Write short note: Concept of social movement. (1997)
The term entered sociology with Lorenz von Stein‘s History of the French Social Movement from 1789 to the Present (1850). Ralph H. Turner and Lewis M. Killian define a social movement as a collectivity acting with some continuity to promote or resist change in the society of which it is part. M. S. A. Rao adds the Indian emphasis: sustained collective mobilisation, through formal or informal organisation, guided by an ideology and oriented to changing the existing order. Mario Diani (1992) synthesises the field — a network of informal interactions among individuals and organisations, engaged in political or cultural conflict on the basis of a shared collective identity.
Defining features
- Collective, not individual — many people acting on a grievance they define as shared.
- Sustained, not episodic — continuity over time is the decisive threshold.
- Some organisation — leadership, a division of labour and a minimum of coordination.
- An ideology — a diagnosis of the problem, an adversary and a remedy; for Ghanshyam Shah this separates a movement from a mere agitation.
- Change-orientation — to promote change, or to resist it; the Dharma Sabha’s defence of sati against Raja Rammohan Roy shows that counter-movements are movements too.
- Largely extra-institutional means — dharna, satyagraha, boycott, litigation, hashtag campaigns; Charles Tilly calls this the repertoire of contention.
- Collective identity — Alberto Melucci‘s “we”, preserved in latent networks between visible protests.
Boundaries of the concept
| Contrast | How it differs from a movement |
|---|---|
| Crowd | Physically co-present, short-lived, emotionally driven; no ideology, organisation or continuity. A mob that burns a bus after an accident is collective behaviour, not a movement |
| Fashion or craze | Diffuse imitation with no adversary, goal or organisation; cyclical, not cumulative. Herbert Blumer grouped both with movements under collective behaviour, but only movements aim at an order of things |
| Pressure group | A permanent, sectional body pursuing narrow interests through institutional channels — lobbying, representation on committees, funding. A chamber of commerce seeks advantage within the rules; a movement contests the rules and mobilises a mass base outside them |
| Revolution | Seeks seizure of state power and total transformation, not partial change |
The boundaries are porous. Movements often generate pressure groups, and pressure groups occasionally become movements — which is why T. K. Oommen (Protest and Change, 1990) prefers to treat these as points on a continuum of collective action.
Why the concept matters
Movements are a principal source of social change in societies where change is not simply decreed. Alain Touraine assigns them three functions — mediation between individual and society, pressure on decision-makers, and clarification of collective consciousness. India’s long women’s movement illustrates all three: decades of mobilisation produced the 106th Constitutional Amendment (2023) reserving one-third of Lok Sabha and assembly seats for women, though it takes effect only after the next census and delimitation — and a Bill introduced in April 2026 to advance that date was negatived in the Lok Sabha.
Conclusion
A social movement is best understood as organised, ideologically framed and sustained collective action for or against change. The concept’s value lies precisely in its boundaries: it distinguishes the fleeting from the durable, and noise from history.