Sociologists and social anthropologists have defined the term ‘social movement‘ variously. But, the crux of the definitions is that a movement involves a larger section of the society to take to some collective action.
Normally, movements intend to reform, reinterpreted or oppose the existing order. What is particular about a movement is that it is an ongoing process.
The process sometimes takes a very long time. We very often talk about India’s freedom movement. It is said that this movement began with the 1857 rebellion and continued to remain in operation for an entire century.
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L.K. Mahapatra, who has studied social movements of Oraons, Gonds, Konds and others, has defined tribal social movements as under:
A social movement occurs when a fairly large number of people or an otherwise identifiable segment of their population deliberately band together for collective action in order to alter, reconstitute, reinterpret, restore, protect, supplant or create some portions of their culture or social order, or to better their life-chances by redistributing the power of control in a society.
M.S.A. Rao, a sociologist, has conducted a review of social movements in India. Obviously, his approach is not limited to tribal movements; rather he refers to movements in general:
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If we consider a social movement to be an organized effort on the part of a section of the population, involving collective mobilization based on an ideology, to bring about changes in the social system, then we have to see the social processes as consisting of interrelated activities…
There are several definitions of social movement. What is common to all such movements is that they continue over a length of time through repeated collective action. On the basis of the characteristics and definitions of social movements, their typologies have also been constructed.
The same way, on the basis of differential orientation to the tribal culture and society, there are various types of social movements among the tribals. Movements may be reactionary, conservative, revisionary, or revolutionary.
When the movements are organized to bring back the good old days, these are called ‘reactionary’ by Cameron, but are generally known as ‘revivalistic’ as Linton calls it. Conservative movements seek to perpetuate the status quo and are organized to obstruct the current changes. “Linton would call these ‘perpetuative’ movements.
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For Linton, both ‘revivalistic’ and ‘perpetuative’ movements are subsumed under nativistic movements.” Revisionary movements are those in which specific changes are desired, and efforts are made to realize them by modifying or supplanting the existing customs.
The existing structure as a whole is not to be replaced. “All the movements organized for the ‘improvement’ or purification of the culture or social order by eliminating ‘evil’ or ‘low’ customs, beliefs, or institutions, typically, social mobility movements can be characterized as ‘revisionary’.”
This category may be quite appropriately applied to the social mobility movements among the lower castes in the Hindu society, but not so in the case of a tribal group seeking to achieve a particular status in the local Hindu hierarchy.
In revolutionary movements, the aims are to replace the whole culture or social order with another more suitable, adequate or progressive culture. But this is not to say that actually everything in the contents is replaced, and historically, this has never been the case with any revolution.
Moreover, a social movement, objectively and culture-historically considered, may be revolutionary, but may be visualized as purely ‘revivalistic’ by the participants.