Social Movements in Contemporary India

An interdisciplinary text that offers a comprehensive understanding of social movements, their cause, course and effects in modern-day India.

Contemporary India is experiencing widespread changes and developments in its society, polity and economy, resulting in a variety of social movements in recent years. This textbook offers an understanding of these movements, issues and discourses around them, and relates them to the wider society and resultant changes occurring within it.  With a specific focus on India, the book delves into the concept and definition of social movements from different perspectives and offers a critical insight into the fundamental and ongoing debates and treatises around these movements. It covers discussion on a wide range of movements varying in locus and spatial spread―from environmental movements to disability, queer and women’s rights movements as well as those by civil society, farmers, and marginalized sections of the society.

Key Features:

• Adopts an interdisciplinary approach to serve students of sociology, political science, history and other related disciplines

• Provides a detailed treatment of civil society movements along with highlights on some landmark mobilizations

• Draws on latest research and empirical studies; content aided by boxed features, review exercises and extensive referencing

Krishna Menon is Professor, Gender Studies, and currently the Dean, School of Human Studies at Ambedkar University Delhi. Her areas of interest include political theory, Indian politics, and feminist theory and politics. She has published several books, papers and articles on the above fields. Her publications include ‘On the Question of Free Speech and Censorship’ in The State of Hurt (2016), ‘Justice’ and ‘Sovereignty’ in Political Theory: An Introduction (2008), ‘Human Rights―A Theoretical Foray’ in Applied Ethics and Human Rights (2010), Human Rights, Gender and the Environment (2009) and Gender and Identity: A Case Study of Nurses from Kerala in Delhi (with Sumangala Damodaran, 2008). She has presented papers in international and national seminars. Dr Menon was awarded the Teacher of Distinction award by the Vice Chancellor of the University of  Delhi in 2009. She is the Principal Investigator in a UGC–UKIERI research project with the University of Edinburgh on feminist pedagogy. As a member of a study group, appointed by the Lt Governor of Delhi, she has co-authored a report on women’s safety in public spaces in Delhi (2018).

She is on the editorial board of the International Feminist Journal of Politics. She is a trained Carnatic musician and a Bharatanatyam dancer with a long record of performances. She was the classical dance critic of The Indian Express (New Delhi edition, 1992–1995).

Ranjana Subberwal, a postgraduate in sociology from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, is presently the Chief Functionary of Raahein Development Society, an NGO committed to research, action and advocacy for, by and with the marginalized sections of society. She has also been teaching sociology to civil service aspirants (for Prelims and Mains examinations) for over 30 years, initially at Rau’s Study Circle and now at Alternative Learning Systems (ALS). She has participated in and directed grassroots-level projects, research and advocacy on socially relevant issues for over three decades in the spheres of education, income generation, health, family planning and rehabilitation for the marginalized sections of society―including women, children and persons with disabilities―in different parts of India. She has been associated with organizations such as Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Council of Social Development, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Concerned Action Now (CAN) and Raahein Development Society.