Socio-Political Movements PDF

The State of Meghalaya: Its People Involvement in Democratic Movements LS Gassah The term 'Social Movements' in fact includes other terms like civil disob...

The State of Meghalaya: Its People Involvement in Democratic Movements LS Gassah The term 'Social Movements' in fact includes other terms like civil disobedience, class movements, communism, ethnic movements, independence movements, international movements, pan movements, political movements, revivalism, revolution, socialism and many others. According to the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, the term or its equivalent in other Western languages is being used to denote a wide variety of collective attempts to bring about a change in certain social institutions or to create an entirely new order. Sometimes the term is used in distinction from religious or political movements and from movements of particular groups". In the same source we find that "the classical concept of social movement implies the creation of an entirely new socio-economic and political order, especially as concernsthe institutions of property and the distribution of power". The various kinds of ethnic movements in North-East India may fit in with the four varieties of movements': 1. the movements for political independence of national minorities; 2. theindependence movements of natives in colonial countries; 3. the movements for national unity, and 4. the movements of nationalities for civil and cultural equality or superiority within ethnically heterogeneous States. Similarly, the classification of social movements by T. K. Oommen² in his Social Movements, National Crisis and Social Change: The Indian Ine author is Professor, Department of Political Science, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong and Honorary Director, ICSSR-NERC, Shillong. 7 VOLUME XI Winter 2014