Social Change

This article suggests how the Gandhi–Ambedkar–Narayanaguru–Marx visions can be synthesised in support of the movement for the liberation and empowerment of India’s dalits. It brings out the beginnings and evolution of Gandhji’s sensitivity and opposition to ‘untouchability’. His perception of ‘untouchability’ was initially limited to ‘touch-me-not-ism’, but deepened after his contact with Narayanaguru and Narayanaguru-inspired movements and, most crucially, his contact and encounters with Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The article traces the Gandhiji–Babasaheb divergences, the Yeravda convergence and their other interesting convergences, and the unfortunate post-Yeravda re-emergence of divergence. These divergences have been effectively resolved in the Constitution adopting the Ambedkarite approach of dalit development and empowerment. The stage has arrived when, instead of dwelling on past antagonisms, it will be productive to synthesise and utilise the visions of these two titans as well as Narayanaguru and Marx in understanding and furthering the supremely important project of liberating and empowering the oppressed masses of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Backward Classes (BCs) through specific and comprehensive economic, educational, social and protective programmes; a dalit-centred human rights project; and sensitisation and mobilisation of dalit and non-dalit civil society.

The problem of early marriage of girls constitutes a part of India’s social tradition since time immemorial and it continues to prevail due to a combination of traditional and modern factors. In West Bengal too, the complicity to child marriage continues silently even though the issue drew the attention of Bengal social reformers in the 19th Century. Despite legal and administrative interventions, rural stakeholders remain authoritarian and patriarchal in appreciating the desires of adolescent girls. This article, based on field data from the Malda district of North Bengal, tries to analyse the gravity, causes and consequences of child marriage. It also attempts to suggest possible strategies and role model to tackle the social evil.

M.K. Gandhi constitutes an undeniable aspect of Indian landscape. His defence has come from many corners. They could be preachers, defenders and beneficiaries of Gandhian Philosophy. The state has also defended him on many accounts. In this backdrop, it becomes imperative to interrogate those spheres which so far have not been unveiled in terms of explaining Gandhi’s influence. Popular Hindi cinema is one such realm. This article proposes to disentangle the relationship between popular Hindi cinema and Gandhi. For this purpose, it is an attempt to fathom the congruity between philosophy of M.K. Gandhi and popular Hindi cinema so that it can be explored whether latter has become an ‘alter ego’ of former or not.

Social movements have been considered by many sociologists as agents of social transformation. Emergence, dynamics and development of social movements not only signal major transformations of societies; but, social movements are indicators of societal conditions, and capable of influencing social and political structures as well. By presenting the case of environmentalism in Iran, this article is seeking to provide an insight into the life of the Iranian social movements. Further, by implementing the new social movement theory in the Iranian context, it contributes to a better understanding of non-western social movements. The article first, establishes the fact that the emerged collective action around environmental issues in Iran can be regarded as a social movement. Second, it introduces the characteristics of environmentalism in Iran. Finally, it examines the relevance of the new social movement theory of Alaine Touraine, and Alberto Melucci in relation to the environmental movements of Iran.

Projects undertaken without the knowledge of their likely social impacts tend to produce unintended hardships for the local population. In order to preempt such failures, planning agencies, especially international aid agencies, insist on a prior assessment of possible harmful consequences of development interventions, so that corrective actions could be taken well in time. In India, the new National R&R policy 2007 has also mandated that a SIA be carried out whenever either a new project or expansion of an existing project is undertaken. This article provides a short history of the concept, discusses the causes and types of impacts commonly encountered, and then proceeds to describe the SIA process and the participatory social research methodology used in conducting a comprehensive SIA study. The author concludes that despite the many known advantages of SIA, its potential for informed decision-making still remains to be fully realised.