Management Plan (SIMP): lists steps to reduce the harm and judges whether the benefits are greater than the social costs [11].
• Consent: the Gram Sabha (all adult voters of a village) must agree to any acquisition in Scheduled Areas (tribal areas listed under the Fifth Schedule). 80% of affected families must agree when land is taken for private companies for a public purpose [11].

• Order of steps: SIA → preliminary notification → declaration of acquisition → compensation within a fixed time [11].

• Development vs rights debate: should courts defer to government policy on big projects, or protect the rights of displaced people more strictly?

Prelims Hooks

• Chipko began in 1973 at Mandal village, Garhwal (now Uttarakhand). Gaura Devi led the women at Reni (1974).
• Chandi Prasad Bhatt led the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh. Sunderlal Bahuguna is the other Chipko leader. Do not confuse either of them with Panduranga Hegde of Appiko.
• Chipko's result was a 15-year ban on green felling in the UP Himalayas (1980), the same year as the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
• Appiko started in 1983 in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka (Western Ghats). Chipko was in the Himalayas. This regional swap is a common trap.
• Silent Valley: the river was Kunthipuzha. KSSP and poet Sugathakumari campaigned. The project was dropped in 1983, and the area became a national park in 1984.
• Morse Review came in 1992. The World Bank loan was cancelled in 1993 at India's request. The Inspection Panel was also created in 1993.
• NBA v. Union of India (2000) was a 2:1 decision. Construction could continue, provided rehabilitation kept pace.
• Sardar Sarovar was dedicated on 17 September 2017 at Kevadia. Its height is 138.68 m.
• LARR Act, 2013: SIA is compulsory. The Gram Sabha must consent in Scheduled Areas, and 80% of affected families for private-company acquisitions.
• The phrase "non-party political formations" comes from Rajni Kothari. NAPM was formed in 1992.

Mains Points

• Movements deepen democracy between elections.
• Chipko, Silent Valley and the NBA show citizens setting the agenda through protest, science and courts.
• Their gains include the 1980 felling ban, the 1984 national park and the 2013 SIA and consent rules.

• This supports the view of civil society as a bridge between citizens and the State.

• Development vs rights.

• Large dams bring irrigation and drinking water to four states.
• They also displace tribal and rural people.

• NBA (2000) shows judicial deference to policy. A balanced answer would argue for rehabilitation that comes before submergence, plus independent monitoring.

• Accountability beyond the nation. The Morse Review (1992) led to the World Bank's Inspection Panel (1993). Global lenders became answerable to people affected by their projects, and this shows how local movements can change global institutions.

• Limits and risks.
• Movements can lose energy, or the State and parties can absorb (co-opt) them.
• Critics say some campaigns delay public projects.
• Reform: hold early, real public hearings and SIAs, so that disputes are settled before construction rather than in court.